8-bit Theatre

8-bit Theatre

Brian Clevinger

Fantasy/Comedy
PG/PG-13

There are many sprite comics out there (sprites being, for those that don't know, the 8-bit/16-bit characters from the old NES and SNES game systems), many of which are not fun to read. I've scanned many sprite comics, and most of what I come across involve Megaman swearing up a storm in leetspeak. 8-bit Theatre is not one of these sprite comics. I've been reading this comic on and off for years, and I always wonder why I stopped reading it when I pick it up again.

The whole comic is a parody of the first Final Fantasy game. Our four (sort of) heros, Black Mage, Fighter, Theif and Red Mage, are out to stop the bad guys. The storyline loosely follows the plot of that game (very, very loosely), however most of the jokes have nothing to do with the Final Fantasy world.

This comic is not about the art, although I am sometimes impressed with how the artist can make expressions so obvious with blurry pixels. This comic is about the writing. The jokes are nearly always spot-on, and the timing of the jokes is well done. The humor is my favorite kind of nerdy fun, the kind that can laugh about the idea of sword-chuks being an ultimate weapon. The plot doesn't move forward much, but to be honest the plot isn't as important as the punchlines.

I do have one complaint: sometimes the artist carries on a joke longer than it is funny. But that is very rare.

The comic has been around for a while, but I would recommend reading from the beginning since many of the later jokes work off the character's personalities. This isn't heavy stuff, and it should only take a week at most to get through.

Past Featured Comics

My featured comic list was getting long, so I thought I'd leave up the six newest and then archive those comics I thought were worth a look. Here they are in alphabetical order:

8-bit Theatre
My Take On 8-bit Theatre

Elf Life
My Take On Elf Life

El Goonish Shive
My Take On El Goonish Shive

Fanboys
My Take on Fanboys

Funny Farm
My take on Funny farm

Inverloch
My Take on Inverloch

It's Walky/Roomies/Joyce and Walky
My Take on It's Walky et. al.

Questionable Content
My Take on Questionable Content

When I Am King
My Take On When I Am King

Funny Farm

Goodness! I have been quite behind in my posts. I apologize for my absenteeism. Perhaps if I actually posted when I will update, I won't be so eager to say "I'll do it tomorrow."


Anyway, on to the comic.



Funny Farm
R. Smith
PG-ish
Suspense?



Funny Farm is about a couple of roommates, Ront (a dog) and Mewn (a cat), and the sometimes soap opera situations that they and their (many, many) other roommates get themselves into. I say soap opera, but not in the angsty sense. There are a lot of cliffhangers, and *gasp* moments.


Funny Farm is another comic I have picked up on in which most of the characters are humanimals. However, unlike Kevin and Kell there are humans in the world as well. I sometimes wonder about the logistics of a human dating, say, a cat person. I guess when I get in that mood I'm suffering from thinking too much when I should be suspending my disbelief.


The characterisation is my favorite part of Funny Farm. All of the characters grow over time, and become more interesting. And the story arcs are fun, especially those that are supposed to be suspenseful. There are a lot of "whodunit?" moments, and really wacky bad guys. But when there is a break in the big story arcs, the writing can be a little dull. Also, the punchline on many comics fall flat. In my opinion the writer would be better off avoiding one liners and focusing on the light humor that runs in the strip.


This is a long comic, an endurance comic, and the plot does take a while to pick up. But I think it is worth a read, it you're up to it.