Q&A with Matt Furie

Back in August of 2010, we had the opportunity to talk with artist Matt Furie, creator of the comic Boy's Club which also happens to be the original source material of Feels Good Man catchphrase. Now with our new, shiny KYM Blog up and running, here's the full transcript of Q&A session with Matt.

Interview

Q: I wanna know first, what happened with your MySpace page?

A: Oh, I committed MySpace suicide. MySpace-icide. I did it for Facebook too.

Q: Ah, we were looking up dates for when you originally put up the comics. Do you remember roughly when?

A: I would say late 2005, maybe? Because my actual book was printed in 2006.

Q: What was the whole idea of the comic anyway, where did it come from?

A: I guess my cousin Dave. When we were kids we went to elementary school together, we’d go into the public restroom and he would pull his pants all the way down to go pee and I thought it was hilarious that he did it in public but you know, we were little kids. So then I just thought I’d be funny. I don’t even know what age the comic book characters are but they’re anywhere between teenagers and twenty-something I guess. That was the idea.

Q: Also, throughout the entire series there are a lot of bodily fluids, puke and what have you. Any reason behind that or just because?

A: I guess I just always think stuff like that is funny. It’s pretty silly.

Q: So have you actually seen shoops of "Feels Good Man" online?

A: I have, a friend of mine sent me a page that had a bunch of them. There was like a dog hanging out the window and says "feels good man," and another had John Goodman and said "feels good man." That was my favorite one I think.

Q: How about the people that actually crop out Pepe’s face and use it, how do you feel about people remixing your work?

A: I don’t really mind. The one thing that’s a little weird is that it’s all vectorized and the thing that kinda caught on online. So I got my image that I drew but then somebody took that out and vectorized it and made it something kinda different than mine. My original line drawing, and I was like it doesn’t look the greatest but I don’t care.

Q: We also did some research on "Deal With It" phenomenon, which is referenced in one of your comics about a fart in the face. We were thinking that your comic may also be the origin of this for the catchphrase.

A: I don’t know. "Deal With It" is pretty universal though.

Q: We are still researching it but what was the idea behind that comic?

A: I had a friend who would say that to me. It’s just kind of a funny thing to say. Fart, then say "deal with it" because what are you gunna do, just deal with it.

Q: So Boy’s Club is in print now, what is in the future for the comic?

A: I try to do an issue a year which in comic book terms isn’t very fast. That’s my goal, as long as I can do it.

Q: Are we going to see more online or is it purely just in print now?

A: Yeah I guess pure print at this point now that I killed my MySpace. Unless I get motivated to start a blog or something then I’ll throw them up there.

Q: Do you consider yourself now a sort of meme creator? Maybe have some influence on the social web?

A: I think it just kinda took a life of its own. I do think it’s kind of an interesting phenomenon that that out of anything else in the comic took off. Seems kinda random but I’m happy that it has.

Q: Are we the first ones to approach you about this?

A: No, people have referred to me as the "Feels Good Guy" and they are like “oh, that’s the guy who did Feels Good Man!” and I’m like “that’s just ONE comic that I did”.

Q: And does that make you “Feel Good Man”?

A: It does. Yeah, I’m glad I’m getting some kind of credit.

Q: Finally, do you have any favorite memes?

A: I love Double Rainbow dude, that guy is hilarious. And I really like, they aren’t necessarily icons, but I really like the Insane Clown Posse video, the Miracles video. I love that and also the plug for the festival they have. You can’t make that shit up, it’s too good.

More Information

You can learn more about Matt Furie and his artwork at his website and you can also order prints of the Boy's Club comic zines at Needles & Pens. Interview conducted August 7, 2010 in person by AJ Mazur.