Brian Clevinger
Brian Clevinger (born
May 7,
1978) is the author of the
webcomic 8-Bit Theater and the novel
Nuklear Age. He is currently writing his second novel, a sequel to
Nuklear Age known as
Atomik Age, as well as perusing other writing projects. He is known primarily as a humorist who tends to write jokes with long setups, many "call backs" or
running gags, and who delights in playing jokes on the audience itself.
Clevinger currently resides in
Orlando, Florida, and lives with his girlfriend and their two cats. He attended college at the
University of Florida for a number of years where he sought an English Major to further his goal of becoming a professional writer. Due to what he refers to as "administrative incompetence of epic proportions," he was forced into the Philosophy program against his will. He eventually left the university when his writing career began to take off just a semester before he would have earned his degree. He is regularly invited to speak at
video game,
electronics, and
webcomics conventions.
Clevinger's webcomic is
8-Bit Theater, hosted on his site
Nuklear Power. The comic is very loosely based on the video game
Final Fantasy and tells the story of four would-be fantasy heroes who set out to save the world from the embodiment of
Chaos, but trip over their own stupidity in the process. The comic is done using 8-bit quality graphic
sprites taken primarily from the Final Fantasy game or created by either Clevinger himself or Kevin Sigmund. For more information on the webcomic, see the relevant
article.
He has also created two mini-comics:
Dynasty Memory was created in
2002 as a parody of the
Dynasty Warriors series;
Field of Battle was created in
August 2005 as a parody of
FPS games in general,
Battlefield 2 in particular.
Clevinger's primary claim to fame is
8-Bit Theater. He also wrote a book,
Nuklear Age, and is currently writing its sequel.
8-Bit Theater reportedly takes up most of his time. According to Clevinger, he is supported primarily through income from
Nuklear Power's advertising revenue, merchandising, and sales of
Nuklear Age.
Clevinger has stated that "[his] favorite comics are the ones where the jokes are on the reader." ([
1]) He is especially known for his anticlimactic moments. For instance, the protagonists of
8-Bit Theater, the
Light Warriors, accidentally defeated one of their adversaries, the Dark Elf Astos, via a heartbreakingly awful taunt rather than the conventional epic battle.
On Wednesday
September 21st,
2005, Clevinger attempted a
hostile takeover of
Ctrl+Alt+Del. The result was a brief outpouring of 'resistance' for Tim Buckley, the author of the 'seized' webcomic. This aid kept coming even as the news posts on both sites became more and more outrageous, until it became clear it was a hoax. Though Buckley officially called it off, no cease fire has to date come from Clevinger.
Nuklear Age8-Bit TheaterAtomik Age*
Nuklear Power*
Dynasty Memory
