Line #56 Main/CutAndPasteComic


1	[[quoteright:191:[[Webcomic/CtrlAltDel https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Buckley_3898.png]]]]
2
3	->''"Cut-and-Paste, Cut-and-Paste, ''
4	->''Pretty art that's gone to waste,''
5	->''Done in haste, ''
6	->''With lack of taste,''
7	->''What a waste is Cut-And-Paste!"''
8	-->-- '''Phalanx''', ''Webcomic/HowNotToRunAWebcomic''
9
10	So you've gotten really good at drawing your character. Only thing is, you draw him the same way every time. And if you try to change the angle, it no longer looks anything like your original character.
11
12	So you draw a few more characters. And have the same problem. Pretty soon you have a cast of five, eight, 12 characters, but only one pose each. Maybe you get lucky and manage three or four poses each. Still, nothing like the range you'd need to draw your own comic, right?
13
14	Welcome to the world of cut-and-paste. If you manage to get these pictures onto your computer (or create them there in the first place), you can pop 'em into any decent graphics program (including something as simple as UsefulNotes/MSPaint) and make your comic. You can create panels, either by hand or in [[http://plasq.com/comiclife Comic Life,]] and put your characters into them, even ''[[AmbidextrousSprite flip]]'' your characters to make it look like you drew twice as many poses. Out comes your comic, ready to publish on your homepage.
15
16	Of course, without the skills to pull off those awesome Marvel graphics, you'll need to make up for it with an interesting premise, a well chosen setting and plenty of good jokes/drama. Believe it or not, [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools many do just that]].
17
18	Not to be confused with IdenticalPanelGag, which is the punctual copy-and-paste of panels for comic effect.
19
20	{{Sprite Comic}}s are a variation on the Cut-and-Paste Comic, as are most {{Pixel Art Comic}}s.
21
22	Compare and Contrast BottleEpisode.
23
24	----
25	!!Examples:
26
27	* [[CutAndPasteComic/CreatorSites The sites listed on this subpage]] allow anyone to create their own cut-and-paste comic.
28	* ''Webcomic/ElfOnlyInn'', in the early strips, is set in a chat room; thus, the characters are ''deliberately'' cut-and-paste, because they reflect the players' avatars/user icons. The humor relies on the conflicts between playing styles, the conflict between Role-Players and out-of-character players, and the minutia of chat room culture.
29	** When the strip starts [[CerebusSyndrome becoming more serious]], the art changes from cut-and-paste to more sophisticated art.
30	* ''Webcomic/{{Achewood}}'' creator Chris Onstad is known for copying and pasting much of the content of his strip (as he points out referencing a series of mostly empty panels with only a couple of speech bubbles and characters, "This is usually what my screen looks like around two a.m. the day a strip is due."). Strangely, this actually contributes to the subtle comedic effect of the strip, allowing Onstad to have a high level of control over subtle elements of the art and draw attention to facial expressions and the like. In short, Achewood's art is designed not to distract from the top-notch writing.
31	* ''Webcomic/AllenTheAlien'' isn't this normally, but one of the main strips did rip the art from an earlier strip. This did not go without {{lampshad\|e Hanging}}ing.
32	* ''Webcomic/CtrlAltDel'' relied on this, particularly in regards to faces. This often led to errors such as faces being lit from the wrong direction. Fortunately each comic is now individually drawn, leading to much more dynamic designs and poses.
33	* ''{{Webcomic/Comc}}'' uses cut and paste for all its str'ps.
34	-->'''Krixwell''': That said, in many other comics, copy-paste would look odd. Can you imagine a ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' comic where everyone was in the same body position in each panel? I can, to some extent, and it looks ridiculous.
35	* ''Webcomic/MrSquare'' is based around apathy and randomness, so this was inevitable. [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LampShadeHanging Lampshaded]] here: [[http://revfitz.com/issue193 In issue 193.]]
36	* ''Webcomic/DinosaurComics'' is the ultimate example, using this as its main gimmick. Besides a few strips with minor changes (and guest strips) every single strip uses not only the same art, but the same ''panel layout''. Only the dialogue varies.
37	** This subclass - fixed-art strips - has seen a fair number of variations: for example, ''Birdsworth'' and ''The Adventures of Brigadier General John Stark'' by Creator/EricBurnsWhite.
38	* ''Webcomic/{{Furmentation}}'': ''[[http://www.projectsdonewright.com/wp/furmentation/ hosted here]]'' Webcomic where all characters and props are drawn once in Flash and exported into image files to be cut-n-pasted from later into premade strip templates in Adobe Photoshop. Most characters are drawn with two angles at most, and expressions are changed in post-work. Backgrounds are often gradients, but sometimes blurred and altered photos are used instead, and reused for the duration of specific scenes or storylines.
39	* ''[[http://drunkduck.com/badly_drawn_webcomic Badly Drawn Webcomic]]'' uses a similar idea, albeit with a smaller template. In fact, the comic seems to be so heavily inspired by Dinosaur Comics that the creator attempted to [[LampshadeHanging Lampshade]] this with ''[[http://www.drunkduck.com/Badly_Drawn_Webcomic/index.php?p=518346 Comic Twelve]]''.
40	* ''Webcomic/FreakingAwfulPuns'' relies heavily on this.
41	* ''Webcomic/{{ON}}'' takes a somewhat unusual approach, in that it uses software designed to make comics for schoolwork, repurposing it into something no teacher would assign.
42	* ''Webcomic/{{Girly}}'' is decidedly not a Cut and Paste Comic, but it does have a Cut and Paste ''character'', a little-seen character named Xerox. Apparently in the ''Girly'' universe "cutpastes" are their own race, and Xerox's daughter -- Winter's half-sister Collette -- is half-cutpaste, and although she can move, her range of poses are fairly limited.
43	** And when she does look in the opposite direction, the lettering on her shirt reverses to indicate her image has been 'flipped' rather than her body turning.
44	* ''[[http://www.ubersoft.net Help Desk]]'' is a Cut-and-Paste Comic set in a [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial not-Microsoft-I-swear]] company's technical support department. The cut-and-paste style really becomes obvious in a CrossOver with ''[[http://www.gpfcomics.com General Protection Fault,]]'' a more traditionally-drawn comic.
45	* ''[[http://www.redmeat.com Red Meat]]'' is one of the most famous Cut and Paste Comics, having seen publication in alternative weeklies all across the U.S. Moral of the story: you can get away with this if you can write ''really damn good'' surrealist humor.
46	* ''[[http://www.partiallyclips.com/index.php?id=1054 Partially Clips]]'' is a webcomic made with public domain clipart. Each strip uses different art, but usually all three panels are the same unaltered image.
47	* ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'':
48	** Spoofed in [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2003-08-08 this]] strip, where the four middle panels are taken from previous strips, without a trace of subtlety or appropriate context.
49	** Spoofed even harder in [[https://www.egscomics.com/sketchbook/2013-01-01 this sketchbook,]] Elliot maintains the exact same thinking pose for ''nine'' panels, all the while Sarah just stares at him.
50	--->'''Elliot:''' I think my arms are stuck.
51	* ''Webcomic/BasicInstructions'' does this, apparently having traced the original artwork from photographs. This goes quite well with the dry humor and instruction-book premise. When Scott Meyer learned his art had been used to train the image generation AI Midjourney without his permission, he [[https://www.basicinstructions.net/basic-instructions/2024/2/5/how-to-behave-when-involved-in-an-important-current-event saw the funny side]] and began joking that the stiff, traced style would cause an AssimilationBackfire and make Midjourney's output worse.
52	-->'''Rick:''' That's hilarious! They scanned thousands of your comics to get, what, eight drawings?\
53	'''Scott:''' Well, that's an exaggeration. [[BaitAndSwitch It's only thousands of comics if you count reruns.]]
54	* ''Webcomic/GetYourWarOn'', ''My Filing Technique is Unstoppable'' and ''My Fighting Technique is Unstoppable'', all by, David Rees, are all created with black-and-white office clip art, most of which looks like it dates from 1975-85.
55	* ''[[http://www.daybydaycartoon.com Day by Day]]'' doesn't make an advertised gimmick out of cut-and-paste, but it relies unusually heavily on it for a plot-based strip.
56	* ''Webcomic/PowerupComics'' is a StealthParody of bad cut-and-paste comics, so it reuses art assets in the worst possible ways. Characters have (at most) two poses, and any other actions will either be bad photoshops of those poses (like a strip where [[http://www.drunkduck.com/Powerup_Comics/4968694/ Shadow uses a chainsaw]]--a hand holding a chainsaw was simply pasted onto the ''elbow'' of Shadow's generic, arms-crossed pose) or won't be shown at all (like a strip where [[http://www.drunkduck.com/Powerup_Comics/4968704/ Shadow and Chug say "High five" to each other]], rather than actually high-fiving). This also frequently results in characters' facial expressions looking nothing like the emotion they're allegedly experiencing (for example, [[http://www.drunkduck.com/Powerup_Comics/4968305/ Shadow crying over his ex-girlfriend]] while still wearing his default smug grin).
57	* ''[[http://hamstard.com/ Hamstard,]]'' a [[StylisticSuck joke webcomic]] allegedly by the main character of ''{{Webcomic/Erfworld}}'', has a grand total of five different panels in its entire run.
58	** It [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] it, no less. "By next year, I might be able to turn all the way around!"
59	* ''Webcomic/{{Wondermark}}'' is a comic made using art culled from the author's collection of 19th century publications.
60	* ''ComicStrip/ThisModernWorld'' by Tom Tomorrow relies almost entirely on clip-art-looking images of various politicians, generic people, Sparky the Penguin and neon-colored aliens, sometimes with minor editing to fit the occasion.
61	* Anime example: ''Manga/DoujinWork'' tells the life of a girl inspired to make dōjinshi with the assistance of her eccentric friends, only to face problems as a beginner. In the anime, one episode in fact details how the main character, despite improving somewhat, can only draw the same pose of her characters exactly the same for each panel. This becomes more so frustrating as she is supposed to form an erotic dōjin. In complete irony, the comic sells [[SoBadItsGood because of how bad it is]].
62	* ''Meta-Fiction'' features a character named Sheriff Justice Freedom, who has a giant head with the exact same expression every panel, and it's only seen from three angles (but mostly from a 3/4 view). Actually a subversion, since he's drawn freehand each time. The most obvious difference is in his beard stubble.
63	* ''[[http://www.theoutercircle.com The Outer Circle]]'' has only five characters and each character has not more than four poses. The only real change in any character is that one of them recently found himself with a mullett but doesn't know why. However, his poses are still the same as before the mullett.
64	* ''Webcomic/CaseyAndAndy'' admits to this [[http://www.galactanet.com/comic/view.php?strip=508 from time to time.]]
65	* ''Webcomic/SabrinaOnline'' parodied this, with an ArtShift to a cut-and-paste style for one strip while a character comments that now the creator will be able to do an extra comic every month.
66	* A sad case of TruthInTelevision: Several "professional" comic artists have been known to directly copy their images, not only from their own work, but [[TracedArtwork from alternative sources]] (magazine covers, other artists' work, and porn). [[http://jimsmashextended.blogspot.com/2008/07/greg-land-tracing-swiping-recycling.html A sample of one artist's work, shown here.]]
67	** No less a beloved artist than ''Wally Wood'' flatly told aspiring artists to take any shortcut available, although he never stole another artist's work.
68	* [[http://www.drmcninja.com/page.php?pageNum=8&issue=2 This]] issue of ''Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja'' is one of, if not the only, occurrence of cut-and-paste in the series, and the artist freely admits in the AltText that it's crap, and his art instructor would never let him get away with it.
69	* ''Webcomic/LeAvventureDelGrandeDarthVader'' (in English: ''The Adventures of the great Darth Vader'') is an Italian [[StylisticSuck joke webcomic]], allegedly drawn by and about a dyslexic emulation nerd who goes by the nickname "[[Franchise/StarWars DARTH VADER]]" (all capitals), wears a Darth Vader costume and owns a real lightsaber, interacting with other emulation fans mainly by means of jokes about emulation and retrogaming, slapstick and scatological humor.
70	* Like ''Wondermark,'' ''[[http://www.gocomics.com/thenewadventuresofqueenvictoria The New Adventures of Queen Victoria]]'' does this ([[strike:quite]] ''very'' brilliantly) with the same portraits of Queen Victoria and other characters over and over again.
71	* An early example is Creator/DavidLynch's ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Angriest_Dog_in_the_World The Angriest Dog in the World.]]'' It also consisted almost entirely of [[BeatPanel Beat Panels]]. For nearly ten years, it appeared weekly, always with the same art.
72	* ''Webcomic/TheKAMics'' is known to do this from time to time, but has been using more original art as time goes by.
73	* ''[[http://www.agameoffools.com A Game of Fools]]'' used this pretty heavily for the first 25 strips or so. Now [[strike: there's barely any at all]] the amount varies depending on how much time the creator has to draw each comic.
74	* ''Spleen Tea'' is exactly the same art, only the text and mugshot change with each comic.
75	* ''Prickly City'' by Scott Stantis will often repeat the same panel for most of a strip, and sometimes for several days in a row.
76	* ''Webcomic/HelloEarthling'' is pretty unashamed about being a Cut-and-Paste Comic. New poses and backgrounds get added, but the three characters ambling around the same old same old seems sort of the point.
77	* ''Webcomic/PennyArcade'' features obvious cut-and-paste, but only when it's justified, like when the characters are just sitting on the couch playing a game and talking for three panels.
78	** ''Webcomic/DandyAndCompany'' uses copy-paste in a similar, limited manner.
79	* ''[[http://www.flyingmanandfriends.com Flying Man and Friends]]'' is almost entirely cut-and-paste. Characters, props, and backgrounds move, and panel compositions change, but the same drawings are used throughout. In fact, you might actually say that's the point of the strip. There's certainly no effort made to disguise it.
80	* ''Webcomic/ThePerpetualAquarium'' is a Cut and paste fan comic where almost all the characters, props, and settings are graphics right out of the {{Website/Neopets}} website.
81	* ''Webcomic/SweetBroAndHellaJeff'' does it in a very bad way. [[StylisticSuck But that's the point]]. In fact, in order to get the desired lack of quality Hussie has to repeatedly copy and paste the images and reduce the quality each time, and then go back in and strategically mess parts of the art up.
82	** ''Webcomic/MSPaintAdventures'' in general, actually. Though as an ersatz video game, it's quite justified in doing so.
83	*** Additionally, several of the flash animations in ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' re-use/modify images from earlier pages so as to make animating easier/faster (most notably in the deliberately bad [[http://mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=004687 [S] Vriska: Watch street tough maverick with nothing to lose]]). Indeed, [[WordOfGod Hussie has noted]] that his employment of this technique ties into his love of the MeaningfulEcho to create a sort of "language" within the text, with the reuses more often than not being intended as a MeaningfulEcho to an earlier scene with similar (or sometimes completely opposite) events. For example, [[spoiler:[[BigBad Jack Noir]]'s [[SinisterSilhouettes dog-head silhouette]] appearing from above main characters quickly became very effective shorthand for "Time to panic!"]]
84	*** ''Webcomic/ProblemSleuth'' lampshades this [[http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=4&p=000509 here.]]
85	---->You copy and paste your previous poses into a new file and animate the background rapidly.
86	** A few of the mspa forum adventures also based on this.
87	* Subverted with ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}''; while the art does often appear to be cut-and-paste, there are subtle variations within the same frequently-used poses.
88	** However now and then for a closeup it's painfully obvious the clip art has been enlarged so the lines are proportionately thicker.
89	** Liz is the worst in this regard. She's almost never ''looking'' at anything. She always stares straight ahead.
90	* Intentionally done in ''Webcomic/PokeyThePenguin''. Most characters are exact replicas of Pokey and sometimes you can see outlines around pasted characters.
91	* Although not entirely a cut & paste webcomic, ''[[http://theoryofeverythingcomics.com/god/ God(tm)]]'' has a [[http://theoryofeverythingcomics.com/god/01/GOD01_23a.htm small section]] which uses royalty free clip art.
92	* ''Webcomic/NotQuiteDailyComic'' relies heavily on this.
93	* WordOfGod has it that the major characters in ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' each have "common poses" that are copy-pasted rather than redrawn. However, the author does not seem to be averse to using uncommon poses when the situation warrants it, so this has not drawn much notice.
94	* ''ComicStrip/{{Marvin}}'' reuses art on a daily basis, and often uses the same panel every day for an entire week (typically someone typing at a computer.)
95	* Frequently done by Steve Napierski in his webcomic, ''Dueling Analogs'', to the point that [[http://www.duelinganalogs.com/comic/2010/06/28/creative-process/ he lampshaded it himself in a strip.]]
96	* Done occasionally in ''Webcomic/DorkTower'', almost always with a self-deprecating joke about how the creator is being lazy.
97	* ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'' reuses art occasionally, but subtly enough that it doesn't stand out unless the repetition is itself the basis of a joke.
98	** An in-universe example is when Torg attempts to create "The Greatest Comic Book of All Time". It's just a single piece of artwork reused in various ways.
99	* ''Webcomic/HowIBecameYours''. The art style is the least of its problems.
100	* ''[[http://www.ddtcomic.com Dewey Defeats Tarzan]]'' is a webcomic assembled from old public domain artwork, mostly woodcuts from 19th-century books and magazines.
101	* ''[[http://www.marriedtothesea.com Married to the Sea]]'' uses both 19th-century artwork and royalty-free clipart.
102	* Webcomic/RageComics are the new sprite comics.
103	* Parodied in ''Webcomic/YehudaMoonAndTheKickstandCyclery'' with [[ShowWithinAShow comic within a comic]] Road Rage which uses SUV clipart and ComicSans to [[TheWarOnStraw berate cyclists]].
104	* Parodied in a ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' strip where Calvin is talking with Hobbes about his grandfather ranting about how comics were better when they weren't just a bunch of xeroxed {{talking heads}}, the joke being that [[http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1987/11/11 that particular strip]] is just the same pose of Calvin and Hobbes copied four times.
105	* ''[[http://mind-numbinglyboringwebcomic.smackjeeves.com/comics/1403320/strip-number-one/ The Mind-numbingly Boring Webcomic]]''
106	* ''Webcomic/{{Teahouse}}'' uses this fairly often with the backgrounds, but every so often does this blatantly with the characters, though minor changes to the latter will be made so it appears to be redrawn. [[http://images.teahousecomic.com/comic/img/comic/142.jpg Here's]] an example of both on one page.
107	* Non-webcomic examples are ''WebAnimation/DSBTInsaniT'' and ''WebAnimation/{{Dreamscape}}'', all the human characters use the same general model.
108	* ''Webcomic/JohnnyOptimism''
109	* ''Webcomic/CheshireCrossing'' was rather blatant about this, to the point where a making-of feature shows the creator assembling its characters from a library of limbs and torsos in various poses that are mixed and matched according to the needs of the scene. It's almost like a SpriteComic, and actually doesn't look all that bad.
110	* ''ComicStrip/KnightsOfTheDinnerTable'' is drawn this way, although the number of images used has increased greatly throughout the years. In the early years, the comic used a very small number of panels over and over. In the 2010's the effect is not at all as noticeable, with at least some new panels drawn for each new comic. The art has been getting considerably more nuanced overtime -- even if a panel is re-used, the expressions of the characters can change according to the situation.
111	* ''Webcomic/{{Orbit}}'' is drawn this way, which is why the author eventually stopped making it: he said that it didn't challenge him to improve his art skills the way he wanted to.
112	* ''Manga/PopTeamEpic'' (a {{yonkoma}}) leans into this at times. It's eventually and jokingly [[http://sirlorence.tumblr.com/post/132395489844 lampshaded]] in one strip, where Pipimi reads out an audience complaint about the manga's reliance on copy-pasting art. Popuko gives a heartfelt apology and promises not to do any more copy-pasting... [[HypocriticalHumor in a pair of obviously copy-pasted panels]] (for practical reasons, the anime changes this to a joke about the series' reliance on parodies).
113	* In ''Webcomic/TheBirdFeeder'', generally every panel of each strip is identical, apart from the characters' mouth shape and eye position.
114	* ''Webcomic/JustAnotherParty'', uses this heavily, even in the gif portions.
115	* ''Webcomic/RGBots'' uses the same limited set of panels for strips in different combinations, but has been known to do one-offs and add new panels into the comic from time to time.
116	* ''Two Party Opera,'' a political webcomic about all the American presidents, uses this pretty blatantly; all the Presidents have exactly one drawing of them, put into different settings and sometimes with the hands moved around. It's a shame since the artist is actually a pretty good caricaturist.
117	* Images are frequently reused in ''Webcomic/PhillerSpace''.
118	* ''Literature/DiaryOfAWimpyKid'': The artwork in the illustrations is reused constantly. (Explains why there is a Christmas Tree in the background when Greg is opening his Wonder Woman Underoos birthday present in June.)

Context Main / CutAndPasteComic