Skip to content
BEFORE YOU ASK ANYTHING, PLEASE READ EVERYTHING IN THIS POST!!
*****
First, here is the Kickstarter! It's running RIGHT NOW! Please help us reach funding! - http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/celesse/strays-comic-volume-3
*****
Now for the Q&A. If you haven't had a chance, please read our Closing Comments post. I know it's a little long but it explains a lot.
Second, please use CTRL + F to do a quick search and see if your question has already been asked and answered. We anticipate getting a lot of repeat questions so we want to avoid re-answering them over and over.
And finally, here are some questions that have already been asked or we anticipate getting, so we're answering them in advance:
1. Why is the comic ending so soon? The story has just begun!
Please read the Closing Comments post for more detail, but the TL;DR answer is we've reached the original stopping point of our story and we're ready to move on to new endeavors rather than continue on endlessly. And we do have an 8 page epilogue planned to close things up a little tighter.
2. Will you ever return to Strays in the future? I want more!
It's not impossible! The story definitely can continue, but we want to move on to new things for now.
3. Will the StraysOnline.com website stay up?
Yes, it will.
4. Will you be making a new comic? Will you tell us if you do?
Algy and I both have ideas for new comics, so yes, it's very likely. We'll announce here and on the Strays Facebook page if and when we start anything new, and you can always follow our art pages on DeviantArt (Celesse is here and Algy is here)
5. Wait, what happened with that old guy that knew Meela back in chapter 3???
Please skip down to the "Edits" section of the Closing Comments post for the answer to that.
6. What will happen with Feral's curse? How does he get cured? Will he ever read his journal?
Feral's curse is permanent, there is no cure. He will never get his original memories back, but some day down the road Jyaku would likely unlock his journal for him to read. It would be more of a curiosity to him since Feral is more practical than sentimental and he has no attachment to his old life anymore, but it's hard to spell out his reaction in just a few sentences. He'd probably at least visit the old village to check it out.
7. What about Vihki? And Meela's mother?
Vihki likely mourned for a while, then moved on with her life. Yuen just disappeared so there wasn't much else she could do. Meela's mother is a story point we're keeping under our hats for the moment.
Okay, now that that's out of the way, please feel free to ask any other questions you have and we'll do our best to answer :)
218 thoughts on “Ending Q&A”
Angelily
What is our lovely Piper up to? : ) And will she ever cross paths with Meela or Feral and Holland again?
Celesse
She’s likely thieving and flirting ;) She comes and goes, so she’ll definitely cross paths with them again at some point.
Sarah
Since you answered my main questions…
Way back when, after we discovered that the person in Meela’s dreams was actually Feral, you mentioned that you might go back through the flashbacks and draw young Yuen where Meela currently is. PLEASE say this is still a possibility? Too late for a stretch goal on the kickstarter, but maybe a future “return to the story”? :D
Another “maybe someday” was the backstory for Jira and Rollin’s romance… Another return? ;)
Other than that… Can you answer what I’m supposed to do every Friday morning with no new page to view? Confession: this past year, if I woke up anytime after midnight on Thursdays, I’d reach for my phone and read the new page bleary-eyed… Even at one or three in the morning.
Celesse
We still might do that, but for now we have to focus on the Kickstarter assets and the epilogue. We’ll definitely keep it in mind, though!
Jira and Rollin’s romance is still a possibility as well. Not sure when, but some day. Likely in prose format rather than comic.
And I’m afraid I can’t help on this last one, but have you tried Unsounded? It’s a great fantasy comic that updates three days a week!
Allynia6
Other excellent comics that update on Fridays (actually M/W/F, except the last one, which updates every weekday):
Star Power
Gunnerkrigg Court
Girl Genius
Stand Still, Stay Silent
I will miss Strays, of course, but reading other excellent comics definitely softens the blow :) Best of luck to the authors in their future endeavors, I know they’ll be just as awesome!
Jae
Is it possible to add another tier to the kickstarter? I would love a hardcover collector’s edition with all three volumes in one. That’s kind of what i had been anticipating. You could even make it look like Feral or Meela’s journals; that’d be cool.
Celesse
I’m sorry, we can’t do that. It’s out of our scope of affordability :( Maybe some day? But not right now.
bitflipper
I resoundingly second Jae’s suggestion for a hardbound omnibus edition! I found Strays a year after the final comic, and would love a chance to add it to my collection. Please consider consolidating this wonderful work so it can sit alongside other award-winning graphic novels such as Jeff Smith’s Bone and Ursula Vernon’s Digger in the place of honor it deserves!
Verridith
Will any of your other comics in the hopefully-near future touch on the other species in this universe? Related or unrelated to Strays’ storyline itself, I’d love to see more about the lovely Lyrians, Cervians, Vulpians and more! <3 There's so much that you can go into, I just can't wait for more.
Verridith
And of course in my half-asleep state I realized how terrible I am at the whole English thing tonight, omg. xD
Celesse
I’m not sure that we’ll touch on the races from Meoley, as we want to try new worlds and other kinds of peoples. But we’ll see :)
juniorbullhauler
Hi verridith its Khy
Kayla
To be honest, I don’t have any questions about the comic itself, but I remember a page from not too long ago that had black silhouettes of Feral and Meela set on a red background with their demon traits also highlighted red. I still DEARLY want to see that as a wallpaper and hoped it would come up as a vote incentive or something. Now, probably not that way, but would it still be made available somehow?
Celesse
Ah yes, I completely forgot about that! It’s now the TWC vote incentive ;3
http://topwebcomics.com/vote/7164/default.aspx
JuaSaysHi
That wallpaper would make a gorgeous T-shirt. I’m imagining it as screen printed on a red tee that has black batik/tiedye lines
Kayla
Yaaaaay!! Thank you so much!!
Ebs
Will there be any Jyaku merchandise? His deadpan is fabulous.
Celesse
Probably not, but we’ll keep it in mind XD
Ebs
appreciate the consideration :)
Obsidianxnight
TnT I wish I could help out on Kickstarter, but I don’t have any way to. Is there any other way to support you guys? Are you selling printed copies on another website? I really love this comic and want to see it move up in the multi-universal cross-dimensional tumblr-and-fandom-infested-(not that I’m complaining) world of webcomics…
Celesse
We sell the first two volumes in the store here – https://www.straysonline.com/store
Volume 3 will be added there too if it’s funded and printed :3
Obsidianxnight
Yay! Thank you so much! I look forward to getting a copy soon!
Mookybird
Noooo you’re breaking my heart. I really hope you go back to it. I’ve been following you on TapTastic and I love it. So I can buy the volumes? Do you ship to Australia?
Celesse
Yes, Kickstarter allows for international pledges!
Sinner Dragoon
How do the tears of our feels and sadness taste?
LOL :P
Celesse
Like sour candy ;^;
Cadwalader
Fck, I have to activate my new credit card to pledge X_X Previous one seems to be already expired… >>
Kimma
I love this comic and live the brother/ sister dynamic between Feral and Meela. My questions are: with her half-demon nature will Meela ever be able to join a clan? Or can she and Feral start a clan for all the clan-less misfits, or are they just doomed to be a pair of lone wolves? Also, if Meela ever has pups will they be quarter demon? And does the demon blood just kind of filter out down the line if they keep mating with non-demons? Or is it more of a dominant/ recessive trait where it will either always show up or eventually get masked?
Celesse
Meela can never join a “proper” clan, but she already has one with Feral and Holland. So I guess yes, they’re doomed to be lone wolves, but at least they have each other.
Meela is technically a quarter demon herself. Her mother was full lupian and her father was half lupian-half demon. I suppose it could eventually be filtered out, but it’s a pretty dominant trait and would take many generations for it to be wheedled down to nothing.
unorthodox_yoyo
Oh, you see I was always under the impression that Meela’s dad was a full blown demon. I figured that when he has a more violent transformation (like Meela did when she encounter Korin) that he looked like that dragon-like monster from Yuen’s memories. While a transformation when he was more in control he’d look like an extra big, extra spiky wolf.
So if Meela’s dad is actually half demon… how did that happen? Can those big dragons take a more humanoid form and fall in love with or seduce a normal lupian?
CrazyRatopia
Thank you for the amazing comic!
My only question is… Have you ever listened to this song?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kucGEjGLeY
I think it really works well with the comic, :3
Asha
Someone else who has seen Wolves Rain :D
But I agree, the song fits nicely~
KaelinaLuvsLomaris
I’ve been working on a music video with that song for this comic….
RedlightWolf
OHH
THE LAST TIER
THE LAST
TEIR
YOU TWO LUCKY DUCKS THAT NABBED THAT
LUCKY LUCKY LUCKY LITTLE DUCKS xD
Anyway, my curious question is, will you still promote the comic and keep an eye on Strays’ fandom now that it has ended or is it absolutely completely in the past and moved on from for now? o3o
(And calling on a comment above I also really loved the tribal twined wolf spirits on the pages where Jyaku was explaining everything and I would use that wallpaper so fast if it were made even if it is a bit of a spoiler in itself xD Jk, I just remembered wishing for that at the time seeing the comment above, but it would be nice ^3^)
Celesse
I’m honestly surprised they sold! I didn’t think anybody would be interested ^^;;
We will still keep an eye on the Strays site and the fandom (what’s left of it, we seem to have pissed some people off with closing it lol?) We get emails about new comments and we’ll check on the Facebook page as well.
I’ll see what I can do about making the tribal wolves a wallpaper. Not all images work very well (especially if they’re cut off by panel edges) but we’ll see.
KaiyAyanna
So sense you guys are keeping secrets you may or may not do a short comic for strays in the future? Thats good :)
Celesse
Yes, there’s some things we may still do :) Can’t make promises, but we want to keep our options open.
Ludvig
Just pledged :) I really hope that you’re going to reach the goal, this comic has been the highlight of every Friday since I found it a couple of years ago, and I’d absolutely love to see an epilogue :D
Celesse
Thank you so much, it’s very appreciated :)
Samuel
Thank you for writing an amazing web comic its been a good run and I’m sad to see it end but we can count our blessings that we ever got to read it in the first place.
Celesse
Thank you!!
Natiss
Hey, first I want to congratulate you girls for bringing the comic to an end. It was a great story which I’ve been reading with bated breath.
But I have a question about the matter that is still unclear to me. Remember the package back on the page 201? It appeared again on the page 219, where Holland gives it away to Jyaku. What was it exactly? Did this package contain the files Holland was asking about or was it something else?
Celesse
Thank you so much!
Oh, I’m sorry we weren’t clear on that – it was indeed the files Holland needed and what the whole mission at the mansion was about.
Threnodi
Hi guys! Can’t wait to get that last book, it’s been a great ride, and I’ll be looking out for any future projects you two come up with!
As to questions…
Just how many siblings does Holland have? What’s his relationship like with his family?
Who gave the mark to Mal? Did he meet an actual demon of some sort, or was it an evil wizard, or did he kill someone with the mark to get it or what?
What makes someone a ‘demon lupian’? Is that different than just a demon? Was Meela’s father not really the same species at all, or are there demonic variants of most races?
Looks like my last two about Meela’s mother and Feral’s memories got covered. : )
Celesse
Holland has three older brothers and one younger sister. His relationship with his family is kind of rocky. His parents are strict and don’t like him running off all the time, but he’s a free spirit and would prefer not to be stuck in a boring palace. As the youngest brother he gets put on all the menial tasks and that’s just no fun. It’s much more interesting to run around with Feral.
I actually wanted to have Meela’s father give Mal his mark, but I came to my senses and realized that was a little too much tying in. So it was likely a dark mage or possibly even a demon masquerading as a normal traveler.
Demon lupians are actually half breeds: half demon and half lupian. To make one, a lupian would have to mate with a demon capable of assuming a humanoid form and breeding. So Meela’s father was really only half demon, making her quarter demon.
JeremyRedhead
Celesse, I just wanted to say that Strays is my favorite webcomic EVER, just because of the fact that IT DOES have flaws, but still shines through them, because the environment, the art, the story, and the characters are JUST SO freaking awesome, and SO unique and fantastical…
I even like this over Gaia! :D Keep making awesome things!
Celesse
Thank you so much :) We know it’s not the best story out there, but we learned a lot and I’m glad that people can enjoy it for what it is <3
Brazilian Lupian
I said it once and I’ll say it again, Thank you so much for your work. I wish to you the best.
Celesse
Thank you again!
Delphi
Will you be making word bubble stickers in the shop for those of us who already have the first two books, but want to see them up to date just like the comic is? I’ve seen a couple people ask… just wondering.
Thanks for the great story!!!
Celesse
We’re still debating on that. We made changes to the art as well, so I’m not sure if just making dialogue stickers will work. We’re leaning towards printing the edited pages to be slipped in place over the old ones instead.
N8
IIRC, you mentioned that different races can’t breed, with the exception of demons. Can half demons only breed with people who are one of their parent’s kind? How many generations before the traits of either are lost? Or is it a one drop kind of thing?
Celesse
Half demons can breed with anyone, but the conception rate is extremely low unless it’s with the same race as their non-demon half. For example, if Meela wanted to have pups when she grows up her best chance is to mate with a lupian.
I’m not sure how many generations it would take to breed out, but it would definitely take a long time. And the descendants would likely always have stronger skills in the dark side of the magic spectrum.
N8
If it takes a long time to breed out, and allows, even at a low conception rate, more potential mating prospects, and gives higher magical aptitude, wouldn’t the part demons become extremely common? It just seems to have so much favoring it, natural selection wise. Is the stigma attached to demons enough to counteract that, or is there another reason you don’t see part demons everywhere?
Trilbz
Holland has seemed to always have a bad relationship with his family, i was wondering if it was ever explained why? (sorry if i just missed that and it’s a stupid question) Also does he ever resolve the issues with his family or at least come to some sort of understanding? P.S. I absolutely love this comic, I’ve looked forward to every Friday for a few years now and look forward to the epilogue.
Celesse
Holland’s family drama was always kind of a background thing, so we never explicitly wrote it out anywhere. He mentions he’s the youngest of four brothers, so he obviously has no shot at the throne and thus isn’t spending his time learning how to take over. He frequently runs off/escapes, so it can be inferred that he doesn’t enjoy palace life and would prefer to be running around outside, but his strict parents disapprove.
I doubt they’ll ever come to an understanding about his free spirit, but since he’s last in line for the throne they don’t try too hard to keep him under their thumb. I guess a begrudging acceptance of his behavior is the best he can hope for.
Tuomi
Sigh, I love this comic, but.. well, any epilogue that I would read, now that the story is finished might feel forced… :( Besides, you can imagine what is going to happen to Feral and Meela. :) Everything is gonna be fine.
Celesse
I feel like the epilogue fits nicely in place, and we’re excited for it, so it shouldn’t come off as forced :)
Oceanseas
I only discovered this webcomic a few months ago and I’m sad to see it end. Thank you both for writing it. Reading it has definitely been an inspiration to me to stay motivated in creating my own works.
As for my questions:
1) What is the likelihood that Holland will get his own spinoff series? (jk, lol)
2) If you could spend one day with the characters in your story (either in our world or in their world), what would you do?
Celesse
Thank you for enjoying it even though you just found it! We appreciate it
1. Not impossible, but also not likely ;)
2. Myself? I’d like to visit the royal palace, and definitely hit up a marketplace or two to see what kinds of things they might sell there.
Algy
Visit the Royal Palace of the King (which is not Holland’s family) and watch a celebration of magic show at night~
Hawk McBlade
Awwww, thank you both for this comic, I’m jazzed to hear that there will be an epilogue. My questions regarding all this, I guess, is why did you decide to end it here? Did you have the whole story written out before hand? And if someone approached you about making this a movie, would you accept?
Celesse
We definitely didn’t have an entire script written out beforehand, which is one of the story’s issues. We started the comic pretty randomly and with no clear direction, and after working on it for so long we’ve decided that we’re ready to move on.
This is the original stopping point. Not necessarily “the end,” I suppose, but as far as I had it planned out in the loose outline I created for it. I figured I could either end it at that point or write more when we reached it if I still wanted to continue, but we want to try other things now, so we’re wrapping things up as best we can and bidding it adieu.
I seriously doubt anybody would want to make this a movie, it’s always been pretty niche ;3 But we would probably accept, yes. Why not? Haha!
MI
Will we ever find out the full scope of Meela’s dream ability? The full range of her powers?
Celesse
Jyaku talked about the potential of Meela’s dream catcher ability, but basically (with training) she could learn to watch people’s dreams, access their memories while they sleep or even manipulate their dreams. It would take a very long time to master, though.
MI
Also, any potential side stories about Holland’s family and their deal? In my head cannon I imagined them all being half Angels, explaining why their hatred for demons and half demons. Holland being interested in demons and half demons because he likes to rebel and take more after the other half, not being interested in his family matters.
Celesse
Sorry, they’re not angels or anything ;) They’re just boring, snooty birdfolk. Trust me, Holland is the most interesting one of the bunch.
Bramblefire
I hope you don’t mind I figure out my expenses before I pledge. (I plan to do one of the higher ones ;) ) Anywho, I love the expansive world y’all have created, I often enjoy just sitting and thinking about what else goes on in Meoley. I do have one question that recently came to me. What exactly do/did the demons do to cause such a reputation? Are they generally evil (with the exceptions of half-demons), or are they simply chaotic?
Algy
Meoley is a huge world we originally created through Roleplay.
Demons are generally evil and cause nothing but trouble. If they take humanoid forms, that will cause even more trouble especially if they torment other races. If any offspring come of this, they either give in to their demon side or try to make the best of their lives if they can hide their features (like Rollin did).