So, the comic is coming to an end, and it seems we’ve left quite a few people with a sense of incompletion, so I wanted to take a few moments to talk about it.
Leaving the comic incomplete wasn’t our intention, and this ending is the ending we’ve always had planned. But we also planned this comic to be very open in regards to where the story can go in between all of the “important” pieces. This is mainly due to the fact that when I started this comic 8 years ago I thought it would be a SUPER GREAT idea to be able to do ANYTHING with it, not realizing it needed way more structure than I gave it. I wanted to be able to continue the comic indefinitely and wrap it up at any time I wanted to. This sounded great at the time, but I know better now. As a result of this, we ended up with half-formed ideas that would have been better left out, or ideas and characters that were not able to be properly expanded upon. Unless we keep going indefinitely, which just isn’t possible.
I make no excuses for any of this other than I didn’t know better. I admit I made mistakes with the story and writing, but I have learned so much from this project so I’m glad that I did it. And I hope you guys can still enjoy it for what it is. A lot of you have the feeling that there is so much more to be told in this world and with these characters, and you’re right. There is so much potential. But we are going to have to leave that potential up to your imaginations.
THE EPILOGUE
Regarding the “open” ending, this is how we wanted it, but we know you guys want at least a taste of the future of our beloved gang for a greater sense of closure. We are planning to host a Kickstarter to fund the final book very soon, and the most important stretch goal will be an eight page epilogue set 3 years in the future. I have already scripted it out and I think you guys will love it. We hope with your support we can make it a reality!
If funded, we will complete the epilogue for the book and will release it online sometime after the Kickstarter is fulfilled.
THE EDITS
Finally, there is one major loose end in this story that has always bothered me – and bothered you readers as well. This is in regards to the very first mission that Meela and Feral did together back in Chapter 3, involving an older gentleman and his mysterious knowledge of Meela when she was younger. This is one of those half-formed ideas I was talking about before. I thought it would be fun to tease the readers a little and left the burden of explaining this event up to Future Me, who eventually realized Past Me was an idiot and I had no decent way to do it.
In order to round out the story and get rid of that loose end, we have decided to change it. We have made edits to the following pages: Page 62, Page 81, Page 82 and Page 89. I know some of you may not like the change, but I’m much happier with it this way, so I hope you can accept it.
And the original explanation of this event? (SPOILERS – DON’T READ IF YOU HAVEN’T READ THE COMIC YET) The gentleman and his wife were known for harboring fugitives in the form of half demons like Meela and her brother, who found their way to his doorstep shortly after their father was killed. They stayed with them for a little bit before an anti-demon group randomly made an attack on the house, setting it aflame. Meela and her brother fled into the night, the wife perished in the fire, and the husband was left with no option but to escape into solitude or likely be killed himself. Feral was the last of many bounty hunters hired by the anti-demon group trying to get at him.
A rather pointless tie-in in retrospect, and something we were never able to explain, so it’s better off just being changed to expand upon Meela’s idealisms and character growth instead. If you have any questions regarding this, please feel free to ask!
THANK YOU
And lastly, I just want to say thank you to everybody that has read the comic, whether you’ve been reading for years or just now found it. Creating a full-color comic isn’t easy and if it weren’t for the support and love of the readers we might have dropped it a long time ago.
We know you’re sad to see it end, especially when there’s so much more that can be done with it, but it’s time for us to move on to new endeavors and we hope you can understand. Rest assured that we have wrapped up (or at least explained) the most important pieces of the story, so anything left open is intended to be that way. We will also be hosting a Q&A after the last page of the comic next week, so we fully intend to explain almost anything you all are left wondering about.
Both Algy and I have plans for new stories to tell in the future, so we hope you’ll keep an eye out if you want to see more from us, even if it’s not related to Strays ;)
