Revenge of the Sprite Comics - If Revenge isn't a Straight Line, where the Hell are we?

Greetings. I'm Rick Goranson, the author slash artist of Revenge of the Sprite Comics. Comics have always been my thing. I've been making comics off and on since probably my fifth year in elementary school. When I finally realized the tremendous addiction that is the internet in 2004 it didn't even occur to me that I could further my hobbie online, hide the fact that I can't draw for my life, and get my art viewed by many people all at one time. In early 2005, I ran into the freshly smoldering crater that was the society of sprite comics, and continued my newly retrofitted hobbie of making comics. While I can confirm that I have indeed made comics since 2005, I can't say they've always looked as.."less" terrible as they do now.

So where did RotSC begin in all of this?

A little insight for you--the internet can get on my nerves; there are people left and right that can't seem to spell, punctuate, captialize, or even use proper grammar, nay, logic if their life depended on it. And when I began making comics, I became one of the many thousands of artists who wanted to be a part of the newfound, non productive industry that many 'good' artists had pioneered years before. As my comics progressed, it occured to me that for every one good comic on the forums I was posting MY comics at, that there were easily six other terrible ones. By this time it was late 2005, and my comics had finally broken the status quo of regular sprite comics and been created with a program other than MS Paint; this was to improve the quality, but also prove that I wasn't just doing it because everyone else was making them--I spent money on my comic.

But because I kept seeing cheap knockoffs of my comic (even though my comic was cliched to begin with) I was beginning to seriously aspire to escape the plague-filled forum that I posted my comics in, and get my own website. A place where I didn't have direct competition unless I chose to, where I could completely ignore a language censor, and a place where I could possibly even become something more renowned rather than my regular 15-20 viewer fan base. I'm not exactly sure how it happened, but within a month or two I ran into the considerably less plague-filled haven that is Comic Genesis. On a side note, it was there that I met the mastermind behind Spritescape, who has been an incredible help as long as I've known him.

I began to look into getting my own Comic Genesis site. I kept this low key, as the last thing I wanted was a handful of knockoff comics to get a site too and continue to plague me. The idea looked good, it seemed I had what it took. So I applied. I created a pilot comic that was in essence a remake of the very first sprite comic I ever made, and sent it in. Even though I used a sprite comic comprised of a background I made myself and a sprite of a very popular gaming hero, I was accepted. This didn't happen before a long two weeks passed though.

By this time it had occured to me that by using the same trademarked characters everyone else used, (it WAS a nintendo forum) that I would either have to find a way to justify it, or make my own characters. Because I'm probably more literally inclined than artistically, I decided to justify my comic. So during the long two weeks that I waited for that email back, I decided I'd make somewhat of a socially satirical comic, and the society I would be making fun of would be the average low grade society of sprite comics.

When that email finally came, I bathed in my ecstasy for days as I set up my site and churned out new comics. I changed the entire basis of what my comic was, bid a secretive farewell to my reliable forum fans, and began Revenge of the Sprite Comics. While many of things I did with the new comic were inadvertantly effective as social sattire like demeaning the fourth wall and swearing a lot in spite of finally being able to, I also did quite a few things that were intentionally satirical too; such as numerous clichés, personalities referencing idiots I had dealt with the past (Stonerman is an example), continuing to use trademarked characters for my cast, and of course the whole parody of an actual plot that the entire comic has followed.

And for whatever reason, be it luck or possibly the benefit of linking my site where ever I could, the site got reasonably popular, and I upgraded from a Comic Genesis website to the reliable Dreamhost website I maintain now. Hopefully you enjoyed the rambling digression that was for the most part a brief history of the website.