Double Fine Comics | |
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Author(s) | Scott Campbell, Razmig Mavlian, Nathan Stapley, Mark Hamer, Tasha Harris, and Gabe Miller |
Website | http://www.doublefine.com/ |
Current status/schedule | Each comic updated at varying intervals |
Launch date | February 2004 |
Publisher(s) | Double Fine Productions |
Double Fine Comics is a webcomics collective supported by Double Fine Productions. [1] Each comic varies in style and tone, but they all reflect the eclectic humor found in the Double-Fine produced game Psychonauts . The webcomics were published in Adobe Flash format on the company website under the heading 'Comics'.
The Double Fine comics are produced by six artists who work (or used to work) for Double Fine Productions.
Scott Campbell (also known as Scott C.) created a comic called Double Fine Action Comics. [2] It follows the adventures of Two-Headed Baby (the Double Fine Productions logo), a strongman, and a knight. Other characters, such as two astronauts named Captain and Thompson have been introduced as the comic has progressed. Many characters such as a mummy, a frogman and a naked ogre have been briefly featured, usually during a quest or some other type of adventure. At the top of most strips is a small, usually completely unrelated drawing. These small drawings sometimes have a title, such as "Mysterious Happiness!". The strip celebrated its 400th comic in December 2006. In August 2011, Scott implied the end of the comic with the deflation of 2HB and the solemn acceptance of both Knight and Strongman. The comic was resurrected in May 2012, before it returned to hiatus status a few months later.
In 2008, the first 300 comics were combined into a trade paperback called Double Fine Action Comics by Scott C (Volume 1). This volume includes a foreword by Tim Schafer. [3]
In 2013, 200 more comics were combined into another trade paperback called Double Fine Action Comics by Scott C (Volume 2). This volume contains a foreword by Erik Wolpaw. [4]
Razmig Mavlian (also known as Raz) produces two comics. The first, Epic Saga, is done in the style of an adventure game similar to King's Quest or The Secret of Monkey Island . The last two comics were countdown screens, similar to the screens of arcade games, which seem to indicate that the strip is cancelled or currently on hiatus. Mavlian's other comic, Happy Funnies, is a dialogue-free strip featuring smiling characters in absurd situations. This strip appears to be on hiatus as well.
Epic Saga was the first comic to be made into a free flash video game by Klint Honeychurch. Epic Saga: Extreme Fighter is a simple low resolution fighting game which is available to play for free on Double Fine's website. [5] [6] [7]
Nathan Stapley draws a pseudo-biographical comic that juxtaposes comics about his hair or clothing with adventure stories involving him and such characters as Indiana Jones, Chewbacca from Star Wars , or O-Ren Ishii from the Kill Bill films. The comic appears to be on hiatus.
My Comic About Me was the second comic to be made into a free flash video game by Klint Honeychurch. My Game About Me: Olympic Challenge is a mock sports video game that includes such events as eating and sleeping along with traditional sports games like surfing, but with obstacles to avoid. [8] [9]
Snapshots (formerly known as Polaroids) is a comic by Mark Hamer. [10] He paints realistic pictures that resemble Polaroid photographs. Each feature a joke about the picture at the bottom of the photograph.
In 2013, the comics were compiled into a book titled Snapshots. The book contains a foreword by Tim Schafer and an introduction by Scott Campbell. [10]
Tasha Harris created a fifth comic, which was added in January 2008. The comic is a semi-autobiographical serial about the life of the author, and her boyfriend and two cats. [11] Tasha's comic has been moved to her personal blog, "Tasha's Quest Log", as of September 2011, when she left Double Fine. [4] The comic continued to be updated regularly until 2013. The current state of the comic is unknown.
Tasha's Comic was the third comic to be made into a free flash video game by Klint Honeychurch. Tasha's Game is a puzzle-platform game where Tasha has to rescue her family and co-workers from a mysterious entity, aided by her cat Snoopy who acts as a cursor allowing Tasha to place platforms in order to get to out of reach areas. [12] [13]
Gabe Miller's comic, "Dirt Nap," started in October 2009. It covers the adventures of an unwilling zombie as he searches for his identity, and as he and his zombie friends try to avoid being killed. The comic updates regularly.
Flash Gordon is the protagonist of a space adventure comic strip created and originally drawn by Alex Raymond. First published January 7, 1934, the strip was inspired by, and created to compete with, the already established Buck Rogers adventure strip.
Timothy John Schafer is an American video game designer. He founded Double Fine Productions in July 2000, after having spent over a decade at LucasArts. Schafer is best known as the designer of critically acclaimed games Full Throttle, Grim Fandango, Psychonauts, Brütal Legend and Broken Age, co-designer of Day of the Tentacle, and assistant designer on The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge. He is well known in the video game industry for his storytelling and comedic writing style, and has been given both a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Game Developers Choice Awards, and a BAFTA Fellowship for his contributions to the industry.
Double Fine Productions, Inc. is an American first-party video game developer of Xbox Game Studios based in San Francisco, California. Founded in July 2000 by Tim Schafer shortly after his departure from LucasArts, Double Fine's first two games – Psychonauts and Brütal Legend – underperformed publishers' expectations despite critical praise. The future of the company was assured when Schafer turned to several in-house prototypes built during a two-week period known as "Amnesia Fortnight" to expand as smaller titles, all of which were licensed through publishers and met with commercial success. Schafer has since repeated these Amnesia Fortnights, using fan-voting mechanics, to help select and build smaller titles. Double Fine is also credited with driving interest in crowdfunding in video games, having been able to raise more than US$3 million for the development of Broken Age, at the time one of the largest projects funded by Kickstarter, and more than US$3 million for the development of Psychonauts 2.
Psychonauts is a 2005 platform video game developed by Double Fine Productions and published by Majesco Entertainment for Microsoft Windows, Xbox and PlayStation 2.
Alexander Gillespie Raymond Jr. was an American cartoonist and illustrator who was best known for creating the Flash Gordon comic strip for King Features Syndicate in 1934. The strip was subsequently adapted into many other media, from three Universal movie serials to a 1950s television series and a 1980 feature film.
William Francis Messner-Loebs is an American comics artist and writer from Michigan, also known as Bill Loebs and Bill Messner-Loebs. His hyphenated surname is a combination of his and his wife Nadine's unmarried surnames.
Douglas Samuel Wildey was an American cartoonist and comic book artist best known for originally conceptualizing and co-creating the classic 1964 American animated television series, Jonny Quest for Hanna-Barbera Productions.
The New Adventures of Queen Victoria is a daily webcomic created by Pab Sungenis. It uses the photo-manipulation technique popularized by Adobe Photoshop and other image editing programs to insert actual photographs and paintings of the characters into situations, instead of more conventional methods. It was syndicated online by GoComics, a division of Andrews McMeel Universal, and has been collected into six trade paperback editions.
Host Master and the Conquest of Humor is a free Flash adventure game, written by Klint Honeychurch and game developer Tim Schafer, with gameplay and art by Honeychurch and music by Bert Chang. The game was published by Double Fine Productions, of which Schafer is president, and was originally playable on their website.
The history of comics has followed different paths in different parts of the world. It can be traced back to early precursors such as Trajan's Column, in Rome, Egyptian hieroglyphs and the Bayeux Tapestry.
Scott Campbell, known professionally as Scott C., is an American artist and production designer, known for his work for LucasArts and Double Fine Productions.
MS Paint Adventures, abbreviated MSPAdventures or MSPA, was a website and collection of webcomics written and illustrated by Andrew Hussie. According to some estimates, in April 2016 MS Paint Adventures was the largest collection of comics on the Internet, containing over 10,000 pages among its five series.
Tasha's Game is a free Adobe Flash puzzle-platform game by Klint Honeychurch, with art by Tasha Harris and music by Bert Chang and Razmig Mavlian. The game was published by Double Fine Productions, and was originally playable on their website.
Tasha Sounart is an American animator, artist, video game designer, and writer. She was the designer of Double Fine's adventure RPG Costume Quest. She is currently an Associate Creative Director of Theme Parks at Pixar.
Klint Honeychurch is an American graphic designer, video game designer, programmer, and writer. He designed Double Fine's free Adobe Flash games: the graphic adventure Host Master and the Conquest of Humor, sports game parody My Game About Me: Olympic Challenge, puzzle-platform game Tasha's Game, and fighting game Epic Saga: Extreme Fighter.
Epic Saga: Extreme Fighter is a free Flash fighting game, designed by Klint Honeychurch with art by Razmig Mavlian. The game was published by Double Fine Productions, and was originally playable on their website.
My Game About Me: Olympic Challenge is a free Flash sports game parody, designed by Klint Honeychurch with art by Nathan Stapley. The game was published by Double Fine Productions, and was originally playable on their website.
Nathan Stapley is an American artist. He was the lead artist on Double Fine's adventure game Broken Age and has worked on Psychonauts and Psychonauts 2.
Razmig Mavlian is an Armenian-Canadian artist, animator, video game developer, and musician. His nickname "Raz" was the inspiration for the name of the main character in Psychonauts. He currently is a concept artist at Oculus VR.
Notable events of 2004 in webcomics.