Webcomic Creator Interview: Will Elliott and Tom Nash

Will Elliott and Tom Nash are the duo that created What Fresh Hell is This? several years ago. The two create dark and humorous comics that touch on tough life issues such as hipster hippos, gum disease, deaf superheroes, and much, much more. As the site puts it, it’s updated “whenever they chuffin’ well choose.” The comic often features adult language, but don’t let that stop you from enjoying it. I’m sure creators Will and Tom can do a much better job of convincing potential readers though, as they are much funnier than this description can convey.

Leo Johnson: To start with, what is it that you do when you’re not making webcomics?

Tom Nash: We both have day jobs, unfortunately. I’m a copywriter and Will harvests the dreams of children. I’m also currently in the editing stages of writing a novel, and spend the rest of my free time writing, watching TV and films, reading – essentially anything you can do without any amount of physical exertion.

Will Elliott: What everyone else does – I work full time and then I go home, drink myself into a bitter stupor and stare blankly into the howling void of existence. I’ve also started doing some commercial stuff with my art – which is nice – but I’m not quite deluded enough to call myself a professional cartoonist (yet).

LJ: Pretend we’ve never heard of What Fresh Hell Is This?. What’s your elevator pitch?

TN: It’s a site that takes questionable humour and attempts to dignify it by illustrating it beautifully. You probably won’t like it.

WE: What he said. The official pitch is “occasionally NSFW, dark humour, parody and crude jokes about wangs”. The reality is it’s whatever makes us laugh.

LJ: What made you initially decide to do a webcomic?

TN: When we were about 14, an age when other kids were doing more productive things like having underage sex and happy slapping, we would lie around Will’s house drinking and drawing comics that made us laugh. We never expected to be the A-list celebrities we are today, twelve years on.

WE: The girls of course! Nothing hauls in the babes like dick jokes on the internet. Uh. No. We started it in school because back then we thought we were super hilarious and we’ve kept going because no-one’s outright punched us in the face for it yet.

LJ: Describe the process of creating the comic a bit. What does it take to get an idea from your brain on to the page?

WE: We come up stuff mostly independently, then we meet at a pub halfway between our houses and we have a catch up and sort through our ideas. The only real criterion a comic has to fulfill is that it makes us both laugh. If not it’s cast into a netherworld of eternal nothingness, or I’ll draw it up as a doodle.

TN: In terms of the actual thought process, generally the process is to take something existing, like a phrase or a situation or a lovable childhood hero and twist it so that it goes against the reader’s expectations. Then, like Will says, we’ll doodle them together and see what works. Will’s tend to be more surefire hits than mine – so this process mainly protects the world from my mediocrity.

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