I think the reason Homestuck has such staying power is that deep down, every millennial has two warring wishes – to become a cool hero and make a new perfect world with your best friends, or to be struck by a big space rock, killing us instantly.
Do you have any recommendations for equally pretentious webcomics?
Sure thing!
The Abominable Charles Christopher – In theory, it’s about a mute yeti having whimsical adventures. In practice, like 80% of the strips have nothing to do with that, instead focusing on the daily lives of various forest creatures whose primary pastime seems to be acting out a surreal parody of human society. Also, there’s a couple of primal gods involved in some capacity, and this elderly bear whose blood-soaked tragedy of a backstory keeps popping up completely at random. The end result is like a very bleak sendup of Garfield-style newspaper comics with a complicated epic fantasy yarn just sort of happening in the background.
Minus – The daily life of a little girl who is, to all indications, completely omnipotent. Her various misadventures range from cute and heartwarming to utterly horrifying in their implications, and the comic doesn’t distinguish between the two; both extremes are presented in the same soft-toned, storybook-like fashion. The author vanished off the face of the Internet some years ago, and their comics are now accessible only via independent backups (one of which is linked above); by fortunate coincidence, Minus is one of their few works for which a complete archive still exists.
Rho – Highschool magical realism with a post-ironic twist. Basically, picture Scott Pilgrim if the protagonist was a. a teenage girl, and b. not an irredeemable douchebag, and that won’t be exactly right, but you’ll be in the same general ballpark. Largely episodic with few recurring characters, it ends abruptly and without resolution, so if you’re looking for an actual arc, this one may not be the best choice. It was published like a decade ago, when screen resolutions were lower, so the dialogue can be kinda squinty on a modern desktop, and also the site sometimes runs porn ads – fair warning on both counts.
Andrew Hussie: has his characters sit on a ship for 3 years outrunning evil immortal creatures that want to kill them that they’ll have to confront when they get to their new universe
Griffin McElroy: Hold my beer
Andrew Hussie: ends his project with a lesbian wedding that only lasts one snapchat frame
just moving along like everyone else 