8-Bit Theater is a completed sprite comic

Sprite comic

Sprite comics are webcomics that use computer sprites, often taken from video games, for significant portions of their artwork. There are also animated sprite comics where each "strip" is a separate mini-movie, animated using technologies such as Flash.The comic Neglected Mario Characters is...

 created by Brian Clevinger

Brian Clevinger

Brian Clevinger is an American writer best known as the author of the webcomic 8-Bit Theater and the Eisner-nominated print comic Atomic Robo...

, and published in 1,225 episodes from March 2, 2001 to June 1, 2010. One of the most popular web comics, it won the Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards

Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards

The Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards are annual awards in which online cartoonists nominate and select outstanding webcomics. The awards have been held since 2001, were featured in a The New York Times column on webcomics in 2005, and have been mentioned as a tool for librarians.The WCCA represent a...

 for best fantasy

Fantasy

Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...

 comic in 2002. In its feature on gaming webcomics, 1UP.com

1UP.com

1UP.com is a video game website owned by IGN Entertainment, a division of News Corporation. Previously, the site was owned by Ziff Davis before being sold to UGO Entertainment in 2009....

 described 8-Bit Theater as the sprite comic "that took the style to its fullest expression and greatest popularity." The comic is also part of the Create a Comic Project

Create a Comic Project

The Create a Comic Project is a youth literacy program and webcomic created by John Baird. The program uses comics, many taken from the Internet, to encourage children to write their own narratives. The program began in November 2006 at the main branch of the New Haven Free Public Library as an...

.

The plot of 8-Bit Theater is loosely based on that of the video game Final Fantasy

Final Fantasy (video game)

is a fantasy role-playing video game created by Hironobu Sakaguchi, developed and first published in Japan by Square in 1987. It is the first game in Square's Final Fantasy series...

, in which four adventurers, the Light Warriors, must save the world by defeating four powerful demons that represent the four elements

Classical element

Many philosophies and worldviews have a set of classical elements believed to reflect the simplest essential parts and principles of which anything consists or upon which the constitution and fundamental powers of anything are based. Most frequently, classical elements refer to ancient beliefs...

, thus relighting four magical orbs tied to the same elements, and, finally, defeating the personification of evil, Chaos.