Storybook World
Everybody's puttin' their weight on it!
The Storybook World is a variation of the Homestar Runner universe based on the children's storybooks that started Homestar Runner. Toons set in the Storybook World may spoof common tropes of children's literature, are typically captioned and narrated as if they were a book being read to the viewer, and feature characters rendered in a simpler hand-drawn style with limited animation. Oftentimes, Storybook World toons will be portrayed as books being read by the main characters.
Homestar Runner started as a small handmade storybook: The Homestar Runner Enters the Strongest Man in the World Contest by Mike Chapman and Craig Zobel. Created "in a bored afternoon", and designed "to feel like it was from another country or poorly translated", the book intentionally had a simplistic drawing style and an offbeat tone to its writing.
Characters that featured in the original storybooks are rendered as they were back then, albeit exaggerated for humorous effect: Homestar Runner is instead referred to as The Homestar Runner, as he was originally named; Strong Bad is called Tiny-Handed Strong Bad, making fun of how his hands were originally drawn much smaller. Places such as the field and the moon are similarly drawn differently. Some minor characters, such as Mr. Bland or Dijjery Doo, originated in books and rarely appear outside of Storybook tales.
Because only two stories were actually completed in the original storybook format (with the second released directly to the Internet rather than physically), many Storybook World toons retroactively redesign characters and locations to fit this visual style; for example, The King of Town is reimagined as The Prince of Town. Whether extant or retroactively introduced, all Storybook variations of characters have slightly different personalities than their present-day counterparts.
Appearances
Nighttime in the Storybook World
Storybooks
- Original Book — The Homestar Runner Enters the Strongest Man in the World Contest
- Homestar Runner Goes For The Gold! — alternatively titled Homestar Runner And The Brothers Strong
- Where My Hat Is At?
Storybook toons
- Email flashback — Strong Bad Meets The Homestar Runner
- Email origins
- Email alternate universe
- Strongest Man in the World — Remade pages of The Homestar Runner Enters the Strongest Man in the World Contest are shown, though the majority of the toon is not in the Storybook World.
- The Homestar Runner Gets Something Stuck in His Craw
- The Strong Sad Wets Yonder Bed is briefly shown.
- Halloween Safety (Easter egg)
- @StrongBadActual
- Homestar Runner Goes for the Gold — A remake of The Homestar Runner and the Brothers Strong
- The Homestar Runner and the Bathyscaphe is briefly shown.
- The Homestar Runner Enters The Spooky Woods (Teaser) — The Homestar Runner Enters The Spooky Woods Contest and Strong Bad's Ghost Enters The Homestar Runner, Thereby Possessing Him Demonically
- 2022 Costume Pack Now Available (Easter egg) — The Homestar Runners and the Yellow Bathyscaphe
