On April 13th, 2016, the final Homestuck update hit the internet, exactly seven years after it began. Homestuck is a webcomic written and mostly drawn by Andrew Hussie, creator of the website MSPaint Adventures (named because all of the comics he posts there are primarily drawn on Microsoft Paint). But the word “webcomic” doesn’t quite describe all of Hussie’s creation. While the majority of Homestuck’s pages are panels of comic-style drawings with captions, at various points in its run are flash videos with music and detailed action sequences and even eight-bit video game segments that require the reader (or rather, player) to explore an area and interact with other characters in order to experience that part of the story. Homestuck has always been an interactive medium. At first, Hussie took reader requests for what to have the characters do next, in the style of text-based adventure games. As the story grew, the suggestion box disappeared, but Hussie reached out to the fanbase to find artists and musicians to contribute to the comic.
I should also mention that Homestuck is huge, with over eight hundred thousand words plus four hours of animated footage. For reference, that’s as long as reading the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy twice, and then watching the extended edition of one of the films.
While a story that long is difficult to summarize, at its core Homestuck is the story of a group of friends who play a video game and are thrust into a big adventure. It’s a mixture of classic fantasy tropes, science fiction elements, and pop culture references. It’s comedic and dramatic in equal parts. It has time travel, boss monsters, relationship struggles, and jokes about every kind of game that’s ever been made. And it’s been a big part of the last few years of my life.
As a college freshman, I was introduced to Homestuck by some friends I had recently made in my dorm. Over winter break, I read all there was to read at that point, sending them my reactions over text message and Skype along the way. It was certainly a bonding experience between me and them. I remember sitting up way too late one night, reading a particularly intense section of the comic, messaging one of my friends about how I didn’t dare go to sleep before I found out what would happen to these characters I had come to love – and he sat up all night as well, just as eager to hear my reactions as I was to read!
After reading Homestuck, I became a part of the online fan community, on Tumblr, DeviantArt, and various fanfiction websites. Homestuck inspired an abundance of creativity; there are millions of pieces of art and stories based on its characters to be found on the internet. My sister and I, after I got her into Homestuck as well, soon started a blog of analytical essays about Homestuck’s characters and themes. Homestuck also pulled me into the fandom convention life, inspiring me not only to attend these events in order to meet more people who liked the comic, but also to make and wear cosplays of Homestuck characters to these events. I don’t consider myself much of an actor, but I fell in love with the casual enthusiasm of the cosplayers I met at cons, and I also love the opportunity to make someone else’s day by showing up as their favorite character in the flesh. I fondly remember the first time someone at a con came up to me, addressed me as “Jade” (the character I was dressed as), and asked to take a picture with me.
For me, Homestuck’s coming to an end is bittersweet. I’m going to miss the excitement of waiting for updates, but I’m also thrilled to have the story in its entirety to reread, and I know that the friendships I’ve made and pastimes I’ve found thanks to this wacky, sprawling comic will last me a lifetime.
(Also, Andrew Hussie has hinted that he’ll add an epilogue to the comic at some point, and he has a video game in development, so there might just still be something to be excited for!)
