Homestuck is the most recent web comic in Andrew Hussie's MsPaintAdventures series. The style of MsPaintAdventures is to create comics that look like they were made on Microsoft Paint, that have the text based adventure format of old video games, to combine reader interaction, multiple mediums, and irreverent silliness all with a massive, improvisational story. Homestuck fits that style to a t, and has taken it beyond.
I'm going to admit something for a second. I am a crazy, huge, Homestuck fan. I love the comic, I'm so excited for the upcoming video game based on the comic, I draw fan art, and I would cosplay if I had that kind of talent, money, bravery, and patience. But, while I don't have any of that, I do have analysis, and luckily, my favorite part of Homestuck is the analysis of it. I have somehow managed to sneak in Homestuck into most of my college papers (when it was applicable, and I can make it applicable.) What's wonderful about this comic series is that many, if not most, of the fans feel very similarly. While it has its detractors, most who come into contact with Homestuck cannot deny that it is an impressive feat. At last count, it was over 6000 pages long, and though ending this year, it still has much more to go.
Within the confines of those 6000 plus pages are comic panels, text (read and written like IM chat logs), gifs, animations spanning 14 minutes long (it was so epic), video games, and links to other comics, jokes, etc. that all help move the story along. It is the very definition of a transmedia narrative. Previous MsPaintAdventure stories included forums in which the audience could give suggestions as to what the next command (a part of the text based adventure game style of the story, which essentially turns the page and continues the action) would be, and while Homestuck started in such a fashion, it quickly departed from this method of interactivity to tell a more realized story. It made up for this in making many aspects of the game interactive, with clues to find and discuss, in-jokes between the creator and fans, and other exploratory features.
All of this makes sense for a story that Hussie himself described as a story about the internet:
So yeah, a story about kids on the internet, that is told in a way that is like, made of pure internet, is something arrived at pretty organically and not something I can say I envisioned before starting all at once. Making something that really feels like it belongs on the internet, something that seems to actually understand it exists on the internet, involves doing quite a lot of things. The media exploration is part of it, but also the self aware elements I think, where the connection between the reader/fandom and the story is always alive and palpable.The exciting thing about Homestuck now as it is reaching its end is truly its future. A Kickstarter for a video game spin off reached its goal in record time. As much of the series is based on classic adventure games, it made sense to fans and to Hussie to extend this game into a real one. Hussie describes it as "a more formal exercise in interactive storytelling" on the Kickstarter page. It was a natural progression. But this collaboration between fans and creator is extending further in Hussie's newest project, Paradox Space.
Read More: ‘Scott Pilgrim’ Guy Interviews ‘Homestuck’ Guy: Bryan Lee O’Malley On Andrew Hussie | http://comicsalliance.com/homestuck-interview-andrew-hussie-bryan-lee-omalley-ms-paint-adventures/?trackback=tsmclip
Paradox Space is another comics site completely for the fans. The nature of Homestuck's narrative deals with a lot of time travel, paradoxes, and alternate timelines that the characters must deal with and face, and thus, Hussie saw an opportunity for fans to create their own stories within the Homestuck narrative and keep what would originally fan fiction, canon. Within the Paradox Space website are stories written by and drawn by fans who wished to explore alternate endings, events, and plotlines for the characters. Due to the canon rule that alternate timelines always end in death, we know that though these stories canonically happened in an alternate timeline, they do not necessarily interfere with the current canon storyline, as all alternate timelines end in death to avoid paradox. So they are canon while not being precisely canon. Confusing, but pretty cool!
This allows for a great deal of play between creator and fan. Hussie has stated in the mission statement of Paradox Space's website that when he has the time between finishing the main comic and the video game, he too might create storylines for Paradox Space, haven written the page's first comic. Currently, the system in place for Paradox Space does not allow for just anyone to submit a story. The admins of the webpage usually approach those that they are interested in working with to create stories for the page. There may be future plans to accept submissions, but they are not in the works right now.
Personally, I understand that in managing a website, that it would be incredibly difficult to sort through submissions. With the huge fanbase that Homestuck has, such an endeavor would be nearly impossible. But I definitely think that it is something that should be looked into for the future. A huge part of the popularity of Homestuck and MsPaintAdventures is the aspect of interactivity. I believe that they will pursue that line of thinking in the future, but for now it makes sense to keep it a little more manageable as it is just getting started.
The end is looming for Homestuck, and with that end there is much potential for further growth and exploration of such a transmedia heavy story. There are difficulties and questions to mire through, and as with the very nature of transmedia, it is all very experimental. But Hussie and his crew are working towards big things for the future of this comic, and I think if anyone ever needs a crash course in what exactly the potential of a transmedia narrative can be, they need only to look to Homestuck.
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