And even if you can do it well, which I never could, it takes years to make a story.' Brown stated that the service would be 'groundwork for a whole new way to communicate', and went as far as describing the service as being a ' YouTube for comics'.

Brown explained that 'it's so difficult and time-consuming to tell a story in comic book form, drawing the same characters again and again in these tiny little panels, and just the amount of craftsmanship required. The service was originally envisioned as a means to allow anyone to create their own comic strip without needing artistic skills. announced that it had acquired the company the Bitstrips comic service was shut down, but Bitmoji remains operational, and has subsequently been given greater prominence within Snapchat's overall platform.īitstrips was co-developed by Toronto-based comic artist Jacob Blackstock and his high school friend, journalist Jesse Brown. In 2014, Bitstrips launched a spin-off app known as Bitmoji, which allows users to create personalized stickers for use in messaging apps. The service achieved increasing prominence following the launch of versions for Facebook and mobile platforms. Bitstrips was first presented in 2008 at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, and the service later piloted and launched a version designed for use as educational software.

Brown and Blackstock explained that the service was meant to enable self-expression without the need to have artistic skills. The company's web application,, allowed users to create comic strips using personalized avatars, and preset templates and poses. Bitstrips was a media and technology company based in Toronto, Canada, and founded in 2007 by Jacob Blackstock, David Kennedy, Shahan Panth, Dorian Baldwin, and Jesse Brown.

Old bitmoji