I’m sure there are plenty of successful animators on the net, but none spring to mind that have done as well as the creators of homestarrunner.com. Birthed around eight years ago by two brothers Matt and Mike Chapman, the site was just an outlet for practising theirflash animation skills. Since then it has become somethingof a giant amongst mere midgets in the flash world. Normally I’d think it was hard to gauge any artist’s success on the web, but the Chapman brothers make it easy. Averaging over ten thousand hits a day, they refuse to sell any advertising space, opting instead to sell abunch of branded products. And like most artists, they sell as much as they can. Stuffed toys, hoodies, polos, baby clothes, DVDs, posters figurines, bumper stickers… theyhave even released an audio CD, Strongbad Sings. The album has had music featured in the game “Guitar Hero”, while the website boasts collaborations with several bands including They Might be Giants.

So the strip is both popular and successful from an artistic and commercial view point. Why is it different? Well, it’s silly without being stupid. It’s clever without trying to be.The effort level that obviously goes into all the animations is way past impressive. Even the crude original cartoons, are done with detail and thoughtfulness rarely seen in  weekly updated sites such as this. The thing you willnotice first is the amount of content available to watch. Each cartoon seems to produce some sort of spin-off, with the spin-offs dividing, and multiplying again. Even the characters on the site make their own cartoons and animations.

The most prolific cartoon from the site is called Strongbad Emails. Strongbad (pictured in the lab coat) answers a new email every week from a viewer. Firstly he makes fun of the viewer’s name and address, then cruises off on a crazy tangent in an attempt to answer the question in the email. Generally this is the part where you get to meet the rest of  the HSR gang, including Home Star Runner himself.

To top off nearly 200 Strongbad email animations, there are plenty of holiday specials, live action puppet show of the characters, games, music, podcasts and a few free downloads. If you do find yourself in the games section, have a go at one called Secret Collect, very addictive. I’dlove to mention a few favourite cartoons, but there are too many. I can only recommend spending at least half an hour a day for the next few weeks trying to catch up.