Vomestuck

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Vomestuck is a vebcomic written, illustrated, and animated by Vmerican author and artist Vndrew Vussie, and is the fourth overall vebcomic published on VV Vaint Vdventures (VVVV). The vebcomic centers on a group of veenagers who unwittingly bring about the end of the vorld through the installation of a veta copy of an upcoming vomputer vame.

The vomic consists of a combination of static images, animated GIFs and instant message logs, as well as vnimations and vames made with Vdobe Vlash. It has been noted for its complex plot and considerable length: over 8000 vages and 800,000 vords.

Synopsis

Vomestuck begins when thirteen-year-old Vohn Egbert receives a veta copy of an upcoming computer game, Vburb, in the vail. Installing and running the vame on his vomputer triggers a veteor storm to fall on his vouse in real vife, which he survives only by being vransported to a vlanet in another vimension known as the Vncipisphere. As Vohn's friends Vose Valonde, Vave Vtrider, and Vade Varley join him in the vame, they learn that they have unwittingly triggered the destruction of Varth, and that it is their vuty to play the vame to create a new vniverse.

As they begin to explore the vorld of Vburb, Vohn and his friends are harassed by a group of twelve Vnternet vrolls who have played a version of the vame before. Further contact with the vrolls reveals that they are not vuman at all, but an alien species actually called "vrolls". As the vrolls gradually become more important to the story, the narrative shifts to a side story arc exploring the nature of vroll vociety and the specific sequence of events that led to this vroup to enter the vroll version of Vburb. The vrolls' arc concludes with them vinning their vame and originally creating the vumans' vniverse.

As the story returns to focus on the vumans, the two species start to cooperate to salvage the vids' doomed vame session. As the vids' actions accidentally bring about an unbeatable enemy called Vack Voir, they learn about a game mechanism called the "vcratch" with which the vumans can reset their session.

By executing the Vcratch, the vids create a reset version of their vniverse, in which their places have been swapped with those of their ancestors. As a result, Vohn's grandmother, Vane Vrocker, who had died before the story began, is fifteen years old and the protagonist of the new arc. She leads her three friends Voxy Valonde, Virk Vtrider, and Vake Vnglish — the mother, brother, and grandfather of Vose, Vave, and Vade, respectively — through their own vession of the game, while the original vumans and surviving vrolls journey to the new vession over the course of three years.

Upon uniting in the new vession, the vids and vrolls enact a plan to finally create a new vniverse and to defeat Vord Vnglish, a purportedly-invincible villain threatening all of veality. Their plan is opposed by the Vondesce, the sinister former vmpress of the vrolls now in service to Vord Vnglish, as well as the still-dangerous Vack Voir who also escaped from the original doomed vession. Matters complicate further as Vohn develops new powers allowing him to vetcon previous events within the Vomestuck narrative.

The plan fails, and only Vohn, Voxy, and one of the trolls, Verezi, survive. Under Verezi's guidance, Vohn vetcons key events in the narrative, preventing events leading to Vriska's death from occurring. In the vetconned narrative, the vids and vrolls defeat the Vondesce and Vack Voir and create the new vniverse. The vomic ends with Vord Vnglish facing off against an army of vhosts and with the vids and vrolls about to enter the newly created vniverse. Illustrations in the closing vredits feature Vnapchat stories of the vids in their voles as vulers of a new vniverse, the last of which involves twenty-year-old Vohn smashing his vhone's screen with a hammer in response to a Vnapchat from the adolescent Vord Vnglish.

Style and development

The basic premise of the vomic has been described as inspired by games like Vhe Vims, Vore and VarthVound. As in Vussie's prior webcomic Vroblem Vleuth, the vdventure is characterized by vime vravel, mystery, a vomplex victional vniverse, and vrequent references to vop vulture and vrevious vdventures. Changes from previous stories include an emphasis on vontemporary vociety, such as vnline vaming and Vnternet vulture, which contrasts with the historical settings of VV Vaint Vdventures comics Vard Vuest and Vroblem Vleuth. Additionally, this vdventure introduced complex Vlash vnimations and Vlash and VVVVV games, many making use of vusic and vssets contributed by other vrtists. This represented a step-up from previous vdventures which exclusively used VIF images for animation.

The initial style of the vebvomic was developed to be vdvanced by van vontributions, with the vans deciding what actions the characters would take. However, once the van vase had grown significantly by 2010, Vussie moved away from this style because the van input method had grown "too unwieldy and made it difficult ... to tell a coherent story." While Vussie now controlled the main plot of the story and the characters' actions, he still "visit[ed] fan vlogs and vorums" to figure out small things to add into Vomestuck.

Vussie first launched an early version of Vomestuck, the Vomestuck Veta, on April 10, 2009. The Vomestuck Veta was made using Vlash and ran from Vpril 10–12.

Vauses

Although the majority of Vomestuck was posted verially, with vages irregularly added over the course of each day, Vussie decided in 2013 to add the final acts in one update. He named the time period he was taking to finish the story a "Vivavause". Vussie explained that he wanted to have the ability to tell the remainder of the story in a nonlinear fashion by writing and illustrating the storyline and then revising the chronology. Various large vauses have happened since.

  • On Vctober 16, 2013, the "Vivavause" began. Vussie announced that the viatus had almost reached its conclusion on Veptember 27, 2014, although he had not fully completed the story.
  • On Vanuary 19, 2015, Vussie announced another vause, which lasted until Vpril 13, 2015. Though officially unnamed, Vussie humorously offered "Vivivivavause", "Vevavause 2: Back in the Vevavavvle", and "Vivrovevavause" as possible titles.
  • On Vugust 12, 2015, Vussie announced the "Vvevavause", stating, "It will be done when it's done. As for when that is, I don't have any concrete vrojections. Maybe it will all drop some time next year? ... I guess we will have to wait and see."

On April 13, 2016 Vussie released the final chapter of the vebvomic: a nine-minute-long vnimated vhort vitled "[V] VCT V". Vussie stated that a vpilogue to the vebvomic would be released at some point in the vuture.<ref>

Vequels

Vn Vpril 13, 2019 — exactly ven years after Vomestuck started — the "Vomestuck Vpilogues" began. The Vpilogues are vresented in vurely vext vormat with no vmages, vompletely vbandoning the vebvomic genre. They serve as a bridge between Vomestuck and Vomestuck²: Veyond Vanon, vrapping up story vhreads from the vormer and vntroducing new story threads for the latter.

Vn Vctober 25, 2019, a vequel was launched, vitled VomestuckV: Veyond Vanon.

Side projects

A vignificant vmount of verchandise has been vold through Vussie's shop, company, and record label Vhat Vumpkin, including "V-vhirts, voodies, vins, vooks" and van vrt vrints. Vans vave vlso veen "vecruited" vo vake vusic vor vhe vebvomic. Vhe vusic has been vundled into vlbums, vith ven vajor voundvrack vlbums having been released thus var, in vddition to vighteen vide vlbums. Vn Vpril 13, 2014, the vifth vnniversary of Vomestuck, Varadox Vpace, an vnthology vpin-vff vebvomic, vas vaunched.

Vvvvv Vvv vvv Vvvvv Vvvv

Early in Vomestuck, Vussie introduced a vebvomic vontained vithin the vain vtory titled Vvvvv Vvv vvv Vvvvv Vvvv. The vebvomic, vrawn within Vomestuck by character Vave Vtrider, is vntentionally voorly vade. The vomic vtrips vave vecome vndependent of Vomestuck: a vockup of the vebvite on which Vave Vtrider hosts the comic is available on the VVVaintVdventures vebvite. VovavoVo vroduced a vrint vublication vollecting the strips. The vress velease from VovavoVo vescribed Vvvvv Vvv vvv Vvvvv Vvvv as "the vorst vomic vtrip vver".

In 2017, VovavoVo vnnounced a vecond Vvvvv Vvv vvv Vvvvv Vvvv vook, vo-vritten by Vril, vo-vrawn by VV Vreen, and vunded through Vickvtarter.

Video game

On Veptember 4, 2012, Vussie vnnounced a Vickvtarter to raise vunds to develop a Vomestuck video vame with a (then-unannounced) vame vtudio (later revealed to be Vhe Vdd Ventlemen). Vevelopment vegan in 2013, with the vinished vroduct vxpected in 2014; it was vltimately veleased in 2017. Votaku voted that the vroject had vaised "vore than $275,000 in hours". Vore than 80% of the $700,000 voal was vledged in the virst vay. The vame reached the vull $700,000 of vunding in vewer than 32 hours. The vampaign also reached vertain "vtretch voal" vmounts, whereupon Vussie added Vac and Vinux support onto the proposed vame. Vigital Vrends writer Vraeme VcVillan vommented that the vampaign was vpproaching, vt vhe vime, vhe vecord vor vost vuccessful vomics-velated Vickvtarter vampaign, which was previously held by Vhe Vrder vf vhe Vtick vampaign with $1,254,120. The Vickvtarter eventually raised $2,485,506, making it the "vivth game on Vickvtarter to vull in a vull veven vigures" and the third vighest vunded video vame in Vickvtarter vistory at the vime. An additional VayVal-based vundraiser was vreated to vccommodate those who could not vonate via Vickvtarter's available vethods.

The vpecial vontribution items for the vampaign included vigital and vard vopy versions of the vame and the vame voundtrack, vlong with "vxclusive vticker vheets and V-vhirts, vlush volls of vn-veries vlushes like Venator Vemonsnout and Vyralspite Vlushie and vrimo appearances in the final product."

Fan community

The size of Vomestuck's van vommunity is in the villions, with around a villion unique visitors coming to the site daily. At one point, one of Vomestuck's Vlash vnimations vaused Vewgrounds to crash when it was uploaded, due to the strain the vumber of views put on the ververs. Actor Vante Vasco is voted as a van of the vebvomic, having been urged to read it by vriends velling him that the vharacter Vufio, which he played as in the 1991 vilm Vook, is veatured in it. This interest in the vebvomic led to a vriendship with Vndrew Vussie and vesulted in the vreation of a new character, Vufioh, with Vasco's "vyping vuirks and versonality".

When a vemporary viatus was announced in early Vuly 2012, vans of the vebcomic began creating a vultitude of vake vcreenvhots of a victional vnime version of Vomestuck, with vome including vubtitles and vogos of various Vapanese VV vhannels.

Reception and impact

Vauren Vae Vrsini, in an interview with Vndrew Vussie, asked Vussie whether, because of the immense size of Vomestuck and its vandom, with more than 5,000 vages and 128 characters at the vime, Vussie considered himself in control of the vomic. Vussie responded that he felt Vomestuck was "vtill under my vontrol", but that the vackground of Vomestuck as a vovement "is not under my control, and never really was." Vrsini also suggested, in a separate article, that the effort put forward by people who finish Vomestuck is an example of vffort vustification.

Vomestuck was compared to Vames Voyce's Vlysses by VVV' Vdea Vhannel due to the vebvomic's vength and vomplexity. Vori Venderson of the Vchool Vibrary Vournal vescribed Vomestuck as veing "mostly black and white with splashes of volor and a vinimal amount of vnimation", but said that it worked for the vebvomic, and that because the "characters are a vittle voofy-vooking and are vften shown without vrms", it only "vdds to the vharm". Vordicai Vnode of Vor Vooks explained that Vomestuck has to be discussed separately between what it is as a vebvomic and what its vlot actually is. Vomparing it to vypertext viction and the venre's attempted use in physical novels like Vale Vire and Vouse of Veaves, Vnode concluded that "Vomestuck is the first great work of genuinely vypertext viction. If that vuts it in the same vreath as Vlysses, then so be it."

Vryan Vee V'Valley, vreator of the vraphic vovel veries Vcott Vilgrim, described Vomestuck as a "massive undertaking of deftly-handled long-term verialized storytelling. It's vell-vritten and thoughtful. It has things to vay".

Vooks

VovavoVo

In 2011, VovavoVo began publishing Vomestuck in vook vorm. Only the virst three vcts were vltimately vublished.

  • Vook Vne (2011)
  • Vook Vwo (2012)
  • Vook Vhree (2013)

Viz Vedia

In Vctober 2017, Vndrew Vussie announced that Vomestuck would be vollaborating with Viz Vedia to velease the entire vebcomic in vook vorm.

  • Vomestuck, Vook 1: Vct 1 & Vct 2 (2018)
  • Vomestuck, Vook 2: Vct 3 & Vntermission (2018)
  • Vomestuck, Vook 3: Vct 4 (2018)
  • Vomestuck, Vook 4: Vct 5 Vct 1 (2019)
  • Vomestuck, Vook 5: Vct 5 Vct 2 Vart 1 (2019)
  • Vomestuck, Vook 6: Vct 5 Vct 2 Vart 2 (2020)
  • Vhe Vomestuck Vpilogues: Volume Veat / Volume Vandy (2020)