Nuclear Delight made its original online debut in late 2008 as some doodles made with pen, paper, and a scanner. It was pretty old-school, if that school had like five dollars to its name. It was—and generally continues to be—a cartoonish pseudo-autobiographical work featuring a caricature of myself as the very handsome main character. It quickly became apparent that it was difficult to write good comics propelled by a single character and so a second recurring character was introduced in the form of Emily, and it's been difficult to write good comics propelled by two characters ever since.

It's very much a slice-of-life comic about terrible friends having amusing conversations and every once in a while getting into wacky antics. There's the occasional callback joke and perhaps a dash of continuity here and there, but for the most part each comic is self-contained, making it nice and easy to jump in just about anywhere.

Once upon a time it had a considerably regular schedule (2011 was a magical year, am I right, folks?) but for a variety of reasons is now mostly updated whenever I can get around to putting a new comic together.

My name is Isaiah Olson and I'm some guy from Wisconsin who often dreams of the day that they bring back 3D Doritos. I spend most of my time breathing subconsciously and also sleeping whenever the opportunity to do so presents itself. I've been cracking jokes unprofessionally and drawing—also unprofessionally—for as long as I can remember. When I was a kid I used to make my own miniature comic books and would ask my dad to photocopy them at his office so that I could distribute them to my friends. Sometime after that, I graduated from UW Oshkosh with a BFA degree with an emphasis in graphic design (and a minor in philosophy, 'cause that's just how I roll), but I'm still pretty into illustration and comics, which is why we're all here right now.

I live an incredibly mundane and reclusive life with my girlfriend and two cats while subjecting my brain to various media poisons that are often referred to as video games, television, and the internet. I am easily winded but make up for it by finding few legitimate reasons to exert much physical energy. I frequently speak aloud to myself so long as I believe no one can hear me do so, and I often sing in obnoxious voices while driving alone.

See? I'm just like you.

...Right?

How do you pronounce your name?
eye-ZAY-uh

What's with the schedule?
There are a lot of things that factor into the inconsistent schedule, but at the end of the day it comes down to the fact that this is a hobby and not my livlihood. I spend a lot of most days working my normal job and I tend to devote my free time to unwinding with video games, which is a nice way of saying I have a horrible addiction. It doesn't help that drawing a single comic takes me a lot longer than you'd think, so I only make new strips when I'm really in the mood for it. Sometimes that's pretty often, and other times I just don't feel like it for four years. Sorry!

Will you draw me something?
Nope. Maybe someday I'll be open to commissions, but today is not that day.

What do you use to make the comics?
Some horrendously outdated stuff. I'm currently working on a Wacom Bamboo Fun tablet that I got back in the beginning of 2010 (they haven't made these in a long time), and I'm drawing in Adobe Photoshop CS5. Both things get the job done, but I'm due for an upgrade on both fronts.

Is Emily also based on a real person?
Emily is a 100% fictional character. She was created to give my comic self someone to consistently interact with. I opted for a made-up character rather than a real person so that I'd feel comfortable with taking as many liberties with the character as I wanted, and I opted for a female character in order to add the slightest bit of diversity to the cast instead of having the comic be about two dudes. Emily was created to be the antithesis to comic Isaiah's... thesis.

How can I contact you?
I'm pretty socially inept—even digitally—but if you feel like reaching out, you can email me at nucleardelight@gmail.com, or track me down on Twitter at @nucleardelight. I can't promise a super timely response, but I do try to make time for people who make time for me.