Okay, I feel the need to pop in here, only because I feel like there’s something that needs to be understood about the way Homestuck operated as a phenomena, and why it was, literally, a game-changer in the cosplay and convention worlds.
As a prereq, hi, my name is Alex, I ran the first ever Homestuck ask panel (I am sorry about that) and I ran Homestuck photoshoots at major conventions on the US east coast from 2011-2014. I’ve drawn crowds of over 700 people and managed to keep grey off the walls and other people. Homestuck has almost gotten me arrested. Twice. And it was, in everything it did, a complete and utter whirlwind. I wouldn’t have changed it for the world.
Here’s me at NYCC, leading that photoshoot circa 2012.
And Otakon, earlier that same year.
So the thing about Homestuck is that it’s purely Western media. Most big fandoms up until this point on the anime convention scene were Japanese-based, and therefore took a few years to percolate into popularity over in the states. Either there was an issue with accessibility (waiting for translations, finding subs online) or for younger fans waiting for dubs to air on television. Video games were harder because for oft-cosplayed things like RPGs, they usually had to be played, which meant they had to be able to pay to access them. Homestuck was the perfect storm of a couple of these things:
1- It was free and easily accessible. No worries of phishing scams, viruses, or illegality. You could even easily read it on your phone.
2- The source material was written for a younger generation, the ones who grew up on computers, but at this point pretty much anyone who operated primarily online (which, cosplayers, as a subculture, do).
3- The base costumes were EASY. I once calculated the numbers out to prove a trend that there were more of certain characters cosplayed just on the availability of finding something other than the Beta Kid’s shirts. (The answer was Dave, John, Rose, and Jade, which for those people in the HS fandom during the years I mentioned, I think you’ll agree this was about the breakdown).
4- With such a massive cast of characters, there was something for everyone.
And the thing about Homestuck is that when it got big, it got big SO QUICKLY it was straining. Here’s an image of a Homestuck photoshoot I did at a major Florida con, Megacon, in March 2011. As a reminder, this con drew over 50,000 people. It is not small.
This was the entire group.
Fast forward three months later to a smaller show- Metrocon, which boasted about 7-8 thousand attendees.
And, for reference, the following Metrocon took 6 pictures just to capture the crowd as a whole. When Homestuck arrived on the scene, it exploded. And it was due, mostly in part to Gamzee and Eridan’s killing sprees in Act 5. The trolls really did cause the comic to blow up.
But here’s the thing: the revolutionary part of Homestuck was it’s inclusiveness. AUs ran so rampant that anyone could cosplay ANYTHING from their closet and they were accepted amongst the group. And it changed the way we view cosplay as a whole! There’s huge debates on “real cosplayers” and what “counts as cosplay” and it’s Homestuck who was a major driving force in that phenomena, and set the standard for new cosplayers just starting out! Hell, Homestuck got me to start sewing my own costumes. My first sewing project was Jade Harley’s original outfit, putting buttons on a skirt I got at Goodwill. My most recent project took me over 60 hours and was drafted, patterned, and sewn entirely by me.
The Homestuck fandom in 2011-2014 was so, so incredibly important in ways I can’t even describe. I had people get engaged at photoshoots I ran. People made lifelong friends. I had someone, once, who had heckled me for cosplaying Homestuck, purposefully find me a year later at the same show (while they were dressed as Karkat) and thank me for convincing them to read Homestuck, because the support and inclusiveness of the fandom stopped them from committing suicide.
Yes, Homestuck was crazy. But that phenomena shaped a lot of the way we see the cosplay and convention scene now. I know we tend to think of some of the more outlandish aspects as wholly negative, and if I could change one thing I’d go back and make sure everyone sealed their damn makeup. But all of it, exactly as it was, was so, so important. And we need to remember that it made an impact on literally millions of people’s lives.
So allow yourself a little happiness for the things about the Homestuck fandom that, quite literally, changed the world. It wasn’t good. It wasn’t bad. It was an experience.
