Neglected Mario Characters was a popular little Mario-based webcomic site on the early days of the internet, created by Jay Resop of SMBHQ in his free time in highschool. It was an intensely popular site with a large fanbase, gaining over 200,000 views at it's height in 2004. The comics are quite funny and exciting, and were the first popular "sprite" comics.
This site is a perfect example of a popular site made for fun by two little kids, and their success in creating a fun website with many loyal fans. However, it also frames the slow, crushing decline that came when the Web 2.0 revolution, combined with a grittier, 4chan-influenced culture swamped the internets, right when the admins were least able to compete. We saved it here due to it's unclear status, to organize it better, and to get rid of the garish background.
Two friends engrossed in the early internet decided to come together to make a little Mario fansite on the internet called the Super Mario Brothers HeadQuarters (SMBHQ). Jay Resop As time progressed, the site became huge and hosted many little sites within it.
As Jay and his friends entered college and ran out of time to keep the once glorious site updated, SMBHQ began to decline and so did Jay's enthusiasm. Some fans, like MetalMan and Sean Kelly have taken up the attempt to restart what Jay left behind, but all they had left was a relic, overshadowed by superior sites. Due to Kyle Orland's incessant attempts at futile monetization, SMBHQ has now lost it's fanbase and is in grave danger of deletion. The full story about SMBHQ is recorded in the forum posts and MetalMan's Obituary, lamenting the fate of SMBHQ.
"Though Penny Arcade's launch was important for the juggernaut the strip would eventually become, in one sense it was simply going along the road already established by Polymer City Chronicles and PvP. The next real milestone in gaming webcomics was thus the September 1998 debut of Neglected Mario Characters, the first sprite comic.
Rather than poke fun at the trappings of gaming culture, which was the main focus of Polymer City Chronicles and PvP, Neglected Mario Characters (and the comics that have followed in its footsteps) lampooned the imagined inner universe of the games themselves. Using images and characters directly from the games as a sort of stationary puppet show, creator Jay Resop continued Mario's adventures as farce. It's not all that funny, to be honest, but it was groundbreaking: thanks to Resop, legions of would-be cartoonists realized they didn't have to let a lack of artistic talent get in the way of their dream when they could use pre-made images to act out the stories for them."
Source: Will Strip for Games, 1up, 2005
Hi there, and welcome to Neglected Mario Characters. I'm Jay Resop, creator and webmaster of the site. In case you are new to the site, this page is made to help get you up to speed on what's going on around here.
Here are some quick facts to help you out.
- NC is short for Neglected Mario Characters. No one knows why the "M" is missing.
- NC comics are spelt "comix" in a lame attempt to be "cool". Hey, I started these things 7 years ago, give me a break, heh.
- Neglected Mario Characters focuses on the characters in Mario games that are, well, neglected. For simplicity purposes, we take this to mean all characters except for Mario.
- In the begining, back when the site was young, it was mainly just a text based site. However, as new ideas came into my head, I added new things.
- In 1998, Neglected Mario Characters introduced the world's first Internet Sprite Based comic. If it wasn't the first, then it was at least the first well documented Sprite Based comic.
The comics at NC are ususally set during Mario games. They include a small cast of original characters, which can be found here: Cast of Characters
You can find the NC comics here. It is best to read the comics in the order in which they were made, because many times I use recuring jokes and themes from older comics. Why? Because recuring jokes are funny. Here is the order of the comic series.
- The EVIL-Luigi Series
- The Mushroom Wars
- Bill and Fred's Quazi-Mediocre Adventure
- The NC/SSS Crossover
- Mario Busters
- The NC/SSS Crossover Mach 2
- NC Chronicles
- The Lord of the Wings
- Jay Resop (1998-2008)
- Sean Kelly (2008-2009)
- MetalMan (2009-) Incumbent
Written by Sean Kelly
- The Beginning Phase (1997 - 2001): Kyle was webmaster from the start of the site in August 1997 until he stepped down in October 2001. At the time Kyle stepped down, the updates were FAR less frequent than they are now (i.e. once every three months).
- The Jay Phase (2001 - 2004): Jay saved the site from permanent inactivity and took over the webmaster duties. His updates generally consisted of reporting subsection updates and not much else. This phase is pretty much the peak of the site.
- The Jay and Sean Phase (2004 - 2006): As a staff member, I always helped Jay behind the scenes and I was officially made co-webmaster in 2004.
- The Problem Phase (2006 - 2007): Jay steps down as a full-time webmaster and I am on my own (and Kyle coincidently begins the Intellitxt). School is really taking a toll on the updates and Kyle begins to notice. The phase ends when I step down and am replaced by MetalMan.
- The Sean and Metal Phase (2007): Because the ad revenue was my only source of income, I promised myself to become more committed to the site and I returned the next day to be a co-webmaster with Metalman. It unfortunately didn't turn out well for MetalMan and I.
- The Weekly Phase (2007 - 2009): I had a renewed commitment to the site and tried to make sure to update the site once a week. I manage to keep it up for about two years.
- The Current Phase (2009 - Present): There are many reasons for why the updates have gone back to being bi-weekly or less, however it essentially boils down to the fact that I am now in my late 20s and life is beginning to take over big time.
incomplete, we need to add a list of their contributions too
- Jay Resop
- Evil Luigi
- (misc. shorts)
- Lord Reid *
- Sean Kelly
- (misc. shorts)
- MetalMan
- (misc. shorts)
- Crazyswordsman
- Last part of the Lord of the Wings