Andrew Hussie (born August 25, 1979) is an American author and artist. He is best known as the creator of ''
Homestuck
''Homestuck'' is an Internet fiction series created by American author and artist Andrew Hussie in the first half of the 2010s. The fourth and best-known of Hussie's four ''MS Paint Adventures'', it originally ran from April 13, 2009 to April 1 ...
'', a multimedia
webcomic
Webcomics (also known as online comics or Internet comics) are comics published on a website or mobile app. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or comic books.
Webcomics can be co ...
presented in the style of a text-based graphical
adventure game
An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or Puzzle video game, puzzle-solving. The Video game genres, genre's focus on story allows it to draw ...
, as well as other works in a similar style that were hosted on his website
MS Paint Adventures
''MS Paint Adventures'', abbreviated ''MSPAdventures'' or ''MSPA'', was a website and collection of webcomics written and illustrated by Andrew Hussie. According to some estimates, ''MS Paint Adventures'' was the largest collection of comics on ...
.
Career
Early works
Andrew Hussie began posting ''Jailbreak'' in 2006. This was posted on a
discussion forum
An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are often longer than one line of text, and are at least temporar ...
and took the appearance of a text-based graphical adventure game. Hussie would post simple drawings with text, and other forum users suggesting commands for the game that Hussie would quickly respond to with a rapidly drawn image.
In 2007, Hussie created the website
MS Paint Adventures
''MS Paint Adventures'', abbreviated ''MSPAdventures'' or ''MSPA'', was a website and collection of webcomics written and illustrated by Andrew Hussie. According to some estimates, ''MS Paint Adventures'' was the largest collection of comics on ...
to host his comics; its first three works were ''Jailbreak'', ''Bard Quest'', and ''Problem Sleuth''.
''Problem Sleuth'' would run for over 1,600 pages produced over one year, and during this time Hussie was creating up to 10 pages a day.
''Homestuck''
Hussie produced the multimedia webcomic ''
Homestuck
''Homestuck'' is an Internet fiction series created by American author and artist Andrew Hussie in the first half of the 2010s. The fourth and best-known of Hussie's four ''MS Paint Adventures'', it originally ran from April 13, 2009 to April 1 ...
'', which started in April 2009 and ended in April 2016.
It tells the story of a group of four kids who play a computer game called ''Sburb'' and inadvertently cause the end of the world. ''Homestuck'' included images, text,
Flash animation
Adobe Flash animation or Adobe Flash cartoon (formerly Macromedia Flash animation, Macromedia Flash cartoon, FutureSplash animation, and FutureSplash cartoon) is an animation that is created with the Adobe Animate (formerly Flash Professional) p ...
s, and interactive elements.
''Homestuck'', like Hussie's previous works, started with reader-submitted commands for the characters to follow, but Hussie moved away from this style because, he said, the fan input method had grown "too unwieldy and made it difficult... to tell a coherent story." While Hussie now controlled the main plot of the story and the characters' actions, he said that he still "visit
dfan
blog
A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...
s and
forums" to figure out small things to add into ''Homestuck''.
Initially, Hussie updated ''Homestuck'' regularly, usually about three times a week. However, there were often long gaps between updates, including a pause of over a year starting in 2013, and another long pause starting in 2015.
At one point, Hussie described working on ''Homestuck'' as less like a full-time job and more like an "all-encompassing lifestyle," saying that the time he spends on the work occupied something just short of all of his waking hours.
''
Vice
A vice is a practice, behaviour, or habit generally considered immoral, sinful, criminal, rude, taboo, depraved, degrading, deviant or perverted in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character tra ...
'' noted that ''Homestuck'' "wildly popular during its seven-year run";
as of 2011 it was receiving an average of 600,000 unique visitors each day
and as of 2015 it was receiving upwards of 1 million unique visitors a day.
Hussie said, "The bigger the fandom got, the more controversial everything was... Practically everything that happened was a serious point of contention—a reason to argue, discuss, to generate pages and pages of heated dissertation on what everything means, and why certain things are good or bad. All of this was supposed to be part of the experience. It was part of the cat-and-mouse game between the author and reader."
By the end of its run, the entire work contained over 800,000 words across at least 8,000 pages.
Fans contributed to the final work in a number of ways, including producing all of the music. Over a hundred musicians and artists contributed to the final work,
with Hussie commissioning artists for important updates.
By 2011 there were eight albums of
''Homestuck'' music.
''
Vice
A vice is a practice, behaviour, or habit generally considered immoral, sinful, criminal, rude, taboo, depraved, degrading, deviant or perverted in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character tra ...
''
magazine
A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...
noted that ''Homestuck'' "became infamous for its sprawling, overly complicated, semi-improvised, deeply self-referential plot, driven partly by reader input and speculation, as well as the incredible and sometimes terrifying vigor of its fandom."
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...
's ''Ideas Channel'' compared ''Homestuck'' to ''
Ulysses
Ulysses is one form of the Roman name for Odysseus, a hero in ancient Greek literature.
Ulysses may also refer to:
People
* Ulysses (given name), including a list of people with this name
Places in the United States
* Ulysses, Kansas
* Ulysse ...
'' because of the complex and densely worded storytelling the series often utilizes.
Sequels and spinoffs of ''Homestuck''
''The Homestuck Epilogues'' was a text-only work released in April 2019. It consisted of 190,000 words in a nonlinear novel that was co-written by Hussie and four other creators; Cephied_Variable, ctset, Lalo Hunt, and Aysha U. Farah.
A sequel to ''Homestuck'', titled ''Homestuck^2: Beyond Canon'', began in late 2019. While the story was outlined by Hussie, it was to be written by a team of writers. According to its website, it was updated regularly for about a year "until it was paused indefinitely," with the rest of the comic to be released when it was completed.
A videogame based on ''Homestuck'', called ''
Hiveswap
''Hiveswap'' is an episodic adventure game developed by What Pumpkin Games and overseen by Andrew Hussie and Cohen Edenfield. Based in the universe of Hussie's MS Paint Adventures webcomic ''Homestuck'', it focuses on a girl who is accidentally ...
'', was first announced in 2012 and raised over $US2.4 million through a
Kickstarter
Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...
. Initially, its release date was given as 2014, but had a troubled development, including switching from 3D to 2D years after development started. It was later broken up into four episodes: the first episode of ''Hiveswap'' was released in 2017 and its second episode was released in 2020. Two other videogames were based on ''Homestuck'', ''Hiveswap Friendsim'' and ''Pesterquest.''
Hussie has been a managing member of What Pumpkin, LLC. According to What Pumpkin's website, Hussie officially left What Pumpkin in early 2020 to work on projects unrelated to Homestuck. According to the notice, Hussie still retains ownership of the Homestuck intellectual property, but has discontinued all creative involvement in any future Homestuck projects.
Other works
Hussie produced a visual novel called ''Psycholonials''. It was first announced in December 2020, and its final episode was released in April 2021. Hussie has described it as a commentary on American politics and on the uncomfortable cult-like atmosphere surrounding the ''Homestuck'' fandom.
Personal life
![D-Clussie](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/D-Clussie.jpg)
Andrew Hussie was born on August 25, 1979.
Hussie graduated from
Temple University
Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public state-related research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist minister Russell Conwell and his congregation Grace Baptist Church of Philadelphia then called Ba ...
with a degree in
computer science
Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...
. He once lived in Guam and had said that he has "moved well over fifty times". As of 2010 he was living in western
.
Works
;Videos
* Andrew Hussie, with Jan Van dem Hemel, created parody edits of ''
Star Trek: The Next Generation'' in the late 2000s.
* Andrew worked with his brother to make a video series about an eccentric
Bigfoot
Bigfoot, also commonly referred to as Sasquatch, is a purported ape-like creature said to inhabit the forest of North America. Many dubious articles have been offered in attempts to prove the existence of Bigfoot, including anecdotal claims o ...
researcher, called ''Barty's Brew-Ha-Ha'' (2006 to 2011)
;Webcomics by Andrew Hussie
* ''Team Special Olympics''
* ''Jailbreak''
* ''Bard Quest'' (June 12, 2007, to July 6, 2007)
* ''
Problem Sleuth
''MS Paint Adventures'', abbreviated ''MSPAdventures'' or ''MSPA'', was a website and collection of webcomics written and illustrated by Andrew Hussie. According to some estimates, ''MS Paint Adventures'' was the largest collection of comics on ...
'' (March 10, 2008, to April 7, 2009)
* ''
Homestuck
''Homestuck'' is an Internet fiction series created by American author and artist Andrew Hussie in the first half of the 2010s. The fourth and best-known of Hussie's four ''MS Paint Adventures'', it originally ran from April 13, 2009 to April 1 ...
'' (April 13, 2009, to April 13, 2016)
* ''
Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff''
* ''The Homestuck Epilogues'' (April 13, 2019 to April 20, 2019)
* ''Homestuck^2: Beyond Canon'' (September 25, 2019 to present, but "paused indefinitely")
;Published books
* ''Whistles, Book One (The Starlight Calliope)'' (out of print, available online)
* ''Problem Sleuth'' (Five volumes, which cover all 22 chapters)
** Volume One: Compensation, Adequate
** Volume Two: This is Complete BS
** Volume Three: Suitor to the Sodajerk's Confidante
** Volume Four: Black Liquid Sorrow
** Volume Five: Sepulchritude
* ''Homestuck''
** By
TopatoCo
The Topato Corporation (styled as TopatoCo) is a widely recognized online retailer of webcomics and related merchandise. It was established around 2004 by artist Jeffrey Rowland.
History
The company was started in Oklahoma in "about 2004" by a ...
(three volumes, which cover Acts 1, 2, and 3, respectively)
*** Volume One
*** Volume Two
*** Volume Three
** By
Viz Media
VIZ Media LLC is an American manga publisher, anime distributor and entertainment company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1986 as VIZ LLC. In 2005, VIZ LLC and ShoPro Entertainment merged to form the current VIZ M ...
*** Book 1: Act 1 & Act 2
*** Book 2: Act 3 & Intermission
*** Book 3: Act 4
*** Book 4: Act 5 Act 1
*** Book 5: Act 5 Act 2 Part 1
*** Book 6: Act 5 Act 2 Part 2
*** The Homestuck Epilogues: Volume Meat / Volume Candy (2020)
* ''Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff''
;Video game projects
* ''
Hiveswap
''Hiveswap'' is an episodic adventure game developed by What Pumpkin Games and overseen by Andrew Hussie and Cohen Edenfield. Based in the universe of Hussie's MS Paint Adventures webcomic ''Homestuck'', it focuses on a girl who is accidentally ...
''
* ''Namco High'' (2013)
* ''Hiveswap Friendsim'' (2018)
* ''Pesterquest'' (2019)
* ''Psycholonials'' (2021)
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hussie, Andrew
American webcomic creators
Living people
1979 births
Place of birth missing (living people)
Temple University alumni
MS Paint Adventures
Electronic literature writers