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
Tempest_Lavalle at 1:56AM, July 7, 2010
My mind...she is blown 0_0
Fitz at 4:11PM, July 5, 2010
I did mention the ending scenes made me think of Akira - so decided to watch Akira this morning, not long after I wrote my comment :) Blew my mind - but I do think I should read the manga for the bigger picture. Aside from the WOW factor there were just some loose ends and the ending that left me with mixed feelings. The "kuraimakusu" was great, but then I felt like: huh? Speaking of which, FLCL is one of my favorite animes ever! :D Right on top of my list along with Cowboy Bebop (which Signifikat also made me think of!). Aaaanyway... I think the ending was closer to Metropolis than Akira. Bittersweet and mesmerizing. Tragic and yet soothing.
alejkhan at 12:40PM, July 5, 2010
Well, we've already talked a little bit about "the end" and my feelings about it, but I'll say this now, I have to agree with Fitz - this is a great happy ending, the only happy ending possible for a story like this. It's a surreal, bizarre, amalgamation of so many different styles and influences, which is what makes science fiction stories so great! I hate endings in general, but I do think you pulled it off. Congratulations!
Jabali at 11:44AM, July 5, 2010
I have to agree with DAJB. Signifikat is unique and sometimes wonder if the comic was meant for us readers to have our own way of defining the story. This comic certainly doesn't have a label to describe it and it would have been unfair in trying to do so. Cant' wait to see more of Signifikat... yes I do believe this is not the end. Awesome!
Zephyrion at 11:36AM, July 5, 2010
What a ride
Nepath at 1:42AM, July 5, 2010
Seems like a long time ago that I started reading this comic shortly after discovering AD1997 on smackjeeves and now im reading the final page after both our transitions to the duck! I thoroughly enjoyed the surreal story of this sort of âcoupleâ and the last few pages building up to this destruction/rebirth moment for everyone have probably been the strongest pages of the comic. I will no doubt give this a full re-read in one sitting one night now that it is completed and wait patiently for the start of Holon! Great work that has most definitely paid off.
Fitz at 12:11AM, July 5, 2010
Beautiful! That last panel is just gorgeous! And I think I was right in expecting a happy ending. It doesn't look like one - but if you read between the lines, it is. I interpret the captions this way: the act of eating him, however brutal, was an act of love, not just mercy. Nor was it an end for Ed. It was merely the beginning. More so: it meant progress to a higher level. By uniting with Sunhra he evolved physically - and emotionally, I guess? He's not alone any more - neither physically nor spiritually. "And they lived happily ever after" :) Weirdest love story ever - but a love story, nonetheless. And I think Sunhra might be a version of Shiva - the hindu god of destrcution. "One in whom the whole creation sleeps after dissolution"... I actually googled that up just now, but I had a feeling the whole caption had these dualistic hindu undertones to them. Love = deconstruction / reconstruction. LOVED IT! Seriously!
Oriru at 11:54PM, July 4, 2010
Well, that indeed was rather unique story. The shame is that I have to read it again to get all of it.
DAJB at 11:27PM, July 4, 2010
Overall comment? It's like nothing else on the web! Which, in my book, is a compliment of the highest order! I often think webcomics are to this decade what underground "comix" were to the 1960s and early 1970s. Or at least that they have the potential to be. Obviously a lot of webcomics simply try to imitate what's already out there in the mainstream which is fine too but, when a webcomic does something that probably couldn't exist in the commercial world, that's when the medium comes into its own. My hat is off to you!