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We wrote "All My Friends Are Dead." Ask us anything.
Oh. Hey, Reddit. I'm Avery Monsen. Jory John's here, too. We wrote and illustrated "All My Friends Are Dead" and some other books. Ask us whatever! Let's do this thing!
HERE'S PROOF THAT I'M ME: http://imgur.com/vaWxx
EDIT! It's been a wild ride, Reddit. We've been answering questions for the last 9 hours. Let's recap.
The ups: we got to talk to so many amazingly nice people. You're so great and we can't thank you enough for your kindness. Seriously. We love you.
The downs: Some people were angry that we're not Turbonegro. (After 9 hours, we're not totally convinced that we're not Turbonegro, but maybe that's another AMA for another day.)
Some people had never heard of our books. (For anyone still confused, you can read free excerpts here: http://www.nomorefriends.net/) Overall, I think we all learned a little bit about ourselves. Would we do it again? In a heartbeat. I drew this for you: http://imgur.com/VQKoI (Jory approved.)
You're simply the best. We're done for the night, but we'll be back to tie up loose ends. Feel free to tweet at us if you've got an urgent question... @averymonsen & @joryjohn.
Your dudes, Avery M and Jory J
averymonsen251 karma
Haha. To the best of our knowledge, we were making "All my friends are dead" dinosaur shirts the year before the Turbonegro song came out. We don't want to start any beef with them, though. We can't handle beef. We're terrible in a fight and we have no health insurance.
lmhtg259 karma
I can honestly say that showing your book to a girl got me laid once.
Thanks.
dsies157 karma
Hello excellent book writers,
I love the dinosaur. So much in fact, that I had it tattooed on my arm while me and my wife were visiting some friends in NYC.
Please don't sue me for copyright infringement :(
averymonsen223 karma
OH MY CHRIST THAT IS AMAZING. If there is a polar opposite to suing you, I will do that!
Seriously: that's so awesome. You totally just made my day.
averymonsen135 karma
Or maybe I serve as dsies's lawyer, and we sue co-author Jory John. How does that sound?
Irish-Ink83 karma
"All my friends are dead" is on my end table, I force drunk friends to read it when were hanging out.
Joryjohn68 karma
First off: Perfect place for the book! Second off: Great drunken activity! Third off: Make us a video, the next time everybody's drunk and reading!
averymonsen117 karma
While you're at it, remind drunk future self to take an Advil. Head that hangover off at the pass!
(This AMA sponsored by Advil.)
Jared619753 karma
That link is purple, should I be scared?
edit: I love your book by the way.
danfinlay41 karma
Clearly you two know how to turn a shirt into a book. Are there any shirts out there that you think are begging for books to be written based on them?
ArnaldoPalmer34 karma
what are your day jobs? (assuming you two don't make enough to live on from these books. if i am incorrect, then i'm sorry and congratulations! that's awesome)
averymonsen101 karma
I live mostly off the books. (I EAT ONLY RAMEN.)
I'm also an actor. I've been in a couple commercials and I perform at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in NY.
ArnaldoPalmer30 karma
ha. holy shit. just looked at your performers page. i've seen Beige. you guys are really good!
ArnaldoPalmer21 karma
i usually go to Maude night. I'm a sketch comedy nerd. the only reason i know about this AMA is because of yesterday when I was refreshing reddit waiting for Odenkirk's AMA to start.
sharirose31 karma
"All my friends are bread!" -Peeta Mellark Will there be a potential "All My Friends Are Dead" threequel?
averymonsen29 karma
Haha. That's amazing. Actually, now that I think about it, "All my friends are dead" pretty much applies to all the tributes.
Threequel: not sure! It depends on whether people buy the sequel. It also depends on whether we can come up with something that we don't think is dumb. We don't want to "George Lucas" ourselves*.
*George Lucassing: Ruining something cool by making stupid sequels. And then growing a terrible beard.
danfinlay25 karma
Obviously someone has to ask: How has your opinion of New York changed since moving there?
averymonsen53 karma
(danfinlay's referencing our book, "I Feel Relatively Neutral About New York.") Yeah, NY has really grown on me. There are so many things to do and see and smell! I recommend it.
YoungRL12 karma
Are you on a Mac? Can you see the "Look of Disapproval" or is all you see a couple of squares with an underscore between them?
YoungRL7 karma
Here, download the font that's on this page: http://lookofdisapproval.info/
:]
JVA22215 karma
Two things-- I went looking for all the old blog posts about Foffies and couldn't find anything. Where are they? For three years now, my fantasy baseball team has been The Foffies. Also, how can I get AMFAD in German?
averymonsen14 karma
I'm so glad to hear the Foffies have lived on. As long as you believe, they'll be there.
Also: AMFAD in German.
PowerCrumpet14 karma
This is pretty much my favourite toilet book. Every time I sit down to lay down some business, I get the biggest smile on my face. Thanks for the book! What made you guys choose the creamy yellow for the cover? It's delicious!
averymonsen16 karma
Thanks! As I recall, we were trying to pick something sunny that'd contrast with the dark content of the book. Glad it worked for you!
(Also, can we use that "lay down some business" stuff as a quote? Amazing.)
lexoram7 karma
Hey, great book.
Were there any ideas you wanted to put in the book but could not as it is (somewhat) aimed at children?
averymonsen50 karma
In the sequel, there's a page where a horse says "All my friends are glue." We were going to have the next page be a little girl eating glue saying "All your friends are delicious." Actually, here, take a look: http://imgur.com/3hXMI.
NOBODY ELSE HAS EVER SEEN THIS, REDDIT. TOP SECRET SHIT!
We just thought it seemed too gross. So we changed to joke to a sad glue bottle saying "I won the Kentucky Derby three times."
I guess the answer is: we really didn't think about kids when we wrote it. We just felt like that page was a little off-putting to anyone, so we changed it.
catwhisperer5506 karma
Cool AMA, thanks!
Which "character," if you will, in All My Friends Are Dead is your favorite? I'm quite a fan of the plant asking you to stop slowly killing his friends...
averymonsen17 karma
I think my favorite character to draw was the ventriloquist. There's something profoundly disturbing about that dude. Also, for a while, I couldn't get the body to look quite right, so I took some pictures of myself posing as if I were making out with a puppet. I spend a few minutes every day praying that no one sees those pictures.
icemancometh6 karma
I LOVE your book. What kind of person did you have in mind as an ideal reader for this book?
averymonsen28 karma
Thanks! Honestly, we just wrote what we thought was funny without imagining an audience. But if I had to pick a person, I'd say former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
averymonsen4 karma
Ah, good ol' Big Stone Head. For those who don't know, it was a comic Jory and I wrote a few years ago about two Easter Island stone heads. One never spoke. It was the first thing we worked on together. It was a ton of fun, but I think we're too busy now to start it up again. Glad you liked it, though!
averymonsen18 karma
Comedians: My favorites right now are John Mulaney and Louis CK.
Artists: I've got this awesome book of Charley Harper's stuff that I go through all the time. Also, comics by Kate Beaton. She's the best.
(Jory adds: Shel Silverstein and Matt Groening and James Thurber.)
averymonsen13 karma
Unfortunately, yes. We're accepting applications for replacements, though.
averymonsen10 karma
Please bring a list of references and be prepared to sit around and watch "Back to the Future" with us.
averymonsen8 karma
"Menudo. I hate Menudo." — Ricky Martin
(This is the kind of hilarious wordplay you can expect when you're friends with us.)
averymonsen7 karma
We will be at the Chronicle Books booth at Comic-Con, signing books.
We will be naked.
averymonsen11 karma
You bet wrong, Finlay. I'd love to hear your pitches! What would it be? Just "The Land Before Time"?
danfinlay11 karma
Whoa, you COULD probably just re-brand The Land!
My shot:
I was thinking it starts with you and Jory each waking up in the morning to discover the world is startlingly empty, like in the Twilight Zone's "Where is Everybody?". You manage to find each other downtown, and just as you utter the titular line (to Jory's chagrin, or vice versa, you'll probably fight for that line)- you encounter one of the lonely characters from your books.
That's right, it's mixed with animation, Roger Rabbit style, all in the style of the book. Anyways, these lonely characters blame you guys for creating them so lonely, but they insist they have no idea where all YOUR friends are. Anyways, you bandy up with some of them, have to be careful of others, it'd be a movie so there's a lot of different interactions that you'd have to flesh out, but ultimately maybe it turns out that one of the characters was so lonely they zapped you into your book land, so you could be lonely too, so you have to defeat him or turn him or something.
Either that or it turns out all your friends were just hiding, and then the animated friends you made along the way are like "well then I guess all your friends aren't dead after all…" but then you guys say "Neither are yours… anymore!!!" And it's a big sappy ending with you guys and all your animated characters, probably try to knock it out of the park bigger than "An Allegory."
I'm a fan of multiple endings, too, so probably just do both or more.
averymonsen10 karma
I am currently writing you a huge, novelty check. Your pitch has been greenlit. CONGRATS! (The check will bounce. Sorry.)
Joryjohn14 karma
This is a sad-but-very-true story: the woman at my local Taco Bell knows my order by heart. I think that says way too much about me. And I think that answers your question.
williemcbride6 karma
Haha, that's alright, the lady at my video store knows my name and phone number, and she knows my voice over the phone.
Joryjohn9 karma
The local Blockbuster kiosk inside Safeway knows that I rented Justin Timberlake's "In Time" the other day.
averymonsen10 karma
If you're in New York, check out Maoz. Quick, cheap falafels with a huge condiments bar. TWO THUMBS UP!
stripeysweaters4 karma
This book is hilarious, yet sad. I have a little dinosaur that sits in my car and I feel like I should read it to him.
Anyway. You guys wrote about the comedians and artists that inspire you, but what kind of music do you turn on and dance to when you brainstorm?
Thanks again for writing one of the weirdest-yet-humorous books I've ever read!
averymonsen8 karma
Thanks!
When I'm drawing, I usually listen to podcasts. The "All My Friends Are Dead" illustrations were fueled by Comedy Bang Bang (although I think it was Deathray at the time), Doug Loves Movies, and WTF. And Radiolab! Love me some Radiolab!
Tune-wise, I've been listening to a bunch of early Elvis Costello, recently. Or Sam Amidon if I'm trying to chill.
pasta_monster284 karma
Do you listen to a lot of Turbonegro?
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