It all started way back in 2006. Shawn Tuckley — aspiring cartoonist, avid video game fan, and occasional contestant on MTV’s Next — gazed upon the then-current landscape of mediocre gaming webcomics and said, “I can do better.” And so he did: in one glorious, Viagra-feuled evening, he wrote, penciled, inked, colored, and posted 4 fully realized new gaming comic strips that would revolutionize the world. While initially derided as “amateur trash” on the Something Awful forums where they were first posted, word began to spread to gamers across the web: finally, a REAL comic for REAL gamers had arrived. And so, Shawn registered his own domain name, christened his incredible new creation Red Ring of Death, and the rest is history.
Red Ring of Death would go on to have a glorious decade-long run, changing everything about webcomics along the way, constantly staying one step ahead of its closest competitors. Shawn Tuckley was hailed as a legend, a genius, and (allegedly) a sexual dynamo. But tragically, this run of greatness would not last: in the prime of his career, Shawn’s legacy would be cut down by scurrilous false allegations of crimes that he could not have possibly committed, allegations that would warp the man into a shell of his former creative self. During the lead up to Shawn’s trial and eventual (wrongful) incarceration, Red Ring of Death would descend into a bizarre and angry strip, a reflection of Shawn’s twisted and heartbroken soul. It is no wonder that, upon his conviction, Shawn would tragically delete his website and scrub the entire archive of Red Ring of Death from the internet, never to return.
That is… until now. A few years after Shawn began serving out his sentence, I discovered my old archive of Red Ring of Death strips that I had cataloged since the strip began, one I had assumed was long lost. With the (eventual) permission of Shawn Tuckley and his legal team, I began reposting Red Ring of Death on Twitter at @RRoD_Comic, introducing Shawn’s masterwork to a whole new community of fans and reconnecting with old fans along the way. It’s such a testament to the staying power of Red Ring that it could still resonate with true gamers all over the world, even to this day!
And so, finally, we’ve revived Red Ring of Death’s true home: RedRing-Nation.com, where it stood as a bastion of creativity and hilarity for one precious decade. Not only will we be posting the entirety of the Red Ring of Death archives which you can read front to back, we’ll also include guest comics, commentaries, Shawn’s pre-Red Ring strips, other projects, and much much more.
In the meantime, feel free to shoot us an email at sean@redring-nation.com, or follow us on Twitter – outside of this site, its the best place to connect with the Red Ring community online!
And perhaps, one day in the (far, far, far, far) future, Shawn will be released from prison and continue his masterwork! Until that day, we’ll be here awaiting his triumphant return! Long Live Gamer Nation!!