Exclusive Interview: Rob DenBleyker On The Future Of “Cyanide & Happiness”

Everything you need to know about the franchise for the rest of the year.

Courtesy: Explosm

  

With the first-half of Cyanide & Happiness’ third season in the books over at Seeso, we decided to catch up with one of “The Makers” of the series Rob DenBleyker to give us updates on all things C&H including merchandise, the second-half of season three, and other upcoming projects.

  

John Schwarz: You guys have been doing Cyanide & Happiness for a long time, how have you managed to keep the franchise fun and exciting for both you the producers and us the fans for so many years?

Rob DenBleyker: We’re constantly trying new things, and finding new ways to write. And as our team has grown more and more with the animations, we’ve gotten a chance to bring some supremely funny people onboard, so there’s always a lot of creative energy in the studio and people to bounce ideas off of. I don’t think we’ll ever get tired of making cartoons.

  

Cyanide & Happiness has officially three seasons on Seeso. The streaming service is becoming a growing and respectable resource for comedy, what has the experience been like in growing with a streaming service?

  

Seeso’s been really good to us, and allowed us to make Season 3 our most ambitious project yet. It’s been amazing to see other shows flourish on Seeso as well, including some made by comedians whom I’ve been fans of for ages.

  

What do you like about being on a streaming service versus being on television? What kind of freedoms does this afford you?

  

The C&H Show, especially Season 3, has a lot of stuff that I don’t think would fly on most TV networks. Lots of swearing, nudity, blasphemy. Seeso has been cool with all of it, giving us full creative freedom.

  

For Cyanide & Happiness Season Three, you guys have started to introduce some heavier arcs than prior seasons with great success, what was your inspiration in doing so?

I think each season of the C&H Show has been a progression, in terms of our own writing skills and in terms of the plot itself. Season 1 had a lot of random stories. Season 2 took some of those stories and expanded on them while introducing more characters. Season 3 takes all the characters we’ve built up and combines them into a major story arc about the fate of the world. The series feels very complete when you binge it all the way through.

  

After doing Cyanide & Happiness for so long, do you guys have interest in producing different franchises that you would also like to do for a more consistent comics series or perhaps even an animated series? Either as your creations or maybe introducing fans to other web comics producers that could see some of the success you guys have experienced?

  

We’ve got a ton of ideas outside of Cyanide & Happiness, a lot of which came about during the writing of the show. We’re keeping it under wraps until we have more concrete info, but we’ve got our sights on a few projects.

  

What kind of new merchandise and avenues can expect the C& H brand to go? Recently, you guys launched the very successful “Joking Hazard”, do concepts like video games, et al provide any interest for future exploration?

  

We’re interested in video games for sure. We’ve got a couple of ideas.

The first half of Cyanide & Happiness is now in the books. What can fans expect in the show’s second half and is that second half coming soon?

  

The second half features my favorite episodes ever, including a second Depressing Episode, and a full-on musical about God & Satan. It’s got some crazy action as well, and features the return of some old Cyanide & Happiness characters you may not expect.

  

You guys have always done a fantastic job of having good representation at various cons and fan expos throughout the year and all over the world, will fans continue to see this in 2017 and can you highlight some of your stops?

  

We’re going to be all over this year. You can see us at San Diego Comic Con, New York Comic Con, Fan Expo Vancouver, Fan Expo Toronto, FACTS Belgium, Phoenix Comicon, Denver Comic Con, Dallas Fan Expo, and probably some others I’m missing. Explosm.net has the full list!

  

Cyanide & Happiness Season Three Is Streaming On Seeso.