Revenge of Ask T Questions

[dianekikiula]

T, along with the others I'd like to say thanks for the ride. It's been fun.

Questions... hmm. 1) Will this final chapter be available in book form?
2) Anything else I'd ask, you probably won't want to answer, but I'll give this one a shot, anyway: You said earlier that this was the final appearance of P & A "chronologically" or something like that. Does that mean there's a chance of either a) flashbacks in the spin-off to flesh out parts we haven't seen, b) future references to them, either on-screen or off, or c) I should just quit obsessing over how stories keep ending just when I start "watching" regularly...?

1) Getting all Jason's material ready for book publication is on my agenda, though I might experiment with e-books before print with these last volumes. (Jason's material makes two unpublished volumes, not just one.)

2) Yyyyyyyyeahhhhh I've been leaving that door ajar on purpose. I want to be clear that this is a definite ending. I do spinoffs, but not sequels. But we also ended RIp and Teri, yet brought characters from that series in for a very brief (and, sorry, borderline incomprehensible) cameo in {i]Penny and Aggie.[/i] So, yeah, it's possible we may walk that line again at some point.

1) I look forward to the books! Are you thinking of self-publishing the e-books, or going with a mainstream publisher?

2) When did people from Rip and Teri show up?


Thank you for all of it.

[TCampbell]

I hope I phrase this delicately and respectfully. I can't help but keep coming back to this ending and feeling sad. When they were together, did Aggie ever say "I love you," to Penny? And why do the other characters still have stories to tell, but not P &A? Your last answer sounded like maybe you wrote them into a place you didn't want to take them. Is that part of ending it like this? Don't take me wrong - I thought the ending is masterful and true to the themes you've laid out. And I can imagine them continuing to grow as people and as lovers. But I feel like I've missed too much of their lives to be fully satisfied.

Sometime during the Popsicle War, I got pretty sure that Penny and Aggie would at least give a relationship a shot, and things got clearer from there over the course of the next year. I'm rarely upset when characters write themselves. It usually saves me work. (Sometimes, yes, I do make careful plans and watch my characters ruin all my preparation. But that didn't happen here.)

Aggie did say "I love you" eventually, but it was at a time when they were already close to separating.

Part of the reason this story skips around a bit in time is this: I didn't want to force developments in the relationship to happen faster than they realistically would, and I also didn't want to bore you. Early drafts had Penny and Aggie's high school relationship messily imploding at the end of August, as the pressures of college and their unaddressed communication issues crushed them. But when I got there, it became clear that they had worked too hard on it to give up so easily. And yet it was also clear to me that the problems were too big for them to overcome, as they were in high school. So the last August scene lays the groundwork for their breakup. Watching them go through a cycle of diminishing returns in the autumn months, before finally ending with one last inevitable fight, strikes me as both depressing and boring, because you'd have a pretty good idea what was going to happen after the first couple of pages. I don't think this particular format can stay interesting without suspense and the possibility of surprise. There are ways to add such elements to a breakup story, but not as a follow-up to the story told in "May" through "August."

Similar issues are why "SSL" confined itself to a single conversation between the leads, albeit spread out over an evening. It's a pacing thing.

As for why other characters have stories to tell, but not P&A-- your mileage may vary, of course, but I feel like "Summer" explored a metric crapton of ideas, angles and perspectives on the idea of Penny and Aggie as a couple, which was the last Big Idea I had for them. (Things like applying to college, senior prom, senioritis and graduation day just didn't hold a lot of interest for me, frankly.) I feel like anything else that focuses on these two would be an anticlimax next to that.

[TCampbell]

T, along with the others I'd like to say thanks for the ride. It's been fun.

Questions... hmm. 1) Will this final chapter be available in book form?
2) Anything else I'd ask, you probably won't want to answer, but I'll give this one a shot, anyway: You said earlier that this was the final appearance of P & A "chronologically" or something like that. Does that mean there's a chance of either a) flashbacks in the spin-off to flesh out parts we haven't seen, b) future references to them, either on-screen or off, or c) I should just quit obsessing over how stories keep ending just when I start "watching" regularly...?

1) Getting all Jason's material ready for book publication is on my agenda, though I might experiment with e-books before print with these last volumes. (Jason's material makes two unpublished volumes, not just one.)

2) Yyyyyyyyeahhhhh I've been leaving that door ajar on purpose. I want to be clear that this is a definite ending. I do spinoffs, but not sequels. But we also ended RIp and Teri, yet brought characters from that series in for a very brief (and, sorry, borderline incomprehensible) cameo in {i]Penny and Aggie.[/i] So, yeah, it's possible we may walk that line again at some point.

1) I look forward to the books! Are you thinking of self-publishing the e-books, or going with a mainstream publisher?

2) When did people from Rip and Teri show up?


Thank you for all of it.

1) Self-pub all the way.

2) They appeared, albeit in disguise, in "Terminus A Quo," along with characters from Cool Cat Studio, Fans and Sketchies. Teri Anthony went by the name "Tess Antoinette," describing her work in Africa.

[Tamar]

Regarding the conversation between Duane and Michelle at the beginning of "August," which I now see was placed there as a meta-commentary on the Penny/Aggie relationship (the bit about love being a source of both great strength and great weakness, as well as a crapshoot)...in that sequence, is Michelle actually crushing on Duane or simply admiring his devotion to Charlotte? If the former, did she ever make any overture to him, and if so, what came of it?

[TCampbell]

Regarding the conversation between Duane and Michelle at the beginning of "August," which I now see was placed there as a meta-commentary on the Penny/Aggie relationship (the bit about love being a source of both great strength and great weakness, as well as a crapshoot)...in that sequence, is Michelle actually crushing on Duane or simply admiring his devotion to Charlotte? If the former, did she ever make any overture to him, and if so, what came of it?

Duane and Michelle were tight for a while, and both they and others thought that their bond might blossom into a romance. It didn't happen, largely because they weren't ready. Both of them had some pretty heavy baggage from their last kinda-sorta relationships, and they were better off helping each other deal with that as friends. By the time they indeed might have been ready for more, graduation was fast approaching, and the romantic disappointments of most of Michelle's friends left her a bit reluctant to get back on that horse. Duane might not have turned down a date at that point, but he never pushed for one either.

[FlyingFish]

(Sometimes, yes, I do make careful plans and watch my characters ruin all my preparation. But that didn't happen here.)

That reminds me: You said earlier that you'd intended for Katy-Ann to board the bus and for things between her and Jack to fall apart in her absence; then she refused to go along with the plan. Had she obeyed you like a good girl ( ), what would have changed in the remainder of the story?

[TCampbell]

(Sometimes, yes, I do make careful plans and watch my characters ruin all my preparation. But that didn't happen here.)

That reminds me: You said earlier that you'd intended for Katy-Ann to board the bus and for things between her and Jack to fall apart in her absence; then she refused to go along with the plan. Had she obeyed you like a good girl ( ), what would have changed in the remainder of the story?

Katy-Ann would've ended up with Duane, and Brandi with Jack, for at least the rest of high school. I have to admit this bit was inspired by an actual "re-partnering" that happened to my social circle as a graduation got closer. I was never fully decided whether those pairings would endure until the reunion: I probably would've ended up splitting one and keeping the other.

It would've been interesting, for sure. Katy-Ann and Duane wouldn't share the same raw physical passion that K-A had with Jack. but Duane is slightly more on her intellectual wavelength, and after he disclosed his religion to her they'd have some mutually fascinating debates. Katy-Ann would ultimately convert him: she just has a deeper, firmer faith, whereas his was something of an experiment to him. As far as Jack and Brandi, they'd have a pretty enjoyable, very physical relationship, and while it wouldn't be totally immune to the problems Jack had with Katy-Ann, the big differences between K-A and Brandi would make Jack realize, on his own, that those problems were his problems.

[Louisa]

Katy-Ann would ultimately convert him: she just has a deeper, firmer faith, whereas his was something of an experiment to him.

You say Duane's faith "was" an experiment - does this mean that the Duane we see at the reunion has lost his Muslim faith? Or has he grown to treat it as more than an experiment? Basically, what's reunionDuane's religious status?

[TCampbell]

Katy-Ann would ultimately convert him: she just has a deeper, firmer faith, whereas his was something of an experiment to him.

You say Duane's faith "was" an experiment - does this mean that the Duane we see at the reunion has lost his Muslim faith? Or has he grown to treat it as more than an experiment? Basically, what's reunionDuane's religious status?

Agnostic. Duane, I think, is someone who'll always be most faithful to the questions.

[FlyingFish]

Building off that: what's Reunion!Jack's current religious stance?

[IS_Wolf]

Building off that: what's Reunion!Jack's current religious stance?

Should be easy. Goddess worship. He married her after all.

[TCampbell]

Building off that: what's Reunion!Jack's current religious stance?

Should be easy. Goddess worship. He married her after all.

Jack gets a little more in line with Katy-Ann's worldview every day. She doesn't push it on him. But he just kind of picks it up.

[perilsofrosella]

T, I would also like to thank you for making this comic. I truly enjoyed the ride.

What is Sara's girlfriend's name? Is Sara still friends with Lucy, and did Lucy end up doing anything with her life? Is Tom the same Tom that asked out Aggie in the beginning? (If you find these questions a bit silly, please don't answer them).

Also, out of curiosity, how much influence did Gis have on the ending?

The first two questions, I'm not going to answer right now.

Tom is not that Tom! (And you wonder why I give characters names like "Tharqa?" It's to keep THIS from happening.) Tom and Penny met in college.

Gisele's been a sounding board and occasionally raised a good point, especially when I show her the art to look over shortly before it goes live. I would have to say, though, that besides me, the ones who've had the most influence on the plot have been Greg Eatroff and Maritza Campos.

Thank you! Haha, I thought it would be entertaining if it had been that Tom, but I understand why it isn't.

[Alice Macher]

Question for Gisèle: In your recent, lovely pin-up of P and A, Aggie has a mouse as a new pet. What's his/her name?

[retrophrenologist]

Is reunion-era Aggie still a vegetarian? If not, when did this chage?