Category: Comics

Comics, Fanfiction, PoptropiCon Island

Piñata Man: A Poptropica Fan Comic 💥🪅

Magic Kid

Piñata Man is a quirky, wanna-be superhero whose dream is to prove himself to the Mighty Action Force! This comic follows a silly adventure of his, in which he attempts to save The Wizard’s soda which is stuck in the evil vending machine! Will he be able to do it or… will he fail terribly?

BONUS! Here’s my comic making process:

First, I get the script for the page I’m working on (the amount of times I lost it while working on this was actually insane). Using that as a guide, I make a messy doodle of what I want the panel to look like.

Second, I ink the panels. Not much to that.

Then (third), I roughly sketch out the characters. For some reason I decided to use pink for all my sketches and stuck with it the whole comic 😛

Fourth, I ink the comic and detail the characters!

Unlike the other pages, I gave this one a black background to make it ✨EXTRA DRAMATIC✨

Fifth, I color the characters and the backgrounds! The colors I used for the characters were not the actual colors of them in-game — I used simpler, brighter colors to make it easy on me to draw. 😀

Finally, I add shadows and highlights to help bring these silly guys to life!

For the rest of the pages I added speech bubbles for the very last step. But for this page there is no dialogue, so I just added a white outline on the evil soda machine.

And that’s my process! Now repeat all of that 11 times over the course of two and a half months, and you get this comic! 🥳

Thank you so much for reading this comic! It was a lot of fun to make and I hope that y’all enjoyed it. 😄

Over n’ Out!

~Magic Kid

Books, Comics

Read the Poptropica graphic novels on the PHB 📚✨

LJ

Howdy, Poptropicanos! I’m thrilled to let you know that the entire collection of Poptropica’s graphic novel series is finally available on our Comics page for your viewing pleasure. 😄

The Poptropica graphic novel series, written by Jack Chabert (aka Max Brallier, for the first installment only) and Mitch Krpata (aka Captain Crawfish), with vibrant illustrations by Kory Merritt, takes readers on an exciting journey with Mya, Oliver, and Jorge in the magical land of Poptropica.

You might be surprised to learn that the characters from the comics, conceived by Jeff Kinney, almost became an animated series. However, while that didn’t pan out, we were gifted with the beloved graphic novel series we all adore today. Although it was intended to span 12 volumes (according to former Pop CEO, Jess Brallier, in this Q&A), only 4 were ever published.

Enough with the chit-chat, LJ. Go ahead and get right to the exciting stories by clicking on any of the links below for the volume you’d like to read!

If you’re someone who enjoys having physical copies of the series, you can easily find them for sale on Amazon. Check out the links to the listings below.

I trust this delightful news has sprinkled a bit of brightness into your day. We have a lineup of exciting posts coming your way in the next few weeks, so keep an eye out for them. In the meantime, dive into some reading—I certainly plan to! 🤓🍀

Comics, Creators, Member Gifts, Membership, Social Media, Uncategorized

Phantom Pop Creators make an artistic return 👻

Agent Bubbles

Hello again, Poptropicans! Dropping by with a few updates!

Unfortunately, the Creator’s Blog still hasn’t been active since the end of February, but there have been small updates on social media and additions — or in one case, a subtraction — to the game itself.

First, let’s show off some wonderful fan art features from the official Pop Instagram. Click the artists’ names to view the original posts!

Copy Cat by @strawbebbyjess
24 Carrot juice meme by @happyclonetrooper
Early Pop comics, part 3 by @krazytalez
Pop doodles by @poptropicaprobs
Art styles challenge by @mac.arttack
Pop OC by @invisible_b0nes
Popsona by @cattilso
Black Widow by @aisto.li
Pop OC by @a.jbox
Pop AU by @prince_elixir_
Busting out by @ask.poptropica.villains
MVB at your door by @happyclonetrooper

The Creators also announced this month’s member gifts: a White Phantom Rogue costume, White Phantom Rogue Power that turns you partially invisible, and a White Phantom Butterfly Follower. 🦋

The ensemble is a little unusual compared to most other outfits in the game, particularly because of its monochrome color palette. Nonetheless, it’s interesting and quite refreshing!

Meanwhile, non-members and members alike can go shopping with the new rotation at Adventure Outfitters, now stocked with swords aplenty. If only these Astro-Knights came with the long-lost island itself! ⚔️

Have you been keeping up with the Daily Comics from the in-game map? After 300+ strips from the series which began its daily showings in July 2022, the comic strips have been reset. So rather than continuing on with the story, which had ended on a cliffhanger, the strips have been removed and are now being re-uploaded from the beginning. Seems like this was just another way for Pop to manufacture novelty!

Finally, long-time Poptropica Creator Jonathan Pitcher posted a couple tweets on his personal account related to his work for the game: a piece of concept art for the Multi-Tool in Steamworks Island, and compliments to pop band AJR for being his muse as he works.

So, are you about to join a masquerade while donning your phantom costume? Will you listen to the music of the night as you work late into the days on fanart? Are you interested in going down once more into the antics of Jorge and Oliver?

Whatever you plan on doing, all I ask of you is that you think of me and the PHB team as you continue on your adventures!

…I’ll see myself out.

Castori honorem ~ Smart Bubbles

Comics, Daily Pop, Fan Art Features

Daily Poptropica Comics Return — Read Them All Here! 💥📰

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans! The Poptropica comic strip is back! 🌪

Starting this week, Poptropica is posting a daily comic with one strip each day in-game, which you can access by clicking the top banner on the map. However, the PHB will do you one better: you can read ALL of these previously released strips on our Comics page! 👀

Follow along on the adventures of Oliver and Jorge as they hop from island to island trying to make their way home — outside of the wacky world of Poptropica! You might recognize these boys from the Poptropica graphic novel series, which (as the Creators’ Blog realized) is not the same as the comic strip, and actually came out after it. Mystery of the Map, the first graphic novel, just won “Best Comic” in the Poppies — and is also fully archived on our Comics page! 🌟

Thanks to Dizzy Feather for the pics!

Speaking of the PHB’s archives, some of you may know that we saved many of the old Pop strips through the efforts of one super-fan back in 2020. Just recently, however, the rest of the missing strips have been uncovered thanks to another fan, Nezt50! 🥳 You can find these recovered comics in Part 3 in our Comics archive, involving adventures in a few worlds that seem to parallel those from the game, like the underground mole people of Crisis Caverns, years before its release.

Poptropica’s comic strips ran daily for a period of time from 2014–2016 and were available on various online platforms. They were written by Paul Gilligan and illustrated by Kory Merritt, who is also the artist for the graphic novels.

Although the comic strips ended on a cliffhanger with the boys arriving on an island of Dr. Frankensteins, there’s no indication yet of whether the story will continue. However, with over 300 strips to share, Poptropica could be posting for a while before we get to that point — though we may have our answer by this time next year! 📅

In other news, enjoy Poptropica’s latest Instagram stories. Thanks for showcasing (and visiting) the Poppies awards, Pop Creators! 🥳

Pop Comics promo by @PoptropicaCreators
Poppies highlight by the PHB (@poptropicahare)
Pop OCs by @failgex

Anyway, enjoy the comics! Whether you log in for each day’s drop or read them all at once in the PHB’s Comics archive, worlds of chaos await. 💥

~🐠

Comics

Catch up with Poptropica’s comic strip 📰💥

Slanted Fish

Hey Poptropicans—did you know that Poptropica has its own comic strip? It’s true, and now, you can catch up with most of the series here!

In these comics, two young heroes, Oliver and Jorge, get thrown into the foreign world of Poptropica and have to survive as they hop from island to island full of silly and unpredictable challenges. You might recognize these boys from the Poptropica graphic novel series, which actually came out after the comic strips did. Both were illustrated by Kory Merritt, and the comics were written by Paul Gilligan.

Poptropica’s comic strips ran daily for a period of time from 2014–2016 and were available on various online platforms. These days, though, they’re harder to find. Fortunately, one super-fan recently put together all the comics so the rest of us can enjoy them without much digging.

Thanks to weeks of searching and piecing by Invisible Ring, the Poptropica comics are now available on Google Slides, with Part 1/2 starting from the beginning (as the above strips show) and Part 2/2 picking up from where the first part left off. There are over 300 strips in total, so settle in for a nice leisurely read! ☕️📰

The adventures entail monkey people, vegetable Frankenstein monsters, a Wizard of Oz world, and more—funnily enough, none of the places they visit are actually from the game, but as these are official comics, they can still be considered canon!

Believe it or not, Invisible Ring mentions there have been more strips published, though they have yet to be found. These missing strips explore islands featuring themes of black and white, Atlantis (though not in the style of Mission Atlantis Island), and even a library.

Anyway, enjoy the comics from the links above, or find them again anytime on our Comics page under Pop Plus from our site menu. Merry Christmas and happy holidays from the PHB! 🎄

Just in time for the holidays! (picture credit: Poptropica, 2014)