Theater in a list of recommended completed webcomics for those that "enjoy video game-inspired comics (and/or Atomic Robo)". Awards 8-Bit Theater won the Web Cartoonists' Choice Award for Best Fantasy Comic in 2002, and was nominated for two other awards. It was also nominated for a WCCA award in 2003. Financial success In 2002, Clevinger announced to their readers that they would "be undertaking the great webcomic = job experiment." Within a year he was supporting himself financially from the comic through T-shirt sales, advertisements, and a "donation" service by which readers could voluntarily send him money. Clevinger offered rewards for donating such as wallpapers. Legacy The success of 8-Bit Theater and another sprite comic Bob and George, along with their ease of creation, led to hundreds of other sprite comics. One list of sprite comics identified over 1,200 sprite comics as of 2004. Shaenon K. Garrity said in a history of webcomics, "With the success of sprite comics like Brian Clevinger's 8-Bit Theater (2001) and clipart comics like Ryan North's Daily Dinosaur Comics (2003) and David Malki's Wondermark (2003), people discovered that they didn't need to be able to draw to be webcartoonists. The barn door flew open." However, no other sprite comic reached the popularity of 8-Bit Theater. 8-Bit Theater was Brian Clevinger's first experience writing a comic. His experience, as well as exposure through the comic, allowed him to write more comics, including Atomic Robo as well as writing for both Marvel Comics and DC Comics. The comic was part of the Create a Comic Project, in which versions of the comic with dialog removed were provided to allow students to write their own, encouraging writing and creativity skills. An expansion pack for the board game Bargain Quest was released in 2019, based on characters and items from 8-Bit Theater. On April 19, 2021, Clevinger launched a Kickstarter for the 8-Bit Theater 20th Anniversary Complete Script Book which will collect every strip. The book will be script-only due to copyright issues. It reached its initial goal on April 21, 2021. See also Brian Clevinger Atomic Robo, another comic written by Brian Clevinger References Story notes External links Complete archive of 8-Bit Theater on the Internet Archive 2000s webcomics Video game webcomics Parody webcomics Sprite webcomics Fantasy webcomics American comedy webcomics Web Cartoonists' Choice Award winners 2001 webcomic debuts 2010 webcomic endings