When MS Paint ruled the fandom world: An innovative webcomic, 10 years later

Enlarge / Webcomic creator Andrew Hussie broke the fourth wall repeatedly within many of his creations. Here, he drew himself next to a person named "Ms. Paint," a play on the fact that his creations were part of the "MS Paint Adventures" collection. (credit: Andrew Hussie)

Rewind to the Internet of 10 years ago and you'll find an era that made sense for an odd, beloved webcomic like Homestuck. It debuted in April 2009 as a one-off lark from avid webcomic maker Andrew Hussie, and its modest premise-four teenage friends playing a video game-could have been a one-and-done comic miniseries. (Its arrival within the appropriately named MS Paint Adventures, or MSPA, spoke to its modesty.)

From there, the series gradually expanded in scope to become an epic science fantasy story about children from different cultures coming of age without adult supervision. They learn to work together in spite of cultural differences, individual traumas, and the feeling of isolation that comes from being an adolescent in a rapidly changing world-and, in doing so, they defy an evil time traveler with the power to create a new and "better" universe.

Homestuck is a product of its time. It's built on media tropes from when it was written, and its aesthetic evolved with the Internet's tastes, from jokes about TV shows and adventure games to social media and anime references as the story wrapped up in 2013. But one thing that remained constant and set a tone for how creators would operate online in the years that followed is the tight-knit relationship between Homestuck's author and his fans.

Read 11 remaining paragraphs | Comments