Exclusive Interview with Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal!

Check out our Exclusive Interview with the writer of Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal!

This is the 18th post in our Artist of the Week series.

Zach Weiner has been writing Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal for years and has gained a very strong following for his comics which span a large range of topics and ideas. His comics have the ability to question religion, politics and society in a lighthearted and fun way. And unlike most comics these are anything from mundane and simple, though the jokes come easy, they have an understated intelligence. From day to day you will never know what his comics will be about, the only thing you do know is that you are going to laugh.

Stephanie: How/When did you get into writing comics?
Zach: Probably around 1997 or 1998, while in high school. A friend and I decided to write comics and essays together for a website. I ended up taking it over.

Stephanie: What was your first comic about?

Zach:It was your standard couple of guys hanging out being sarcastic webcomic. In my defense, it wasn't THAT much of a cliche back then...

Stephanie:What is your favorite comic that you have written?

Zach:I'm not sure I have a favorite, but one I was happy to have pulled off was the one where a guy looks like he's flying (dressed as Superman), but the fact that the caption is written up one side of the panel tells you that he's just falling.



Stephanie: Do you have any aspirations of syndication outside of the internet either in a book or newspaper?

Zach: Publication, yes. Syndication, no. Having talked to a number of webcartoonists who tried syndication, I've been turned off of the system. Why would I want to have my work edited when I can support myself without it?

Stephanie: What do you say to fans when they complain that you don't update fast enough?

Zach:I actually almost never get this. SMBC is updated 7 times a week.
Occasionally I fall behind by a day, but this is rare. And, usually people are pretty supportive.

Stephanie: Why did you decide to do a web comic instead of publishing elsewhere?

Zach:Well, the only other options are making a 'zine or hoping to get syndicated. The first requires you to interact with the outside world, and the second is about as likely as winning the lottery.

I actually sent packets out to syndicates reallllly early on in my cartooning "career," but was rejected or ignored by all of them.

Stephanie: Where do you get the inspiration for your comics? They seem to span a wide range of ideas and topics.

Zach:I don't have a specific writing method, but I try to read a lot and write a lot. I find that if I'm low on ideas, it's usually because I'm not being exposed to enough new media.

Stephanie: How did you promote your web comic in order to increase awareness?

Zach: Lots of ways. You can run ads, post in forums, join voting sites like topwebcomics.com. But, the best way to get new traffic is to get a link off another site. The best way to do that is to make a really good, consistently updated webcomic.

Stephanie:What was your most controversial comic?

Zach:The only comic I ever got any trouble over was one where frat boys draw obscene stuff on a dead frat brother's face. Apparently you can have suicide, child abuse, and Jesus being a dickhead, but jokes about frat deaths are off limits. I've found that the typical rule is this:

You can't make fun of things with two qualities. First, the victims have support groups. Second, the experiences can't be couched in familiar terms.

So, for example, child abuse is only okay if it's your parents being bad parents. Everyone understands that parents are imperfect. But, if you cross the line to, say, beating a child, you're violating the two rules.
Most people can't understand the idea of beating a child via personal experience. This is the same reason you're probably better off avoiding jokes about cancer, rape, molestation, etc.

Oddly enough, you CAN do murder jokes. I think this is mainly because of the first principal. You can't have support groups for dead people.

Or at least, that's what I think. Despite being somewhat "controversial," I've gotten very little nasty mail over the years.



Stephanie: How did SMBC theater start?

Zach: James Ashby and I have wanted to do it for /years. /Then, a few months ago, our manager Mark Saffian asked us to do short films for a show he was planning. Coincidentally, we'd been planning to try the sketch comedy thing, now that we had a little income and a few connections.

In essence, it started because my brother Marty can do effects, James has access to many talented people, and I have an audience of people who like my sense of humor. Necessity met with desire.

Stephanie: Do you read any other webcomics?
Zach: I do, though not as much as I used to. I have so little free time these days, the only comics I check on a regular basis are one-offs, like XKCD and Cyanide and Happiness. I also like GWS, Oglaf, Kate Beaton's stuff, and several others.

Stephanie: What do you do outside of writing comics?

Zach: I read a lot, and I study physics and mathematics. I also write scripts for shorts, and co-write longer stuff with James Ashby.

Stephanie: What is your guilty pleasure?

Zach: Checking my stats. It's like having a stream of crack into your home, only worse, since it's crack you can claim is important for business.

To read official site.

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Addendum questions ...

NeilO: How did you come up with the red button and/or why?

Zach: A while back, SMBC was listed on a few webcomic voting sites. In essence, the way these work is cartoonists have vote buttons on their pages, and people can click the vote button to give a point to a particular cartoonist. Over the course of a month, the top vote-getters are tallied and put on a list. It's a nice way to share traffic.

One of the things that developed was the possibility of offering rewards for votes. One of those, for me, was what you now see as the red button comic. Eventually, I felt I had sort of outgrown voting sites, in the sense that my audience was large enough that I was always gonna get the top slot at the expense of a newer cartoonist. So, I quit doing vote buttons. But, I wanted to keep the little bonus comics, since people seemed to like them. Hence the red button, whose comic readers often call "the votey."

NeilO: Did that recent "mom pillow" idea from a CSI episode? That's what I thought of immediately.

Zach: Never seen it :)