The Brothers Chaps

"The Creators", Mike (left) and Matt (right)

Mike Chapman and Matt Chapman, known collectively as The Brothers Chaps (abbreviated as TBC) are the principal creators of the Homestar Runner body of work.

In addition to Homestar Runner, the brothers have contributed to other projects — typically as artists, musicians, or actors.

Early life

As kids

Mike and Matt are the youngest of Don and Harriet Chapman's five children. Born in Indiana, they were raised in Georgia (moving to Atlanta around 1980) and still live and work in the Atlanta area.

Homestar Runner

In spiffy black-and-white

See main article: Homestar Runner (body of work)#History

In 1996, Mike Chapman co-wrote The Homestar Runner Enters the Strongest Man in the World Contest with friend Craig Zobel as a pastiche of children's books. Mike, Matt, and Craig made a short animation featuring the characters from the book as a Christmas present for older brother Donnie Chapman.

In 1999, both of the brothers had moved back to Georgia after finishing their collegiate studies and they soon moved into an apartment together. After discovering the creative possibilities of Flash, and desiring to work on a creative project together as they had during their childhood, the brothers decided to use the Homestar Runner characters to teach themselves Flash animation. Sharing writing and art duties, and with Matt providing most of the character voices, The Brothers Chaps launched homestarrunner.com in January of 2000 to host and share their cartoons.

Popularity of the site grew largely through word-of-mouth, with merchandise sales allowing TBC to devote themselves full-time to Homestar Runner by 2002 and adopt a weekly schedule for new toons and site updates. This schedule continued through late 2009, when the site took a three-year hiatus as The Brothers Chaps focused on other projects; as of 2015 the site has shifted to an "updated every someday" schedule.

Appearances in toons

Although the site is primarily animated, occasionally TBC can be seen on the site portraying photographed human characters. They typically are seen in brief Easter egg jokes, such as axe-wielding Dolph Hauldhagen or movie-star lawyer Litigation Jackson. The brothers are most prominently seen as members of in-universe bands, including Limozeen, Taranchula, and sloshy. Both brothers appear as fictionalized versions of themselves in a brief live-action clip in Sbemailiarized!

A more detailed listing of characters portrayed can be seen on Mike and Matt's respective pages.

Family

The Brothers Chaps with their brother, Donnie.

The Brothers Chaps' parents are Don and Harriet Chapman; Don, who passed away in 2006, was a retired accountant and helped the brothers set up and run their business. Mike and Matt also have three older siblings: Donnie, Karen, and Julie; they are uncles to a child who is featured in several Puppet Stuff toons. Their Uncle Jim and Aunt Rosie appeared briefly in Making of Email 100.

Mike is married to Melissa Palmer, and their first child appeared on the site as "Very, Very Little Girl". Matt is married to Jackie Chapman, with whom he has two children. The birth of Matt and Jackie's first child, Ida, was announced in a special Main Page message; the birth of their second child was announced on the FeedBurner page.

See Also

• Mike Chapman
• Matt Chapman
• Chapman family members
• The Brothers Chaps' Fansite Acknowledgments
• Interviews and Public Appearances

External Links

• BrothersChaps.com
  • Archive of BrothersChaps.com
• "The Brothers Chaps" Wikipedia article
• Matt Chapman on IMDb
• Mike Chapman on IMDb