I’ve been presented with something of a unique opportunity here at Comic Fencing. After reviewing a long string of smaller, newer online comics, I’ve been asked to review one which is culturally significant to the online comic format. Oh-ho. I know I’m supposed to review the comic, but no one said I couldn’t include a commentary on webcomics as a medium, right? (Doesn’t ask Delos about it.)

8-Bit Theatre launched in March of 2001. I started reading in September of 2001. It was my first year of college, and those were the good old days when RPG World was at it’s peak; Inverloch was young, fresh, and exciting, and not yet bogged down with the stereotypical characters that later joined the cast; and TimeScapes actually existed. 8-bit’s popularity had suddenly and randomly taken off; I’m not sure how. Sprite comics were not exactly a new thing anymore, but to many, I suppose the idea still seemed fresh and original because thousands more would be added to the hundred that already existed at the time. (No, I will not try to get exact figures on any of that. This is completely from memory and I don’t need to feel any older.)

8-Bit Theatre, mostly by Brian Clevinger, started out as a side-project for funsies. He took the sprites from the original Final Fantasy and set out to make a comic spoofing old 8-bit games. Sure, the art would just be lame and copy paste and the whole thing would have to rely on his witty writing, but he was a witty writer and could make funny jokes, right? So no problem. At some point (about strip 20), he must have realized that this would make his comic absolutely no different from just about every other crappy sprite comic out there. So, fortunately for the known world, he changed his game-plan.

First of all, instead of spoofing 8-bit games, the comic shifted to be about the characters. Completely tongue-in-cheek characters at that. He stuck with the initial setting and story (the first Final Fantasy) but now the tone moved to mock not early video games, but pretty much anything Clevinger liked. Read that: 80s and 90s geek culture. Now, there are strengths and weaknesses to this gimmick. The strengths being that this is the 2000s and geeks from the 80s and 90s have moved on and would happily use a chuckle over their old obsessions. The weakness is that this is not only a highly specific core audience, but a dated one - the comic is unlikely to appeal to younger readers. Fortunately for Clevinger, almost every nerd who played video games, Dungeons & Dragons, and read the Amazing Spiderman in the 80s and 90s now has a computer and uses the internet. And has probably read his comic.

Even more fortunately for Clevinger, 8-Bit does have appeal beyond that. And that’s because, darnit, he is a witty writer. A dry sense of pacing, a high-style sense of wording, combined with a willingness to not only touch but cuddle with the lowest subjects make his voice pretty unique.

The premise is fairly clever. The world is that of Final Fantasy, and the characters are the player classes from Final Fantasy, and several supporting characters (Sara, Garland, Bikke, Sarda, Bahamut) are straight from the game, but with added personality. Final Fantasy is probably the oldest, driest, most washed-up unidimensional game in which you make a party of “heroes” and follow a series of quests in which you are destined to save the world from some form of doom. Notably, it was also the very first of such games to use the party format. The very first of the story RPGs. I guess we should cut it some slack. 8-bit adds a twist to the un-likely hero story. The four Light Warriors for this version of the classic game are the least qualified or inclined people on the planet to save the planet. They are the most pathetic, horrible, unidimensional characters you will ever come to love. And they are:

Fighter: Loves swords, whether hitting things with them or otherwise. Has the intellectual capacity and ideals of a kindergartener.

Black Mage: Loves wanton destruction, the more evil the better. Is fortunately not very good at it. Thinks he’s smarter than the other characters and therefore thinks they’re not on to his constant plots to betray and murder them in horrible ways.

Thief: The kleptomaniacal elvin prince who supposedly can collect royalties on the use of fine print. While his schemes to collect wealth are usually no less bizarre than the other characters’ plans for anything, they generally tend to work. He’s the only Light Warrior who has any semblance of intelligence, and he has an ego the size of the planet he’s so busy not saving. Naturally, to counter-balance this, his failures are by far the most embarrassing.

Red Mage: Thinks this is all a game, and he’s the best power-gamer out there. Usually manages to make no sense at all with an equal chance of this working out well for him or working out completely horribly. Also, wishes he was a girl.

These and the supporting characters are completely static, such to the point that they are most frustrating. This is, in fact, one of Clevinger’s favorite jokes. Hundreds of story-lines start to lead to the development or reform of these characters, only to anti-climatically have them revert right back to their old selves, often worse than ever. Recurring jokes, much? Yeah, all of them are. How else do you fill up over 1000 text-heavy comic strips? But the recurring element is part of the beauty of the gags. He spaces them out enough that you forget about them for a while, only to bring them back in such a way as you know you should have seen it coming. Ackbar, for example, is a recurring con-man who sells the characters…not what they need to proceed. Black Belt, for example, was also a recurring joke. The only competent warrior in the entire cast, he would randomly appear to defeat the current boss threat, and just as easily disappear. You see, he has the gift of getting lost in paranormal space, rather than the usual gift of appearing in the nick of time that heroes have. Some of the recurring jokes mature over time. For example, Fighter begins the story in a quest for the Armor of Invincibilty. About strip 200, he finds it. And it will return… Also, early plot holes in the comic were explained away by “a wizard did it.” Come episode 421, we are introduced to Sarda, the wizard that did it. And this is just a handful of jokes to give you an idea.

What I’d like to know is how he manages to pull off such a steady level of humor so consistantly… It’s just not fair that all people were not created equal.

Oh dear, I’ve yet to mention the art. Yes, oddly enough, in this sprite comic the art is good. Clevinger’s secret? He’s not actually using sprites from Final Fantasy. A lot of the sprites used in the comic are direct replicas of the ones in the original games, but many more have been created to give the characters extra poses and expressions. (Also, the four “real” Light Warriors are replicas of sprites created for the playstaton remake of the original game.) Furthermore, a lot of original sprites were also created - all of this reportedly created by Kevin Sigmund. Clevinger’s girlfriend Lydia Tyree occasionally produces fully original art for the comic. Clevinger puts it altogether with clipart or google found images for backgrounds and visual reinforcements. While not an amazing or refined piece of art, the 8-Bit comics are certainly functional and support the text-laden pages. I feel comfortable calling this “comic art.”

I imagine the end is near, for 8-bit. I mean, they finally have all four orbs and are at the final castle. All we need now is the final boss fight. And after seven years, I imagine Clevinger can’t wait. I expect he’s always resented this little hobby of his. It was all good fun until it completely overshadowed his beloved brainchild and reason for launching the site: Nuklear Age. When he finally did finish getting his tongue-in-cheek superhero novel together, it…really didn’t do so well, while 8-bit continued to shine. Many conventions will fly him in from Florida and put him up at a hotel just so he can reassure fans that Black Mage will always like to kill people. Poor guy. There’s a light at the end of the tunnel for you, Clevinger. It’s called Atomic Robo. Even if it didn’t get you an Eisner, it’s also doing pretty well.

In closing, 8-Bit Theatre is NOT for all audiences, but after over 1000 installations, it’s still fabulous at what it does. Everything Clevinger does in this comic is horrible and awful, but you love it, and you love him for it.

Rating:
“8-Bit Theatre”
http://www.nuklearpower.com/
By Brian Clevinger

review by Sly Eagle

(2 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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