Character Evolutions
Homestar through the years
Over the years, Homestar Runner characters have undergone a number of changes to their appearance. The first two years of the site saw particularly dramatic shifts in appearances, as creative duo the Brothers Chaps familiarized themselves with Flash and developed their signature art style.
Below are links to charts for individual characters as they have changed.
Character evolution pages by category
- Main Characters: Homestar Runner · Strong Bad · Pom Pom · Coach Z · Bubs · The Cheat · Strong Mad · Strong Sad · Marzipan · The King of Town · The Poopsmith · Homsar
- Old-Timey: The Homestar Runner · Old-Timey Strong Bad
- 20X6: Stinkoman · 1-Up
- Storybook World: Mr. Bland · Señor · The Robot · The Grape Fairie
- Other: The Announcer · The Umpire · The Knight · The Yello Dello · The Goblin · Visor Robot · The Sad Kids · Nebulon · Preshy and Rafferty
General design trends
Many characters were initially designed for children's books. These hand-drawn designs were simple and loose, with thin outlines and bold, solid colors:
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When the Brothers Chaps began using Flash, character designs still kept the hand-drawn feeling with thick, irregular lines (as drawings were often digitized with Adobe Streamline); coloring made use of gradients:
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Around the time of A Jumping Jack Contest, characters began to be drawn in Flash and appeared with cleaner vector lines with more precise shapes. This art style primarily used black outlines, flat colors, and limited shading:
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Characters' current designs are typified by colored outlines and the use of shadows, highlights, and varying line width to add depth:
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Most character designs have not significantly evolved since 2001. Post-2001 changes typically include minor adjustments to facial or body proportions, additional facial expressions, or reworking how a character is animated, not major changes to how the character is drawn.
