Oh no!
The Homestuck Independent Creative Union was announced in October 2023, claiming itself to be a “union” of creators working on Homestuck associated projects. The main selling point of this organization is that it was fully independent of Homestuck, Inc., Andrew Hussie, or any of the other existing management structures that had damaged their reputations. This was untrue from day one. The HICU was never a union and it was never independent of Andrew. In fact Andrew doesn’t just have theoretical authority, they’re actively wielding power over projects in secret.
I want to give a very important disclaimer for this “anti-HICU” looking article because I really, really don’t want to see blame misplaced because of this. I think when most people familiar with it think of the HICU, the reaction is “oh, they’re doing better” or even “yeah, I’m on their side.” I don’t fault you for this! Based on what they said about themselves many people — including me personally — gave the HICU a huge amount of good credit upfront, and they’ve done very little publicly to hurt that image. So if you’re an HICU person — if you’re with FRAF, or DCRC, or even Beyond Canon — I am not attacking you with this! I am not against your “side.” The problem here is not the creatives, it’s strictly management. Whether you’re a fan or someone trying to work with the union, you are the one at risk here and I want to help you most of all.
Around October 2023 Andrew Hussie “restructured” Homestuck’s publishing agreement with Viz Media in order to reestablish their “control over the brand.” Homestuck then announced the relaunch of Homestuck^2: Beyond Canon, run by the also newly-announced Homestuck Independent Creative Union.
The HICU is a fascinating organization. If it had been what Andrew Hussie and James Roach claimed it was, it could have been great. The stated goal was to loosen control on the Homestuck franchise and open the doors to community involvement. Instead it was a dangerous power grab — not just to consolidate control over the Homestuck property but maintain control over surrounding spaces — disguised as community outreach. The danger was never well-understood because the HICU was proficient at passing itself off as something it wasn’t, and people have already fallen victim to it.
To understand just how bad the HICU is, you have to understand what it was ostensibly for, what it promised it would do, and how it really worked.
Although it’s best known for Beyond Canon, HS:BC is a special case that I want to ignore for the purpose of this analysis. (For the purposes of this article when I talk about the HICU I’m not talking about the beyond canon comic team, I’m talking about the union as an administrative structure.) What’s very interesting to me — and I think the most critical promise the HICU makes — is the impact the union has on fanwork.
What the HICU license is for
Unlicensed fanwork
Most fanworks operate without any kind of license agreement with the IP holder, which puts them in a FAFO state.
The law gives rightsholders tremendous power over fanwork. Whether a fanwork is truly in violation of copyright or not, the legal system gives rightsholders of the original property the ability to either take down fanwork or force the issue to a court and financially ruin the people responsible with a war of attrition. Since fanwork is not-for-profit (in fact, it is often required to be), the resolution of the Morton’s Fork here is that IP holders have standing to attack fanwork by default. Fanworks are born with a gun to their head.
This creates a situation where, by default, fanwork is subject to the will of the rightsholder. The attitude the copyright holder has towards unlicensed can be anything. Some companies have a reputation for positive engagement with fanwork, like Sega. Other companies have a reputation for maintaining tight control over their brand and aggressively pursuing the takedown of anything they can, like Nintendo.
But that’s not due to any special property of those companies: as a fan creator, you are subject to the whims of the IP holder at all times. Regardless of any past behavior they could change their mind and take projects down anytime they want, so you have to keep them happy if you want to survive. There is no foundation to confidently build on — one decision can mean you have to shutter your project overnight.
This is especially dangerous because the people involved in fanwork are often already especially vulnerable, and so by simply threatening legal action companies — including Homestuck — can automatically intimidate artists with a war of attrition.
Licensed fanwork
Of course a company can choose to maintain a positive relationship with their fans by choosing not to attack fanwork, but that doesn’t change the fact that they have the ability to change their mind. There is nothing stopping them except their own policy, and so there is no safety.
Licensing exists to create a firm foundation where your rights are defined by contract, not grace. If you want to use work but you don’t have the legal right to do so, you can negotiate a license with the rightsholder that grants you those rights through contract. Once you have a license, your rights to use the material are governed by the text of license, not the whims of the rightsholder. This means a license is valuable. The holder is giving up a level of control, something valuable to them, so licenses have to be negotiated and paid for.
This is a process that’s generally prohibitive for fans, either because the costs are too high or the company is categorically unwilling to open up avenues for discussion.
Open fanwork
One way creators can give fans a confident foundation without managing individual relationships is to release the entire work under a permissive license. This is usually done not through “putting the work into the public domain” (easier said than done!) but by releasing work under an open license which gives anyone rights to use the work. There are creative Commons license is for this, but you also see things like the Open Game License, which is designed so that third-party companies can build a business on a standing agreement with the rightsholder.
Homestuck is not released under a permissive license (which is strange — there have been pushes for it to be released openly, and it’s questionable whether it’s even eligible for copyright in the first place). But in recent years Homestuck has taken a different approach to giving fanworks a foundation: the HICU.
Homestuck’s Licensing Background
Historically, Homestuck has been very bad about this. They’ve been extremely territorial about claiming ownership of anything tangentially related to Homestuck and bombarding people with legal threats. The MSPA sales faq (somehow still live in 2025) is a good starter for this. It asserts that anyone selling any items based on Andrew’s work so is doing something illegal and categorically “disallows” (read: threatens) sales of just about every category of art they can list.
Homestuck was infamous for extremely vicious enforcement of merch policy back in the con heyday.1 It’s famously true that you can’t copyright a hat, but that didn’t stop Homestuck from exploding at people over it. Rachel Rocklin got a lot of flak for being Andrew Hussie’s enforcement at the time, but time has shown that the one directing this position of hostility was ultimately Andrew, not Rachel.
As aggressive as the written policy is, Homestuck has often exceeded even this standard. For example, by demanding people take down things like free prop-building tutorials, even with no sales and no physical product. This is a particularly nasty and over-aggressive interpretation of copyright law, something I’ve already written about extensively.
This is an especially perverse position for Homestuck to take given the extraordinary liberties it takes with copyright, but that’s another essay entirely.2
But there’s also a danger in the interpersonal side of things, particularly with Homestuck. People know each other, which means whether Homestuck allows your project to exist could depend on whether its members were in Andrew’s good graces personally. This opens up the door to discrimination and a culture where an “inner circle” are able to do creative work, but others aren’t.
I’ve seen “in” people use copyrighted Homestuck assets and characters to promote their own commercial product and sell stickers of ripped Homestuck sprites to support their own media company, just in recent memory. With enforcement determined according to the discretion of executives who had personal relationships with the people involved, the main factor that determined who was safe from Andrew and who was vulnerable to legal harassment was simple favoritism.
The Promise of the HICU
According to the HICU’s self-description, it exists to create an environment somewhat similar to working under an open license. Here’s their basic self-definition:
Beyond Canon, About About the Homestuck Independent Creative Union
The Homestuck Independent Creative Union (HICU) is a union of creative contributors which was established to consolidate members of future Homestuck Projects, beginning with the launch of Homestuck: Beyond Canon.
The HICU is a totally independent entity from Andrew, What Pumpkin, VIZ Media, or any other corporate interest. Andrew has given the union a free license, so they may legally work within the full Homestuck universe and monetize their efforts to support the members. The union is both creatively and financially independent, and no outside individuals or companies are receiving any royalties or payments. Only the members benefit, and income will be distributed among members as equitably as possible.
Andrew is not creatively involved with these projects in any direct way, but remains available to the union for consultation at their request.
First, they’re calling themselves a union of creatives. Although not a formal labor union, they’re committing to act like a labor union: “an organization of workers formed for the purpose of serving the members’ interests with respect to wages and working conditions.” In fact, I’ve had Miles tell me directly to “think of the HICU as an actual union.”
- miles
- so to get colloquial about it, the Union is basically like
- the collective of Homestuck Contributors
…
- miles
- if it helps, think of the HICU as an actual union.
So the story is that HICU is bound to represent the interests not of Homestuck the company, but of its members — the creative community. They immediately establish that they’re entirely separate and distinct from any existing structures — including Andrew Hussie. Separate entities, separate responsibilities, separate interests.
There’s obviously one connection though: they have a license to work within the Homestuck property. Andrew (on behalf of Homestuck, Inc., the company that holds the actual rights) allegedly issued this organization something they’re calling a “free license”. As written, this is an act of good will toward the fan community designed to actively enable more creative work.
So why does this matter? How does one labeled organization having a license open the property to fans in general? Because the HICU isn’t just writing one comic; it’s reaching out to fan projects and offering partnerships with the union to set up similar licenses.
As described, partnering with the HICU to go under license is the opposite of giving Homestuck a blank check. For projects without a license Homestuck is already able to demand whatever it wants from anyone at any time or threaten legal destruction. But if a fanwork is under a clear license, it has a defined right to use the source material that can only be revoked as per the terms of the license as written. This creates a solid foundation where there was not one before.
The promise the HICU make is pretty unambiguous:
Austinado Andrew Hussie approached us and offered a free license to work with the IP. No royalties owed, no ties to What Pumpkin, VIZ Media, or any other corporate interest, and no outside influence from higher ups at the Homestuck Factory. (NOTE: The Homestuck Factory doesn’t exist. That was a joke.)
Basically, he said: “You guys do good work, keep doing that.” And then handed us the keys to our own little pocket of house-bound freedom.
… As far as creative direction and narrative plans go, the comic and its spin-offs will be unaffected.
Vitally, if this license is what they say it is, you can be under this license and still retain independence and creative control. This is the keystone the promise of the HICU hinges on. Once you’re under license, you have a right to use the material and a solid foundation to work on. You are no longer subject to the whims of any outside influence. Andrew can’t step in and make changes. Your management structure stays the same, only safer.
This design is a balancing act. While the stated goal is to grow as much as possible, the HICU is empowered to curate what projects it licenses, allowing for some moderation and quality control. This isn’t as open as an open license but it can do some of the same good.
The promise of the HICU to enable independent fan projects to operate without fear of licensing issues is a good one.
The Twist
Unfortunately this is all a sham, and has been since day one.
The primary purpose of the union is not to empower the fandom but to leverage control over it. The HICU organization is a facade: despite their claims there is no meaningful distinction between the HICU and existing Homestuck companies. I have observed that Andrew Hussie personally oversees the HICU and administrates it himself through proxies. By coaxing fan projects “under license”, the HICU takes control away from fans and consolidates it in one organization. Licensees are also forced to submit to an NDA, which Homestuck uses to prevent people from revealing the bullying and abusive behaviors they’re subject to.
The structure of the HICU is intentionally confusing to obscure the function it’s really performing. The HICU is not a separate entity, members do not necessarily have safety or creative freedom, and the union absolutely does not negotiate against Andrew as the name’s allusion to labor unions implies. I have been working with Homestuck staff since before the HICU label existed and seen them simply apply the label to projects they wanted to distance from Andrew’s negative reputation. As an early example, Requiem Café’s Homestuck project transitioned seemingly from a Homestuck Inc/Viz venture to an HICU venture, because the HICU is all the same people doing all the same things. I have personally seen “an invitation from the HICU” turn into “Andrew Hussie is suing your project unless you change it” in one step. It’s a bait-and-switch.
Unfortunately, because of the threat of legal retaliation, most people with direct evidence of this behavior are unable to give evidence of their experiences. However, there are exceptions to this that let us see through the cracks. I have personally been privy to the HICU’s attempts to ensnare outside projects since before the existence of the union was publicly announced in the first place. And as Homestuck uses the HICU to exercise more control over fan spaces, we’re seeing more and more evidence of abuse.
I would not be attesting to these things myself without doing my due diligence. I have confirmed, double-confirmed, triple-confirmed that this behavior is happening. This includes projects I am involved in, this includes projects I’m not involved in. This includes the UHC, this includes projects other than the UHC. I’m unable to publicly share much of the evidence that has convinced me of this, but there is still enough in the public record. The abuse is rampant and systematic.
Andrew’s Leadership
First and foremost, the HICU is in no way independent of existing structures. Despite the implication that this is a union of workers working with Andrew, Andrew themself is directly in charge of the “union.” Like every other Homestuck entity,3 it’s just a shell around Andrew Hussie.
Miles is currently the co-director of the HICU. He’s also a direct proxy for Andrew Hussie.
…
- miles
- i’ll let andrew know!
- GiovanH
- have you noticed you have the job of “priest”
- miles
- LMAO
- low priest
- ive never heard it put that way but i love the comparison
- GiovanH
- it seems like a good gig
- miles
- gives me an excuse to say “andrew works in mysterious ways”
- GiovanH
- (@miles real quick before I get too deep into details here, you’re speaking on behalf of Andrew/Homestuck Inc here, correct?)
- miles
- yes im speaking on behalf of andrew
In order to even be considered to join the Union, not only do you have to sign this perpetual NDA, Andrew has to personally interview and approve your membership. It is the clearest evidence imaginable that the union is in no way independent. Despite all its promises, the internal politics of the HICU is still just about clamoring for favor from Andrew Hussie.
- miles
- the way we tend to do things in terms of folks the HICU is collaborating with is as follows
- once (or if) you guys do feel comfortable signing the NDA, andrew and i are going to chat with each of you one on one. one at a time
- think of it as like. idk i guess an interview?
- not that we need your Credentials because your work speaks for itself, its just that andrew likes to have a chat with folks as well in a semi-formal setting so that he can be on top of everyone we collab with
When I was discussing the HICU “Community Participation and Release Agreement” (more on this later) with Miles, we found some typos in the document and a line we needed to strike. You’ll never believe who has final say over the text.
- miles
- i can go ahead and have a look at that line and get back to you about maybe striking it, because i totally see your concern, even though i can straight up promise you man to man (whatever thats worth) that we have no intention of operating that way
- because again, we’d love to work with you guys if that’s in the cards for us
- Bambosh
- That would be excellent if you can make it happen
- miles
- i can totally talk to andrew about it
To be clear this is not a license document that involves Homestuck, Inc., this is just the release agreement to work with the HICU. Their claim that “The HICU is a totally independent entity from Andrew, What Pumpkin, VIZ Media, or any other corporate interest.” is fully false.
This isn’t just a conflict of interest. The whole point of the union is to make sure everything serves Andrew’s interests. And, at the same time, it’s covering up the extent of Andrew’s personal involvement.
The latest announcement regarding Andrew’s status in regards to Homestuck was in 2021, when What Pumpkin asserted that “Hussie officially left What Pumpkin to work on new projects unrelated to Homestuck. … While Hussie still retains ownership of the Homestuck IP, they decided last year to fully discontinue their creative involvement in any future Homestuck projects, and instead plans to continue independently developing more projects like Psycholonials.” Note the load-bearing word “creative” there, the same as in “Andrew is not creatively involved with these projects in any direct way.” The intent of this messaging is to project the idea that Andrew is uninvolved and the show is basically running itself now. This is not the case.
I don’t know how much creative control Andrew is choosing to exert over current creative projects. They don’t seem interested in doing so, and so my assumption would be that projects like Beyond Canon and Hiveswap see minimal contribution or involvement from Andrew. What I know is that he’s still in a position to exercise control over aspects he cares about, when he chooses to. The goal here isn’t to secretly control everything, it’s to be able to secretly control something if he wants to. In the recent past he’s exercised personal authority to write announcements, license projects, and make legal demands, although it’s usually disguised with a series of proxies. This is a classic component of dysfunctional management: authority is exercised arbitrarily and without oversight.
I’ve experienced this myself with the UHC; I was working with the HICU right up until the moment it turned out I was working with Andrew the whole time.
I’ve also seen “HICU involvement” consist of Andrew picking out a project they’re personally interested in and establishing a private, direct line with one member of its leadership with no involvement from anyone in the union at all.
It is perverse to co-opt the word and called us a “union”. The job of a union (and the job of a union director) is not to do whatever it takes to make their boss happy. The purpose of a union is to protect the workforce from management and maintain a productive tension. Instead any time Andrew wants a specific thing, “union management” jumps to make it happen. The union already is management, just crudely disguised.
Reputation Laundering
This is an attempt to launder Andrew Hussie’s destroyed reputation. They know that’s what they’re doing, because they’re lying about it.
I’m not going to summarize how Homestuck management ruined its reputation in the past, because that ground is well-trod. Sarah Z’s video is one good start, or you could go all the way back to The Hiveswap Fiasco. That’s just the latest issue; if you want, you can keep digging and find more.... What matters is Homestuck thinks its reputation is trashed and so they’re doing a scheme about it.
Homestuck-the-work is good, and it has a huge and passionate fan base. People are desperate for Good Times and are willing to give a lot of faith to something in the shape of a management overhaul. Andrew Hussie took advantage of this. He’s ultimately managing Homestuck the same way, but he’s using proxies and a shiny new label to do it.
But this is incredibly risky and irresponsible. Andrew is gambling with the livelihood and reputation of others to enrich themself. When it comes out this is how he’s been abusing the union, he stays retired and on perpetual vacation, and James, Miles, and everyone else who depends on the Patreon are used up.
Isolation
Because the license isn’t open the actual text of the agreement isn’t public. Everything goes on behind closed doors, and both Andrew and the HICU require people to sign non-disclosure agreements before even being considered. There is an intense, conspicuous secrecy around anything and everything that would prove the HICU is actually doing what it says it is. This secrecy is necessary because the union is fake.
A common tool Andrew uses to isolate people and form a dependence on Andrew’s goodwill is NDA agreements, which are designed to be over-broad and punitive. They demand that association with Homestuck — including when they require you associate with them — be contingent on NDAs. These NDAs cover all conversations, which is used to cut off lines of communication victims can use to report abuse or even discuss issues with their peers.
Quoting directly from the HICU contract (again, not one I signed, but one some people have),
The purpose of this agreement is to secure confidentiality among an extended network of people… By joining this Group, you are committing to respecting the fact that statements of other Group members have been made only under the mutual understanding that all correspondence among members is private. Signing this form is a legally binding indication that you agree with these conditions of mutual respect and discretion.
… While protecting the financial interests of the Union is not the primary purpose of this agreement, and protecting the privacy and safety among Union and Group members is the primary purpose, nevertheless, if you violate the terms of this agreement, [Homestuck] will seek maximum financial damages, both to protect its financial interests, and more importantly, to vigilantly protect the privacy and safety of its members.
…
…you cannot terminate, cancel, or revoke this Agreement for any reason.
…
…You further agree to refrain from disclosing or using Confidential Information for any purpose other than participating in the Group. Your obligation to maintain the confidentiality of Confidential Information shall survive termination in perpetuity.
…
All information is deemed Confidential Information.4 …
…
You agree that any violation or threatened violation of this Agreement will cause irreparable injury to the Union, entitling the Union to obtain injunctive relief in addition to all legal remedies.
I have confirmed with my legal counsel that this is not remotely standard language for an NDA. It is designed to intimidate and lock signatories into a coercive, punitive situation. I don’t say that as a hypothetical way someone could interpret this language, I’m reporting that as something I’ve personally seen Homestuck use that exact language to do. And the thing this contract gives you? Is it a license, is it protection, is it a cut of Patreon revenue? No. If you sign this contract the HICU may have conversations with you about Homestuck, if they feel like it.
What Andrew wants is the ability to get whatever they want whenever they want it, and this environment gets him that. Homestuck inserts the NDA as a hard requirement for entry-level “access” to basic discussion space that should not require any such agreement. What it really does is ensure you can be intimidated into keeping any arbitrary behavior secret and create information silos ripe for manipulation. When you can’t communicate a problem the only source for remedy is to go through Andrew themselves and have him find the grace to give you what you ask for.
But even without the legal stranglehold of an NDA, Andrew uses traditional social isolation as a control tactic.
One of the long-term criticisms of Homestuck leadership has been a tendency to identify people they find undesirable and persecute them via disenfranchisement, cutting off peoples’ ability to network and exist in their community. This creates a culture of secrecy and fear, and requires people to stay in their supervisor’s good graces on a personal basis just to safely exist in the fan community. The HICU is a vast expansion of this power, and creates an opportunity for Homestuck to extend its ability to apply pressure to discriminate against certain people into fan projects.
I have seen the HICU expressly threaten to sue fan projects — including FRAF projects — unless they changed their leadership structure. The full mafia style “installing our own guy in secret” play. (More on this in a moment.)
In January of this year I was scheduled to publish my first game on Steam — a collaboration with several other Homestuck fans. Less than a week away from the launch date, Homestuck intervened as personal retaliation against me. They reached out to other members of the team privately and threatened legal action against them if they continued associating themselves with me. It worked. Homestuck cut me off from people I considered good friends, and the whole project was a loss. I am still heartbroken and angry from this. Not because of the game, but because of the relationships I had with other people that they attacked.
But they do that. They were willing to do it with me, I’ve seen them do it to others, and it seems like they’re willing to do it regularly. Isolate an enemy, make them even more dependent on getting your personal favor.
Controlling Terms
The license is a protection racket. Not all licenses are a protection racket, but this one is. Andrew has standing to launch a legal attack against fanwork and threatens to do so unless they negotiate a license from him. I have seen the HICU try to force people to sign an agreement to terms without giving them the ability to read the text of the terms they were agreeing to. Literally forcing people to sign a blank check, except it’s a full legal contract.
But I’m convinced that to Andrew the real value of the HICU isn’t that he can use it to extort money from fan projects, it’s that the HICU gives them control over fan projects themselves. The standard HICU waiver (including the NDA, discussed) is called the “Homestuck Community Participation and Release Agreement.” I think this is an extremely apt title. Homestuck’s position is that they should be the gatekeeper for participation in the community. The document traps you, gives Andrew leverage over you, and it’s all to participate in ways that shouldn’t require a waiver in the first place.
The purpose of a license should be to protect fanworks from Andrew; to reduce their power to threaten them in concrete ways. Even if Andrew really wanted to attack someone, them having a license should protect them from this threat. But every license or license-adjacent document I’ve read is either ineffective at this or explicitly does the opposite.
Homestuck’s one big for the merit of licensing is merch. Let’s talk merch. I love to quibble about what exactly copyright covers — can you enforce a so-called “closed species”? — but the kinds of work Homestuck is putting in its “licensed store” makes it very clear what’s going on here. Homestuck has always claimed far more than they have any justifiable legal right to, and that’s happening here too. Legally, you shouldn’t need a license from Homestuck to sell a print of your own art of your own character(bak), or a plain green shirt with a zodiac symbol(bak). If Homestuck is demanding one and threatening to sue you if you don’t play ball, that’s not licensing, that’s extortion.5
The license doesn’t give you a safe foundation to build on. In fact, it ensnares you further. Because the exact text of the license is being kept secret I haven’t read the full terms, so I don’t know if there’s a legal mechanism by which this is happening or if it’s just traditional bullying tactics. But I can personally confirm it’s happening, Andrew’s “moving in mysterious ways.” Not rarely but as a matter of course. I’ll get into some examples in a second.
Signing the HICU license is a deal-with-the devil worse than having no license at all. You’re still subject to the whims of everyone in Homestuck management, except now you’re also subject to nondisclosure and non-disparagement agreements so you’ve lost any ability to defend yourself. All you’ve done is hand over a kill switch and neuter your ability to complain.
The Purpose of the Ruse
So what’s the point of all this? They’re not lying just for the fun of lying. I think a lot of the song-and-dance of the HICU is to disguise an underlying trick. Homestuck can see that there are many fan projects succeeding and thriving without their involvement and without needing a license. They want to use the Homestuck association to seize control over these projects, but the tool they have to do this is legal threats. “You have something great here, hand it over to us or we’ll kill it” is an extremely hard sell when you’re a media company fundamentally dependent on the goodwill of the fans who already love these projects.
“Partnering with the HICU” acts as the public face to obscure this dynamic. From the outside it looks like fan-favorite projects are getting official recognition, getting new license rights, and unlocking new opportunities for growth. Even if “It just allows them to do what they’ve been doing the whole time without fear of legal repercussions.” Some projects may be doing just this and be happy so far. Some projects may well be signing on happily but then finding themselves subject to demands after their “partnership”. Some projects may find Homestuck’s terms so onerous that they don’t want to sign on at all but find that the NDA that allowed them to hear the terms in the first place also prevents them from explaining what happened. All these roads lead to the same place. Homestuck gets control over whatever projects it wants, shuts down anyone who won’t play ball, and carefully launders their reputation as they do this.
Case Studies
The Homestuck Independent Creative Union is promising projects autonomy, but these promises are meaningless because Andrew consistently breaks them. Looking at the legal structure can only get us so far. The smoking gun evidence is if Andrew actually exercises power over “partner” projects, and they do. The purpose of a system is what it does. SAHCon was promised Andrew wouldn’t make demands, and then Andrew did anyway. The Unofficial Homestuck Collection was promised Andrew wouldn’t make demands, and then Andrew did anyway. FRAF projects were promised Andrew wouldn’t make demands, and then Andrew did anyway.
SAHCon
Stuck At Home Con was an unofficial, fan-run Homestuck convention, and it was great. It was primarily a celebration of Homestuck fan community, fan projects, and textual criticism, but there was nothing stopping Homestuck itself from participating in the con. SAHCon has a history of working independently but productively with Homestuck: The Hiveswap teaser in 2022, James panel adjoining mine in 2023, etc.
In December 2023 SAHCon announced a partnership with “the HICU and Homestuck, Inc” to become officially licensed:
📢We here at Stuck at Home Con have great news!
We’ve partnered with the HICU and Homestuck, Inc. to become the first officially licensed Homestuck convention!
We’re really excited about what this means for the future!🤔What DOES this mean?
It means working with the folks at the HICU to come up with new ideas for fun stuff to do with SAHCon!
It means new opportunities to promote and expand the con!⁉️Is SAHCon changing hands?
SAHCon’s staff isn’t changing, and we’ll be running things basically the same!
We’ll still be doing the con online, along with our Winter/New Years and Friday showcases!😎Thanks to everyone involved in the Con over the years - none of this would’ve happened without the hard work of our directors, moderators, artists, guests, and panelists…
And all of you for coming out to support us!
The future is bright, and we’re glad you’re here for it!
Right out of the gate this leaves a lot to be desired. What does SAHCon need a license for? Is Homestuck demanding a license for them to continue operating the way they have been, or was SAHCon just trying to ensure legal stability to prevent the possibility of being sued in the future? Is SAHCon going to be able to do new things now that they couldn’t before? If so, it’s strange that they don’t seem able to explain what they are, outside of “new opportunities.”
And, again, we have this incredible vagueness around the license itself. What is “partnered with the HICU and Homestuck, Inc.” supposed to mean? Those are supposed to be entirely separate entities. SAHCon is licensed, but what are the terms of the license? It’s conspicuously not the “free” license the HICU is getting with. So presumably SAHCon is paying some fee to someone (Homestuck, Inc.? The HICU?) as part of a license, but again, we don’t know what these license conditions are. Does this subject con events to any new policy?
Tue Jan 02 14:58:23 +0000 2024SAHCon has always, for me, represented a really positive space for fans to gather and share a love of the extended Homestuck universe. I've tried to carry that energy with me in my role as con director, because that's what drew me into the fandom in the first place -
Tue Jan 02 14:58:24 +0000 2024Now, with our recent deal to license the Homestuck IP for the con and partnership with the HICU, things are in a place I honestly never imagined they would be.
I'm very positive about this, but it's also both surreal and a little bit intimidating -
Tue Jan 02 14:58:26 +0000 2024This year promises to be a good one! I see a lot of promise in how the @Homestuck team is handling things with the official content, and the community feels alive with promise and potential - and that's something exciting to see! -
The one thing we’re told authoritatively is this is not a power grab. In all announcements on all platforms, SAHCon communicates clearly and concisely that “SAHCon’s staff isn’t changing, and we’ll be running things basically the same!” Homestuck’s involvement will absolutely, positively not change the nature of the conference, they swear it.
Except this turns out to be false.
In July 2025 (before SAHcon 2025), con staff Jojo “Funk” McLovin posts an account of how they were forced out of the con entirely.
Jojo “Funk” McLovin, “The Elephant in the Room” …
Though Cro and Jonaya have hosted SAHCon in years past, this was to be their final SAHCon before handing it off to new organizers. Who these organizers will be is anyone’s guess, because as far as I understand, SAHCon is essentially being taken over by Andrew Hussie and a team adjacent to him.Who is on this team, why they have decided to take control of this final SAHCon is unknown to me, as whenever I ask, I am either brushed off or stymied by vague allusions to nondisclosure agreements.
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The other reason I’m not going to participate in SAHCon was because I was asked not to. My friend Jonaya as of March of this year informed me that I would be able to participate in SAHCon in spite of a sexual harassment campaign that I have been suffering from. As of a few days ago, Jonaya informed me that decision had been reversed.I’m not saying I am entitled to attend SAHCon, but an ostensible invitation being revoked unceremoniously is atrocious behavior, as I have been a loyal attendee, volunteer, and moderator for five years now. I single-handedly am responsible for the SAHCon album releases, contributing tracks, video graphics, and metadata. If not for me, the SAHCon album would be a series of MP3 files in a random Discord server.
The fact that this decision can be made above the head of Jonaya, who has been essentially in charge of SAHCon since 2020, is astounding to me, and because Jonaya was not at liberty to discuss the decision, I’m forced to assume Hussie himself descended from on high and smote me like YHWH of old.
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I doubt that this is the whole story. I don’t know the reason I was excluded. I don’t know the reason Jonaya is no longer in charge. I don’t know who is going to run SAHCon from here on. I asked, and I received no response. They have never reached out to me. They have never spoken to me. I don’t know any of them personally. It is a black box.
What we have here is a perfect checklist confirming the absolute worst about the Homestuck Independent Creative Union. I have to thank Homestuck for making this so cut-and-dry. They made specific commitments and then violated them.
In 2023 SAHCon was able to guarantee that staff absolutely would not be changing. One convention later and Homestuck administration is reaching in from above and shaking things up against the will of the organizers. Allegedly — SAHCon hasn’t announced this yet — the project’s founders and organizers, Jonaya and Cro, are being pushed out by higher-ups. But regardless of what happens with Jonaya and Cro, we already have a direct account of con staff (Jojo) being unequivocably forced out. Jojo has a fantastic relationship with SAHCon staff; they would not happily pass order this down the chain, they must have fought it and lost. These decisions are explicitly not coming from the founders and administrators of the conference, but from forces they are suddenly subject to after signing a license with Homestuck.
It is not hard to connect these dots. Homestuck partnered with SAHCon under a false pretense that the con would retain autonomy, and they’re Homestuck is using authority they’ve claimed to seize control of the entire event.
Is this legal authority they’ve snuck into the license agreement? Does Homestuck have the right to unilaterally revoke the license if an arbitrary demand from them isn’t fulfilled? Or is this just a case of Homestuck threatening to sue SAHCon without sufficient legal standing? The exact mechanism in play doesn’t matter; what matters is Homestuck executives are exercising power over the project.
Meanwhile, the first thing they’re doing with that power is using it to participate in bullying. They’re blacklisting individual fans they’ve decided they object to and forcing them out of the very conference they were already invited to and even working at.
Unofficial Homestuck Collection
The Unofficial Homestuck Collection has its own full report, and this is where I got the majority of my first-hand evidence.
I’ll summarize the relevant points here: We were approached by a (proto-)HICU offering the UHC a similar free Homestuck license, with the same set of promises of autonomy and independence they’ve offered so many others. As soon as we began discussions they began the process of an out-and-out hostile takeover. This started with trying to force us into signing exploitative contracts. Then they made a series of entirely unreasonable demands about the project — about them controlling who administrated it, them censoring my past criticism of Homestuck administration, etc. When we pushed back on this they escalated to legal threats and then real legal action.
There this intermittent reinforcement throughout — they were extremely nice and they loved us, and the next day they were threatening to take everything down and sue us in court. And they repeated this cycle multiple times! Whenever they were being nice it was sold as the HICU, and whenever they were being aggressive it was sold as Homestuck, or Viz, or Andrew. Andrew was always the one responsible for everything, but they’d play games with putting on the HICU hat and using Miles as a proxy.
James Roach’s name was on all the paperwork, but he never had any administrative authority over the process. He never acted as a director, he was only there as a human shield for Andrew. (I don’t blame him for this though.)
The entire process was defined by coercion, manipulation, lies, and generally unconscionable practices. It was terrible, but in terms of the HICU it absolutely confirmed the pattern I’m describing here. The play was the full embrace-extend-extinguish.
Fruity Rumpus Asshole Factory
The new Fruity Rumpus Asshole Factory art collective scares the bejesus out of me. If Andrew has hooks on the FRAF like they do with so much else, and they’re able to keep up the appearance that things are working freely, that’s a nightmare.
The HICU announced FRAF in August 2025:
FRAF is a fanwork collective working in tandem with Homestuck/WP (and, to a pretty limited extent, the HICU) to platform Homestuck fanworks, allow them to license and monetize, and hopefully promote all sorts of cross-project creativity in the Homestuck fandom. It’s just now launching, and I expect it to grow and change a lot in the coming months/years as other fanworks join the league of FRAFfiliates in their beautiful new experiment, but it’ll be a pretty great time and maybe even a new frontier of Homestuck fanwork cross-pollination, and I’m super excited to see what they get up to.
Finally, Homestuck has grown up to become the Content Platform it always wanted to be. Vast Error is here too for some reason, despite already being partnered and licensed with the HICU separately. They don’t need another license so they’re just here to hang out.
FRAF describes itself like so:
fruityrumpus.com The Fruity Rumpus Asshole Factory is an officially licensed Homestuck fanwork collective. All projects under the FRAF label are autonomous, but have been given a free license by Andrew Hussie to jointly promote and monetize their projects in coordination with each other, and the Homestuck Independent Creative Union.
There are a lot of the same immediate concerns here. “Autonomous” is the same line we got about SAHCon, which turned out to be false.
FRAF describes their team as including Miles as the “HICU Representative”. This is the same conflict as always. Miles acts as a director of the HICU, but is at the same time a direct proxy for Andrew Hussie. FRAF is described as mostly working with Homestuck, yet the only connection they give is a representative with the HICU, which is supposed to be an entirely separate organization.
Based on a conversation I had with FRAF director Cami, it sounds like there’s little in the way of formal control. FRAF is currently operating with good faith in both Homestuck and the HICU, and neither have made demands that would harm that. They don’t know Homestuck is radioactive because that’s been kept hidden. FRAF already has significant overlap with the HICU and Beyond Canon, and collaborative licensing between FRAF and Homestuck is what enables FRAF’s existence in the first place. FRAF is currently doing what it can to build its relationships with its big partners. This means being friendly and trying to make everyone happy, including Homestuck and the HICU.
The HICU already has a direct say in which projects FRAF is able to work with:
ABOUT FRAF How are FRAFWorks chosen?
FRAF Members nominate existing fanworks for consideration, which the FRAF Team and the HICU then review. We also plan to occassionally intake nominations through this website.
This isn’t a formal condition of the FRAF license, but something they’re doing voluntarily on good faith. So regardless of what FRAF administration would choose, the HICU (read: Homestuck) already has final say over licensing with the power to block affiliates. If Andrew or Miles suggest an affiliate, people trust that. If they raise an objection to a project, people trust that. Which means, in practice, Homestuck is still able to exercise control over admission and therefore licensing.
But what about ongoing control over works? Cami confirmed “there isn’t a formal stipulation to sign an NDA to be a FRAF affiliate”, although many of the current members are under NDA as part of the surprise launch, or due to other collaborations. And the same “try to make everyone happy” attitude extends, I’m sure, to all its operations.
People in FRAF have a mental model that they’re autonomous and Andrew’s not able to exercise control, but that doesn’t mean that’s true. The party line seems to be “Andrew’s not in control, it’s just that everyone loves him and would let have whatever they wants because we’re friends and also they’re the boss”. There are active Homestuck fans who wouldn’t let Andrew have whatever they want, and they’re not given power. This is not a free autonomous art collective, but they’ve only seen the carrot and not the stick. Show me Andrew really, honestly wanting a policy change at FRAF and not getting his way, or I’m not buying it.
FRAF hasn’t hit The Squeeze. They don’t know it yet, but they’re standing on the edge of a precipice. They’re still in the “love” phase of a love-bombing. Unlike SAHCon, the UHC, and other projects, FRAF hasn’t had to deal with a demand for something unacceptable. So what happens when they get it? Not just a social nudge, but a genuine disagreement FRAF has with its buddies? If history is any indicator, that’s when Homestuck will bare its fangs, and suddenly contingencies and legal liability will start to matter very fast.
Unfortunately, it already isn’t true that FRAF affiliates are really independent. While FRAF-the-organization may not have dealt with ultimatums yet, some of their projects have. I know because I saw it first hand. I was involved in some of these projects, one of which already had direct written confirmation that they “should” be fine with what they were doing, since it was composed of all original work. A few months ago they got orders from on high to clean house anyway. I have personally confirmed that Homestuck reached out to a project and instructed them that they were required to disassociate themselves with people on the Homestuck blacklist, or Homestuck would sue the project as direct quid-pro-quo retaliation. This was not a subtle “goodwill building” move, this demand was a hard cut: projects lost core personnel.
It is absolutely, objectively true that the HICU required people make changes to their project in order to avoid a lawsuit. FRAF membership did not protect these projects. If anything, “goodwill” with FRAF acted as additional pressure for people to give Andrew whatever they wanted. So these are not autonomous projects. Maybe they’re designed to feel like autonomous projects, maybe they’re told they’re still autonomous projects. It doesn’t matter; Andrew is absolutely throwing their weight around to get whatever changes they want made. In practice Andrew has final say over everything, a power they’ve exercising liberally to reward friends and punish enemies.
If FRAF projects really have a free license, good for them. They need to hold onto that, keep doing good work, and be ready to say “no” when demands come. If they’re in any way hooked by Andrew or Miles, they’ve got to cut that out like it’s cancer.
Freedom Motif
Because of the implicit threat of legal violence the relationship between a work’s copyright holder and its fan community is structurally antagonistic. The IP holder and members of the fan community have fundamentally different interests which sometimes align but sometimes don’t. This doesn’t mean the relationship has to be antagonistic in practice, but it means there is always an underlying potential for conflict that has to be reasoned with.
A fan community should be a symbiotic relationship. Fanwork can serve functions official work can’t, and the community surrounding a work is one of the main things that gives a work “value”, in a base economic sense. Likewise official recognition can be a good thing. Fanwork can be elevated, talented creators can be brought on as part of official projects, etc. Official recognition can serve as a badge of honor.
But the deciding factor in whether the creator/fan relationship is healthy or exploitative is whether the community is allowed to be independent. One of the most important merits of fanwork, discussion, and criticism is a plurality of perspectives, and the ability to present and analyze work through truly pluralistic viewpoints. This is why things like fan comics, fan games, fan resources, and fan events have been so extraordinarily valuable. They represent legitimate plurality where the community manages and supports itself.
If the IP holder insists that all aspects relating to discussion of a work go through one unifying authority, this is an assault on the community and represents an act of aggression against fan-run fan-space. If there is a demand that all work that exists be brought in under a single umbrella of control, this is a dangerous and precarious arrangement. It does not matter how much or how little work is encapsulated by official support. A unification of community spaces through a central governing authority with the ability to enforce policy and preference is an existential threat to that community.
This threat is a true danger even before that authority proves itself dangerous and untrustworthy by deed. The danger is structural; it is a trap prepared and ready to spring. Even if the current leadership is well-meaning, that power can be replaced and existing structures can be hijacked to suddenly abuse a good faith relationship.
Normally the problem with these structural issues is that they allow for behavior as unacceptable as retaliation for criticism to potentially happen in the future. But Andrew Hussie is not a potential danger, they are (in my opinion) an active danger. Andrew’s going around threatening fans with baseless lawsuits right now. Even if someone could be trusted to lord over a community as god-king, to own a harem of votaries, Andrew personally cannot.
Andrew is insisting that all communities relating to Homestuck can, if Andrew desires, be brought under their authority, and the HICU and FRAF represent a progression of this project. He knows what they’re doing is wrong and they know people would hate Andrew if they saw it, so the Homestuck Independent Creative Union acts as shield. The Homestuck Independent Creative Union is fake. It’s a cardboard cutout. It’s a lie.
I’m not saying Andrew Hussie wants to be 100% hands-on, micromanaging every aspect of every Homestuck project from the shadows. I think he’s completely happy being hands-off 90% of the time. He’s not the secret shadow author of every post-homestuck work. The problem is on any occasion he does decide he wants to control something he pursues that goal with ferocity and violence. He wants the ability to be as petty as he wants to be, and have the right to use any toy in anyone’s box to do it. He doesn’t demand to make every call, but he does demand the right to make the final call on anything he wants, which is more dangerous.
Fan projects must be independent, and they must be allowed to operate without being coerced or threatened by an IP holder holding a gun to their head. It’s especially important to set a good example of this with media with a young audience, many of which don’t know any better. We don’t have to put up with that and so we absolutely, positively must not. If Andrew is threatening to take good work down, better for the blood of the art to be on his hands than for people to submit to the bullying and let Andrew burn through more lives.
How to Fix This
I don’t expect Homestuck to respond well to this being revealed; Andrew is likely to get angrier, more protective, more insular. They’ll probably double-down on damage control, try to paint me as violent and rabblerousing, the usual patchwork. Their primary goal is just going to be trying to socially isolate me, drum up more baseless rumors, and anything else to construct a plausible reason not to listen to my warning. The party line might be switched from “all completely autonomous” to “of course Andrew retains control of everything, what did you expect” as if their promises of independence never mattered at all and the fault is on any fool who believed them.
But if Homestuck were sincere, if it were going to do the right thing, what would that look like? Simply: the HICU is a fake foundation, build a real one instead.
Here’s just one step: to enable independent artists to build fanwork using Homestuck as a platform, Andrew could release Homestuck under a permissive license. Not even “public domain”, but something like a Creative Commons license. People could build on Homestuck, like Andrew keeps insisting he wants them to. He’d still own the copyright, he’d still be able to merchandise and franchise whatever he wants, but so could others. It’d be enough to prevent anyone from making the argument that using a classpect symbol is copyright infringement.
Likewise put out a clear, binding, public policy that fanworks can merchandise themselves. People could use the Homestuck universe but still distribute and sell their own work. Groups would be able to publish fan games on Itch or Steam without the fear that offending the wrong person would lead to a punitive takedown against the whole thing. You could have something like FRAF or WLF on top of this — some sort of consolidated store for Homestuck fanworks, and HS could even take a cut — but that wouldn’t in any way bar people from doing their own business themselves.
You don’t need to start a witch hunt. You don’t need to dissolve the HICU, you don’t need to burn down FRAF. You don’t even need to rework Beyond Canon much, just tear the weird licensing guts out of the HICU and let it be a group that can just write an exciting new comic like everybody else can. All you need to do is establish a true foundation for a community to build on. For the Homestuck community to function without living in fear of Homestuck, Andrew needs to put concrete limits on himself and their companies. Give up the fantasy of living as a god-king. Only after Andrew can’t always get his way — can’t attack people — in the Homestuck community can it actually exist safely.
Related Reading
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And if we expand the scope of our search beyond merch to fanwork in general… Homestuck has a long, ugly history. Maybe another day. ↩
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↩Mon Jul 22 19:43:38 +0000 2024The Homestuck franchise is predicated on some of the most shockingly permissive understandings of fair use in modern history (good!!!), which makes the instances where they've turned around and tried to be extremely stringent about "their IP" so deeply perverse.
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As part of the original Hiveswap article I remember trying to construct some kind of org chart for the various legal entities involved. A complete waste: it’s all smoke and mirrors around Andrew Hussie. ↩
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See also Trouble a-brewin’ at Redbubble ↩