"It's basically Clerks meets Penny Arcade meets Theater Hopper. So is it original? Well, sortakindanoyesmaybeidontfuckingknow."
— Tony on the webcomic's originality
The guys in the comic are:
- Dave: An unpleasable, snobby, and idiotic Caustic Critic who desires to become a world-famous director. Named after the character of the same name in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
- George: The Everyman who actually enjoys his job and acts as The Lancer / The Straight Man to his best friend Dave. Named after George Bailey from It's a Wonderful Life.
- Thomas: A (dense) Gentle Giant who enjoys Science Fiction and Kung Fu movies. Named after Neo's name inside the Matrix in, uh, The Matrix.
- Tyler: A Deadpan Snarker, Tyler absolutely despises his job, his employees, and his customers. He doesn't have a problem telling them this, either. He is forced to work at Movies, Etc., because his father is the owner. Named after the infamous Tyler Durden in Fight Club.
It is drawn and co-written by Tony Martins and co-written, colored, and inked by Blockbuster employee Chris Powers. Tony created the webcomic as a fun, creative project that would help tone his artistic skills.
The webcomic recently moved to DeviantArt, available here
, though it formally had its own (soon to be defunct) website where you can view older strips.
Damaged Tape provides examples of:
- Forced Transformation: Dave's story has Batman being transformed into a rabbit.
- Noir Episode: One appropriately titled "dave noir", where Dave discovers he has a Private Eye Monologue playing in his head (it turns out, however, that he has schizophrenia).
- Perpetual Frowner: Tyler hasn't smiled once in the entire run of the comic. He's only had two other expressions: yelling, and a typical Nut Shot reaction face.
- Pun-Based Title: "Tea-1000", "Cold as Splice", "Hex, Lies, and Videotape", "2010: A Dave Odyssey"
