anotherwitchofbreath:

ok so i REALLY dont wanna involve myself in fruitless direct argumentation here but id like to maybe nip this mentality in the bud for anyone who has already seen arguments to this effect.

so mspa and homestuck were, for a long time, the projects of one guy with like, a tip jar, some limited merch and other sources of income to rely upon. to even reach the scope of what “homestuck the work” is pre-epilogue, hussie had to go full time with the project, find people to contribute to the comic, expand its scope, pay astronomical monthly hosting costs, travel to events, expand merchandising so as to pay for all this, etc. and even still it took years and years to get up to this point.

in this era, artists who create truly expansive works are taking on an unimaginable amount of financial risk, for themselves AND for anyone who they bring onto their team. there’s no socialist art patronage via the state, theres no guaranteed housing, income, healthcare etc that allows one to work at art without worrying for personal or familial survival. since our world is very much a bleak capitalist hell, even choosing pursuit of art means taking ones survival into ones own hands.

do i know corporations have suspect motives? hell yes i do, they literally are defined by a sole existential commitment to profit seeking and expansion, which overrides any other consideration individuals in the corporation might have. do i know that corporations that patronize art can become very meddlesome? absolutely. but without a stabilizing financial basis that corporate patronage provides, there was never going to be more homestuck to begin with.

homestuck is a historically unique work, an incredible one at that, but its appeal is somewhat niche, and the costs of even keeping it alive, let alone continuing it, have been very daunting. hussie’s decision is, ultimately, i think, very wise if survival of this saga is to be ensured. it is up to hussie and the WP crew to struggle for the independence of their work within the context of a new source of patronage, but yknow what? ive got a funny feeling like they’ll succeed in that struggle if they have enthusiastic enough fans supporting their work, to demonstrate that the homestuck saga, in its unaltered form, is populae enough to benefit viz.

so, let the works stand for themselves. for the love of god, dont decide that you think that homestuck is “too corporate” now because it has a strong financial backer instead of always being in a state of uneasy existential risk. because if you make a prior judgment and move to other stories, what are you going to do? are you going to make sure you dont touch any other corporate properties? because i hate to say it, but narrative media is pretty well under the corporate thumb nowadays!! is there nothing published by another company that you like? do you see anything that isnt independent of corporate influence and say, “this is superwholock to me”?

capitalism and the corporate structuring of industry, media, services etc need to be done away with. maybe some day the arts will be fully emancipated from capitalist control and truly belong to the people once more. but that is a huge, protracted struggle that will require massive coordination–a heavily individualized aversion to consuming anything tainted by the corporate is not a significant part of that struggle.

in the meantime, ill keep believing in the people who made the best artistic work ive ever seen, and be glad that their survival has been guaranteed for that much longer with thos latest move.

this take also kind of presumes that Viz has no interest in innovating in their approach to media, which is unlikely given they knew and appreciated what Homestuck even was in the first place. That can’t be said for, say, Marvel and DC. 

Snzzz muh what a boring cynical take. Please be less lazy about criticism guys it’s getting really boring to read. We literally know NOTHING about what’s coming and theres plenty of ways WP’s experience in media innovation could be an influence on the way Viz distributes content. This is unprecedented and exciting stuff. 

Post series on this very subject forthcoming in about an hour btw.