Finally, as always, I owe any of my success to my family and friends, who simultaneously support and motivate me in all my endeavors. Contents Section 1 – Introduction – “Let Me Tell You About Homestuck.” The Past Procedures of mspaintadventures.com Imitating a Video Game The Suggestion Box and Dynamic Directing The Growth of a Movement How to tackle Homestuck – a Summation Section 2 – Webcomics and The Graphic Novel – “= = >” Graphic Novels, Comics, and Webcomics Page and Panel Layout Motion, Progression, and Closure: Telling Stories through Images Template Imagery and Repetition Breaks in the Visual Patterns Dialogue and Narrative Prompts More than Comics on a Webpage – a Summation Section 3 – The Video and the Game – “Ascend” Moving Pictures The Audio Addition An Aside – Instrumentation, and Remix Animated Ascension Playing a Narrative Multimedia Disruption – a Summation 1 4 7 9 13 16 18 19 21 23 29 34 38 43 44 46 52 54 55 60
66 Section 4 – The Internet and Digital Experience – “The Medium.” A Quest of Futility? Sburban Jungle Stuck in the Middle An Eternal Game Home, Screens, and Windows – the Separation Connection Dissolving Digital Distance – a Summation Section 5 – Conclusions, and the Future of Homestuck – “Hiatus-Stuck” Reference Figures Works Cited 68 68 72 75 77 80 87 89 93 - 97 98 -100
character through a series of puzzles or challenges; the audience of active readers gave suggestions readily, hoping to influence the progression of the story. The initial results for his early audience directed webcomics were, as could be expected, humorous and often nonsensical, rife with silly tangents and non-sequiturs. However, suggestions were selectively chosen by Hussie, and the plotlines were more or less created as Hussie received reader direction, after establishing a simple initial narrative structure, i.e. a man locked in a jail cell. These early comics were moved from the online forum he originally posted them on to his new domain at mspaintadventures.com, where he developed further stories. At the official website, suggestions for the story and where it should proceed from the situations presented in the current panel could be submitted by any reader to a suggestion box, and Hussie would pick suggestions he liked. The suggestion box is currently defunct, and almost entirely absent in Homestuck (MSPA ?viewpage=new). Suggestions were anonymous, and reflect a blurring boundary between one reader, the collective audience, and the author collaborating to continue production of an in-progress story. The suggestion box was an early contract for shared control of the story’s direction between author and reader; the author allows the reader to direct the final product of the story by actively suggesting the progress of the player who is “playing” the game. When done during the story’s “live” production, a reader could both experience and influence the story in real time. A particular level of control was established by Hussie in directing the suggestions, picking the most entertaining ones or the suggestions most favorable to the progression of the story he envisioned. The author mediates between the narrative and the reader, and thus maintains the structure and has final control of the story, but allows
responding specifically to each separate reader. Instead, he created a unique digital medium in which he, an active author, responds to his wider audience. The timing for Homestuck’s creation and acceptance is not just a reflection of the advances in internet and networking technologies, but how in Western cultures we are increasingly more connected and conditioned to the physically displaced digital world of the internet. Hussie’s method of responding to his audience has evolved, but his audience too has evolved in response to his methodology. By the time Homestuck began accelerating in its popularity in the middle of its second year, Hussie’s audience had shifted to a largely young adult based readership, as he describes in an interview with graphic novelist Bryan O’Malley, author of the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels: I think the site really did tend to attract more people in [their 30s] or a bit younger, due to a much more clearly telegraphed parody of text adventure games and those people would dig it for that reason -- the nostalgia and novelty surrounding that particular storytelling mechanism. […] Homestuck added a lot more elements, more engaging story and characters, very much in the vein of young adult content […] For most of them, I do think the text adventure elements were either lost on them or were just something that had no appeal other than something that is an acquired taste […] But at the onset, that archaic gaming parody stuff, and the slow, peculiar pacing it entails, tends to just be one of the many, many barriers to overcome in engaging with this and learning how to enjoy it. (Hussie “Interview”)
a location of publication, allows obscure works to not just sprout, but blossom, and allows non-traditional comics to be produced and reach an audience despite being considered publishing “risks”(6). Homestuck follows the traditions of Underground Comix and other webcomics by relying on a defined schedule or methodology of publication. Unlike traditional print comics and other webcomics however, Homestuck is produced serially but not on a set schedule. Homestuck is created and released in real time, but the end result is aimed at creating a unified story so it is more akin to a graphic novel. Homestuck’s longer continued narrative structured around a main plot readily contrasts to the small reoccurring cast with a narrative that doesn’t directly have a plot connecting each strip, as seen in Jim Davis’ Garfield or Tim Buckly's webcomic Ctrl+Alt+Del (6). Page and Panel Layout The narrative of Homestuck, like any other narrative, is filtered through its medium of presentation that forces a specific interaction among readers in a process called focalization: More so than illustrated and picture books, graphic narratives rely on an even blending of semiotic modes to convey meaning. The quasi-endless diversity of pictorial styles and techniques begs the question of how visual narrative [limits] narration as opposed to focalization […] (Horstkotte 331) Constructing a graphic narrative that successfully tells a story through multiple media channels without sacrificing story is difficult in traditional graphic novels. Traditional
and splattered with his interests in photography and music (MSPA ?s=6&p=002212). Repetition of detail and visual moments is crucial in solidifying thematic elements and moments of importance in the story, and is something found commonly in popular graphic novels such as Maus or Watchmen (Horstkotte 337). Standardizing particular events with visual and thematic patterns makes gives readers a reliable place to start with each character in a story featuring dozens, while also giving a standard language for how every character begins their journey through the story of Homestuck entails – beginning in their rooms with a visual reflection of their interests alongside their unique physically distinguishing features. The recycling of other works is a creative staple in many digital works, and is a symptom of digital media’s penchant for remixing as a feature of postmodernism. While most images are hand drawn by Hussie, simple objects and public domain images dredged from internet searches are borrowed, edited, and collaged from online sources in a true postmodern digital fashion that displaces and reorients visuals with new meaning. As an example, John’s house can be seen littered with harlequin and “prankster” imagery, illustrating John’s dad’s penchant for all things comical. As John exits his room, the narration points out that one of the “paintings” resembles the actor Michael Cera, an otherwise non-sequitur moment explaining to readers that they “always thought he looks a lot like Michael Cera,” despite the narration’s implication that it likely is not an image of him (MSPA ?s=6&p=001947). This self-aware moment in the story reflects a joke regarding Hussie reusing basic imagery for scenic but otherwise trivial effect. Much later in the story we encounter a scene that visually and narratively echoes this previous moment, although this time the painting and the narration make it
indicate the narration is continuing its part in divulging the story’s progression, as opposed to reacting to the reader issuing commands. The narrative voice is in itself very important for keeping the tone and format of Homestuck as a written narrative imitating a game clear. This is crucial, as the narrator consistently creates an illusion that the story actively and dynamically involves readers as it progresses, but creates expectation instability when navigating across panels. More than Comics on a Webpage – in Summation Visually, Homestuck features many essential elements of graphic narratives. The artistic style and character depictions appear to be largely cartoon based, but the very nature of Homestuck as a digitally crafted story allows for a wide amount of variety and flexibility in its presentation. Much of the story progresses through standard “panel” pages, combining a simple image with some sort of narrative text or dialogue. Elements of typical comics translate to a degree, but Homestuck is created aware of the potential provided by digital production. A high level of image editing and recycling takes place, and the page layout organizing the story is just as important as the content within the page. Through just images and text, there is much variance found in how Hussie tells his online tale – at its heart, Homestuck is a long standing graphic narrative. But the internet allows for more traditionally static media types, text and images, to find new contexts and relationships that simply cannot be duplicated on a physical page, and Homestuck finds creative ways to break out of traditional graphic narrative patterns.
Its loading screen mirrors previous loading screens related to the game world of Sburb, showing a spirograph design that spins and shifting in appearance, as the animation loads “game assets,” loading the actual animation but acting as if it were gearing up to boot a game. Unlike most prior animations, Cascade’s sheer length within the broad narrative warranted giving readers an ability to pause the animation. Its page is uniquely structured, allowing room for the animation to grow and fill the screen as it progresses – a first for the narrative and a reflection of its importance and scope as a climactic animation. The expanding animation also creates an effect that the animation is “breaking” the typical layout and boundaries of previous animations, both to highlight the animation’s importance and also echo the effect of it “overtaking” the website. The animation divulges information and advances plot similarly to the other animations in the narrative, compared to the effort behind trying to sum this critical moment across several panels. Cascade features several different songs mixed together that play over the course of each “section” of the animation, with each section covering a different plotline and connecting it to the other plotlines, connecting them at the climax of the animation and the narrative itself. However, Cascade is unique because at this pivotal moment, we not only get a wrap up of many wandering plot points within one animation, but we once again fall victim to the narrative’s penchant for misdirecting our expectations and playing with the feelings of the reader. Without delving deep into the plot depicted, Cascade represents the flow and collision of all the plotlines in a critical moment. The Earth Kids and the Troll children conspire to form a plan to try to fix the damage that has been done to their game sessions and gain an advantage over the seemingly omnipotent and unbeatable opponent they have
Works Cited Andrews, Jim. “Videogames as Literary Devices.” Videogames and Art. Eds. Andy Clarke and Grethe Mitchell. Chicago: Univerity of Chicago Press, 2007. 54–59. Print. Brown, Kornhaber. “Is Homestuck the Ulysses of the Internet?” Idea Channel. PBS. Web. 1 Nov. 2012. Crockett, Tobey “The Computer as a Dollhouse (excerpts)” Videogames and Art. Eds. Andy Clarke and Grethe Mitchell. Chicago: Univerity of Chicago Press, 2007. 219–225. Print. Ensslin, Astrid and Alice Bell “New Perspectives on Digital Literature: Criticism and Analysis.” dichtung-digital. 2007. Web. 26 Sept. 2012. Fenty, Sean, Trena Houp and Laurie Taylor. "Webcomics: The Influence and Continuation of the Comix Revolution." ImageTexT: Interdisciplinary Comics Studies. 1.2 (2004). Dept of English, University of Florida. Web. 26 Sept. 2012. Gordon, Ian. "Let Us Not Call Them Graphic Novels: Comic Books As Biography And History." Radical History Review 106. (2010): 185-192. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 26 Sept. 2012. Horstkotte, Silke. and Nancy Pedri. "Focalization in Graphic Narrative." Narrative 19.3 (2011): 330-357. Ohio State University Press. Print.
Hollinger, Veronica. “Cybernetic Deconstructions: Cyberpunk and Postmodern” Storming the Reality Studio. Ed. Larry McCffery. Duke University Press: London, 1991. 203 – 218. Print. Hussie, Andrew. “FLASH IS HARD.” andrews blog. Blogspot. Web 20 Mar. 2013. < http://andrewhussie.blogspot.com/2009/04/flash-is-hard.html> Hussie, Andrew. Interview by Bryan Lee O'Malley. 'Scott Pilgrim' Guy Interviews 'Homestuck' Guy: Bryan Lee O'Malley On Andrew Hussie. Comics Alliance, 2012. Web. 30 Oct. 2012. Hussie, Andrew. “Interrogative remarks followed by statements that involve various forms of punctuation.” andrews blog. Blogspot. Web. 20 Mar. 2013. < http://andrewhussie.blogspot.com/2009/11/interrogative-remarks-followed- by.html> Hussie, Andrew. “MSPA.” MsPaintAdventures. What Pumpkin, 2007. Web. 26 Sept. 2012. <http://www.mspaintadventures.com> Hussie, Andrew. “Newgrounds.” :O. Tumblr. Web. 20 Mar. 2013. < http://mspandrew.tumblr.com/post/11898695495/newgrounds > Jameson, Frederic. “From Postmodernism, or The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism.” Storming the Reality Studio. Ed Larry McCaffrey. Duke University Press. London. 1991 219 - 228. Print McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. New York: Harper Perennial, 1993. Print.