One of the longest English works is coming to a close. For over five years, Andrew Hussie has created 8,752 pages of the internet’s most popular comics.
Homestuck started on July 13, 2009 as a choose-your-fate comic. He worked on internet forums, beginning the comic with silly quips and asking readers to direct the character’s actions.
When popularity spiked and his muse soared, Hussie decided to close the polls and direct the comic himself.
What is this about? You might ask. In short, it’s a comic about four friends playing a video game.
In a more detailed lighting, it’s about the universe.
Homestuck centers around four thirteen year old children; John Egbert, Rose Lalonde, Dave Strider, and Jade Harley. The comic begins on John’s birthday which also happens to be the day a Beta released game called SBURB, comes in the mail.
He begins to play with his friends and it turns out to be the harbinger of the apocalypse.
They all enter the game and their homes and family inside are transported to another realm where there are monsters. As they fight, they’re contacted by aliens call Trolls.
They all try to work together to win the game. When players win SBURB, they create a new universe and build a new home to live on.
A malicious being called Lord English intercepts them and brings destruction to their game session.
Both the trolls and children’s hope is to restart the game and back travel to the new game they started.
To do this, they needed to travel for three years to a totally new but parallel universe.
Things are dreadfully different here and they’re all faced with even more enemies than they had hoped.
The reason this comic is so popular is in part to the complex story and plot.
Things a normal person would shrug off in another story are direly important to Homestuck.
There are also a lot of pop culture references like Betty Crocker, Nicholas Cage, and Con Air.
The comic isn’t exactly exclusive, either. Graphics, videos, and even the sound tracks are all a collaborative effort.
Homestuck has a total of twenty albums. Each album ranges from eleven songs to seventy-seven. Although some of the music may not reach the comic, Hussie includes them in credit.
The fanbase of Homestuck is shockingly large. Thousands of fans flock to anime and comic conventions, dressed up as their favorite characters.
Even famous actors such as Dante Basco, the voice of Zuko from Avatar the Last Airbender, read the comic. It started as a small quip about a role he played but it escalated to the actor, himself reading all 8,000 pages.
Due to the comic’s inspiration, teens and young adults decided to come up with charities and good deeds.
One of the most well-known charities is called the Can Town Project. It was inspired by one of the characters in the comic who made a city out of canned food.
Fans bring cans from home and they build huge towns and after they’re done taking pictures, they donate all of the cans to the homeless and needy.
The comic even has a video game coming out. Through Kickstarter, Hussie asked for donations that would help him fund a brand new video game.
The community heard and although he asked for $500,000, they raised over 2 million dollars in thirty days.
The game is in production now and the money is being put to good use.
Homestuck is on one of the longest hiatuses since the comic started. Andrew Hussie is taking a break from updating the site to write and draw some concepts for the video game.
The claim is that he is going to finish the comic and upload it all at once.
No one has any idea what is going to happen and how things are going to end. The date is still up in the air and fans are checking back constantly to see if the final update has been done.
Over five years of writing and animating, it all comes down to these final chapters. The end is near and everyone expects great things and I doubt Hussie will disappoint.
Kristen Mabry
Features Editor