Sprite comics are webcomics that use computer sprites, often taken from video games, for significant portions of their artwork. There are also animated sprite comics (called sprite cartoons) where each "strip" is a separate mini-movie, animated using technologies such as Flash. The comic Neglected Mario Characters is generally considered the first sprite comic to appear on the web.[1] It began as a spin-off feature from the Super Mario fansite Super Mario Headquarters. The first sprite comic to gain wide-spread popularity was Bob and George, which played a substantial role in the sudden popularity of sprite comics. It is often mistakenly identified as the first sprite comic. The strip utilizes sprites from the Mega Man series of games, with most of the characters being taken directly from the games. Due to the popularity of the comic, many of its features have been frequently emulated by other sprite comics, and thus are often labeled as cliché. Such features include having extremely stupid characters, a character representing the author, and making fun of the strip itself. Sprite comics frequently use characters from well-known games such as Sonic, Super Mario Bros., Final Fantasy, Mortal Kombat, Metroid, The Legend of Zelda, Pokémon and Mega Man. Some sprite comics use sprites from several different games. In addition to or instead of video game sprites, some comics use original sprites created specifically for the comic. Sprite comics have become very popular in large part due to the ease of creating a sprite comic, since minimal artistic skill is required. Sprites can easily be ripped from game ROMs using an emulator, or by using sprites from websites that collect sprites for public use. Comics can then be created using a simple image editor. Video game sprites are often designed to be animated, and thus often provide a wide variety of character poses, as well as being easily editable due to their simple design. Sprite comics also give the author the opportunity to parody the game from which the sprites are derived using the game's actual characters.
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Undeterred by lack of artistic skills, image editing skills, or even writing skills, many fans created their own comics by using sprites from popular video games. Because sprite comics can be so easily created, they quickly became very common. Thus many sprite comics were created which were widely considered to be poorly made and poorly written. Many of these comics had some or all of these characteristics:
- Use of recolored sprites.
- Large areas of blank space.
- Use of JPEG compression instead of a lossless format such as GIF or PNG which are more suitable to displaying pixel art.
Examples of popular existing sprite comics
- Neglected Mario Characters
- Bob and George
- 8-Bit Theater
- Diesel Sweeties (pixel art)
- A Modest Destiny (pixel art in sprite style)
References
External links
- Now you too can be a comics whiz (Wired Magazine) Article on the history of sprite comics
- SSCI'S Adventure An example of an anti-sprite comic.
