Author notes

Chapter 6 Page 16

Abt_Nihil

on July 4, 2010

THE END! Well, I don't really know how I should write a comment for a last page, because the comic should have said it all…

Maybe a little "behind the scenes" info: The last five pages were drawn on June 22nd and June 23rd - never before had I spent as much time on drawing comics as on those two days. I felt that I had to work continuously on the final scene to really keep track of its "feel" and keep it coherent.

Please keep watching this space, as there are going to be a few surprises in the coming days. Updates will continue daily.

I'll save my final farewell and thank-yous for the last update. For now I'm just curious to find out what you think about the ending, or about the whole comic, now that you're looking back on it.

Thanks for reading and commenting!




REPLIES:

DAJB: And I DID take it as a compliment of the highest order - Thank you very much! I am very, very proud of the fact that you're finding my work original. Even bigger thanks are due for your support and your favorable and helpful comments which you've been giving regularly from day one. That's an admirable feat in itself, and I consider myself very lucky.
Also, I agree on your webcomics/underground comix analogy. And while I do hope that some watered-down version of signifikat might be somewhat commercially successful in the very distant future, I'm afraid you're right ;-)

Oriru: That's what I made some neat print collections for ;-) Seriously though, thanks a lot for sticking around. I'm glad you enjoyed the comic, even without understanding all of it. But hey, it's going nowhere, so whenever you feel like it, you're welcome here! :-)

Fitz: Thank you very much! That's actually very close to my own interpretation. The only thing I would add is that in this context, "love" is ambiguous in itself… in that sense, even an "act of love" may be more complicated than that. You did come up with that great Shiva reference, which was mostly unintentional on my part. "Mostly", because Erwin Schrödinger believed that Hinduism was the answer to many conundrums about the soul and consciousness, and I did integrate his quote intentionally to address these issues. To me, it plays into the theme of structure, in that language is a social phenomenon, and sociality depends on multiplicity. Some characters represent different ways of living solitarily (Ed, Nora, Iia) - that's one of the central conflicts in the comic. So, this final unification of souls is a way to overcome multiplicity without resorting to solitude, in a way. Thus, I think it is a fitting ending, as it resolves this abstract conflict, while being very much motivated on the character level as well. But hey, it's layers on top of layers…
To stress it once more, I LOVE the Shiva reference. I wish I had thought of it! It neatly integrates the theme of the divine, the ambiguity of love and creation/destruction, and the Hinduistic "unification of souls".
I should reveal that the first caption is an edited version of what I originally wrote in my script. The full version is: "God is love, and love is consumption, and consumption is destruction. God is love, and love is creation, and creation is rewriting structure." It is inspired by this line from ZERO by the Smashing Pumpkins: "Emptiness is loneliness, and loneliness is cleanliness, and cleanliness is Godliness, and God is empty - just like me." I decided to leave out the "God"-part in the end, because I wanted the ending to be more about Love than about God.

Nepath: Indeed! I frequently think back to how I started at smackjeeves, and what a great coincidence it was that you discovered A.D - then I started reading Energize and followed you to dd. It greatly influenced the way I've been making comics these past three years. Out of everyone I've met on the web, I am probably most indebted to you! Thanks a lot for your kind words on this comic, and I hope you'll like Holon just as much - I'll try to do my best.

Peipei: Thanks!

Zephyrion: I hope it was a good one ;-)

Jabali: Thank you very much! In a certain way: yes, I do like stories which are open to interpretation. As long as the vagueness doesn't give way to all-out randomness, it's okay, I think. I hope signifikat comes across as having a thematical core, and a certain coherence, though :-) And everything that follows in the next few days is an addition, or a bonus. I have no idea whether I want to revisit signifikat in, say, a few years. Might happen, might not. For now, it is very much complete.

alejkhan: And I'm glad you said it! I do care what people say about it, especially you, since you've been following the comic this long, and in a way, I consider your response my "checks and balances" :P The difference between us may be that, generally speaking, I do like endings - not because I like things to end, and of course it always depends, but I think I just generally value endings for the potential power they have. (I always have to think of Haruhara Haruko in the final episode of FLCL, soaring through the air with her guitar and shouting "Kuraimakusu!!" - Climax :P) As for this being "the only possible ending": I've got a little surprise for you at the end of the week :3

mmm bacon0: Thanks!

Fitz (again): I bought the first (giant) volume of the manga a few years back and never got around to reading it. However, while I'm sure there are many things you won't get without reading the manga, the movie superbly achieves its aim of dazzling the audience. Back when it was released it was a shock and awe movie, and I think most of it still works. Now, without wanting to sound ungrateful: I think Metropolis is more deeply flawed than Akira. If Akira is flawed, it is because it is convoluted somehow. But while I enjoyed Metropolis (or rather, certain scenes of it), it's not a nice whole. Some elements work, some don't, but the big picture seems deeply flawed to me. Not that I don't appreciate the comparison, if you're referring to certain scenes rather than the overall big picture :P (And yes, FLCL and Cowboy Bebop are without a doubt two of the best anime series ever made!)

Tempest: Uh… sorry? XD