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Ardent fans of lolcats and I Can Has Cheezburger? will be happeh to know that the founders of the site, Eric Nakagawa and Kari Unebusami, have released the I Can Has Cheezburger? book, penned (pawed?) by Professor Happycat. 
Hardcore internet denizens now see many lolmacros as just more clutter on the highway of the interwebs. Like billboards, they almost become invisible and only a few truly clever or interesting ones stand out. You know they have become internet "mainstream" when a Nobel Prize winner announces his win via lolmacro. However, ICHC remains clever and entertaining, and some of the funniest ones have been collected in this cute little book. The book also features sweet little drawings that are in and among the lolcat images, provided by artist friends whom the authors have worked with in the past. Here is a little drawing from my review copy:
I'd say this book is a cute holiday gift for kids, leet hackzors, and even lamezor n00bs who don't spend much time on the internet at all, and insist on talking about things like "outside" and "the sun." Hmmph.
Much to my delight, along with my review copy of ICHC, I was able to ask the authors questions about the book and the founding of the site, and Eric answered.
Q: Where are you from, originally, and what were you doing before ICHC exploded?
Eric: We are both from Honolulu, Hawaii. [I] worked as Software Developer in Hawaii. Kari was a Web Editor.
Q. Were you able to quit your day jobs?
Eric: About 5 months into the project we were generating enough revenue from advertisements on the site to cover my bare necessities (rent, car, food, cheezburgers). I took the plunge and quit my day job. Kari also left her job as time progressed and the site continued growing. The amazing thing was, after I went full time on the site the traffic increased dramatically. Our visitors loved the attention we were able to focus on the site.
Q. I've read that at first lolcats were kind of a "placeholder" image on a domain Eric owned. How and why did you decide to evolve into a blog-type format?
Eric: Initially Kari sent the original image of Happycat saying "I Can Has Cheezburger". As a joke I purchased the domain, and put the picture up... just one picture...
For internet geeks like us buying a domain name can be like a hobby. When you have a new domain you day dream about what it could be, a personal blog, a one line text joke, a single picture... What we realized immediately was that many of these photos didn't have home. They were scattered across the internet, disorderly, sometimes containing nsfw photos. We thought we'd make our own, organize it via tags and other descriptive information that other sites seemed to lack.
Initially we posted and organized as many of our favorites as we could find. Over time we'd post things at steady intervals. Eventually, there would be method to the madness.
Q: Was the popularity of ICHC somewhat gradual, or did you get a boost immediately, and if so, how? Digg? Word of mouth?
Eric: ICHC popularity boosted within the first 2 weeks the site was up. We hit a collective internet nerve that had been passed over by many. For the first 3 months traffic doubled. Starting at about 150k in our first month. 300k by month 2, 700k by month three. Some early traffic generators were definitely word of mouth and sites like BoingBoing, Digg and StumbleUpon.
Q: Why do people love lolcats so much?
Eric: There seems to be something in it for everyone. Some people just like the cute cat pictures, while others appreciate the smart, geeky, funny and often topical nature of the captions.
Q: Before you sold the business to Ben Huh, how many people were working to make the site go? Has it grown since then?
Eric: Just 2. We were working 15-20 hours a day. It was a labor of
