Many webcomics have been influenced by video games and video game culture.
Many webcomics have been influenced by video games and video game culture.
Webcomics frequently poke fun at video game logic, the video game industry, and stereotypical behavior of gamers. The earliest video game webcomic was Polymer City Chronicles , which started in 1995. However, 1998's PvP is seen as the origin of the genre, influencing various webcomics following it. [1] Low-quality video game webcomics were particularly common in the mid-2000s, often featuring author stand-ins with poor dialogue and unrealistic relationships. [2] A common trope in video game webcomics is to have the main characters sit on a couch, talking about the game they are playing.
It is common for webcomics to exclusively use in-game art and speech bubbles, such as in sprite comics. The term gamics has been proposed by Nathan Ciprick in 2004 to refer to webcomics that consist entirely of video game graphics. Despite the fact that video game graphics are generally copyrighted, owners of the intellectual properties used have traditionally been tolerant. [3]
| Title | Creator | Run | Video game world | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8-Bit Theater | Brian Clevinger | 2001–2010 | Various Nintendo Entertainment System games, including Final Fantasy , Metroid and River City Ransom . | [1] [4] |
| Awkward Zombie | Katie Tiedrich | 2006– | Various, most notably Super Smash Bros. | [4] |
| Bob and George | David Anez | 2000–2007 | Mega Man | |
| Brawl in the Family | Matthew Taranto | 2008–2014 | Super Smash Bros. | |
| Concerned | Christopher C. Livingston | 2005–2006 | Half-Life 2 | [3] |
| Dueling Analogs | Steve Napierski | 2005–2018 | Various | [4] [5] |
| Super Effective | Scott Ramsoomair | 2008–2018 | Pokémon |
| Title | Creator | Run | Style | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ctrl+Alt+Del | Tim Buckley | 2002– | "Gamer on a couch" comic | [1] [4] |
| GU Comics | Woody Hearn | 2000– | [4] | |
| Megatokyo | Fred Gallagher and Rodney Caston | 2000– | Follows the adventures of a manga and video game fan in Tokyo, Japan. | [6] |
| Penny Arcade | Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik | 1998– | "Gamer on a couch" comic | [1] [4] |
| Polymer City Chronicles | Chris Morrison | 1995–2007 | [1] | |
| PvP | Scott Kurtz | 1998– | Follows a fictional video game magazine company and its employees. | [1] [4] |
| VG Cats | Scott Ramsoomair | 2001– | "Gamer on a couch" comic in which the characters frequently take on the role of their player character. | [1] [4] |
| Title | Creator | Run | Inspiration | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cucumber Quest | Gigi D.G. | 2011– | Adventure webcomic influenced by Kirby and Paper Mario . | [7] |
| MS Paint Adventures | Andrew Hussie | 2007– | Webcomics on MSPaintAdventures are inspired by interactive fiction and role-playing video games, having started out as a "mock adventure game". The latest webcomic, Homestuck , follows a group of four kids playing a reality-changing video game. | [8] [9] |
ShiftyLook, a former subsidiary of Namco Bandai, focused on reviving various Namco video game franchises between 2011 and 2014. The company originally did this through English language webcomics. [11] ShiftyLook has released webcomics based on Dig Dug , [12] Dragon Spirit , Klonoa , and various other video games. [10]
Webcomics are comics published on the internet, such a on a website or a mobile app. While many webcomics are published exclusively online, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or comic books.
Sprite comics are webcomics that consist primarily of computer sprites from video games. Art assets are ripped from various classic games such as Mega Man and Sonic the Hedgehog, are edited and combined by amateur cartoonists, and are posted on the internet. Popularized by Bob and George in the early 2000s, the style is considered relatively easy for beginning cartoonists to get involved in, but sprite comics are generally looked down upon for being of low quality. The format has not seen mainstream attention since 8-bit Theater concluded in 2010.
8-Bit Theater is a sprite comic created by Brian Clevinger that ran from 2001 to 2010 and consisting of 1,225 pages. It is a sprite comic, meaning the art is mainly taken from pre-existing video game assets. The webcomic was at times one of the most popular webcomics, and the most popular sprite comic.
Bob and George was a sprite-based webcomic which parodied the fictional universe of Mega Man. It was written by David Anez, who at the time was a physics instructor living in the American Midwest. The comic first appeared on April 1, 2000, and ran until July 28, 2007. It was updated daily, with there being only 29 days without a comic in its seven years of production and with 2568 comics being made altogether.
Dig Dug is a maze arcade video game developed by Namco in 1981 and released in 1982, distributed in North America by Atari, Inc. The player controls Dig Dug to defeat all enemies per stage, by either inflating them to bursting or crushing them underneath rocks.
Mappy is an arcade game by Namco, originally released in 1983 and distributed in the United States by Bally Midway. Running on the Namco Super Pac-Man hardware modified to support horizontal scrolling, the game features a mouse protagonist and cat antagonists, similar to Hanna-Barbera's Tom and Jerry cartoon series. The name "Mappy" is likely derived from mappo (マッポ), a slightly pejorative Japanese slang term for policeman. The game has been re-released in several Namco arcade compilations. It spawned a handful of sequels and a 2013 animated web series developed by cartoonists Scott Kurtz and Kris Straub.
Chōzetsurin Jin Bravoman is a 1988 beat'em up arcade video game developed and published in Japan by Namco. Described as a "comical action game", the player controls the titular character, a bionic superhero with telescopic limbs, as he must defeat the villainous Dr. Bomb before he takes over the world. Bravoman can use his arms, legs and head to defeat enemies, and can also crouch and jump over them. The game ran on the Namco System 1 arcade board.
Namco Museum Battle Collection is a 2005 video game compilation developed by Tose and published by Namco for the PlayStation Portable; the first Namco Museum since the PS1 series to be developed in Japan. It includes 21 games - four of these are brand-new "arrangement" remakes of older Namco games, while the rest are emulated ports of Namco arcade games from the 1970s and 1980s. These ports include an options menu that allows the player to modify the in-game settings, such as the screen orientation and number of lives. Players can send one-level demos to a friend's console via the "Game Sharing" option in the main menu.
Wonder Momo is a 1987 beat 'em up arcade game that was developed and published by Namco exclusively in Japan. It was ported to the PC-Engine in 1989, with both versions of the game later ported to the Wii Virtual Console, and ported to Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 as part of Arcade Archives. The game was also included in Namco Museum Encore for the PlayStation. Wonder Momo inspired a webcomic series in 2012, an anime miniseries in 2014, and a sequel game by WayForward Technologies in May 2014. A sequel titled Wonder Momo 2 was planned for the arcades on 1993, but was cancelled due to decline of popularity.
Dig Dug: Digging Strike is a 2005 maze video game published by Namco for the Nintendo DS. In Europe, the game was published by Atari Europe. It is the fifth entry in the Dig Dug video game series, and the second to be made for a home platform. The game follows series protagonist Taizo Hori, bitter about his son Susumu getting more attention than him—after a chain of tropical islands is threatened by monsters, Taizo sets out to defeat them and reclaim his fame. Gameplay combines mechanics established in the original Dig Dug and its sequel Dig Dug II, centered around sinking a large "boss" character into the ocean by digging under large stakes in the ground.
Sky Kid is a horizontally scrolling shooter arcade video game released by Namco in 1985. It runs on Namco Pac-Land hardware but with a video system like that used in Dragon Buster. It is also the first game from Namco to allow two players to play simultaneously. The game was later released on the Famicom, and both this version for the Wii, Nintendo 3DS, and Wii U and the original arcade version for the Wii were later released on Nintendo's Virtual Console service, and for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 as part of Hamster's Arcade Archives line of digital releases. The NES version was also ported to arcades for the Nintendo VS. System as VS. Super Sky Kid, but promotional materials and the cabinet for this version just use the name VS. Sky Kid.
Dragon Spirit is a 1987 vertical-scrolling shooter arcade game developed and published by Namco. In North America, it was distributed by Atari Games. Controlling the dragon Amul, the player must complete each of the game's nine areas to rescue the princess Alicia from the demon Zawell. Similar to Namco's own Xevious, Amul has a projectile weapon for destroying air-based enemies and a bomb for destroying ground enemies. It ran on the Namco System 1 arcade board.
Golly! Ghost! is a 1991 light gun shooter arcade game developed and published by Namco. It employs a diorama which is controlled by the game's driver board to open and close mechanical doors which are connected to solenoids, much like the moveable items on a pinball table. The diorama has five 24-volt globe lights that come on only during gameplay to light up the rooms - and they are all on when the game is being played during the shooting scenes, and off for the cutscenes, title screen, and high scores. The globes are not individually controlled, and are either all on or off; the driver board powers the diorama unit's solenoids and lights via several connectors on the driver board and the guns also plug into the driver board via another small connector. In 2012, the game was adapted into a webcomic for Namco Bandai's ShiftyLook webcomic service.
Christopher Hastings is an American comic writer and artist. He is known for his webcomic The Adventures of Dr. McNinja as well as writing for Unbelievable Gwenpool and the Adventure Time comics.
ShiftyLook was a subsidiary of Bandai Namco Holdings that was focused on revitalizing older Namco franchises, with their first step being video game webcomics based on the company's various franchises. The subsidiary later offered webtoons, anime, playable games, music, message boards, and graphic novels as well. ShiftyLook regularly held substantial exhibitions at large US comics conventions, having a major booth presences and holding large giveaways of promotional merchandise.
Udon Entertainment Corp. is a Canadian art studio and publisher. The company publishes original and translated comic books, graphic novels, manga and art books related to anime and video games. It was founded in 2000 and is named after udon, a kind of Japanese noodle.
Cucumber Quest is an adventure webcomic written and illustrated by Gigi D.G. since April 3, 2011. The comic features the character Cucumber and his sister Almond traveling across a fictional world in order to defeat the Nightmare Knight, meeting various friends and foes on the way. The child-friendly comic has multiple volumes in print thanks to crowdfunding.
The history of webcomics follows the advances of technology, art, and business of comics on the Internet. The first comics were shared through the Internet in the mid-1980s. Some early webcomics were derivatives from print comics, but when the World Wide Web became widely popular in the mid-1990s, more people started creating comics exclusively for this medium. By the year 2000, various webcomic creators were financially successful and webcomics became more artistically recognized.
Notable events of 2011 in webcomics.
Notable events of 2014 in webcomics.