Homestuck

In it’s digital form, Andrew Hussie's Homestuck seems to make use of everything the web affords. Homestuck has interactive panels, associated music and audio, and countless other multimodal features that help make it so effective [1]; yet it also exists in print. In fact, Homestuck was successful enough in it it’s print version to produce four separate books. How can a comic whose very lifeblood seems to be the Internet survive completely separated? In analyzing Homestuck, the book, it becomes more and more apparent that the two mediums may not be as disparate as people would think. Through the use of URLs in the top outer corner, we see that one can make use of print affordances to convey digital ones as well. The artifact in the top left is a strip that cannot feasibly be converted to print, and Hussie manages to create a better experience by using both the digital and the print modes[2]. 

Clearly, the print version contributes something that improves upon the digital experience. The integration prevents it from necessarily losing anything, but for the cost of printing it to make sense, it must offer some advantages of it's own. Of which, it’s ability to store memory is the most important [3]. A physical form through which memories and emotional bonds can be stored yields such a great deal to dedicated readers and the efficacy and permanence it grants all readers makes for a more enjoyable experience for all. The ability of the print version to allow for annotations and permanent decisions makes each page feel more impactful than on the web. The Homestuck books are a great example of the powers of print which typically go ignored and underappreciated.

1. O'Brien, David, and Scott Voss. "Reading Multimodally: What Is Afforded?" Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 55, no. 1 (2011): 75-78. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41309650.

2. Wood, Karen D. "Bridging Print Literacies and Digital Literacies Using Strategy Guides." Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy55, no. 3 (2011): 248-52. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41320377.

3. PANKO, JULIA. ""Memory Pressed Flat into Text": The Importance of Print in Steven Hall's "The Row Shark Texts"." Contemporary Literature 52, no. 2 (2011): 264-97. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41261835.