Casey and Andy (stylised as Casey & Andy, or simply C&A) is a webcomic series written and illustrated by Andy Weir. Following the adventures of two mad scientists (fictionalized versions of Weir himself and his best friend Casey Grimm) and of their friends and acquaintances (such as writer Jennifer Brozek), it was typically updated three times a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays throughout the early 2000s, primarily with a gag-a-comic format, including ongoing storylines and running gags.
The comic has a strong flavor of science and history fact, often from obscure sources, as well as featuring strong parallels between Weir's and Grimm's actual lives and the events in the comic. Some strips are inspired by then-current events, such as with the Opportunity mission to Mars, the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the 2004 United States presidential election. The strip was turned into a roleplaying game titled GURPS Casey and Andy for the GURPS system by David Morgan-Mar in conjunction with Weir, with a PDF sourcebook published by Steve Jackson Games.
On 1 May 2006, Weir announced that the strip would come to an end on Strip 666, due to Weir's recent dread for creating each strip to standard and of the potential for a downturn in the quality of the humor, and also so he could devote his time to Cheshire Crossing, his new webcomic project. Casey and Andy concluded with its 666th strip on 25 August 2008. The character of Bob was later featured in Weir's 2017 novel Artemis.
On 31 December 2021, a Casey and Andy subreddit, created and overseen by David Morgan-Mar, Casey Grimm, and John Gillman, with Weir's approval, was created for the social news and discussion website Reddit. The subreddit published an official crossover comic with the Tredlocity science fantasy webcomic Val and Isaac, starring the character of Space Dread, in January 2022, along with an authorised offline-accessible Mega archive of the webcomic.
Development In October 2008, Weir revealed the "original idea [behind Casey and Andy to be] based on real life. Casey [Grimm] and I would often do stupid stuff, or have stupid conversations that I thought might be good comedy. That was the original inspiration. The characters quickly took on a life of their own from there, and the “based on real life" aspect of it quickly went away[...] That general strategy of making new characters willy-nilly benefited the strip a lot, I think. There were a few instances of characters I threw in for a gag or two that became excellent sources of plot and humor. For instance, Quantum Cop was originally slated to show up rarely if ever, and always in the context of giving Casey and Andy a ticket. The King of Sweden hanging out on the couch... I never would have expected that to be funny for more than one or two strips, but that well never ran dry." Weir additionally revealed a spin-off series, Anti-Stupid-Science Man, had been considered, but that he could "never figure out how to make it funny". At the 2016 Silicon Valley Comic-Con, Weir sat on the “Master of Webcomics" panel in response to his series, with Tapas App's 2016 promotion on Weir's webcomic start (prior to the launch of Principles of Uncertainty and Cheshire Crossing) additionally citing Bob the Angry Flower as a primary influence for Casey and Andy.
Synopsis The title characters are 21st-century mad scientists dabbling in time and dimension travel, instantaneous cloning, and increasingly complex apocalyptic doomsday devices. Apart from that, they live in suburbia with their girlfriends, Mary and Satan. Casey and Andy share their little corner of the universe with an old school buddy – now dictator of Japan – who wants to kill them, a seemingly normal next-door neighbor who also wants to kill them, and a local cop who understands quantum physics better than Werner Heisenberg and would like to arrest them for breaking the laws of nature. Our not-quite-heroes' lives are just a touch complex.
Characters Storylines +Key Indicates character had a main role in the arc Indicates character had a supporting role in the arc Indicates character had a minor or cameo appearance in the arcFlashback Indicates character had a flashback appearance in the arcMentioned Indicates character was mentioned in the arc Characters Arcs The Story Arc Overthrow of Hell Quantum Crook! Jenn in Time Great Orb of Power! Rob Petrone The Land Pirates The Finale Arc 90 – 98 138 – 152 197 – 230 311; 320 – 362 446 – 482 492 – 501 598 – 612 621 – 666 Casey Grimm colspan="8" Andy Weir colspan="8" Mary MacTavish colspan="4" Satan colspan="2" Quantum Cop colspan="2" The Mime Assassin colspan="2" Lord MilliganMilligawain colspan="3" Religious Zealot colspan="2" Azrael colspan="3" The Cauldron of Fate colspan="5" Jenn BrozekQueen Jena colspan="3" Cujo colspan="2" Quantum Crook colspan="2" Don Cindy Weir colspan="2" colspan="2" GodZogor colspan="2" colspan="2" Andi WeirAndina colspan="2" colspan="2" J.J. colspan="3" colspan="2" colspan="2" King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden colspan="4" The Planet Devourer colspan="4" Kasor colspan="4" colspan="2" Quantum Ninja colspan="4" colspan="3" The Bug Fairy colspan="4" colspan="2" Rob Petrone colspan="5" colspan="2" Bob colspan="6" colspan="2" Grover Cleveland colspan="7" Most of the comic's events occur in this dimension, and the main characters live here. Due to the high number of characters in this dimension, they are further divided into three categories. The main characters are those most strips focus on, the secondary characters are recurring supportive characters, and single-use characters are characters that appeared only once or twice, or whose role were limited to a single story arc. In an interview with Leesa Hanagan of Sequential Tart on 7 January 2008, Weir cited Peanuts, Bloom County and Stephen Notley's Bob the Angry Flower as the inspiration behind Cheshire Crossing and the then-on-hiatus Casey and Andy.
Main characters Casey Grimm
Casey T. Grimm is the archetype of the mad scientist bent on global domination, based on the man of the same name. One way or another, all of his inventions have something to do with that goal. Having grown up in Fremont as best friends with Andy, they ended up splitting the expenses of maintaining a home. He is totally loyal to Mary, proposing to her in the strip's last story arc. He seems to like and trust Andy, despite Andy's having inadvertently spoiled a number of Casey's evil schemes, but occasionally tries to murder him. His alter-ego is Dr. X, a supervillain whose attempts at evil often cause good instead, although he does easily become dictator of France (before becoming bored with the country and accidentally having them surrender themselves over to Germany).
Casey sports a pointy spike of yellow hair swept forward over his forehead, which only accentuates his large nose. He tinkers more than Andy but spends less time on his computer. Not having his own hovercraft, Casey prefers to improve the house's nuclear arsenal and early warning systems when not working on mad science projects, or burning the house down, a gag later referenced in Ryan Pagelow's Buni Comics.
Not one for mundane ambitions, Casey desires nothing less than to rule the world. He indulges in this pursuit as the black-masked "Dr. X," a secret identity he firmly believes is unknown even to his closest friends. This is despite clear evidence to the contrary, such as when Andy intentionally used the mask to clean the litter box, and delivered him a new mask (mistakenly one meant for Cobra Commander). One time Casey went so far as to clone himself so he and Dr. X could appear together on Casey & Andy's Snooty Discussion Hour. Fortunately (or unfortunately) for the rest of his universe, once Casey realized the clone would not share the fruits of world conquest, he quite sensibly shot the new Dr. X. Casey did get to indulge his passion for ruling (briefly) when Satan asked him to mind Hell while she fought the rebellious demon Azrael, later joining the League of Recurring Antagonists alongside him, and running for President of the United States.
Andy Weir Andrew T. "Andy" Weir is a mad scientist, less interested in world domination than in creating mad inventions for their own sake, based on the writer of the same name. His research interests include astronomy, dark, magic, and hamsters. He dates Satan, absolutely hates Casey's girlfriend Mary, and as for Casey, their relationship is complicated, alternating between being best friends and worst enemies, finally fully embracing their friendship after Casey eventually has him move out. His secret alter-ego is Anti-Stupid-Science (ASS) Man. He is the only known male version of himself across the multiverse.
His family recognized his talents when he was young and took the precaution of leaving him at home when they went on vacations to Europe. While still at school, he performed his first Satanic summoning ritual and helped Casey build their first time machine, later naming the units of time travel power "Weirs" after himself. However, it was only as an adult that he and Satan hooked up after she got "stars in her eyes" for the (literally) Hell-bent boy, as foreseen thousands of years before his birth. Andy's best friend is Casey, although the two also compete at everything they do, which more than occasionally escalates to the use of deadly weapons and the usual consequences. Besides mad science, Andy spends time programming, tinkering with his hovercraft, and detonating hamsters. Barely more stable than Casey, he's mostly content to live a placid suburban life of building dimensional portals and dating Satan, including selling out Neo to the Agents. For fun, he likes arguing with evangelists about the logical inconsistencies in religious doctrine. He's sent more than one zealot gibbering to the Fremont Insane Asylum.
Andy's primary vices amount to greed and lust. Despite not needing any more money, he covets it enough to rob the Fremont National Bank on occasion. Sleeping with Satan is usually enough to satisfy his desire for sins of the flesh, but Andy also nurses an anachronistic crush on President Grover Cleveland's young wife, Frances, unaware that she is also Satan, born out of his time-stretched rivalry with Grover himself. In The Finale Arc, their feud is revealed to have been borne on Grover's end of the timeline from Andy travelling back in time to save Jenn after she was stranded in 1886, as well as a later incident in GURPS Casey and Andy, where Grover has access to his own time machine.
Mary MacTavish Mary "Mac" MacTavish is Casey's girlfriend and shares the house with him, Andy, and Satan.Dunbar, Brian (28 October 2005). "More Casey and Andy Madness". Space4Commerce. Retrieved 28 October 2005. "Which Casey and Andy character am I? You're Mary, the normal girl who balances out all the insanity of your home. You also do most of the work around the house, poor kid. Despite your unassuming looks, you've had a very interesting past. You hate one thing above all else: puns. If a pun threatens to surface at home, you don the guise of the Pun Police, ready to shoot on sight." A grade ahead of Casey and Andy at school, she ran a good line loan-sharking her fellow students – including Andy. This established a long-standing mutual hatred between them. On the other hand, Mary gets along well with Satan, especially when rolling their eyes at their boyfriends' strange antics. Satan, however, is not much for "girl talk". Andy once used Mary as the subject of an experiment, which resulted in her hands acquiring long steel talons that she can extend and retract at will. She fights frighteningly well with them and keeps them sharp for emergencies, while taking care to ensure they never cut her hair, no matter how long it gets.