Cliptoons by John Hartzell and Rob Balder

This is Cliptoons.

John writes:

"Cliptoons was originally created and developed by John Hartzell. It hit the internet on July 19, 2002, and has entertained a good dozen or so people ever since. For years prior, John had been hemming and hawing over starting a single panel gag strip utilizing clipart, but his general laziness and propensity toward distracting, pie-in-the-sky projects (such as becoming a professional billiard player and starting his own indie record label) prevented any real progress. In early 2002, John became aware of PartiallyClips and Get Your War On and realized that it was only a matter of time before the whole clipart thing was going to explode and enrich a select few with untold millions. John turned up the heat on the project, spending a good couple of hours sitting at his computer and, oh my god, actually learning how to post cartoons on the internet! When Cliptoons was unleashed on an cruel and indifferent world, the response was not overwhelming, or even whelming. Easily discouraged and a bit of a crybaby, John canceled the strip after less than a year."

Rob adds:

"Like John, Rob prefers to write about himself in the third person. Rob found Cliptoons while endlessly scouring the web for competitors to crush and material to steal. His clip-art-sense tingling, Rob infiltrated Cliptoons with all the brotherly intent of a tiger shark in utero. The offer to do a crossover strip exchange was apparently all it took to make John shrivel up and die. Ehhhhhxcellent.

Rob could simply have claimed his first kill on the way to becoming a webcomics fighter ace, but pity stayed his hand. 'It's a pity to see all that good material go to waste,' he said, 'can I have it?'

John signed the surrender papers on the deck of the USS Missouri, where Rob had, at great personal expense, flown in the entire Courthouse at Appomattox. 'Fear not,' said Rob to John on that fateful day, 'for together we shall go forth and conquer. Mini Me, you complete me.'"

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