Open main menu
Home
Random
Recent changes
Special pages
Community portal
Preferences
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Incubator escapee wiki
Search
User menu
Talk
Dark mode
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Editing
Bob and George
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
{{Short description|Sprite comic started in 2000}} {{Use mdy dates|date=August 2013}} {{Infobox Webcomic| <!-- Part of [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Webcomics]] --> | title = Bob and George | image = [[Image:BnG Strip.png|300px]] | caption = ''Bob and George'' strip from December 18, 2001 | author = David Anez | url = http://www.bobandgeorge.com/ | status = Concluded | began = April 1, 2000<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/000401 |title=First comic |access-date=October 8, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100106125208/http://bobandgeorge.com/archives/000401 |archive-date=January 6, 2010 |url-status=live |df=mdy-all }}</ref> | ended = July 28, 2007 | genre = Comedy, [[Sprite comic]], [[Science fiction]] | ratings = }} '''''Bob and George''''' was a [[sprite comic|sprite-based]] [[webcomic]] which parodied the fictional universe of ''[[Mega Man]]''. It was written by David Anez, who was a physics instructor living in the American [[Midwestern United States|Midwest]] at the time.<ref name="about">{{cite web|url=http://www.bobandgeorge.com/Other/AboutMe.html|last=Anez|first=Dave|title=About The Author|website=Bobandgeorge.com|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051122135102/http://www.bobandgeorge.com/Other/AboutMe.html|archive-date=November 22, 2005|df=mdy-all}}</ref> The comic first appeared on April 1, 2000, and ran until July 28, 2007. It was updated daily, with there being only 29 days without a comic in its seven years of production and with 2568 comics being made altogether. Most ''Bob and George'' strips are still images. The initial strips were mostly done in [[GIF]] format (occasionally using [[JPEG]] for more graphic-intensive comics) before converting to [[Portable Network Graphics|PNG]] in May 2004. In addition, occasional comics are animated using either animated GIFs or [[Adobe Flash|Macromedia Flash]]. Some of the Flash comics have the characters speaking, voiced by Anez and others (often forum members). Animated comics are generally used for the annual week-long anniversary parties (usually culminating in a brief animated comic that recaps the events of the past year in a matter of seconds), for especially climactic scenes, and for a series of videos depicting an in-comic event known as "the Cataclysm". The comic's plot is mostly made up of [[story arc]]s of varying lengths. Amongst past story arcs there have been retellings of various Mega Man games (which often play out quite differently from the originals), as well as battles against powerful foes. In addition, many of the story arcs involve [[time travel]], [[Parallel universe (fiction)|dimensional]] travel, and villains who want to kill all the characters. ==History== [[Image:BnG Strip 06-07-2000.png|thumb|200px|An early hand-drawn comic from June 7, 2000<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://bobandgeorge.com/archives/000607c|title=The Bob and George Archives|website=bobandgeorge.com}}</ref>]] ''Bob and George'' was originally planned to be a hand-drawn webcomic about the college adventures of the two titular brothers. Slated to start on April 1, 2000, the plan fell through because Anez did not have a scanner with which to [[Image scanning|scan]] his drawings. He stated "I was hoping to use my friend's scanner, but he was never around."<ref name=Kernel /> He instead released a sequence of filler comics using [[Mega Man (character)|Mega Man]] [[Sprite (computer graphics)|sprites]], which he intended to be a temporary measure until he gained access to a scanner, at which point he would implement his initial plan involving the hand drawn comics. He eventually purchased a scanner, and on June 1 he released the hand-drawn comic. The hand-drawn comic was to revolve around a group of superheroes attending college. Neither the initial attempt nor a later attempt at it went well, and both times he returned to the Mega Man sprite comic.<ref name=Wired /> Anez has stated that he hated the hand-drawn comic.<ref name="begin">{{cite web|url=http://www.bobandgeorge.com/Other/Begin.html|title=How Did BnG Begin?|website=Bobandgeorge.com|last=Anez|first=David|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060615122449/http://bobandgeorge.com/Other/Begin.html|archive-date=June 15, 2006|df=mdy-all}}</ref> The hand-drawn comic made something of a return in the storyline "All Good Things"—the hand-drawn format is used to represent George's home dimension, though this time drawn by Liss, Dave's wife. Dave stated the reason for this is he realized that he still could not draw, and was not going to get any better.<ref name="begin"/>{{dead link|date=December 2016}} However, this meant that the comic strip was titled "Bob and George", but did not contain any characters named "Bob" or "George". This was fixed with the introduction of sprite versions of the two characters into the comic. Bob is depicted as a gray [[Proto Man]] [[Palette swap|recolor]] while George is a Mega Man recolor with blond hair and no helmet. David planned to end the comic by April 1, 2007, which is the end of the seventh year of the comic's run. However, the story took longer than expected, and the comic ended on Anez's birthday, July 28, 2007. There were a total of 2,658 daily comics produced. ==Significance== While not the first webcomic to ever use video game sprites in place of hand-drawn art, ''Bob and George'' is noted as being the first sprite comic to gain widespread popularity<ref name=Wired>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,63691,00.html?tw=wn_2culthead|magazine=[[Wired (website)|Wired]]|title=You, Too, Can Be a Comics Whiz|last=Sjöberg|first=Lore|date=2004-06-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051225205631/http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0%2C1284%2C63691%2C00.html?tw=wn_2culthead|archive-date=December 25, 2005|url-status=dead|df=mdy-all}}</ref> and the originator of the sprite comic "craze".<ref name=Cambell>Campbell, T. ''A History of Webcomics'', "The Golden Age: 1993–2005", March 2006.</ref> At the height of its readership in 2004, Bob and George held an Alexa traffic rank of around 20,000. Anez's comic "paved the way"<ref name=Kernel>{{cite news|last=Thomas |first=Lucas |date=2002-04-19 |url=http://media.www.kykernel.com/media/storage/paper305/news/2002/04/19/Kerneltech/Quirky.Comics.Find.An.Online.Home-241146.shtml |title=Quirky comics find an online home|publisher=[[The Kentucky Kernel]]}}{{dead link|date=July 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> for the creation of numerous other sprite comics, including ''Oldskooled'', ''Life of Wily'', and [[Brian Clevinger]]'s [[8-Bit Theater]].<ref name=8Bit>[[Brian Clevinger|Clevinger, Brian]]. ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20040218132753/http://nuklearpower.com/webcomics.php Sprite Comics (essay)]'', ''Nuklear Power'', archived from [http://www.nuklearpower.com/webcomics.php the original] on February 21, 2004.</ref> Clevinger has called Anez "the Father of Sprite Comics"<ref name=8Bit /> for his role in popularizing the phenomenon, and directly credits a friend showing him Anez's Bob and George for his inspiration to make his comic.<ref name=Wired /> Regarding the use of sprites in a comic, Clevinger has said, {{Quotation|As we all know, it's only a comic if it uses art, and it can only be art if it's hand drawn. David [Anez] didn’t know it then, but he’d be the pioneer in shattering this stereotype"<ref name=8Bit />}} ==Cast== [[Image:BnG cast.png|thumb|center|The first frame of the April 1, 2005 anniversary comic, showing many different characters|500px]] ''Bob and George'' has a large cast of characters consisting of characters from the [[Mega Man]] series of games, as well as original characters created by Anez and others. * '''[[Mega Man (character)|Mega Man]]''' – the robotic protagonist of the original ''Mega Man'' video game series. * '''The Author''' – the (nearly) [[omnipotence|all-powerful]] being who creates the comic. He appears as a blue/purple [[palette swap]] of Mega Man without his helmet. Alternate versions of The Author, such as "The Helmeted Author" and "The Shadowy Author", appear in ''Bob and George'' as antagonists. * '''Bob''' – the younger, evil, and more mature brother of George. His [[alter-ego]] is Napalm, a super-powered being with control over fire. He is very adept at [[computer programming|programming]]. He is a grey palette swap of [[Proto Man]], with red hair underneath his helmet. His abilities in combat and his intelligence surpass most of the other characters, to the point he's referred to himself as a [[Mary Sue]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/index.php?date=060224|date=2006-02-24|title=The First Annual Robot Tournament|website=BobandGeorge.com|last=Anez|first=David|access-date=December 2, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080623032111/http://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/index.php?date=060224|archive-date=June 23, 2008|url-status=live|df=mdy-all}}</ref> * '''George''' – heroic where his younger brother Bob is villainous. His alter-ego is Blitz, a super hero with control over lightning. George is a light blue and grey palette swap of helmet-less Mega Man with flat, blonde hair. Other characters featured in ''Bob and George'' include [[Proto Man]], [[Doctor Light (Mega Man)|Dr. Light]], [[Roll (Mega Man)|Roll]], and [[List of Mega Man characters#Bass|Bass]]. ''Mega Man'' characters such as [[Dr. Wily]], [[Mega Man X (character)|X]], and [[Zero (Mega Man)|Zero]] are featured in ''Bob and George'' as villains and adversaries.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://bobandgeorge.com/other/cast.html|website=Bobandgeorge.com|title=The Cast of ''Bob and George''|last=Anez|first=David|access-date=June 6, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150507215222/http://bobandgeorge.com/other/cast.html|archive-date=May 7, 2015|url-status=live|df=mdy-all}}</ref> ==Storyline== The plot of Bob and George involves various re-tellings of the plot from the ''[[Mega Man]]'' video games, interspersed with the characters interacting and sometimes battling villains of Anez's own creation. [[Time travel]] and [[Parallel universe (fiction)|inter-dimensional]] travel are common occurrences, with many of the characters hailing from dimensions (or times) other than that of the main continuity. This leads to a number of [[temporal paradox]]es. Story lines frequently involve breaking the [[fourth wall]], with the strips' author being a regular character. A running theme of the comic is that most, if not all, of the characters are fully aware that they are in a webcomic. ==References== {{reflist}} ==External links== * {{official website|http://www.bobandgeorge.com/}} * [http://www.thewebcomiclist.com/news/index.php?id=109 Interview with David Anez] * [http://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/index.php?date=050310 A history of the comic's production], as described by a short series of comics from March 2005. {{Mega Man series}} [[Category:2000s webcomics]] [[Category:Sprite webcomics]] [[Category:American comedy webcomics]] [[Category:Mega Man]] [[Category:Video game webcomics]] [[Category:2000 webcomic debuts]]
Edit summary
(Briefly describe your changes)
By publishing changes, you agree to the
Terms of Use
, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 License
and the
GFDL
. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)
Pages transcluded onto the current version of this page
(
help
)
:
Template:Cite magazine
(
edit
)
Template:Cite news
(
edit
)
Template:Cite web
(
edit
)
Template:Dead link
(
edit
)
Template:Infobox Webcomic
(
edit
)
Template:Mega Man series
(
edit
)
Template:Official website
(
edit
)
Template:Quotation
(
edit
)
Template:Reflist
(
edit
)
Template:Short description
(
edit
)
Template:Use mdy dates
(
edit
)