a little project
in random comic strips by
visual lizard
Bus Stop Ninjas is an experiment in randomly created humour. It started out as an amusing domain name purchase and a series of stand-alone post-it note scribbles. We found that, when we arranged the post-it notes, they acted like comics panels, forming short semi-nonsensical strips. Or at least, we tried to make them semi-nonsensical; it was pretty easy to extrapolate a story from the assembled situations.
Thanks to a scanner and some web know-how, we were able to post that same experience online.
The panels were drawn and scanned in individually, then uploaded with some minimal information about the characters upon them. There are some minor rules about what can appear where, but only so there is a semblance of consistency between them.
When the webpage loads, the website makes some logical decisions when choosing subsequent panels… though we did purposely allow the code to sometimes grab whatever it felt like, to let some strangeness stretch its wings.
The scribbled haikus were a later addition, and composed the same way the comic is. Each line associated with each panel and assembled when the strip is randomly assembled. We've tried to make each line stand on its own well enough that it could be slipped into each haiku without too much trouble.
Though the results are sometimes quite poetic, it pales to the story you yourself will generate for our hapless cartoon actors.
This is one of our "fun" areas, one we hope to continue supporting by adding more panels. Though the post-it notes we doodle may not come out exactly the same colour and the art may not be exact the same size, we believe that sort of inconsistency actually helps the entertainment.
In the meantime, keep your eyes out for a couple easter eggs ;)