Editing Homestar Runner (section)

===1996–2000: Development===
''Homestar Runner'' was created in [[Atlanta]] in 1996 by [[University of Georgia]]<ref name="bostonglobe">{{Cite news |last=Aucoin |first=Dan |date=August 9, 2003 |title=Lookin' At A Thing In A Bag |pages=C1 |work=The Boston Globe }}</ref><ref name="penguinbros">{{Cite web |title=Homestar Runner Interview |url=http://www.penguinbros.com/interviews/homestarrunner.html |last1=Strick |first1=Jacob |last2=Samuel Strick |date=May 26, 2003 |publisher=Penguin Brothers |access-date=December 25, 2006 |archive-date=June 27, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060627090923/http://www.penguinbros.com/interviews/homestarrunner.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="tlchicken">{{Cite web |title=Homestar Runner's The Brothers Chaps |url=http://www.tlchicken.com/view_story.php?ARTid=1374 |last=Chinsang |first=Wayne |date=June 2003 |website=Tastes Like Chicken |access-date=December 25, 2006 |archive-date=November 16, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061116055258/http://tlchicken.com/view_story.php?ARTid=1374 |url-status=live }}</ref> students Mike Chapman and friend [[Craig Zobel]], who wrote the original picture book, ''The Homestar Runner Enters the Strongest Man in the World Contest'', while working summer jobs surrounding the [[1996 Summer Olympics]].<ref name="Wired" /><ref name="original book">{{Cite web |title=The Homestar Runner Enters the Strongest Man in the World Contest |url=http://www.homestarrunner.com/book1.html |last1=Chapman, Mike |author-link=The Brothers Chaps |last2=Zobel, Craig |year=1996 |website=homestarrunner.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010628163835/http://www.homestarrunner.com/book1.html |archive-date=June 28, 2001 |access-date=December 19, 2006}}</ref>

Matt described the origin of the name "Homestar Runner" as an in-joke between themselves and [[James Husband (music project)|James Huggins]], a childhood friend of the Chapman brothers while growing up in [[Dunwoody, Georgia]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Strong Bad's the Brothers Chaps – Interview |url=http://www.adventuregamers.com/articles/view/18236 |last=Allin |first=Jack |website=Adventure Gamers |date=December 12, 2008 |access-date=January 15, 2015 |archive-date=March 25, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150325161349/http://www.adventuregamers.com/articles/view/18236 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="io9 oral" />

{{blockquote|It actually comes from a friend of ours [James]. There was an old local grocery store commercial, and we live in Atlanta, and it advertised the [[Atlanta Braves]]. It was like, "the Atlanta Braves hit home runs, and you can hit a home run with savings here!" And so there was this player named [[Mark Lemke]], and they said something like "All star second baseman for the Braves". And our friend [James] knows nothing about sports, and so he would always do his old-timey radio impression of this guy, and not knowing any positions in baseball or whatever, he'd just be like, "homestar runner for the Braves". And we were just like, "Homestar Runner? That's the best thing we've ever heard!"<ref name="kevinscott" />}}

When Mike and Craig were in a bookstore and made a remark about how "awful" the children's books were, the idea to write their own children's book occurred to them.<ref name="io9 oral">{{Cite web |title=An Oral History of Homestar Runner, the Internet's Favorite Cartoon |url=http://io9.gizmodo.com/an-oral-history-of-homestar-runner-the-internets-favor-1791519879 |last=Winkle |first=Luke |date=January 24, 2017 |website=[[io9]] |access-date=January 24, 2017 |archive-date=January 25, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170125100338/http://io9.gizmodo.com/an-oral-history-of-homestar-runner-the-internets-favor-1791519879 |url-status=live }}</ref> They spent around two hours designing the look of Homestar Runner, Pom Pom, Strong Bad, and The Cheat, and completed the book within a day. They only printed about five to ten copies to share with friends, and had no intention to publish it. However, they had no idea that their father had sent out the book as a manuscript for submission to about 80 different publishers, but they only got rejection letters back, if anything. The pair began to work on a sequel, ''Homestar Runner Goes for the Gold'', which would have introduced Strong Bad's brothers, Strong Mad and Strong Sad, but was eventually abandoned.<ref name="io9 oral" /> They later used the [[Super Nintendo Entertainment System|Super NES]] video game ''[[Mario Paint]]'' to create the first cartoon featuring the characters.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Super NES |url=http://www.homestarrunner.com/supernes.swf |year=1996 |website=homestarrunner.com |format=SWF |access-date=January 3, 2007 |archive-date=September 10, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120910143859/http://www.homestarrunner.com/supernes.swf |url-status=live }}</ref>