Turns out I had work off today (that’s what I get for never reading the school bulletins), so I updated the FAQ page… because I can! Also, Episodes 1-30 are now optimized… because I can!

Damn you Nintendo for making me want the DS so friggin’ badly! I’d have to say that the one image that really hooked me was a depiction of a SCORPION VAN from Sega’s launch title “Feel the Magic: XY/XX”. It’s a scorpion van! A van transporting scorpions! Double-you tee eff! Gimme a DS right friggin’ now!

I can’t say I completely disagree with the points Heccubus makes in this rant he wrote about sprite comics. For example, he mentioned that The Adventures of Megaman and Link uses the Mega Man level selection screen as inspiration for his site menu; on this note, we could not possibly be more in agreement. But then he had to go and badmouth Zelda Comic, which hit a bit close to home. If it’s all right with you guys, I’d like to address some of the things he takes issue with…

“The creator of Zelda Comic must’ve had writer’s block when they tried to think up a title.”

One rather unfortunate grammatical error aside (“They”? Is there more than one creator of Zelda Comic? “He or she” is more appropriate when the gender is unknown, as it keeps the subject in the singular), the reasoning behind the naming of the comic is a rather simple one: when I created it, it was the only Zelda sprite comic I was aware of. In fact, one of the main reasons I chose to use Zelda II sprites (which he also seems to have a problem with) was because they had not been used before. More importantly, though 8-Bit Theater was my primary inspiration for making a sprite comic in the first place, I enjoyed playing Zelda II as a child, so it seemed only natural to use that as a starting point. Also, the original title was “The Legend of Zelda: The Comic Strip”, which made it resemble the titles of actual Zelda games. I don’t remember exactly when it became shortened to “Zelda Comic”, but I think that was done on the part of the readers. So if anyone’s to blame, it’s you guys. :P

“This writer’s block must have also continued through the creation of the comic itself, because it’s horrible.”

I do confess, throughout the initial creation of the comic, I had no preset plan in mind for how the plot would unfold. This explains why random elements such as Pit, Bub, Samus and a herd of Pikachu found their way into the Zelda universe. When I started this crazy venture, I was just having a good time playing around with characters from my childhood gaming sessions, enjoying the wacky interactions I could set up. Heccubus is very apt in his assumption that I suffered from constant writer’s block. I would routinely write myself into corners and have to deus ex machina my way out. Honestly, I’m surprised people read the comic back then, as it wasn’t really any good at all, but I’d like to think my writing ability has improved at least somewhat.

“Not to mention the use of sprites from Zelda II: The Adventures Of Link, which is just f—ing disgusting. Any self-respecting Zelda fan would rather see that game burnt at the stake than reincarnated as a webcomic.”

(I don’t enjoy censoring others, but I happen to know that younger readers view this site on occasion)

Heccubus, I am sorry that Zelda II: The Adventure of Link rubs you the wrong way. Do you have some traumatic childhood memory associated with this game’s unique control scheme and gameplay elements? If so, I would suggest you consult with your therapist on the matter, so that you can learn to come to terms with the incident and be at peace, and finally move on. If you don’t have a therapist, check out Find-A-Therapist.com, I’m sure they’ll be able to hook you up. The important thing is to gain the tools you need to confront these issues head-on, instead of blindly lashing out against them. I’m only concerned about your well-being, old friend.

“From the chalky pastels to the incorporation of Kid Icarus and Bubble Bobble characters, Zelda Comic is a blazing example of what not to do when going about creating a webcomic.”

“Chalky pastels”? I wasn’t entirely certain about this complaint. The vast majority of the sprites in Zelda Comic are taken directly from Zelda II. The only ones that ever seem to clash with everything else are Pit and Bub. The biggest problem came when the gang was in an indoor scene. I hadn’t anticipated that Pit’s skin would be the same color as the walls, so I had to apply a Drop Shadow effect on his layer (and from there, to all the other characters’ layers, for consistency’s sake).

This last one wasn’t about my comic in particular, but I feel it also needs to be addressed:

“…sprite comics are an abomination. While hard working cartoonists are out there slaving over a Wacom trying to turn out their best work for you people to read (for free, I might add), a bunch of dumb ass kids are running around ripping sprites out of NES roms and building a comic around them.”

Shows what happens when you don’t take a more–than–cursory glance at a comic’s archives, I guess. I’m not saying these are all the greatest comics ever created by human hand, but I did slave over a Wacom to make them, and they are available for free reading.

I do find it more than a bit unusual that someone who speaks out so adamantly against using video game sprites would create something strikingly similar. Or something else strikingly similar. Or draw uninspired MSPaint comics with reused artwork and juvenile humor. Or, when he does do something hand-drawn, reuse drawings ad nauseum, only switching out mouths and eyebrows as necessary. Or steal ideas from Exploding Dog (it’s not related, I know, but I really like Exploding Dog).

Heccubus, I implore you to get off your high horse. Sprite comics aren’t doing you any harm by existing. They fill a minor niche in a small corner of the Internet. Obviously a large amount of people must enjoy them, or there wouldn’t exist such a large number of them, of both the amateur and veteran varieties. You are certainly entitled to your own opinion, but a little fact-checking can go a long way.

~Mario Panighetti, February 4th, 2005

The preceding body of text is my own opinion (though it’s all backed up by fact). If any of these opinions run counter to your own, you are invited to e-mail me (mario at zeldacomic dot net) and tell me so. Should I have made any factual errors, please inform me so that I can update this page to reflect the facts as they stand.

well well, what have we here?

In the meantime, I’m in the midst of the second annual May Day Flame War! Check out the ongoing battle transpiring between Stef and myself! And just today, the second battle began, between TAOMMAL and Zelda Comic!

Also, I made an RSS feed for Zelda Comic, for all you tech-savvy people out there who are also lazy. If you don’t know what RSS is, then you need not worry about it. Let us geeks play with our geek toys.

Sorry about not updating! No time, y’see! I took a vacation to Hawaii last week, and I’m leaving for ConnectiCon momentarily. Feel free to yell at me for being a non-updating jerk, but on the plus side I’ll have some cool freebies to hand out, and a devolution revolution print that will likely sell very poorly, since no one knows what it is! Hooray!

I’ll be back home in a little over a week, at which point I promise I’ll start making comics again. I really do feel terrible about it! I’d keep on apologizing, but I really do need to make a mad dash to get ready to leave. I still love you all!

I’m gonna keep this sweet and simple: Zelda Comic now has a new host! Stef and I started a brand new web community called The Orange Belt. Coincidentally, this is also where the forum can now be found. Zelda Comic is now hosted on The Belt’s server, but the domain name is still zeldacomic.net, so you likely won’t notice many changes on that end.

Well, there is one minor change worthy of note: devolution revolution has its own website now (also with The Orange Belt)! Update your bookmarks to devorevo.net, because it’s not where it was before, and you’d probably rather see something than nothing when you set out to read some devo revo. I know I would.

I wanted to make a comic so as to soften the potential blow of the forum move, but I’m going to a wedding this weekend and will likely not be able to. I say likely because I actually have all my comic resources copied onto the iPod hard drive, so there’s a chance something will get made, though probably not put online until Sunday/Monday. Have a good couple’a days, and enjoy the new forum!

Hope you’re having a nice Labor Day, full of barbecues and not-working! Apologies to non-US citizens for having to do stuff today. New comic on Thursday, but if you need something to read in the meantime, check out Paul’s new comic, Tales From The Lip! Walter’s back, baby!

Look who thinks he’s all clever, with his literal interpretations and his bears and pencils.

I’m sure you all by now have noticed the giant search box above the news updates by now, but in case you somehow didn’t (like if you’re just reading the RSS feed or something): Zelda Comic now has a search engine, powered by Oh No Robot! Just type in a phrase, and it’ll search the archives for comics containing it! Can’t remember where the infamous “no second thing” line came from (that would be silly, since that’s also the name of the comic, but whatever)? Don’t quite recall when Blooper called Ganondorf a “boorish brute”? Now you don’t have to! Because search engines know all.

Well, sort of. I need the help of the readers to archive all these comics for future easy searching! If you ever see a “transcribe” button underneath a comic, just click it and fill in the dialogue! If we all work together, we can complete the archive in no time! To paraphrase one of our generation’s greatest thinkers: “get back to work, peons!”