Once you notice them, they’re everywhere: teens dressed in black T-shirts emblazoned with neon zodiac symbols. When they gather together, they’re an unnerving sight, with their gray full-body paint and orange horns, and a faintly evangelical gleam in their eyes.

What’s instigating all this? An obtuse, weirdly drawn little web comic called Homestuck, which follows four adolescents who begin playing a videogame called Sburb, only to discover that it has world-altering implications.

Created by a Western Massachusetts comic artist named Andrew Hussie, Homestuck is as dense as Community, as mythos-laden as Lost and as addictive as FarmVille. The “Homestucks” are so devoted that some 20,000 of them have raised over $2.1 million on Kickstarter, in order to fund a video game based on the comic. Although Mr. Hussie has left details of his plans vague, the campaign zipped past its $700,000 fund-raising goal in just two days. The meter continues to tick upward, as Mr. Hussie continues adding new rewards for stragglers who might consider donating. Read More