Sometimes dark, often scarily realistic, and always skewed to the sarcastic, Something Positive is easily one of the most well known (and loved) comics available on the Internet. And this monkey was lucky enough to catch its creator, R.K. Milholland in a kind moment and he agreed to play guinea pig for the first ever Sudden Nothing interview. Miz Monkey encourages all of you to go check out the master of blunt-fu himself and his comic. Bow down, fool!
LegendaryMonkey: So, if not comics, what would Randal Milholland be doing?
R.K. Milholland: Data entry (laughs). That’s what I was doing for a job before the comic and I was acting part time, but the acting had to stop because I just didn’t have time for both.
LM: It’s safe to say that S*P is pretty damned successful, what with the donation drive that got you out of your day job (you knew it would come up). When you first started the strip, what were your expectations, if any?
RKM:Well, I had a long term goal. I wanted to do the comic for about ten years, or until I got bored of it. But I figured by the time the comic was done, I’d probably have a readership of about five thousand or so. I never intended to market it.
LM: I think you blew that out of the water.
RKM: I’m not complaining. (laughs)
LM: The very first comic features Davan sending one of his ex-girlfriends a coat hanger as a baby shower gift. I know you’ve said these early strips are based very heavily on true events, but my question here is – were you purposely trying to kick off the comic with an unapologetically brutal moment so that readers would know what they were getting into? Or was it just funny?
RKM: (laughing) It was a mix. I mean, what happened was… that story was based off an ex of mine. We were trying to be friends. I had just moved to Boston and she was contacting me and I was very suspicious of her, which wasn’t very fair of me. Anyway, she called me up and said she got me a Christmas gift and I thought damn, now I have to get something for her, so – she was eight months pregnant at the time, so I asked her if she’d like a fifth of whiskey and a clothes hanger.
(there is a pause here as we both laugh… because, really, who can resist the fun-loving, family-friendly humor of whiskey and a coathanger?)
Article comments