Diesel Sweeties

Diesel Sweeties
Diesel Sweeties number 1.
Author(s) Richard Stevens III
Website http://dieselsweeties.com
Current status / schedule Running
Launch date April 2000[1]
Syndicate(s) United Features Syndicate (print)
Genre(s) Humor

Diesel Sweeties is a webcomic and former newspaper comic strip written by Richard Stevens III (R Stevens). The comic began in 2000,[2] originally hosted at robotstories.com. From January 2007 until August 2008 it was syndicated to over 20 United States newspapers, including major daily newspapers like The Detroit News and Houston Chronicle.[3][4][5]

Material from Diesel Sweeties appears in Ted Rall's Attitude 3: The New Subversive Online Cartoonists, along with other webcomics such as Cat and Girl, Dinosaur Comics, Boy on a Stick and Slither, Fetus-X, and The Perry Bible Fellowship.[2]

Stevens is a co-founder of the Dumbrella alliance of webcomic artists. Since 2002, Stevens has supported himself through online sales of merchandise related to his comics.[6]

Newspaper syndication

In late 2006, Richard Stevens announced that Diesel Sweeties would be syndicated to newspapers through United Features Syndicate. To replace FoxTrot by Bill Amend, which ended its daily run, some newspapers began the strip on January 1, 2007.[7] The regular distribution began a week later, on January 8. On June 26, 2008, Stevens announced that the print run of Diesel Sweeties would end on August 10 of that year. He had produced about 600 strips specifically for the newspapers. Stevens cited exhaustion from doing a dozen strips per week, as well as the fact that the majority of his income remained tied to the website.[8]

Format

For the first several years, the comic consisted of four square panels of dialogue in a two-by-two grid, with a punchline (often a non sequitur, pun, or pop culture reference) in the final panel. In 2005 Stevens abandoned this traditional form and began consistently publishing strips with more panels in slightly more varied configurations. Single panels of the strip are occasionally animated. The comic depicts a world where robots exist alongside humans, with human-robot romantic and sexual relationships commonplace. Although there is some character development and the occasional story arc, most strips are largely self-contained. Recurring themes include annual Halloween strips, featuring characters from the comic in costume.

Characters

Diesel Sweeties incorporates many characters from other fictional works, from the real world, and introduces many original characters.

Main Characters (online version)

As defined by the Cast Page, the main characters in Diesel Sweeties are:

Clango and Pale Suzie discuss donuts.

Minor Human Characters

Generally in the order of appearance. Also includes some animals.

Minor Non-human Characters

Cameos from Other Comics and Fiction

Cartoons of Real People

Diesel Sweeties often shows pixelated versions of real people in the strip. Some of these people include:

Main Characters (newspaper version)

Comics.com described the strip as "reformatted" for family newspapers. Here are the reformatted stories of the main characters:

Other new characters for the newspaper version included TV, Coffee Maker, and Kitten. Together, they rule the household.

References

  1. Creasy, Cindy (January 27, 2007). "Comics lineup gets new guest". Richmond Times-Dispatch. Richmond, Virginia. pp. E.3. ... will run through Feb. 24. ... Stevens started Diesel Sweeties in April 2000 and has built a thriving Web merchandising site He's one of the few Web cartoonists to make the jump to print
  2. 1 2 Rall, Ted (2006). Attitude 3: The New Subversive Online Cartoonists, New York: Nantier, Beall, Minoustchine. ISBN 1-56163-465-4. p. 17-20.
  3. "Olympian, The : 'Diesel' strip gets audition". The Olympian. Mar 12, 2007. this year it became available also in print
  4. "Q&A: Comic Artist Rich Stevens". Red Herring (magazine). 6 September 2006. Retrieved 16 August 2010. entered into a contract with United Feature Syndicate, which will allow his strip Diesel Sweetiesto appear alongside Peanuts, Dilbert, and Get Fuzzy in newspapers nationwide.
  5. Lloyd, Christopher (2007-03-15). "Laugh online: Edgy comics paper the Web". USA Today. Retrieved 16 August 2010. In February Diesel Sweeties, a 7-year-old webcomic by Richard Stevens was picked up by United Feature Syndicate and now appears in at least 20 newspapers, including the Detroit News and Houston Chronicle.
  6. Sjoberg, Lore (July 27, 2008). "R. Stevens Steers Diesel Sweeties Back to Its Roots". Wired. Retrieved 16 August 2010. I've been making my living online selling merchandise since 2002 ... How long did you do the strip for the papers? ... a year and eight months, so about 600 comics ... I made less money than the last year that I wasn’t syndicated
  7. Astor, Dave (January 2, 2007). "'Lio' and 'Pearls' Among Comics Replacing Daily 'FoxTrot'". editorandpublisher.com
  8. "Maybe Not So Much". Fleen. 2008-06-26. Retrieved 2008-06-26.
  9. diesel sweeties: 8-bit robot webcomic and geeky t-shirts : Demeter's Running
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