Sticks Minus Stones

Sticks Minus Stones (SMS) is a webcomic written by Scott Ealey and Ben Malcolm and illustrated by Scott Ealey, Ben Malcolm, Allen Kirkland, and James Waywell.

Conception
Scott Ealey and Ben Malcolm thought of the webcomic at Panelcon 2011. The two took turns adding on to a drawing, and in the end it showed a stick figure aiming a pistol at another stick figure. The two worked on three more drawings of the same format, and Ealey posted the last one on, naming it "Stick Figures Get Stupid".

The art was observed by cartoonist Allen Kirkland—the owner of the website Fliptoons—who complimented the two. After an online discussion, the three joined cartoonist James Waywell to make a new webcomic naming it Sticks Minus All the Stones. Ealey, Malcolm, and Kirkland also joined Fliptoons.

Despite the comic being called Sticks Minus All the Stones, Kirkland posted the first strip on Fliptoons calling it "Sticks Minus Stones - #1" and changing the text at the bottom to "Sticks Minus Stones". However, the name stuck.

Production
The format of Sticks Minus Stones is a single page with the comic itself on it. However, page can vary in length and number of panels. The comics are drawn using BlinkWare Paint and Hyunsung Draw. Although the comics are generally static, some break the fourth wall. For instance, in #59 (November 2015), a man looks at the reader and says, "Dude, we're being read."; following, everybody freaks out. And in #73 (January 2017), two boys poke a panel, and the panel's top line keeps slanting until it lands, crushing the boy.

Books
Sticks Minus Stones has been published as books by Coolman Publishing.

Animation
In 2016, Sticks Minus Stones was adapted into an animated web series. The series was released on from 2016 to 2018 and Fandom BLOOP since 2018.