Mysteries of the Move. What is really funny is that this actually happened to me. Not quite in the same fashion, and not a cellphone, but when I was a teen, I lost something in my house. I can’t even remember what it was now, but it was important at the time. Me and my mom ended up moving some time later. After settling in the new place, I found the item. But, it wasn’t in a box, it was just lying behind something. The question was, how did the item get packed up, moved to the new house, unpacked, and lost again? I guess that is why it is called a mystery.

When Tess was about seven years old, she was already using the computer. She loved playing around with Paint Shop Pro. One day she loaded all of Michelle’s icons — Michelle is the administrator of a large forum, and has a huge icon collection for it — and began making a picture using them. She started with a field of green, and then placed icons all over it, representing people. She had some of the icons eating a picnic lunch, and some of them playing volleyball, and some just running around. She also had a couple that were walking their dogs. She titled the picture People in the Park. Michelle and I saw that and thought, Wow, that would make a great comic!

We didn’t forget about the idea after that, we just thought that some other webcomic might be better. For four years we tried various comics, before finally returning to the idea of a simplistic-looking comic that takes place inside a computer, with icons for people. So Tess really needs to take the credit for coming up with the original idea.

It’s kind of bizarre. Michelle and I always wondered if Tess would follow in our footsteps, but now we’re following in hers.

In a space only 16 pixels tall by 16 wide, you can create hundreds of faces showing a huge range of emotions. Check out issue 5, for example. Here we have no less than eight distinct emotions being expressed by the various characters, and they all result from alteration of a few pixels around the mouth and eyes. On top of that, we have to keep each character recognizeable and distinct from all the other characters. Sure, we made some people yellow, and some grey, and some green. But that will only get you so far. After a while, you begin running out of colors. So, at first glance, it may appear that we’re being lazy by making our comic out of icons. But it’s actually more work, in some ways, than traditional art.

I’m not trying to brag, here. Really, I’m not. I’m just amazed — I know, we’re the ones doing it, but it still amazes me — at what you can accomplish in such a tiny space. Early video games had to do this a lot. The original Mario, from the first Donkey Kong game, was just incredible. 16×16 pixels, yet so detailed you could tell he had a moustache. That’s just amazing. Nowadays, Mario is a fully rendered 3D object built out of hundreds of tiny triangles. He’s not even measured in pixels anymore. If he met Original Mario, the size difference would be so great he’d mistake his younger self for some type of insect.

An insect with a moustache.

Well, Michelle wanted me to make an entry since the comic is starting today. Only I can’t really think of anything witty to say. So I’ll let the comic speak for itself. We have a lot of great stuff planned. I hope everyone comes back to check out our next update on Tuesday.