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How It Began...
Chapter 1: A Wee Is Born
In September of 2003, Guy Tellefsen, Gughunter of BYOND.com,
held a contest to generate chat icons for his Athenaeum project. He created
the template below, along with a couple of examples (the dapper red-haired
gent and the alien), and challenged the BYOND members to create their
own characters, using a pre-specified pallette. The contest was a great
success, generating a wide variety of icons for the program.
  
Chapter 2: WeeGuy's Online Travels
In April of 2004, the base doll resurfaced at Pixelation,
a pixel art forum, as ~shundi (a member of both communities) presented
Guy's challenge to the Pixelation members. It was here that I first stumbled
upon the WeeGuy. I remember some super-hero icons (created by ~shundi,
if I remember correctly) really got my attention: Spider-Man, Daredevil,
Hellboy, etc. I thought it would be fun to try the Fantastic Four, so
I downloaded the template and went to work. Four icons later, I was hooked.
I decided to create some more Marvel characters.
   
As I began sharing my collection with comics fans around
the web, the response was encouraging. I began taking requests for characters,
and the collection grew from the original four to well over a hundred
icons. Some people suggested that it would be an interesting collaborative
project, and by this time I felt my collection needed a proper home, so
I decided to create a small community-driven site for them.
Chapter 3: WeeGuy Finds a Home
So that's how—a year after the original contest at BYOND, and 6 months
after first meeting the WeeGuy myself—the Wee! site was born. Still
less than three months old, the site is growing up fast, with hundreds
of submissions from dozens of creative and talented contributors.
Everyone is invited to contribute to the already existing
categories or suggest new categories. You can create fan art of your favorite
commercial characters or design your own original WeeGuys. The possibilities
are only limited by your imagination.
I look forward to seeing the creative results of your efforts. So have
fun! Wee!
~Samson
04 Nov. 2004
P.S. I'd also like to recognize a few people who inspired
the site's creation: Totto Renna, whose SuperTotto
site fueled my Wee Marvel obsession; Keops,
whose Anime Chibi collection made me realize what a great collection of
pixels you could build with a little determination and hard work; and
Genius329, who wouldn't let me
brush off the idea for the site in the first place, and then backed up
his talk with a ton of great work.
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