The Unoriginal Comic

It gets... complicated.

Talking about near 100 F (35-40 C) all week. It's not like we never get heat over here, but it still hot when it happen.

Welcome to the first installment of The Pixelated Window of the Past (PWP for short, I guess?), where we search for the best and the worst of webcomics, but in particular one subgenre that had it’s time for glory, and that you know well if you’re reading The Unoriginal Comic.

Sprite Comics, of course.

Every Wednesday for a little while, you will find these episodes, a little summer break from mid-week comics.

Today I shall talk about the history of webcomics in general. The term webcomic wasn’t used until 1995, in the very early instance of the Internet, but online comics were used since 1985, although it was on the Compuserve system.

Webcomics were quick to use the power of the internet to expose their work, whether it was talent for writing or art, there has been all kinds. The advantage of webcomics is allowing to reach a potential of million of internet users without any of the hassle of production, distribution, printing and such.

Sluggy Freelance has been one of the first ones to be made on the actual Internet (although not the true first one), has become very popular, and is still currently active, at least until next year, where they announced a potential ‘ending’ or change of plans for their 20th anniversary.


Like many things on the internet though, when one person manages to hit the sweetspot to become popular, many will follow in the wake of it and try their own hands at it, with very varying qualities of results.

One style appeared a few years later, and showed a new way of making comics with minimal artistic talent, the Sprite Comics. Bob & George started in 2000, using Megaman sprite sheets that various websites had collected. While also not the first, it became so widely popular that it might as well have created the subgenre.


And again, many followed into those footsteps… with an even GREATER range of quality between what’s good and bad. With minimal artistic talent you could also combine even more minimalist writing skills, culminating in a cesspool of comedy that probably only the writers found funny.

In the upcoming episodes, we will be reviewing these Sprite Comics, the good and the bad, and judging them by their art, comedy and writing. Because not all comics are made the same, with different authors also come varying talents, and humor is very subjective of course. But there are some things that can be judged impartially.

See you next week for Episode 2 :  The basic of a Sprite Comic

Sometimes I wonder how much of their scuffle is planned ahead of time, or if it really is spur of the moment for Wily.

This could have been a repeat of Mother's Day with Dr. Light wanting more gifts, but hm, nah. Instead thought back to old comics, and remembered Techno was a thing. It wasn't Bob & George, but one of the main subcomics, Rick O'Shay, which I talked about before as being one of my inspirations way back when. I know we won't add Techno to our cast, the same as we wouldn't add Ran (who also started as a subcomic but moved to the main strip during the MM4 events), but still amused me a bit.

Gotta love Musou games. There's other things I could talk about. Like the match ups, whereas in story (Legend) mode, they are friends. And then in Adventure Mode, you gotta protect them. Or do quizzes. Nothing like answering questions by beating up friends on the head.

It's still better than some other games, where they just give you a harder version without really explaining anything. On top of that, the game sorta explains why you can repeat the same dungeons and fights over and over, or even why you can be defeated several times without consequences. Most games don't bother with that. The in-game explanation for things that should rightfully belong to game mechanics is pretty well thought out.

First world problems too?