Reproduce and adapt: Homestuck in print and digital (Re)Incarnations

Abstract

Homestuck is a hypermediated webcomic adventure that tells its story through music, animation, gameplay and even the structural features of its Web site interface. But it has also been 1) published in print as a book series and 2) ported to a new host to preserve content that used Flash Player, which is now obsolete. Both print publication and digital port simultaneously reproduce and recreate the first iteration of Homestuck – that is, they do and do not adapt it. This article uses adaptation theory to approach the under-researched question of the transition of a work from a digital format to print and porting. It identifies key sites of adaptation in what might otherwise be called versions and discusses the consequences of changes in medium/mode. The article highlights areas where the interactive mode must be adapted to showing or telling and explores how new interactive modes can emerge from a codex. It argues that Homestuck’s metafictional narratives in particular must be adapted in these new versions because they arise from an interactive relationship with the reader. Because the earlier webcomic has now been wholly replaced by the port, understanding these changes as adaptation allows us to see what is at stake the preservation of digital-born works. Homestuck’s versions show adaptation theory to be a vital lens for understanding the consequences of the differences that arise when multimedia digital-born works are reproduced with other technologies, an occurrence that will only grow more frequent over time.