Little Gamers
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Little Gamers | |
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| Author(s) | Christian Fundin, Pontus Madsen |
| Website | http://www.little-gamers.com/ |
| Current status | Weekdays (5 times/week) |
| Launch date | December 1, 2000 |
| End Date | Still running |
| Genre(s) | Video Games |
Little Gamers (LG) is a webcomic made by Swedes Christian Fundin (founder, illustrator) and Pontus Madsen (writer, illustrator). It began on December 1, 2000.
The cartoon series revolves around Christian, Pontus (mainly known as Mr. Madsen) and a friend of theirs called Marcus; their friends, girlfriends, life events, and mostly, video games. Special strips are sometimes released during certain news events (e.g. September 11th, US and European elections, Pope Benedict XVI), etc. On occasion, a small storyline is introduced, mostly using fictional characters. Also, there are some occasions where the cartoons are drawn (and started) by other webcomic artists. There was also a short-lived Little Gamers Macguardians Edition (in German) with a Mac-Theme.
The characters are drawn, as described in their second comic, to be "bastard children of Hello Kitty and Bomberman." Arguably, Little Gamers, together with Megatokyo and other webcomics, helped immensely in popularizing the use of leet speak.
This comic and its authors poke fun at people who poke fun at them. About the comic and its storylines, Pontus Madsen says: "I personally don't see LG as a webcomic, since we have no '2 months ahead of schedule in comics and storylines'.. I see it more as a blog, about what happens in our lives, and exaggerated to be a bit more fun than cnn. I don't see Penny Arcade as a comic anymore either, I see that as a 'blog' too, which unlike LG has something drawn to illustrate the posts - LG is the otherway around."
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[edit] List of characters
- Mr. (Pontus) Madsen, is the main protagonist of the strip together with Christian. He is known for his usage of leet speak and his obsession with a huge collection of pr0n. He's part Danish. He's 27, likes pr0n and Final Fantasy, and dislikes Christian.
- Christian (Fundin), An incarnation of the creator, hates the word wench. He's 25, loves playing Tekken Tag Tournament, Caroline, and of course Final Fantasy. Dislikes having too little time and too many ideas.
- Marcus (Olofsson) loves inflatable dolls. It seems like Marcus will never have a real girlfriend in the comic, mainly because he's the one who gets all the action in real life. The inflatable dolls are some sort of running gag in the comic. Quoting Christian, "the jokes about Marcus' girlfriends never gets old". He's 26, likes skateboarding, thinking about girls (real ones) and playing Final Fantasy. Dislikes getting his ass kicked in Soulcalibur.
- Joel, one of the creator's friends, he's from San Diego. Loves cooking, listening to music and talking. Currently single. He's 25, and likes all joy-giving things.
- MC Browneye, a gentle man who likes long walks on the beach and watch the sunset. He's in his late 20's.
- Hippie Dude Some hippie guy who appears every once in awhile. He's vegetarian.
- The Cute Ninjas are some stageworking ninjas that appear occasionally. Deadly, but, as their name implies, cute. No one really knows where they come from.
- NES & PS are described as "the love couple of little gamers." They're... A Nintendo Entertainment System and a PlayStation. In love.
- Nette and Caroline, the guy's girlfriends. Caroline is Christian's girlfriend, and Nette is Mr. Madsen's girlfriend. They seem to have a nice relationship. They're friends.
- Machall Boyd, a politically interested character who debates with Mr. Madsen (mostly about George W. Bush). These are drawn by Pontus Madsen in a different style. Represents Matt Boyd, co-creator of Mac Hall.
[edit] Collections
In 2005, Little Gamers published its first collection of comics in book form. Since then another book has been released and a third is now in the preorder phase. (See below)
Each Little Gamer book goes through three stages as it is published.
[edit] Preorder Stage
Occurring in December, during this phase the Little Gamers website opens up for preorders. Usually they take up to three hundred preorders, the number of sales required to cover printing costs. Also free gifts are used as an incentive to get readers to buy the book. These usually include bookmarks and cut-out cardboard characters. For example the current Book Three offers are
- Orders 1 to 150 gets signed and numbered books + Pins + Secret paper thing for your desk.
- Orders 151 to 500 gets cool Pins + Postcards + Bookmarks and stuff.
- Orders 1 to 500 have the chance of wining one of the 25 limited signed and numbered posters with entire cast on it.
Notes: Book Three preorders go to five hundred to justify the extra cost of printing the whole book in colour. As extra added incentive Pontus Madsen has now announced all preorders will receive a five piece pin set.
[edit] Printing Stage
Occurring in January the book is printed in the creator's country of residence, Sweden.
[edit] Shipping Stage
Occurring in February the book is shipped with extras to those who preordered.
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[edit] Little Gamers Book #1
Released in 2005, this was the first Little Gamers book. It contains comics one to three hundred. Like books Two and Three it is printed in Sweden. So far the book has been printed in two editions and is one hundred and twenty-four pages in length.
[edit] Forewords
Book One features five forewords by
- Naku - contributes blogs to Little Gamer homepage and is owner of [naku.org].
- Barry T. Smith - cartoonist who runs [www.inktank.com InkTank], a blog and webcomic portal that features; Angst Technology, Sorry, We're Open and Weak-End Warriors.
- Tim Buckley - creator of the webcomic Ctrl+Alt+Del
- Matt Boyd - writer of thw webcomic Mac Hall.
- Weebl & Bob - two main characters from the flash cartoon series of the same name written by Jonti Picking (aka Weebl) and Chris Vick (aka Skoo).
Note: Weebl & Bob's forward is a simple one panel comic of the characters Weebl and Bob speaking. Weebl says "I used to love little-gamers until they klled my dog." Bob replies, "That was me actually."
[edit] Two Page End Special
Each Little Gamers book features two pages at the end of the book following the album like thanks page. Book one's two page special features a collage of all the characters, as well as several key props such as an Apple Macbook, from the comic at varying sizes.
[edit] Spelling Errors
Each Little Gamers book is called to contain a certain percentage of spelling corrections from the original comic published online. This is a running gag in the comic, as Madsen often misspells words as English is his second language. Book One claims to have 50% less spelling errors.
[edit] Cover
Book One features the "extra super duper poop-brown™" cover.
[edit] Disclaimer
Book One features the disclaimer "Any content resembling any real or fictional persons is purely coincidental. Yes."
[edit] Little Gamers Book #2
Released in 2006, this is the second and most recently published Little Gamers book. It contains comics three hundred to six hundred. Like books One and Three it is printed in Sweden. It is one hundred and twenty-four pages in length like Book One.
[edit] Forewords
Book Two contains four forewords by
- Fred Gallagher (aka Piro) - draws and writes the webcomic Megatokyo.
- Kent Earle - one of the two-man creative team behind White Ninja Comics.
- Steven L. Cloud - creator of Boy On A Stick And Slither.
- Lem - creator of the webcomic [[1]].
[edit] Two Page End Special
Book Two features two end specials.
- The first features a collage of photos of entitled "Little Gamers History 2000-2005", mainly made up of pictures from the creators trip to the USA in 2005.
- The second features a collection of seventeen haikus written by Little Gamers' readers as the creators wished to involve their audience in the production of their second book.
[edit] Spelling Errors
Like Book One, Book Two is claimed to have a reduced amount of spelling errors from the original online versions of the comics. This edition contains 63% less errors.
[edit] Cover
Book Two features the "extra super duper pink sock™" cover.
[edit] Disclaimer
Book Two's disclaimer is "Pontus may look like Dave Grohl but he isn't as cool."
[edit] Little Gamers Book #3
Released in February 2007, this is the third Little Gamers book. It contains comics six hundred to nine hundred. This is the first Little Gamers book with all the comics in colour. Pontus Madsen redrew most of the comics for colour.
[edit] Forewords
Book Three features forewords by
- Duke Ferris - a publisher working for the gaming website Game Revolution, most widely known for his article entitled The Truth About Violence And Video Games.
- J. Jacques - author of the webcomic Questionable Content.
- Dave Cheung - one of authors behind the webcomic Chugworth Academy.
[link words]
[edit] Two Page End Special
Unlike the two previous Little Gamers books, this features two end specials. The first of these is two issues of hand drawn comics produced in response to an issue arising at the Comixpedia as to why Pontus Madsen and Christian Fundin made Little Gamers. The second two page special is a collection of Little Gamers readers' mugshots organised by continent. However, there are no readers from Antarctica present.
[edit] Dictionary
Book Three features, unlike previous Little Gamers books a small one page dictionary at the end of the book to define vocabulary feature in the book. The included words are predominantly internet slang, including words such as "lol", "stfu" and "omg".
[edit] Spelling Mistakes
In accordance with the staple set by the previous two books, Book Three is claimed to feature less spelling mistakes. This time it is claimed there are 82% less spelling errors.
[edit] Cover
Book Three features the "Extra super duper camo" cover.
[edit] Disclaimer
Book Three features the disclaimer "This disclaimer will end up on Wikipedia (You! Wikipedia guy, we can see you!)"
In reference to the user Arsonic Perfection's updating of the Littler Gamers' Wikipedia page on Decemember, 15th 2006, to include more detailed information on Little Gamers' published works.
[edit] Reception
As described by 1UP.com, Little Gamers is "critically lambasted but rabidly popular comics," comparable to "million-selling, mass-market [video] games that no one actually seems to like."[1]
[edit] References
[edit] See also
