In a news post on the Homestuck 2 website, James Roach confirms the VIZ Media contract with Homestuck has been "restructured".
A few weeks back fans noticed the Homestuck books were no longer available on the VIZ website, and through contacting VIZ via e-mail confirmed they weren't publishing them anymore. Today's news post addresses some of this, though much is still unknown.
In the post, James states:
"So who "Owns Homestuck?" Well Andrew still does. Who has the publishing rights? We're working on that! The HICU has a license to do what we want with the property, which is what has allowed us to do some of the more creative things we are trying to do. Is the Website going to be fixed? They're working on that! I have very little to do with that, personally, but once there is something solid to announce there and the concerned parties are comfortable with it I'll let you know. What does this mean for the commentaries? Behind the scenes, some ideas about how to handle the issues with the way Homestuck is going to be published are being discussed. Some of these ideas may include a new way to release the future book commentary in absence of the books themselves."
This is very promising news, as fans have been disappointed in VIZ's handling of the Homestuck website for a long time. While it's sad to know the current run of books will likely never be completed, this is indeed good news seeing that VIZ was not treating Homestuck as people had hoped.
He also mentions how this change is what allowed both the HICU and SAHcon licensing to happen:
"It has allowed things like HS:BC and HICU licensing etc to happen, as well as the SAHcon license. Hopefully, this can also include some additional fan-friendly licenses Andrew is considering. This all will take time to fully unfold so more details will be forthcoming about what this means for Homestuck as a whole."
Giving the opportunity for more fan projects to be officially licensed is intriguing, though we will have to see what it means exactly for someone to be given this kind of license in the coming years. We can only hope it means more opportunities and a greater liberty for fans of Homestuck to produce the works they want to see.
The rest of the post confirms the creation of Homestuck vinyls, which had previously been listed as possible official merch ideas:
"Some good news on the Vinyl is that I talked to the printer and with such an overwhelming response from you guys, instead of a simple Best Of EP, we actually want to try and do a print of Vol. 1-4."
These vinyls will be the first time Homestuck music will be available as official physical media.
The post closes by announcing Patreon-exclusive content posted in November will be made available to the general public later this month, and confirms all future Patreon-exclusive content will be released after 2 months.