A Fond Farewell

[TCampbell]

Some of you who don't go to these forums often may be surprised that the series is ending now. Weren't there six more letters in QUILTBAG?

Short answer: yes, there were, but I'm not feeling up to fulfilling the ambitions I had for the series. Chapters 1 and 2 were both written to be able to stand on their own two feet, though, so this is as good a place to wrap things up as any!

If you want the long answer, just look for the thread titled "You Heard It Here First." That thread also has some information on what I'm doing now and what I'll be doing for the next little while. Follow me on Twitter to keep up, too.

If you're curious about Sara and Lisa's future and QUILTBAG is your first series of mine, you should know that some questions about their post-college life-- not all, but some-- are answered in the conclusion to Penny and Aggie. But in a story about "questioning" and "unidentified" people, it only seemed right that some questions remain unanswered.

[CEOIII]

*puts QUILTBAG bookmark in folder with P&A and Garden Hose*

I heard
That you're settled down
That you
Found a girl
And you're
Married now

I heard
That your dreams came true
I guess she gave you things
I didn't give to you

Old friend, why are you so shy?
It ain't like you to hold back or hide from the lie.

I hate to turn up out of the blue uninvited,
But I couldn't stay away, I couldn't fight it,
I had hoped you'd see my face,
And that you'd be reminded that for me it isn't over,

Never mind, I'll find someone like you,
I wish nothing but the best for you, too,
Don't forget me, I beg,
I remember you said,
"Sometimes it lasts in love,
But sometimes it hurts instead,"
Sometimes it lasts in love,
But sometimes it hurts instead, yeah,

You know how the time flies,
Only yesterday was the time of our lives,
We were born and raised in a summer haze,
Bound by the surprise of our glory days,

I hate to turn up out of the blue uninvited,
But I couldn't stay away, I couldn't fight it,
I had hoped you'd see my face,
And that you'd be reminded that for me it isn't over,

Never mind, I'll find someone like you,
I wish nothing but the best for you, too,
Don't forget me, I beg,
I remember you said,
"Sometimes it lasts in love,
But sometimes it hurts instead,"

Nothing compares,
No worries or cares,
Regrets and mistakes, they're memories made,
Who would have known how bittersweet this would taste?

Nevermind, I'll find someone like you,
I wish nothing but the best for you,
Don't forget me, I beg,
I remember you said,
"Sometimes it lasts in love,
But sometimes it hurts instead,"

Nevermind, I'll find someone like you,
I wish nothing but the best for you, too,
Don't forget me, I beg,
I remember you said,
"Sometimes it lasts in love,
But sometimes it hurts instead,"
Sometimes it lasts in love,
But sometimes it hurts instead.

[Mr. Brightside]

...does this make the strip "quaquaquaqua"?

[dianekikiula]

Haven't been on the forums in forever ...

Are you okay, T?????

[Bo Lindbergh]

Maybe the You Heard It Here First... topic should be transmogrified into an announcement?

[LookingIn]

...does this make the strip "quaquaquaqua"?

...so this all happened in the mind of Lisa back in strip #2? Like in St. Elsewhere?

[CEOIII]

...does this make the strip "quaquaquaqua"?

...so this all happened in the mind of Lisa back in strip #2? Like in St. Elsewhere?

Worst. Series Ending. EVER.

[tisseur_de_reves]

Well, that indeed comes as a surprise. I actually don't spend time on the forums, and therefore I really did not see this coming. However, I felt I had to say something as regards to the spoiled ending of such a great comic.
You have every right to wish to end it to focus on something else, whatever that "else" may be. And even if you felt compelled to cut the comic short due to a lack of inspiration or any other reason, no one could blame you for that in any way. You are the boss: your comic, your rules. While I will really miss the comic, I certainly can't argue over your decision.

Your justifications, on the other hand, feel really awkward to me.

Chapters 1 and 2 were both written to be able to stand on their own two feet, though, so this is as good a place to wrap things up as any!

Your opinion on this is to say the least quite staggering. No, the second chapter does not wrap things up in the least. Wrapping things up means leaving little shortcomings, and leaving significant hints or leads that might explain what little remains. You're not leaving a few unlit alleways, but a huge boulevard of unanswered questions.

Lisa's situation is the only one for which you could honestly say to have wrapped every issue up. We don't know what the future holds for her, but the last strip did sum up all of her issues and the way she felt about them.
Sara's altogether another problem. What is she feeling at the moment, in both romantic and "carreer" aspects ? What does she actually expect from the future ? What's the actual deal with Temperance (The last panel was really intriguing btw) ?

I could go on and list several other issues that would have deserved proper explanations. You did that when you brought P&A to an end. It's sad you don't here.

Once again, I'm not posting this to uselessly troll and whine about the comic's ending. Sad as I may be about the end of the comic, it's definitely your choice. However, I'm a little upset about the excuses brought around to justify the end. I would rather have had, if not a proper ending, at least something like "I don't feel like doing this anymore", period. You leave the comic unachieved. And that leaves me (and others I believe) really frustrated.

At any rate, good luck for your future projects !

EDIT : After having read the ad-hoc post explaining why you wish to end the comic, I understand a little better your position. In retrospect, I found you are really hard on yourself. I do follow DoA and GwS, and I'd say QUILTBAG really holds its grounds. But whatever the reasons, that does not remove the feeling that you really hastily ruined the end of QUILTBAG.

[IronMaiden]

I have to agree with the other long post. As a writer myself, you have no idea how disappointed I am in this ending.

For starters, this whole thing seems to have ended before it really began. Lisa's ending at least had some potential in the sense that her views at the end are open and willing to take chances. But still... she barely knew the girl and this is all happening because she rocked Lisa's world in bed? That's it? It'd be nice to see at least SOME connection between them growing.

But Theo and Iseul? What happens to them? Did they break up? Did they work things out? Was that her lover that flipped over the table? Why would she react so harshly? I didn't get the feeling, at all, that she was in love with her. So why the intense reaction?

Hank's revelation as being gay was okay, but what about the rest? Doesn't Lisa have a mad crush on him? Doesn't he have to find a way to come out? What was the deal with the person getting murdered?

In fact, the only ending I liked was the one between the side characters, Michael and Maria, was it? It didn't explain what the deal was with the bottles, but at least it explained that it wasn't anything serious. It had a sweet, hopeful ending. That one I did like. I liked the connection built between them, her desire to want to connect to him because of how he connected to others. That was well done.

But what the crap happened with Sara and Temperance? That wasn't even remotely answered. And in P&A's ending, it was mentioned that Sara had a significant other, but it wasn't mentioned who. Was it Temperance? Was it not? There has been so much build-up of Sara figuring herself out... to let it die out the way it did was just upsetting.

Me personally, I'd appreciate at least a little bit of closure on the Sara-Temperance thing. A 5-strip ending to tell us what came of it, something. Otherwise, I'll be leaving behind a comic I really enjoyed with a pretty foul taste in my mouth, and I've liked your work over the years. I'd hate to leave things that way.

Best of luck to you though, wherever you end up.

[Alice Macher]

It's an abrupt ending, much more abrupt than we all would've liked, but consider this: Given how disillusioned and disenchanted T clearly is with the project, would it really be better if he churned out another few weeks, or even months, of comics just because he feels he "has to?" My guess is those comics would be far worse than what we've gotten, because his heart wouldn't be in it. Given that the comic is free to read, and that even the income T does get from it is, like with most webcomics, minimal, I would suggest he has no obligation to keep writing if all the inspiration for it has left him. Best to wrap up sooner rather than later, in this instance. But I do understand and empathize with the disappointed comments above.

[Gholateg]

Maybe not more comics.. but a Sandlot-styled ending sequence would be nice to tie up the thing a bit more.

There's just so much still out there that we'll never know now, vexing it is. Ronnie, Hank, Sara and Temp, Theo and Isuel and Lizzy...
And now I have Don't You Forget About Me stuck in my head... DAMMIT.

[Dakhran]

Sad to see it go...

But for those who think it ended too abruptly - as far as webcomics go, this was plenty of wrapup compared to other endings...

(WARNING: TV Tropes links ahead!)

Even good TV shows can end suddenly with loose ends dangling all over, with maybe a mini-series or movie to attempt to tie them up if you're lucky, or just make a worse snarl if you're not...

It would be nice to see a "where are they now" ending one of these days, but I can understand if T needs to step back from this project for awhile.

[Otaking]

I'm happy enough with a Lisa wrap-up considering where you're at T. I wouldn't want to see you do one more panel than you felt you had to either. Obligations aren't love and the fannish can now imagine their own endings to their taste anyway. Reminds me of Robotech II The Sentinels now.

I really like where the Guilded Age writing is going by the way. I find what is basically an atheist paladin hilarious, intriguing, and near and dear to my blackened, shriveled heart.

[TCampbell]

tisseur_de_reves and IronMaiden, I will take my lumps here. As I said elsewhere, I haven't felt terribly satisfied with QUILTBAG for most of Chapter Two, and I just can't push myself to flesh out my tentative, sketchy plans beyond it. When I say "this is as good a place to end it as any," what I mean is that my struggling through it for another few weeks would not, in my opinion, produce results any more satisfying than this. Better a blank space on which you can write your own ending than an ending which feels as forced and perfunctory as the last date before the breakup.

A couple of your questions, I think the text can answer. Yes, that was Elizabeth who flipped the table after Iseul left her a final, far more decisive breakup message. She may have seemed to be cool and nonchalant about the whole liaison, but only by contrast to Iseul's obvious anguish. She did look worried when Iseul talked about "finding a Theo."

And with all due respect, I think Sara's emotional state at the end is about as clear as we can possibly make it: it's almost the entire focus of the last three strips. She's had the certainty of her home life ripped away from her, and took it out on Temperance, with whom she'd bonded at the start of this chapter by picking on their respective families, behavior that now looks bratty to Sara. And now she's not sure whether that was the right thing to do, but even less sure what the right thing to do about her parents is. It falls to Lisa to remind Sara of what she herself said at the end of Chapter One, when she thought Lisa wasn't listening to her, that there will always be questions and one has to move forward anyway.

I do leave open the possibility that other QUILTBAG questions may indeed be answered in future work, after I've had time to get some perspective on it, just as Penny and Aggie explored a few "what if" scenarios involving Fans characters. I know how aggravating that must sound: "the resolution you seek may be somewhere in my future oeuvre! But you'll have to guess where!" But it's honestly the best I can offer today.

[nimoy]

Sad to see it go...

But for those who think it ended too abruptly - as far as webcomics go, this was plenty of wrapup compared to other endings...

(WARNING: TV Tropes links ahead!)

Even good TV shows can end suddenly with loose ends dangling all over, with maybe a mini-series or movie to attempt to tie them up if you're lucky, or just make a worse snarl if you're not...

It would be nice to see a "where are they now" ending one of these days, but I can understand if T needs to step back from this project for awhile.

I knew one of those links had to be to Twin Peaks before I even looked at them ;0) I am in the process of re-watching it now.... my poor husband has never seen it before, and he has no idea what's coming.

This certainly, while aburpt (I hand't been back to the forum in a bit), is much more satisfying than TP!