Original Book

From Homestar Runner Wiki

Current revision as of 23:46, 26 May 2025

The original cover of the book that started it all

The Homestar Runner Enters the Strongest Man in the World Contest is a farcical children's book that started the entire Homestar Runner body of work. Intially created as a small, handmade, photocopied booklet, a digital archive in the museum includes the story pages plus alternate front covers.

The story follows terrific athlete The Homestar Runner and his friend Pom-Pom as they enter the Strongest Man in the World Contest: "whoever holds the most grapes, wins." Fellow competitor Strong Bad (aided by a yellow critter) cheats in an underhanded attempt to win the day, but good sportsmanship ultimately prevails.

Cast (in order of appearance): The Homestar Runner (storybook), Pom Pom, Tiny-Handed Strong Bad, The Cheat, Mr. Bland, The Robot (storybook), Señor, The Announcer, The Grape Fairie, The Fat Bee

Date: July 1996

Page Title: The Homestar Runner Enters the Strongest Man in the World Contest

DVD: Everything Else, Volume 2; Everything Else, Volume 3 (Easter egg)

[edit] Background

Early sketches of Homestar Runner and Strong Bad by Craig Zobel.

The original book was co-created by Mike Chapman and Craig Zobel in the summer of 1996. The two college-aged friends were working for the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta;^[1] Mike worked the night shift as a lighting technician for an Australian sports channel.^[8] During a day off, they went to a local bookstore and found themselves looking at children's books. Joking that many of the books were "total crap", the duo decided to make a book of their own.^[1] The Homestar Runner Enters the Strongest Man in the World Contest was created that same afternoon, completed in a few hours.^[2] The duo worked together on the character designs, with Pom-Pom being created by Zobel.^[1] Chapman and Zobel wanted the storybook to feel different from the books they had seen, writing it with a strange tone that would made the book feel as if it were from another country or translated from another language.^[3][a] The uncolored illustrations were drawn with markers on printer paper; in 1997 the images were scanned and colored digitally.^[4]

Though the characters and story were all invented on the day of writing the book, the name "Homestar Runner" dates back to several years earlier.^[b] Friend James Huggins, imitating a commercial featuring Atlanta Braves baseball player Mark Lemke, had ad-libbed that Lemke was the "home star runner" for the Braves as he could not recall any actual baseball positions.^[c]

About a dozen copies of the small book were made at a local Kinko's and given to friends and relatives.^[1][5] There was never any intention of publishing the book; Mike would later recall being upset when learning that his father had submitted it to publishers without his knowledge.^[2]

Matt Chapman was not involved with the book's writing, alternately joking that Mike and Craig "told me to shut up and to go away,"^[6] or that he had "stolen" Homestar Runner from Zobel.^[7] The Mario Paint animation "Super NES", created later in 1996, was his first involvement with Homestar Runner.

[edit] The Story

[edit] Fun Facts

Original artwork and photocopied pages from the book.

[edit] Trivia

• Strong Bad has a belly button.
• This was the first appearance of kicking The Cheat.

[edit] Remarks

• Although identified as "a cheat", the character was not officially named "The Cheat" until the Old Characters Page.

[edit] Goofs

• The caption describing Señor being squished prints his name as "Senor", without the tilde.

[edit] Fast Forward

• Many toons and other site elements were later produced that mimicked the style of the book, referred to as the Storybook World.
  • The opening passage — both "Everybody loves the Homestar Runner" (alternatively written as "Everyone loves...") and especially "he is a terrific athlete" — would often be repeated in early works and Storybook toons.
• Strong Bad later made a "revised" edition of the story in the Strong Bad Email kids' book, called "Strumstar Hammer".
• For the book's tenth anniversary, it was remade as the toon Strongest Man in the World.
• Early plans for a sequel book, entitled Homestar Runner Goes For The Gold!, were made later in 1996. The book was never completed, though selected sketches from it were shared in the Museum Sketchbook.
  • For the 20th anniversary of the original book, its unfinished sequel was revisited in the toon Homestar Runner Goes for the Gold.

[edit] DVD Version

• The DVD version features creators' commentary. To access it, switch the DVD player's audio language selection while watching. This only applies to Everything Else, Volume 2.
• The book is now read out loud, with Homestar and Strong Bad saying their respective lines.
• The narrator reading the book comments on the sound effects in the book while reading:
  • When Mr. Bland is squashed, the narrator says, "Squish. That says 'Squish' there."
  • When Señor is squashed, the narrator says, "Splurt. It says 'Splurt'."
  • When The Cheat unplugs the Robot, the narrator says, "Zip. The yellow man says 'Zip'."
• Instead of the images being full screen, the book is now presented in a similar fashion to kids' book, with the same music playing.
• Both times the narrator says "contestants", it is with a hard A.

[edit] Commentary Transcript

STRONG BAD: Oh great, we gotta watch this one now?

MIKE: Oh great, I have to talk to you.

STRONG BAD: You don't have to ta— why don't you just sit there in silence, I'll take over.

MIKE: Let's see it.

STRONG BAD: Takin' the reins! {monotone} Hi, my name is Strong Bad, welcome to the commentary. I'll be taking the reins today. {Makes microphone clicking noise} If you'll look to the back of your cabin, this is The Homestar Runner Enters The Crappiest Universe In The Man Contest. {click} If you took at this page, they have a bunch of barbells. {click} This is the page that's the best all over, because I'm in part of it.

MIKE: Are you gonna get a new... new little gimmick, or are you just gonna do that. We're on a ride at the theme park, the whole time.

STRONG BAD: Oh, okay. {deep voice} Hi, I'm the spaceship Strong Bad, and you're on board a spaceship. {click} Uh... This is a... {normal voice} Look, I look great. In that picture.

MIKE: You had a belly button there.

STRONG BAD: Yeah. Is it just that page?

MIKE: Very possibly.

STRONG BAD: It could be like, this page has been gr— that page was graffitoed.

MIKE: Just your belly button?

STRONG BAD: Just my belly B.

MIKE: {laughs} You've got a name for your belly button.

STRONG BAD: Belly B, man. Speaking of bees, the bee fairy. {short pause} Who is the guy that's narrating this thing, I wanna punch him. I wanna turn his lights out.

MIKE: {laughs} Turn them out or punch them out?

STRONG BAD: Turn them out.

MIKE: Sounds like it would be very— very— very— very painful.

STRONG BAD: Yeah. Senor.

MIKE: Look at The Tea— The Teach got a tongue!

STRONG BAD: The Teach? I never seen the tongue before on The Teach. Uh... So what's with that robot? That's the worst technological robot I've ever seen.

MIKE: He's gotta be plugged— H-he's got a pretty short cord, too.

STRONG BAD: Yeah, what's the point, you can wa— It's like them boots that I had. Where I could only walk, like, twelve... y-y-y-yards, short, whatever shortest...

MIKE: {laughs} You've got a mouth within your mouth there!

STRONG BAD: Yeah, that's creepy. That was clearly graffitoed onto me. All right, you missed the part, I— like, I clearly told them, "I'm taking a nap! Shut the contest down for a moment!" and they didn't listen.

[edit] Fun Facts

• Strong Bad refers to the 'Lectric Boots he owned in extra plug.
• Strong Bad's monotone voice and mimicked microphone clicks are similar to how he sounds in theme park.
• Strong Bad commenting his taking a nap under the grapes instead of being squished (as is the case in the story) may be a reference to the Strumstar Hammer version of the story from an Easter egg in kids' book.
• The Teach was first referenced in geddup noise.

[edit] See Also

• Storybook World
• Homestar Runner Goes For The Gold!
• Where My Hat Is At?
• Strongest Man in the World

[edit] References

1. ^  "Craig Zobel, Film Production", Gothamist, 4 Jun 2004
2. ^  "An Oral History of Homestar Runner, the Internet’s Favorite Cartoon", Gizmodo, 24 January 2017
3. ^  "Strong Bad’s the Brothers Chaps", Adventure Gamers, 12 Dec 2008
4. ^  "The Brothers Chaps What Made The Homestar Runner", Late Nite JengaJam, 4 Oct 2007
5. ^  "The Homestar Runner Interview", UMFM, 20 May 2003
6. ^  "homestar runner interview", Run Devil Run, 2003
7. ^  "A Date with Homestar Runner", live appearance at New York University, 1 Mar 2005
8. ^  "Looking at a Thing in a Bag", The Boston Globe, 9 Aug 2003

[edit] Footnotes

1. ^  The "foreign" feeling of early Homestar Runner would continue with the usage of Japanese katakana in Super NES and British English in Where My Hat Is At?
2. ^  Estimated as far back as 1992 by Huggins at the 20th Anniversary Show. Lemke first played for the Braves in 1988.
3. ^  Discussed in many places, including Gothamist,^[1] The Boston Globe,^[8] Club Aquatica, UMFM,^[5] Flashforward 2006, Homestar Runner 20th Anniversary Show

[edit] External links

• View the Flash file for the Original Book
• View the old Original Book