Reprographics (webcomic)

Reprographics
Author(s) Christopher R. Yates
Website http://www.chrisyates.net/reprographics/
Current status / schedule Updates MWF
Launch date 2005-01-24
Genre(s) Photocomic

Reprographics is a photocomic posted on the website of Christopher R. Yates, a sculptor and toy maker from Boulder, Colorado. Reprographics started out as a semi-biographical comic detailing Chris's life as he worked in an art supply store in the copy shop (hence the name, Reprographics). However, in the first comic, the large copier (The OCE) started talking. Fans accept that the events taking place in the comic are not necessarily true to life, but the tagline of the comic is still "The Tremendously exciting life of Chris Yates in Photo Vision!"

The comic ended its run on April 21, 2007. However, it returned October 5, 2007 as Reprographics 2.

The comic

in 2000, Chris Yates started a website as part of his senior project at the Rhode Island School of Design. Later on, the site became a showcase for Chris's art projects and a way for him to display and sell some of those pieces . On a whim in early 2005, he started taking pictures of himself at his day job at the local Art Superstore's Reprographics desk. Editing the pictures together to create a narrative, the comic known as Reprographics was born.

The comic originally featured two characters, Chris himself and the OCE, the large copy machine that he worked on. Chris would carry on entire conversations with the OCE, at first thinking that he had gone a bit mental due to lack of caffeine, but later accepting OCE as a sentient entity.

Later in the comic, Chris would incorporate his friends and family into the story and then started creating characters to add to the Reprographics universe. The first, and most famous of his characters was Mensa the Menacer, leader of the notorious Supervillain Team Club. An evil genius with a vastly oversized brain, Mensa is Chris's best friend and has never been seen out of character in a Reprographics comic. Another addition to the cast came by way of The Visitors, small, one-eyed space creatures that Chris fashioned out of wood for a stop-motion film in 1998.

As time went on, Chris was able to take his camera to conventions, road trips and shows, incorporating his adventures into the comic as well. The comic has been running since January 2005 and is still updating three times a week. Reprographics is now part of the web-comics group Playground Ghosts, which features such comics as Wondermark and Fluff in Brooklyn.

Since its creation, Reprographics has undergone some stylistic changes, moving away from the high-contrast blurs and monotone colors that had marked the early comics and progressing to more colorful surroundings, sharper images and more varied adventures. There has also been a shift from self-contained one-shot strips , to a format that also allows for longer story arcs . Since the Reprographics universe has grown, it is possible to have entire strips without Chris in them, allowing the readers to see what kinds of things happen the other characters on a day-to-day basis . Chris has also used the comic as a way to educate his readers about some of his favorite artists .

Characters

Inanimate objects

Several of the Reprographics characters are props that are given dialog.

People

Others

Educational strips

Chris has used the Reprographics strip to entertain as well as educate his readers, taking time off from simple gags and super villains to talk about various sculptors that have inspired him, (i.e. during Sculpture Week), , , and other things that are seemingly not as relevant to his art, such as the metric system .

Other strips take the readers on the road and show off some of the random road-side attractions around America's heartland, such as the Twine Ball of Cawker City, Kansas, and some strange signs posted around Amarillo, Texas.

Politics

Reprographics has refrained from making political statements with only two notable exceptions. The first was when Chris read about some teenaged girls being threatened with legal action in Ravenna, Ohio. The teens had hung large boxes around Ravenna's city center that were decorated to resemble the question-mark power-up blocks from the popular Super Mario Brothers video games. City authorities viewed this as a potential threat, fearing that the boxes might contain bombs, and the teenagers received national news attention while the city decided whether the law had been broken. In solidarity with the teens, Chris hung some Mario Blocks of his own over a creek in Boulder .

The second was made on July 17, 2006 when Mensa the Menacer was discussing his confidence that his evil aspirations for global domination and carnage would not hurt his run for political office in 2008.

Mensa: America needs a leader who is not afraid to license violence as an excuse for EVERYTHING!!!
Chris: We already have one of those.

Reprographics 2

On April 21, Chris posted what seemed to be the last episode of Reprographics. This one tells in textual format the conclusion of the "Mensa and the Giant axle" storyline. Nine days later it was revealed that the comic would be on hiatus for six months, returning in October 2007, at which point it would be named Reprographics 2: Electric Boogaloo.

During "The Great Intermission", Chris ran daily updates of various things he had made over the years (i.e. artwork, sculpture, videos, music) to keep his readers entertained until the comic resumed.

On October 5, 2007, Reprographics 2 began, and has been running since then, with updates on the Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of every week.

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