Okay class, get out your notebooks and No. 2 pencils, because today we're going to talk about Sprite Comics! David Anez is usually credited with the first Sprite comic (www.bobandgeorge.com), and like most new ideas, it was completely on accident. When you start reading the archives it's really obvious. The first storyline even has the Megaman charecters complaining about being place holders. What happened was that at first he didn't have access to a scanner. So he used some sprites he had on his computer as a placeholder comic. When he came to find that he wasn't even that good at drawing, he decided to go back to using the Megaman Sprites.

That really sums up the genre actually, if you don't have the equipment, the ability, or the patience, for hand drawn it's common practice to go sprite. What this does is allow the author to focus more on humor or storyline.  A good example of a great storyline paired with a spritecomic is Patchwork Heroes (yeti.keenspace.com) It manages to grasp your attention without a heck of alot of skill.

The downside of course is... y'know what? I'm going to give you a little something to read before you can understand this part. An authors competence is usually directly linked to how much work they take on their custom Sprites, there are a few exceptions - most notably Bob and George - and you can usually tell by reading the comics. So take a quick look a this.

http://www.planet-megaman.com/mm3/Guides/spriteguide.php

Okay, read it? In short, beware Type 1 spriters, most of them are a few sandwiches short of a picnic basket. These are the guys who have at least five sonic recolors playing all their major characters. Thet're trying to share things that they think is funny, but most of what they put up are inane inside jokes, that maybe two of their closest friends will get. Or worse, it's insane drivel that noone will get. Don't get too worried when an author finds it fit to not edit sprites at all though. There's a great deal of those that are really good.

It's just like the rest of the webcomics, you need to find a comic that suits your needs and that you like.  Here's a few to get you started.

Zelda comic (www.zeldacomic.net) - Creative name, huh? While this is mostly a zelda parody, it's got cameos from several other video game characters as well, in fact Bub, from Bubble Bobble is also one of the main characters.

WoT now? (www.shadowburn.com/wotnow) - A very good parody of Wheel of Time, done with sprite too!

8-bit Theater (www.nuklearpower.com) - Everybody's favorite FF1 parody, featuring the adventures of Black Mage and his Stabbin' knife! Also, Red Mage, Thief and Fighter... Very Funny, one of the first and still one of the best.