I've been having the problems typical for every hobbyist cartoonist. Those things like disappointment in my own artistic skills, a lack of consistency in my style, and most of all not having enough time to devote to a comic. I've wanted to start a regularly updating strip with a single story for some time now but with a workload at college constantly piling up that just doesn't seem possible. I'm stuck in a rut of doing a topical gag every week or so.

That's when I stumbled upon Kris Straub's Starslip Crisis. He created a series of drawn sprites based his own style and used them to start a story driven comic which he could update five times a week and still balance it with a day job. He seems to have done quite well for himself, albeit with some publicity from Scott Kurtz. What he did seems like an adequate solution to what I want to do but it raises several questions.

1)If I were to create a comic using drawn sprites, my own drawing ability would cease to progress.
2)Would creating a comic using this method compromise my own dignity? I know sprites aren't taken seriously in the comic community for good reason. I don't be known as another lazy guy who can't draw.
3)The comic itself wouldn't look as visually appealing as a comic that's drawn.

So what do you think? Is a story driven comic worth using sprites? Should I give it a try? Or is it a horrible idea and I should be ashamed of myself for even considering it?

Ubersoft.net did the same thing. recently the arts diverseing, but a lot are just sprites that are moved around...

I think it would work and I've been considering it myself. Not ALL my work, as sprites lock yopu into an actual strip and I'm still messin around with styles.

I'd suggest a compromise. take 3 characters and spritafy them. then had draw the rest. Its a time saver, which a lot of people can appreciate. but don't sprite everything. Find that golden balance and create your new form of comic.

Sprites are always a VERY touchy subject matter. If they're entirely from scratch or based on an drawing, you should be safe as long as the plot is decent. As for your art ability decreasing, there was a point where I started spriting more than drawing. Learning proportions with sprites and looking at the work of others got me to the point where my drawings started to improve when I started back up. Right now, I employ a more simplified style to work on things like poses, which should properly translate itself when I switch back to my more complex style. For your last question, it would all boil down to how you made the sprites. Besides, the prettiest comic can still have the most atrocious dialogue.

As long as the story is good, I guess it the quality of the art wouldn't really matter.
Most of the art here on Drunkduck aren't even good to begin with.

In a lot of online Flash animations, the characters are like paper puppets; the body parts are drawn separately, and then put together in different poses. You could try taking this concept and applying it to a comic.

Eww, sprites! But seriously, there is a certain part of asthetic appeal in having well done, "homebrewed" art, if you will, that draws readers in, and allow them to be slightly more merciful if the story isn't up to their standards. conversely, the stereotypes of sprite comics tend to turn readers away if armed with the same plot.
As for whether sprite art is accepted in the community, I'd have to say it's mostly looked down upon, but for a few cases, yes, there are a few very well done sprite comics. To cite an example, I do game based art composed of screenshots and such from more modern games, like World of Warcraft. I do this for one ironic reason: I can't write or draw, but I'm supposedly hilariously creative.(I'm also afflicted with a terminally deflated ego, so take that for what you will), My art is so bad, according to my doctor I'm officially disabled it's so bad. So, to compensate, I merge screenshots. My World of Warcraft art is a bit more asthetically pleasing than a sprite, but it's still digital and takes conciderably less skill than drawing them by hand. Ergo, to make a "good" comic, this means that I have to rely COMPLETELY on having an artfully woven story; It's the same deal with sprite comics, custom or no.
As for it going faster, Spritificating characters can be an art in itself, but needn't be painful, but I reiterate, the story needs to be damn good to be one of the exceptions of the unfortunately true sprite stereotype.
As for art deterioration, I dunno, I'm not an expert on that.

To me, something like "Real Life Comics," by Greg Dean is a perfect example of what you're saying.

He has character templates, and it's basically a cut and paste job. I mean. They're great n' all; but there isn't any evolution of his comic-- per say --his backgrounds became amazing; but the characters are still the same.

I think hand drawn comics are the way to go because it's more rewarding, and it improves yourself as an artist.

mfc
To me, something like "Real Life Comics," by Greg Dean is a perfect example of what you're saying.

He has character templates, and it's basically a cut and paste job. I mean. They're great n' all; but there isn't any evolution of his comic-- per say --his backgrounds became amazing; but the characters are still the same.

Oh wow. I didn't realize Real Life comics were made like that. I guess he fooled me.
Thanks for the input everyone. I don't have much to add since you basically covered everything.

In the end I decided against it. I tried to convert one of my drawings into a series of sprites and discovered that my style just doesn't fit well into this method. Drawing every comic it is!