Line #27 Main/FillerStrips


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4	[[quoteright:211:[[Webcomic/SluggyFreelance https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sluggy_emergency_filler.png]]]]
5	[[caption-width-right:211:[-The end result of ScheduleSlip.-]]]
6
7	Webcomic artists are only human. Sometimes they're sick, sometimes they get swamped by their day job, sometimes they just want to [[SeriesHiatus take a break]], dammit! ...and they can't update the strip for a day or two or twenty. They might just leave a [[ScheduleSlip blank spot on the calendar]], or if things get drastic they might change their updating schedule permanently, but the more common solution is to just drop in some kind of non-continuity filler. Generally the filler takes one of three forms:
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9	* {{Guest strip}}s by other webcomic artists. Actually quite popular amongst webcomic readers, as guest artists tend to try their best to make a funny contribution, and when you're familiar with the work of both artists it's fun to see the guest's take on the strip.
10	* Bonus material -- work the artist did years ago, doodlings from their sketchbook, photos of their vacation, walkthroughs of how they put the strip together, that sort of thing.
11	* Some actual original material, but something easy -- brief, quickly slapped together, not even necessarily done by the artist, and possibly outright StylisticSuck.
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13	None of these are objectionable, provided they're used in moderation. Once an artist puts up filler every third day or so, the audience's patience starts to wear thin.
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15	Print comics will rerun old strips instead of creating filler. Rerunning strips is considered bad form in webcomics because the archive is easily accessed if fans want a second look. Filler may or may not be included in the archives; if not, it generally either is put on a separate "Art" page, or disappears into the electronic aether.
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17	The only way to avoid this is to have a StripBuffer.
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19	Blog/{{Websnark}} discusses the best kinds of [[https://web.archive.org/web/20110629001552/https://websnark.com/archives/2004/08/zen_and_the_art.html original filler material here.]]
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21	----
22	!!Examples:
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24	* Perhaps the best-known example is from ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'', which has gone through a huge variety of different sorts over the years. You name it, they've had it as filler. Even though the ones made by the author Pete Abrams himself were intended to conserve his effort, they still often turned up something clever and funny, though not by any means always. The twentieth-anniversary overhaul of the comic presumably brought the filler strips to an end, since there's no longer any promise of something being posted every day or every weekday, and hence there are no gaps to fill.
25	** Probably the best notable were the {{Stick Figure Comic}}s, drawn by Pete himself, starting with "Stick Figure Week", in which the characters are stick figures and nothing much happens, and continuing with many sequels. These involve for example [[RageAgainstTheAuthor Torg trying to make events take such a turn that Pete would have to make an effort to draw them]], and eventually more complicated RecycledInSpace versions, including one that's even called "Stick Figures in Spaaaaaace" and grows into a multi-part but unambitiously random StoryArc.
26	** Pete also did a couple of filler stories that involve the characters in their normal state but not doing anything much. One includes their testing a time machine that keeps rewinding time to the moment before they tested it, and events repeat with only slight variations as they slowly became aware that they're stuck in a loop. Another features everyone sitting around being bored. (Pete still managed to wring out a joke out of [[http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/20001010 dialogue in which no-one says anything but variations of "dude" and "man" during one strip]].)
27	** Other people associated with ''Sluggy'' have provided filler strips as well, including among others "Shirt-Guy Tom" (who handled the merchandise or something, including t-shirts, hence the name), and colourist Joe Sunday. Tom, no artist himself as far as one can tell from ''Sluggy'', did an intentionally terrible version of his own of stick-figure week, which established the filler-specific RunningGag that "Stick-Figure Shirt-Guy Tom" wants to take over the comic from Pete.
28	** Then there are the numerous [[GuestStrip filler stories by other actual comic artists]], notably "Sluggy Freelance, where are you?" in 2000 in the middle of "Love Potion" when Pete's daughter Leah was born and a number of others, apparently led by Ian [=McDonald=], whipped up a story that involves the [[AnimatedActors "cast"]] of ''Sluggy Freelance'' going missing and characters from other comics trying to substitute and looking for them. [[spoiler: It turns out Shirt-Guy Tom has kidnapped them.]] There are a whole number of others scattered around the comic, with authors ranging from Ian [=McDonald=] to Creator/PhilFoglio. The circle comes to a close nicely with the 2016 filler strips ''by'' Leah Abrams. ([[http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/160510 "Justine Kasich Goes Terribly Wrong"]])
29	** Various sketches and pictures both by Pete and others (including Torg, see below) have also appeared as filler quite often after the strip's initial more fillerless days.
30	** Torg, the most central main character with noteworthy art skills of his own, has also acted as a guest artist -- the art obviously drawn by Pete himself but still counting as filler. This culminates in Torg's "the greatest comic book of all time", ''[[http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/20080217 Gunman Stan McKurt vs. the Gates of the City of the Damned]]'', which, while well drawn and having a certainly... interesting plot, consists entirely of cut-and-paste pieces of the same detailed image with different text. So, yes, that was filler too.
31	** There are also the regularly scheduled fillers that started appearing on Saturdays and then Sundays, which include sketches by Pete and other things of the sorts mentioned above. Two long-running guest strips on the Saturday slots include Ian [=McDonald's=] "Meanwhile in the Dimension of Pain" (or elsewhere) that was received less well for being even wackier than the comic usually was, and "Bikini Suicide Frisbee Days" by Clay Yount, which contains non-canonical strips set in the pre-CerebusSyndrome days of the comic's timeline. Pete also drew "No Content on Saturdays", which features Kiki looking for the "no content", which proved to be difficult because her presence constitutes content, and also because she's mailed to Siberia at one point.
32	** Finally, there has also been a variety of random odd things like photos of ''Sluggy'' characters as Legos (in one case re-enacting Creator/JohnCarpenter's ''Film/TheThing1982''), ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' screenshots, and ''Sluggy'' Mad Libs (lost in a site transition).
33	* ''Webcomic/{{Megatokyo}}'' went through a period where it was notorious for every second or third day being either a "Dead Piro Day", ie a day where artist Piro was only up to providing a sketch from his scrapbook, or a "Shirt Guy Dom" day, a "borrowing" of ''Sluggy Freelance'''s filler concept with considerably more crude stick figures. Later, he just stopped updating regularly.
34	** Parodied in [[http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/1463.html this strip]] of ''Webcomic/IrregularWebcomic''.
35	** As well as [[http://xkcd.com/157/ this]] ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'' strip, though a bit more self-mockingly. (The alternate caption reads "Maybe I should let up on Megatokyo a little?")
36	** ''Irregular Webcomic'' itself is another notable aversion, having updated consistently for more than 6 years. Although some sequences and strips have been canon, but fairly filler-ish in nature, notably 'blowing up of the universe', which featured around a week of blank coloured panels, graduating from pure white through red to black.
37	* When ''Webcomic/DreamCatcher'' doesn't update on time, it sometimes has one of these.
38	* When Jon Rosenberg of ''Webcomic/{{Goats}}'' takes days off, he allows his friend Phillip to fill in with strips drawn incredibly poorly on post-it notes.
39	* Often when Gabe and Tycho of ''Webcomic/PennyArcade'' are traveling (which usually entails being away at a convention), they still update -- but with a less polished strip, usually a single roughly-sketched panel, based around the events at the con. (Example: a sketch submitted from Vegas, showing Tycho playing a slot machine called "Ding, And Then You Don't Get Any Money.")
40	* ''Sam and Fuzzy'' has a set annual period for guest artists, known as the Obligatory Guest Artist Weekly Duration (or O-GAWD).
41	* ''Webcomic/ColourWheel'' has these from time to time as the author tries to balance creating a buffer and having a life. Fillers usually depict the day-to-day lives of the author, "Phillr Kitty" (aka Phil, a mildly psycho creature raised by WebOriginal/LOLCats), and the [[DeadpanSnarker snarky]] silhouette of a not-yet-introduced main character. Once a regular page goes up, fillers are moved to the [[http://colourwheelcomic.com/gallery/ Extras page.]]
42	* Adis of ''Webcomic/CountYourSheep'' insists on putting something up on the site every single day...even if that means he has to put up a rough sketch of something irrelevant, perhaps the same sketch he's used three times already but with slightly different coloring...it is more than a little frustrating.
43	* ''Help Desk'' fills in with conversations between a circle marked "A" and a circle marked "B".
44	* A notable exception is ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary''. Howard Tayler has updated his strip every day for the past eight years.
45	** He even has a buffer of more than 30 strips that will automatically post new strips each day in case of conventions, sickness or other unforeseen consequences. Tayler could be dead for a month before anyone would be the wiser.
46	** The things other artists use for filler, Howard Tayler uses as some of the bonus features in the books.
47	** On [[AprilFoolsDay April 1, 2008]], a text image went up in place of the daily strip, stating that day's strip would be late due to convention travel issues. Thirty seconds later, the image automatically changed to the proper, fully-colored strip.
48	** In the early days, there were a few guest strips...which were posted ''alongside'' the strips they were meant to fill in for.
49	* Same goes for ''Webcomic/UserFriendly''. Illiad noted this on the 10th anniversary of the strip (6 × 365 + 4 × 366 = 3,654 strips). He's never missed an update since.
50	** Scratch that. For nearly a year now, the strip has been in reruns. That isn't even filler, that's just lazy.
51	* ''[[http://www.kevinandkell.com Kevin and Kell]]'' has never missed an update since 1995.
52	* ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'' has a separate section of the archives for Filler Strips (later renamed "sketchbook"). The site used to provide a choice of reading them separately or not, but after a site upgrade/migration they're now completely separate.
53	* One of the worst offenders is ''Webcomic/TheWotch'', which over its four-year run has had, at this writing, 371 real comics and 148 days of filler — nearly 30% of all its strips are filler. Yes, it keeps statistics.
54	* ''Webcomic/{{Avalon\|1999}}'' had more filler than real comics.
55	* The creators of ''Webcomic/FauxPas'' have, on more than one occasion, posted a picture of one or two of the regular characters tending to an injured or sickly other character, with a notice explaining that the strip is on a brief hiatus due to cartoonist illness or injury. On a couple other occasions, a non-continuity strip appears during such a hiatus, following a formula of sorts: the foolish and self-absorbed Myrtle explains (utterly erroneously) some kind of "fun fact;" the artwork illustrating it is recycled from some earlier strip.
56	* Parodied[=/=]{{lampshade\|Hanging}}d in [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0033.html this strip]] of ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick''.
57	** It was also played straight early in the series, when the comic had a regular update schedule; they're still available at [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/GuestStrips.html this page]].
58	* ''Webcomic/CtrlAltDel'' often alternates between story arcs followed by one-shots not part of any particular story. This allows Tim Buckley the time to plan and make the next arc in advance.
59	** Chef Brian was first posted as a filler strip when Tim was drunk and an hour away from a deadline. However, it proved popular with fans, and Brian appeared in a strip at the end of the earlystory arc.
60	* Michael "Mookie" Terriano, writer of ''[[Webcomic/DominicDeegan Dominic Deegan: Oracle For Hire]]'' does the "standard" filler comic from time to time. However, he often fills in the space with brief previews of upcoming story arcs.
61	** Usually these come with warnings ahead of time and tend to occur when Mookie is off at a convention.
62	* Spoofed in this ''[[http://www.drunkduck.com/Stickman_and_Cube/index.php?p=269364 Stickman and Cube]]'' strips, just going to show again that webcomics without this problem really, ''really'' love to mock Megatokyo for it.
63	* This is a regular occurrence in ''Webcomic/AnimalsHaveProblemsToo'', usually in the form of a post-it note interlude, though sometimes he just does a little bloggy strip where he makes fun of the irrelevance of webcomics, like [[http://www.animalshaveproblemstoo.com/index.php?id=391 here]] and [[http://www.animalshaveproblemstoo.com/index.php?id=403 here.]]
64	* ''Webcomic/BobAndGeorge'' is an interesting example...the "filler" sprite comics ended up becoming the actual strip rather than the (originally intended) hand-drawn comics.
65	** Some of the subcomics hosted on the site also had this, in particular ''Webcomic/MSPaintMasterpieces'' (which sometimes had a whole secondary FillerArc involving Franchise/MegaMan recolors), and ''Webcomic/TheKarnakHatesEverythingShow'', where [[ExaggeratedTrope filler strips were basically the bulk of the comic]].
66	* ''Webcomic/PennyAndAggie'' has become particularly notorious of late for completely halting the plotline for filler strips with no explanation as to why. While the strips are supposedly canonical, they have become further and further removed from the plot, culminating in the month long "Min Jung" which was set in Korea and starred a completely new set of characters that were guaranteed by the author to never have any plot impact. The extremely negative reaction to Min Jung caused the filler strips to at least star characters from the comic again when they ran as well as better timing on their runs.
67	* ''Webcomic/{{Achewood}}'' has a few forms of filler: guest strips, which are considered to be of varying quality depending on the artist; photo collages, sometimes even from different locales (such as a trip to Europe, [[http://achewood.com/index.php?date=07042003 complete with stuffed Philippe]]); and reruns of older, popular strips, which seems to be the method Onstad is sticking with nowadays.
68	* ''Webcomic/QuestionableContent'' has parody filler strip/CutAndPasteComic "series" featuring a bird [[http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1140 yelling obscenities at the comic artist]]. The character is known as none other than Yelling Bird.
69	** At one point, Jeph tried something different, and added an uncolored woman to the cast, who was only known as "Sweet Tits." She showed up twice, before disappearing for a long while until the week before new year [[http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1566 Here]], where Yelling Bird throws a party at her apartment against her will, causing her to eventually throw everybody out in a fit of rage, including [[http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1545 Randy]]
70	* ''WebComic/DandyAndCompany'' has intentionally made a feature of this. For years there was a designated "Total Chaos" week in October (later expanded to two weeks), in which guest strips were run in lieu of the regular comic. Later, the format was changed so that Saturdays were all guest strips, and Sundays were "Community Theater," commissioned artwork by the cartoonist.
71	* ''WebComic/EightBitTheater'' uses either guest comics or "[[http://www.nuklearpower.com/daily.php?date=040720 explanations]] [[http://www.nuklearpower.com/daily.php?date=080930 for]] [[http://www.nuklearpower.com/daily.php?date=050215 the]] ScheduleSlip.
72	* Averted, mostly, in ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'', in which the 'filler strips' are often of the same quality as the main work, usually involving their own brief storylines. That said, there have been a few exceptions.
73	* [[http://www.jaydenandcrusader.com Jayden and Crusader]] debuted on Drunk Duck and happily posted filler when the artist had nothing more, though he removed much of it when he got a specific domain. That which remains the artist views as being of suitable quality for viewers to enjoy in lieu of a comic. Only a few filler pages remain though.
74	* ''Webcomic/DinosaurComics'', which updates nearly every day, has had a couple of weeks of nothing but filler strips. The fillers do a good job as they generally try different styles outside the comic's normal structure.
75	* ''[[http://www.bitmapworld.com/ Bitmap World]]'' has a somewhat unusual way of doing filler strips. The site features a [[http://www.bitmapworld.com/byoc/ build-your-own-comic-maker]] for fans to create their own strips. During times the creators are delayed in updating, they will use the "BYOC" to create a strip, oftentimes tying in the delay into the narrative of the filler strip. Once the strip is properly updated, the filler strips are placed in the bonus section of the site.
76	* ''Webcomic/MSFHigh'': A 'lorecrackers' parody arc was done by Wraith and luckybucket.
77	* ''Webcomic/CaseyAndAndy'' would often run [[{{Fanservice}} cheesecake]] as filler.
78	* ''Webcomic/PicturesOfYou'' does that in an interesting way. During the hiatus that occurs after every book, the readership is rewarded with original scenes drawn by Guest Artists as well as the original draft of the comic.
79	* ''Webcomic/TheLifeOfNobTMouse'' filler strips tend to be jokes about why there's no comic on that particular day; like [[http://www.nobmouse.net/2009/11/23/why-the-long-pause/ this strip]]:
80	--> '''Franky:''' Nob! Nob! Why are there no updates?
81	--> '''Nob Mouse:''' Because the writers messed up on their scheduling...
82	* ''Webcomic/TwoLumps'' will throw in the occasional "Eben and Snooch drawn chibi-style" whenever the human creators go to an anime convention. And then there was the special one-panel filler for a [[http://www.twolumps.net/d/20060318.html special occasion]] ....
83	* The writer of ''Webcomic/{{Collar 6}}'' is about to take a one-week hiatus, which will mean two Guest Strips.
84	* ''Webcomic/RedString'' actually has a StripBuffer and filler, it updates every weekday; however, every week has a Sketch Friday. Between Chapters 43 and the upcoming Chapter 44, it is playing host to some guest strips while Gina Biggs moves again, and gets ahead on the comic.
85	* ''Webcomic/TodayNothingHappened'', when a comic is late, will update with a "fat animal" (exclusive to those who check for a new strip early enough) until the comic is ready. [[Series/WhoseLineIsItAnyway It all started with]] a one-time joke about a fat dragon that escalated.
86	* ''Webcomic/VenusEnvy'' has fallen prey to this at many times throughout the comic's history, but the artist eventually became so obviously bad at maintaining her schedule that she gave up and stopped posting anything unless it was a new comic. After its triumphant 2009 return and semi-consistent updates, it's now fallen back on hiatus since March 2010.
87	* ''[[http://www.drunkduck.com/Conventional_Wisdom/index.php Conventional Wisdom]]'' actually spends most of the year doing these. It's a journal comic about attending anime conventions, but the author only attends four or five per year. Thus, the rest of the year's weekly updates are "filler arcs."
88	** What's more, many of those pages are just [[http://www.drunkduck.com/Conventional_Wisdom/index.php?p=646598 cute]] [[http://www.drunkduck.com/Conventional_Wisdom/index.php?p=673280 mascot]] [[http://www.drunkduck.com/Conventional_Wisdom/index.php?p=681091 characters]] explaining why there's no "real" comic that week. That's right, ''Conventional Wisdom'' actually has filler FOR THE FILLER.
89	* ''Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt'' sometimes has extremely cute fillers between the chapters, starring pigeons.
90	* ''Webcomic/FiveColorControl'' makes occasional use of filler art to keep up its schedule.
91	* ''Webcomic/EarsForElves'' often has these. They can happen when Naarie Kermie doesn't have the time/tools to draw a "proper" strip, and usually consist of concept art or a brief sidestory.
92	* ''Webcomic/{{Sinfest}}'' often has these. They can be one-shot GenreRoulette strips, or [[http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=2723 a gag featuring one-shot characters]], or [[http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=3891 a calligraphy gag]], or even a gag-a-day strip in the middle of a story arc. (The last can be hard to tell. Story arcs are jumped from and to quite frequently.)
93	* ''Webcomic/TheLawOfPurple'' has these semi-frequently due to the author having real life interfere with her comics.
94	* ''Webcomic/TheDailyDerp'' at least twice used a strip [[http://dailyderp.tumblr.com/post/23566774592/no-daily-derp-today-i-hoped-i-would-never-use where Derpy simply says "404"]], when no regular comic could be provided that day.
95	* ''Webcomic/ArthurKingOfTimeAndSpace'' has filler using clip-art of the characters making FourthWallBreaking observations (usually a topical comment, an explanation for the lack of a strip, or some variant on how much Gadzikowski hates having to make "can't think of a joke" jokes) against the green background of the website. This is now considered a setting of its own - the "[[AnimatedActors green room]]" arc.
96	* ''Webcomic/MythTickle'' has been putting up almost nothing but reruns for months.
97	* ''Webcomic/MetroidThirdDerivative'' has special "Logfile Filler" comics that expand on certain parts of the story and give insight into how Samus is doing status-wise. This is in addition to the random filler.
98	* ''Webcomic/ZeroPercentDiscount'' has a [[http://zeropercentdiscountcomic.tumblr.com/post/130441373178 filler strip made in a mere 10 seconds]].
99	* ''Webcomic/RealmOfOwls'' has occasional filler material, specifically [[https://realmofowls.com/comics/fan-mail-to-lord-part-7 sections of Lord of the Realm reading fan mail]].
100	* ''Webcomic/{{Xkcd}}'': Parodied in strip #157 "Filler Art".

Context Main / FillerStrips