Review: Homestuck

Homestuck is a webcomic written and drawn by Andrew Hussie, the creator of many webcomics that are hosted on his website MS Paint Adventures. An incredibly abridged synopsis of the webcomic is, "It's a story about some kids who are friends over the internet. They decide to play a game together. There are major consequences." It would be entirely possible to spend a whole page trying to sum of even the first act of this story, but I will not. A more in-depth explanation of what Homestuck involves and looks like can be found here.

If you have heard of Homestuck before, it is probably with a bad connotation brought on by the complete monstrosity a majority of the fanbase is. These obnoxious followers, called homestucks, give the comic a bad name. It is important to purge their influence on your opinion toward the comic before getting personally involved in it. I know I had to (thoroughly).

Because it would be shame if they were to deter you from reading such a beautiful and complex piece of literature/art. Never before have I encountered a story of this depth and magnitude, and I doubt I ever will again. Homestuck weaves together characters of different personalities perfectly, making each relationship meaningful, while still effortlessly dealing with the plot. It's engaging and well thought-out. It may be confusing at times, but you can tell that Hussie put a lot of energy into making it interesting and involved.

I also really like the way it's written. Homestuck is set up sort of like an old video game, where the player had to enter commands to continue the adventure. Each panel is drawn art, most of which is by Hussie himself but sometimes he invites in other artists to contribute. Usually, they have a bit of text accompanying them to further the plot, but sometimes the page is only the drawn panel, and other times, it has a "chatlog" instead. Much like AIM or Skype chat, every character has his/her own chatname and assigned color, and in this way, the story shows dialogue between characters. Here's an example of what hat looks like:

What I love most about this comic is that there are equal amounts female and male protagonists (and antagonists), which is unfortunately rather scarce. Many stories revolve around men, or if there are females they are often reduced to either the stereotypical lover or bitch character. Every boy and girl has realistic personalities. As well, as with any story there are your romantic sub-plots, but these are not all heterosexual; this, too, is very exciting. The romantic relationships are dealt with beautifully -- sometimes they blossom into amazing partnerships, othertimes they find out they do not work and break up, just like in real life.

I easily award this webcomic an A+, for its flawlessly woven plot, deep and relatable characters, unique art, and endless hilarity. Unfortunately, I know it's not for everyone, but I still think it's worth checking out.

Here's the first page.