Misplaced Pages

#758241

34-531: Jeffrey Rowland's comics are part of the TopatoCo network, along with comics such as Dinosaur Comics and MS Paint Adventures . Rowland can be considered one of the small number of professional webcartoonists , as running Overcompensating and Wigu , in addition to his merchandise company TopatoCo, is his full-time job and source of income. Rowland's comics were used along with Penny Arcade , Fetus-X and Questionable Content as an example of comics using

68-519: A character in the strip, update the comic, posting that Rowland had died. Rowland is the owner and operator of the web merchant TopatoCo , which sells T-shirts, stickers, magnets, comics, hoodies, tote bags, and other items for a number of webcomics. As of May 2012, TopatoCo sells merchandise for over 40 different comics. Comics that TopatoCo represents include Questionable Content , Dinosaur Comics , MS Paint Adventures , Wondermark , and Sam and Fuzzy . Rowland currently operates TopatoCo out of

102-496: A large fan community as made evident by the increasing amount of fan art and cosplay at comic book conventions . The rapid rise in the popularity of Homestuck led to its recognition at the Toronto Comics Art Festival for two years running, and it brought, on average, over 600,000 unique views to the site daily. An adventure game spinoff of Homestuck titled Hiveswap was released September 14, 2017, and

136-624: A large warehouse in Easthampton, Massachusetts . The various cardboard box-related adventures of running the business play a large part in Rowland's comic Overcompensating . Dinosaur Comics Dinosaur Comics is a constrained webcomic by Canadian writer Ryan North . It is also known as "Qwantz", after the site's domain name, "qwantz.com". The first comic was posted on February 1, 2003, although there were earlier prototypes. Dinosaur Comics has also been printed in three collections and in

170-509: A manner that parodied interactive fiction games. The characters' actions were originally driven by commands suggested by fans in the comics' official forum , but fan suggestions were eventually abandoned due to the size of the fanbase and the author's desire to tell a more coherent story. The comics tended to draw inspiration from video games, imitating and parodying genres such as RPGs and simulation games . They frequently reference other aspects of current internet culture. Despite its name,

204-415: A new group of authors (many of whom have worked on the series in the past) under the name "Homestuck Independent Creative Union", spearheaded by Hiveswap composer James Roach and Hussie acting as Executive Producer. Updates are planned to be monthly and several have already been published. On April 2, 2018, the site was updated to automatically redirect to Homestuck.com, although the majority of content on

238-505: A number of newspapers. The comic centers on three main characters, T-Rex, Utahraptor and Dromiceiomimus. Comics are posted every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Every strip uses the same artwork and panel layout; only the dialogue changes from day to day. There are occasional deviations from this principle, including a number of episodic comics. North created the comic because it was something he'd "long wanted to do but couldn’t figure out how to accomplish... [he doesn't] draw, so working in

272-433: A prison cell, first launched on September 25, 2006. The first page of Jailbreak is the only panel of any MS Paint Adventures work actually created using MS Paint ; Hussie created the rest of Jailbreak and later webcomics using Photoshop . Jailbreak was written entirely as a forum adventure, and the first suggestion anyone posted was taken, however ridiculous, leading to a rambling and haphazard story line. Jailbreak

306-412: A selfish, bitter newscaster ; and Gina, a college student and part-time employee of a video store. The structure of When I Grow Up is very similar that of Rowland's second comic, Wigu . It includes five different story arcs, which are often interrupted by short stories or single strips. When I Grow Up was hosted on Keenspot for some time, but Rowland eventually moved it to his own server. Wigu

340-455: A single linear storyline. In Bard Quest , Hussie provided choices as hyperlinks in a choose-your-own-adventure format. It was the first adventure to be hosted on its own website, but was ultimately left unfinished due to the difficulty Hussie faced in maintaining the complex web of branching storylines. Bard Quest was updated from June 12 to July 6, 2007, after which the site was left on hiatus. A parody of interactive fiction games and

374-404: A step-up from previous adventures which exclusively used GIF images for animation. Ten major soundtrack albums have been released under the comic's own record label, What Pumpkin, in addition to fourteen side albums. Homestuck has a large following and fandom. Homestuck has been compared to James Joyce 's Ulysses in relation to the webcomic's complexity and how the task of finishing it

SECTION 10

#1733094052759

408-412: A visual medium like comics isn’t the easiest thing to stumble into." Ryan North started Dinosaur Comics during his last year of his undergraduate degree. In a 2016 interview, he said he "wanted to do something with comics [but] I couldn't draw — still can't draw. I didn't realize that there was such a thing as writers in comics. I thought it was all one person." At about the same time as he came up with

442-437: Is a partially canon continuation of Homestuck that ran from April 13 to April 20, 2019. This also is formatted differently from the other adventures, as there are no pictures. There are two different plotlines, a "more canon" one represented by meat, and a "less canonical" one, represented by candy. Homestuck: Beyond Canon is the second most recent work of Homestuck's franchise. It was launched on October 25, 2019, and continues

476-507: Is a spin-off of Homestuck . Within Homestuck , the comic Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff is written by the character Dave Strider, and several actual comics were produced by Hussie. It is presented in a different format than the other adventures, formatted more similarly to that of a traditional comic, having multiple panels per page. Other works have been sequels of MS Paint Adventure stories, but never hosted on that website. The Homestuck Epilogues

510-505: Is an example of effort justification . Homestuck ' s Adventure Game Kickstarter reached approximately $ 2,485,506 of a pledged $ 700,000 by the ending of the fund, and had 24,346 backers. The video game was expected to be released some time in early to mid 2015, but was delayed to January 2016 and then again to January 2017 until September 14, 2017, when Hiveswap was released. Hussie also stated that he will make an epilogue for Homestuck with Viz Media's help. Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff

544-671: Is inspired by games like The Sims , Spore and EarthBound . As in Problem Sleuth , the adventure is characterised by time travel , mystery, a complex fictional universe, and frequent references to pop culture and previous adventures. Changes from previous stories include an emphasis on contemporary society, such as online gaming and Internet culture , which contrasts with the historical settings of Bard Quest and Problem Sleuth . Additionally, this adventure introduced complex Flash animations and games, many making use of music and assets contributed by other artists. This represented

578-411: The film noir genre, Problem Sleuth began by presenting three detectives who are attempting to escape from their respective offices, though the story quickly turned into a pastiche of video games and science fiction. Problem Sleuth ran from March 10, 2008, to April 7, 2009. Unlike its predecessors, it received a proper ending, becoming the first complete adventure. It is the second-longest comic on

612-508: The MS Paint Adventures site is still available on Homestuck.com. Pages operating through the Flash software were converted by workers at VIZ Media into HTML formats or video files. Andrew Hussie said that he had been thinking about the obsolescence of Flash and that it was never his intent for MSPA to last forever "or to concern myself with maintaining a labyrinthine, crudely-coded website for

646-443: The MS Paint Adventures website redirects to homestuck.com ; all works prior to Homestuck are available at this URL, while later works such as Homestuck: Beyond Canon are on their own websites. MS Paint Adventures is still available online, albeit in a slightly buggy form, at its website. Jailbreak , the first adventure written by Andrew Hussie, was originally a forum game following an unnamed man as he attempts to escape from

680-596: The adventures of a little boy named Wigu Tinkle and his family. Each chapter of the comic represents one day in Wigu's life. Wigu is an intelligent child with an active imagination who uses much of his free time to watch television and play video games , where he encounters the beings of Butter Dimension³ , primarily the intergalactic heroes Topato (a flying potato whose catchphrase is "Spring into action!" and whose primary defense mechanism consists of being made entirely of poison ) and Sheriff Pony (an eloquent Space Pony who, as

714-566: The comic in its "10 Wicked Awesome Webcomics" list. Cracked.com named Dinosaur Comics one of the 8 funniest webcomics on the internet. In 2005, it won "Outstanding Anthropomorphic Comic" in the Web Cartoonist's Choice Awards . Soon after, in August 2005, Dinosaur Comics was accepted into the Dayfree Press. In 2006, the blook Dinosaur Comics: Huge Eyes, Beaks, Intelligence, and Ambition

SECTION 20

#1733094052759

748-492: The comics are six-panel strips, using clip art that North found on a CD he had purchased. Every strip uses the same art, with occasional exceptions, such as the mirror universe comics which uses the art but reversed. Dinosaur Comics has received several awards and recognitions. It was named one of the best webcomics of 2004 and 2005 by The Webcomics Examiner. Wired listed Dinosaur Comics as one of "Five Webcomics You Can Share With Your Kids" and PC Magazine included

782-517: The concept of a fixed-art comic, North received a school assignment to, as he described it, "do something interesting with the Internet." He was assigned a group, and his group was given the URL qwantz.com. After some time, his group had done nothing and North decided to upload some comics to the site. The first Dinosaur Comics strip was posted on February 1, 2003 and was called "Today is a beautiful day." All

816-492: The online store TopatoCo as well through advertising, and the site's own store and record label, What Pumpkin. Music used in the comics is sold through Bandcamp . In 2014 a majority of merchandise began a slow migration to We Love Fine. In October 2017, VIZ Media announced acquisition of the publishing rights to Homestuck , and their plans to republish the graphic novel adaptations of Homestuck starting in April 2018. Today,

850-404: The plot of Homestuck and its epilogues. The new webcomic was at first a collaboration between What Pumpkin and Snake Solution Studios LLP. It started with a new writing team led by Kate Mitchell and Andrew Hussie , who both later resigned from the writing team and the comic was put on hold indefinitely on December 25, 2020. On October 8, 2023, it was announced that production had been restarted by

884-510: The site's comics have been created primarily in Adobe Photoshop , not Microsoft Paint , other than the first page of Jailbreak ; Hussie decided after that page that telling a story using Paint was not feasible. Over time, the comics evolved from simple static images and captions to frequent animations set to original music , and occasionally to interactive games created in Flash and HTML5 . One adventure, Homestuck , has given rise to

918-441: The storyline reveals, excretes vanilla ice cream instead of fecal waste. Topato excretes sour cream, which he also uses to shave). Wigu was nominated for the 2004 Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards categories Outstanding Short Form Comic and Outstanding Story Concept. Wigu was originally intended to end on December 31, 2004, but resumed on April 18, 2005. The webcomic ended again on December 31, 2005 so that Rowland could continue

952-680: The title as a series of printed books. It was intended that there be a new book every month, but due to various delays, only three have been published, and Wigu returned to its original online format on November 22, 2006. On September 19, 2004, Rowland began another comic, Overcompensating , a journal/daily blog comic about his life. Overcompensating , though clearly fictitious, does appear to have some reality in it. Caricatures of real life people such as Richard Stevens , John Allison and Vera Brosgol make appearances, while other characters, such as Baby, do not exist. In April 2005, Rowland predicted and then 'faked' his death by having Weedmaster P,

986-478: The web to create "an explosion of diverse genres and styles" in Scott McCloud 's 2006 book Making Comics When I Grow Up is a webcomic written by Rowland, which ran from June 14, 1999 until January 1, 2002. It takes place in the fictional town of Shallow Brook, Oklahoma . The main characters were Neal, a young African American scientist working for the U.S. government; Roger, an unemployed slacker ; Zoe,

1020-487: The website so far, after Homestuck , with 1,674 pages. Homestuck is the longest adventure hosted on MS Paint Adventures with over 8,000 pages and over 800,000 words. It ran from April 13, 2009, to October 25, 2016, and followed four teenagers as they play a reality-altering video game that brings about the end of the world. They must work with an alien species from another universe to create their own universe and essentially become its "owners". Homestuck 's basic premise

1054-453: Was a webcomic created by Jeffrey Rowland. It was publicly launched on January 7, 2002 and was also part of the Dumbrella bulletin board. Wigu is the successor to When I Grow Up and derives its name from the earlier strip's initials. There have been some guest appearances from When I Grow Up , but Wigu is otherwise a different comic with a new set of characters. The comic is centered on

Jeffrey Rowland - Misplaced Pages Continue

1088-540: Was a runner up for the Lulu Blooker Prize for comics. 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, in April 2016 MS Paint Adventures was the largest collection of comics on the Internet, containing over 10,000 pages among its five series. The comics were written in serial works or "adventures" in

1122-462: Was only drawn to a vague conclusion, and Hussie considers it unfinished, but wishes to leave it as is. This led to the creation of the MSPA site and the closed format of later adventures. In 2011, a short official ending was added to Jailbreak as a callback during a notably lengthy Homestuck hiatus. The second adventure, Bard Quest , was an experiment in creating multiple, branching paths rather than

1156-409: Was produced with funds contributed by fans of the comic via Kickstarter . This project raised nearly $ 2.5 million, exceeding its goal of $ 700,000 in a little under two days, at that time being the 6th largest Kickstarter drive. A followup titled Homestuck: Beyond Canon was launched October 25, 2019. MS Paint Adventures supported its author financially , formerly through the sale of merchandise on

#758241