Andrew Hussie - Television Tropes & Idioms

"What's weirder? Bug aliens having boobs or bug aliens having their own Will Smith? This is the kind of question serious writers of science fiction ask themselves all the time."

— via his former Formspring

Andrew Hussie is a webcomic artist best known for MS Paint Adventures, who rose to particular fame with his latest project Homestuck. He's only been doing MSPA for the past four years, though - for several years before then, he tried his hand at a fairly diverse array of webcomic endeavors and wrote a small number of graphic novels (only one was actually published). Other old endeavors of his include ironic reviews of muscular horse pornography (no longer available), and Jandrew Edits

, a series of humourous edits of Star Trek: The Next Generation in collaboration with Jan Van Den Hemel.

It's abundantly clear that Hussie is a man who knows his tropes really, really well. Practically everything he does (but especially MSPA) plays with, subverts, double-subverts, deconstructs, exaggerates, hangs lampshades, and otherwise works the hell out of the conventions of multiple genres at the same time. Also, if This Very Wiki is anything to go by, he's very, very quotable.

Most of his older work is archived here

. He maintains a Twitter account

and a Tumblr blog

, and previously maintained two Formspring accounts, both now defunct; the Formspring accounts are archived here

Webcomic works by Hussie:

Team Special Olympics
- Humanimals
- Inappropriate Time For Ham
- Zoosmell
- Scribblettes
- 3 Cheers for Steak!
- A Steep Price for Pie
- Riddler's Gammon
- What A Scoop!
And It Don't Stop
Neon Ice Cream Headache
MS Paint Adventures
- Jailbreak
- Bard Quest
- Problem Sleuth
- Homestuck
Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff

His greatest project (which doesn't actually exist):

Dr. Brinner: Ghost Psychiatrist

Published books:

Whistles (out of print, and available online)
Problem Sleuth (three volumes so far, covering first thirteen chapters)
Homestuck (two volumes thus far, covering Acts 1 and 2 respectively)

Tropes related to Hussie himself or his non-MSPA works:

Art Evolution: Aversion. Hussie's skill level is unknown but far above the work that he usually does. His writing and skill with Flash however, have improved.
- The art of Whistles and And It Don't Stop really display how far beneath his skill level MSPA is.
- One need only look at the cover art for Homestuck's second volume◊ and compare it to the actual panel it's a representation of to see an immediate difference.
Berserk Button: Wireless mice, the only subject where his raging about them on Twitter is not a massive exaggeration Played for Laughs.
Better than a Bare Bulb
Creator Thumbprint: Glasses, especially shades, all manner of treatments of hiphop/rap and its surrounding culture, clowns, heavy video game influences, and always a dash of Crazy Awesome.
Dada Comics: A very sizable portion of his earlier work is like this, as well as Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff. Shades of this still crop up in MSPA every so often.
Deadpan Snarker: Dear God, he's a veritable master of it.
Doing It for the Art
Embarrassing Tattoo: Of Hella Jeff. We shit you not.
Famous Ancestor: He claims to be a descendent of Doc Holliday (despite Doc Holliday having no recorded offspring), who served as the partial namesake of Doc Scratch of Homestuck.
Gag Lips: The subject of oh so much Self-Deprecation and Memetic Mutation.
Genre Busting: Individual genres (or mediums, for that matter!) mean little to Hussie; most of his work shows something of a genre blend, best exemplified in Homestuck.
Genre Savvy / Dangerously Genre Savvy
Kindhearted Cat Lover
Large Ham: Online, anyway; he's actually much more subdued and calm in person. Sound familiar?
Let Us Never Speak of This Again: His foray at Olive Garden
One-Man Army: Consider Homestuck's legendary update rate coupled with the occasional Flash animation/game. Though he's supported by an art team which occasionally contributes assets to said Flash animations and a music team that does all but a small few musical samples, it's still impressive.
Mix-and-Match Critters: The Humanimals. Very much Played for Laughs.
Mundane Utility: A recurring gag in Humanimals, where any given character's unique physiology is utilised to, say, refill the printer at the office.
Mythology Gag: At this point, a sizable sample of his older work has been referenced in Homestuck. Yes, even the horse porn reviews (hint: pay attention to Equius's taste in art).
Self-Deprecation: Surprisingly frequent on his part, both in his work and otherwise. It provides an interesting contrast to how he's much more well known for going the other way.
Teasing Creator / Trolling Creator: The trolling creator. You cannot defeat Hussie in a creator-trolloff. He is simply the best there is.
- The Walrus Was Paul: Occasionally.
Troll: Sometimes.
"WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR, ANDREW."
"gummy bears yellow cake and ribbed condoms"
—(via his former Formspring)
When He Smiles: D'awww.◊
Worst News Judgment Ever: The primary point of What A Scoop!.