Damaged Tape

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"It's basically Clerks meets Penny Arcade meets Theater Hopper. So is it original? Well, sortakindanoyesmaybeidontfuckingknow."

--Tony on the webcomic's originality

Damaged Tape is a Work Com Web Comic that follows four twentysomething guys working at a New York video rental store called Movies, Etc. The humor of the strip is derived from referencing and disparaging movies and the way the guys deal with annoying customers.

The guys in the comic are:

• Dave: An unpleasable, snobby, and idiotic Caustic Critic who desires to become a world-famous director. Named after the character of the same name in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
• George: The Everyman who actually enjoys his job and acts as The Lancer/The Straight Man to his best friend Dave. Named after George Bailey from It's a Wonderful Life.
• Thomas: A (dense) Gentle Giant who enjoys Science Fiction and Kung Fu movies. Named after Neo's name inside the Matrix in, uh, The Matrix.
• Tyler: A Deadpan Snarker, Tyler absolutely despises his job, his employees, and his customers. He doesn't have a problem telling them this, either. He is forced to work at Movies, Etc., because his father is the owner. Named after the infamous Tyler Durden in Fight Club.

It is drawn and co-written by Tony Martins and co-written, colored, and inked by Blockbuster employee Chris Powers. Tony created the webcomic as a fun, creative project that would help tone his artistic skills.

The webcomic recently moved to Deviant ART, available here, though it formally had its own (soon to be defunct) website where you can view older strips.

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Damaged Tape provides examples of:

• Baleful Polymorph: Dave's story in the Crazy Awesome strip mentioned above has Batman being transformed into a rabbit.
• Big Applesauce
• Caustic Critic: Dave.
• Deadpan Snarker: Tyler.
• The Everyman: George.
• The Faceless: Tyler's dad, who runs the store and is always referred to as simply "The Old Man".
• Gentle Giant: Thomas.
• The Lancer: George, to Dave.
• Manatee Gag: To when Dave had a beard ^{[dead link]}.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Averted in this ^{[dead link]}.
• Noir Episode: Appropriately titled "dave noir ^{[dead link]}"
• Perpetual Frowner: Tyler.
• Pun-Based Title: "Tea-1000", "Cold as Splice", "Hex, Lies, and Videotape", "2010: A Dave Odyssey"
  • Stealth Pun: "Tea-1000" is pointed out as this in its compliment blog.
• The Rant (the author of which switches between Flash and Topher, depending on the strip)
• Rule 34: This strip ^{[dead link]}.
• Shout-Out Theme Naming: As mentioned in the character list above, all the four main characters are named after characters from movies.
• The Straight Man: George.
• Take That: The Stinger in this ^{[dead link]}, to Burger King.
• The Western: Dave imagines being in one after seeing Jonah Hex.
• Whole-Plot Reference: This strip ^{[dead link]} to 2001: A Space Odyssey.