On the left, the Pixels: (l to r) Dot, Harry, Cyan, Ada, Leroy, Mike, and Max. On the right, Mr. and Mrs. Smiley.
Bitmap World is the world's first smiley (emoji) webcomic. Created by the team of Michelle and James Lehmann (the same people who created Relativity) in 2007, the comic ran until 2013 before going on indefinite hiatus. note The comic concerns the Pixel family, a household of smilies who exist inside a computer. Their next-door neighbors are Mr. and Mrs. Smiley, who are always grouchy. There are both gag-a-day comics and ongoing plotlines, with stories involving either the family in a sitcom-like scenario or Harry's job at Macrohard.
The comic can be found here.
This comic as a whole contains examples of:
- Aerith and Bob: In spades. There are characters with names like Harry, Dott, and Joel living side-by-side with people with names like Microchip, Blip, and 256.
- Cranky Neighbor: Mr. Smiley.
- Creator Cameo: The creators of the comic appear, occasionally — in smiley form, of course, but they're there.
- Faction Motto: The Pixels' family motto is, "Never pass up a chance to use the washroom."
- Flintstone Theming: Pretty much every person or place has a name that has something to do with computers.
- He Who Must Not Be Seen: Ssid, one of Harry's coworkers. He hides under his desk to avoid getting roped into the company's "voluntary" donation drive.
- Pixel Art Comic
- Nonindicative Name: Mr. Smiley, who's always grouchy.
- Non-Standard Character Design: Being smilies, everyone's "body" is basically just a circle. Except for Root, who's a square.
- Police Are Useless:
- The security guards at Macrohard are afraid to investigate a possible thief because they might get hurt.
- The actual police are just as bad. At one point they break off a chase to stop for donuts, and another time they arrested members of the Free Software Movement for giving out free software (on the assumption that it was stolen).
- Reference Overdosed: Tons of references to computer and technology concepts, plus a liberal helping of allusions to popular TV shows, movies, and other works.
- RPG Episode: The kids frequently play a game called "Cosmic Dungeon".
- Show Within a Show: The "Cosmic Dungeon" game.
- Sitcom / Work Com
- Sudden Anatomy: Being smilies, every character is basically just a circle with a face and hair. However, if they need arms or hands to accomplish something, they'll suddenly have hands (such as in this comic). Also, feet have been mentioned but never seen.
Individual strips or storylines contain examples of:
- Bizarro Episode: Strip 52 has Cyan parking the car even though she's too young to drive, and the entire strip is a Whole-Plot Reference to the final episode of The Sopranos.
- Bus Full of Innocents: One storyline involves a bus full of nuns and orphans speeding out-of-control down a street that leads directly into the mouth of an active volcano.
- Enhance Button: In a movie Harry is watching, they zoom into an image so closely they can see the suspect's DNA.Harry: This movie is stupid.
- Instructional Film: When Harry starts at his new office, he's forced to watch one of these, even though he'd already been working at the company for 7 years.
- Killer Rabbit: Averted. Mr Smiley attempts to train a neighborhood kitten to be a vicious killer, but he fails.
- Offscreen Teleportation: Harry loses his cell phone behind the couch. Later, he finds it behind the couch, only it's a different couch, in a different house.
