Two Lumps

Cast

The main characters are a pair of sibling Russian Blue cats named Ebenezer (a.k.a. Eben or Benny) and Snooch. The strip is invariably written from their point of view, albeit with a tone and approach which has led to the comic being described as "the Anti-Garfield". Other characters make occasional appearances: Grant himself appeared in the second strip (in a parody of Garfield's debut), and Hynes herself partially appears with some regularity as the owner (or "Mom") of Ebenezer and Snooch. The cats don't talk as such, but communicate by means of thought bubbles, facial expressions, and tail-twitching.

Ebenezer is the smart one. He is often portrayed deep in thought, doing complicated mathematical equations in his head, or pretending to be an Indiana Jones-type explorer, and is often shown as being frustrated by the antics of his less-intelligent brother. Eben's personality is sarcastic and snarky, usually playing the straight cat to Snooch's blundering buffoonery. He occasionally breaks the fourth wall.

Snooch is obese, clumsy, and not very bright. When danger threatens him or his brother, he is utterly fearless, bordering on psychotic (which side of that border is left up to the reader). He comes up with compelling reasons for why cats do the things they do, such as the 2 AM Crazies (well known to any cat owner).

The cats are based upon Grant and Hynes's real-life pet cats, Raistlin and Caramon (named after the brothers in the Dragonlance novels). Ebenezer is patterned after Raistlin, and Snooch was patterned after Caramon. Caramon died unexpectedly from kidney failure in 2009, which was documented in the strip. Grant assured readers that Two Lumps would go on as always and the character of Snooch would not be discontinued, as Snooch would be the best way to keep Caramon's memory alive. On the morning of 23 June 2011, J. Grant announced that Raistlin had died at the age of 14.

Technical

The strip is hand-drawn and done almost exclusively in grayscale, and varies between one-shot gags and story arcs. Grant does the drawing; Hynes does the writing. The strip is updated every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Creators

Mel Hynes is the primary author of Two Lumps, directing the plot and writing the individual strips. In addition to Two Lumps, she also writes pieces which mix "horror and twisted humor".

James Grant entered the webcomics ecosystem during its infancy, having created the long-running strip FLEM! Comics in 1998. After having written and drawn webcomic strips for five years, Grant felt that cartooning had "stopped being fun" and went through a brief hiatus before forming a creative team with Hynes. Grant found that his collaboration with Hynes enabled him to focus on his art rather than worrying about developing story arcs, stating that "Two Lumps brought back the fun for me. I don't have to write it. I don't have to steer. I'm the guy on the second seat of a tandem bicycle, and Mel's got the handlebars - I just pedal. I love it."

Grant and Hynes have been described as having "well-deserved reputations as seekers of the edge". Outside of Two Lumps, Hynes often writes in the horror genre, and Grant has also written horror novels and illustrated violent material. However, Hynes has rejected the characterization that the relatively tame content of Two Lumps could be construed as self-censorship, stating that "While we're not deliberately striving for 'family-friendly', by any means, the Lumps tend to lend themselves towards more intellectual and sardonic jokes than visceral ones... James and I both have very viscerally-twisted senses of humor, but we tend to have other creative outlets for that than Two Lumps."

Hynes and Grant have become popular guests and panelists at industry conventions such as ComicCon, AggieCon, and A-Kon.

Publication history