Platform / Bitstrips

Following

Bitstrips was a Flash-based website and media company, founded by journalist Jesse Brown and artist Jacob Blackstock in 2007. First publicly unveiled at South by Southwest in 2008, the site allowed users to create Webcomics using customisable, puppet-based characters, with the site's founders explaining that it was meant to enable self-expression without the need for artistic skills.

The site had various offshoots during its run; in 2009, an educational version called Bitstrips for Schools released; in 2012, a more limited version of the site was integrated into Facebook, followed by the release of a mobile app version the next year; and, in 2014, Bitstrips launched Bitmoji, an app allowing users to create personalised stickers for messaging.

In July 2016, Snapchat announced that it had bought out the Bitstrips company. The original Bitstrips site shut down later that same month to focus on Bitmoji, which remains active to this day.

The site itself, and/or the comics made on it, contained examples of...

• Art Evolution: The site launched with a fairly toony thick line cartoon style for its characters (unofficially called "oldstyle" by users). In 2011, the lines became thinner, and in 2012, a more detailed and realistic character style ("newstyle") was introduced.
  • Likewise, Bitmoji's artstyle changed too, starting out with a Super-Deformed style (Bitmoji Classic) before introducing something closer to - yet more polished than - the newstyle Bitstrips look (Bitmoji Deluxe) in 2020. Both Bitmoji Classic and newstyle (just called "Bitstrips") were available alongside Bitmoji Deluxe until their removal in 2024.
• Audience Participation: The site's front page had sections called "Theme of the Day" and "Remix Challenge"—the former encouraging users to create a comic based on a single-word theme, and the latter having them build a comic off of a premade scene. With the addition of a new "In the News" section in 2010 (having users make a comic based on a fake headline), users could also create and submit their own Theme of the Day blurbs and Remix Challenges, which would be added to a pool and picked at random if accepted.
• Cerebus Syndrome: The official Editorial series is mostly light-hearted and comedic in tone... up until the last 6 strips, where Buddy suddenly dies of a literal broken heart, and the other Basics - mainly Bitty - become focused on replacing him via something called the "Omega Protocol", which they apparently lose control over.
• Character Customization: Arguably the main draw of the site was the Character Builder; not only were you able to create and fully-customise your own characters, but you could pose them to your total liking (and give them new outfits) in the Comic Builder too.
• Cheated Angle: Though there was a profile angle for the head, many users thought it was ugly and unexpressive, so a lot of user-created series used this trope and had characters face each other at 3/4 angles instead.
• Cut Short: At one point in the Editorial strips, Jeeves alerts Bitty that the Basics have lost control over the Omega Protocol, and Buddy emerges in another dimension before letting out a Flat "What". Whatever this was meant to be leading up to was never revealed, though, as that last strip with Buddy was the last one produced for the series.
• "Everyone Dies" Ending: An infamous drama series on the site called "One"—in response to the criticism it received—ended with all of the characters suddenly being crushed by falling rocks. This trope became something of a meme among the userbase as a result.
• Flying Face: In the comic builder, you could turn a character into a disembodied head by right-clicking them and choosing an option to hide their body. There was also an option to hide the head and turn the character into a disembodied face.
• Glitch Entity: A strange case; five of the default Bitstrips Basics characters—Becky, Gilbert, Hector, Lucy and William—suddenly changed into the same, identical newstyle character at one point, remaining unfixed all the way into the site's shutdown. It's assumed that a developer attempted to update the Basics but encountered a glitch, breaking some of their appearances in the process.
• Mascot: Buddy, a man intentionally designed to be as simple as possible, served as the mascot for the site, the host (and main character) of the Editorial series, and the mouthpiece for the devs.
• Mythology Gag: In the tenth and final Bitmoji TV episode, Ba is first seen wearing a Latex Perfection disguise of Buddy. He also makes a reference to the "Omega Protocol", a plot device mentioned in the final few Editorial strips.
• Not the Intended Use: Whilst the site actually had a wide range of props, there were still limitations here and there, making it common for users to use props in unintended contexts.
  • The moon and chalk props were very commonly used in art strips (non-narrative comics featuring elaborate, dense visual art composed with the site's props and effects) before the addition of basic shapes.
  • There wasn't a built-in way to have characters hold items, but users created the look themselves by layering the object with tiny, flesh-coloured eggs serving as fingers.
• Remix Comic: One of the site's features was the ability to "remix" comics (if the creator allowed it on said comic), allowing you to modify them in any way you wanted, including simple dialogue edits like in a traditional remix comic.
• Shout Box: On the right of every page on the site was a chatbar, allowing you to post status updates that'd be visible to anyone you've added as a friend.