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If you can't draw, never fear, just steal some graphics from your favorite video game. And add yet another unlicensed pixel comic to the overcrowded, overstunk landfill of web comics.
A sprite comic is a comic, most usually a webcomic, that uses sprites from video games for the majority of its visual work. A "sprite", in computer graphics, is a 2D object that moves around; the characters and enemies in video games, especially earlier ones, are good examples of these. The comic is not about pixies, more often than not.
An artist chooses to use sprite art in his or her comic for various reasons. Sometimes, the "artist" has no drawing skill but still has the desire to make a comic. In other cases, the artist's skills lie in manipulation or creation of their own sprites. In still other cases, the artist wishes to achieve a distinct look. In other cases, the artist attempts to replicate the look used in the original work, in the case of a fancomic.
Sprite comics that use ripped sprites have a reputation for being poor quality in terms of writing, humour and visuals; as they're easy to create, those with the least skill often gravitate toward them. However, there are many notable exceptions, enough to justify giving a newly discovered sprite comic the benefit of the doubt.
A sprite comic is distinct from a Pixel Art Comic in that the majority of the visuals are sprites.
Examples:
- Bob And George is a sprite based comic that started as filler for a hand-drawn comic that never got off the ground. Instead, the author used the sprite comic to tell the sometimes comical, sometimes dramatic tale of two super-powered siblings trapped in the universe of the Mega Man games.
- Dave Anez also hosts a number of sprite comics on the Bob And George site. The two best, arguably better than the main comic, would be:
- MSpaint Masterpieces
 a reintepretion of the classic Mega Man stories, which mixes the Gameboy-exclusive bosses into the story (and gives a plausible explanation as to why a robot with a 100% Metool alloy armor would be useless).
- Metroid: Third Derivative is a pseudo-sequel to the second Metroid Prime. (Which was written long before any notable information was released about Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. It is amazing how many details the writer has thought up that coincidentally match up to the real sequel.) Also notable for spawning the Memetic Mutation of Flashman.EXE's Fan Nickname: Shoulderman.
- He also hosted a number of popular, now defunct sprite comics including Jailhouse Blues and Plagues Misadventures. They are still available for download on his downloads page.
- 8-Bit Theater is a fractured Sadist Show retelling of the first Final Fantasy game for the NES. The "heroes" of our tale are Fighter McWarrior (a naive nimrod obsessed with swords), Black Mage Evilwizardington (a Heroic Sociopath, though calling someone who was briefly King of Hell "heroic" is stretching the term to the breaking point), Thief Prince Elf of Clan Khee'bler (a Magnificent Bastard elf with a fondness for exploiting the stupidity of those around him with convoluted, fine-print laden contracts, enforced by his crack teams of Lawyer Ninjas), White Mage (the resident Only Sane Woman, who also plays the Deadpan Snarker when Black Mage isn't available) and Red Mage Statscowski (the Munchkin personified, complete with stat-fudging, rules-lawyering, and needlessly complicated plans thwarted by either circumstance, or blissful ignorance of his own stupidity). Quite possibly the single most successful Sprite Comic ever made, as it served as the launchpad for Brian Clevinger's general creative career and inspired countless imitators.
- Captain SNES: A Twenty Minutes Into The Future version of Captain N, starring a new "champion" as he tries to figure out a way to save Videoland from being shot to hell. For Mature audiences only.
- Josh Lesnick parodies it in his own inimitable way here.
- Spoofed in Homestar Runner, in which one of the examples of webcomics Strong Bad gives are "unlicensed pixel comics". The site currently has a game that lets you make your own Stinkoman 20X6 comics.
- Neglected Mario Characters by Jay Resop, are probably the first sprite webcomics ever.
- Zelda Comic - inspired by 8-Bit Theater, Based on Legend Of Zelda (mainly Legend of Zelda II: The Adventures of Link)
- Ben Croshaw of ZP fame had one of these back in the day. The main characters were both protagonists from his video-games. He has since disowned them.
- Ansem Retort is a comic that uses sprites from Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories and places KH characters on a FOX reality show. It's core cast also competes with the cast of 8-bit Theater in the Complete Monster Olympics, with the winner being largely a matter of taste.
- Holy Zen! is a webcomic that primarily relies on sprites from the Guilty Gear video game series.
- Power Rings is a Sonic the Hedgehog-based comic that essentially makes fun of all of the characters through absurd Flanderizations. Unfortunately, those not particularly familiar with the games and comics are likely to miss a lot of the jokes.
- Final Blasphemy is the story of a group of friends who (mostly independently of each other) suddenly find themselves super-powered and part of a very large multiverse, including worlds based on those of Mario, Mega Man, and the various Final Fantasies. Powerful forces threaten that multiverse, though, so the friends are charged with defending the multiverse from said forces. Things get worse from there.
- How to Make a Sprite Comic in 8 Easy Bits (8 Easy Bits, or 8EB for short) is a spritecomic focusing on The Author's (not an author avatar. Names aren't given for the characters, and as such they are referred to by their role) attempt to make a sprite comic. Two things of note about the comic:
- One is that the actual author of the comic is an English major, so it's one of the best-written sprite comics, if not one of the best-written webcomics.
- Two is that it's written as if video game sprites are actors, so his sprite comic, in context, makes more sense as a TV Serial than a comic.
- In Wily's Defense is a Mirror Universe of the classic Mega Man games set within its own universe that's presided over a God that's lazier than a sloth watching TV and with a love of widespread chaos as his angels of Death and Destruction. Oricinal characters aside (after all, who cares about those?), Cut Man is the main character, Dr. Wily is an ex-roboticist that runs a Twinkie factory, the New York Mets, led by Don Bluehat patroll the coridors, Dr. Light is an egomaniacal villain, X (yes, X is in here, despite it still technically being the classic series) is an Omnicidal Maniac, Heat Man has a god-complex, and Gemini Man is a raving lunatic. And that's just the start. It's short-lived sequel, Tales of Southtown, goes to a new scene where SNK characters are all shoehorned into the same city, and is worth looking at just to read Geese Howard's insane rants about America. Take note, however, that the comics lack any sort of brevity.
- Too Many Authors is a sprite comic made by This Troper, so he's going to not describe it much and instead wait for the Wiki Magic. It is however notable for being in the CrossoverWars.
- FRIENDS 4 EVER!!!! uses sprites from various horror video games including Silent Hill and DOOM.
- CVRPG uses primarily custom-made sprites to parody Castlevania.
- Nintendo Acres is about 5 videogamecharacters living together. fans are known to start similar webcomics.
- The Perpetual Aquarium is a comic that uses graphics from the Neopets website, jumping between pop culture parodies, commentaries on daily life, and commentaries on Neopets site happenings. It differs from many Sprite comics in that it is actually authorized by the terms of the main site.
- Subverted with Kid Radd- it is a sprite comic, but all the sprites were made by the creator, and the plot focuses heavily on the virtual nature of everyone in the comic.
- Mushroom Kingdom 1nsanity
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