Thank you for reading Vigils for Friends! I hope you enjoyed it.
I felt like writing a bit about finally finishing this comic, but I've tucked it away on this page because it's really quite self-indulgent and unnecessary. Here's this, if you're interested.
Actually, first of all I want to thank some people. Stuart Gipp (Merry Hell) and Gob and Josef (It Hurts!!/Please Forgive Me!!!) got this whole thing started. Their comics are great and a source of inspiration, and also they said I should do my own comic. It's all your fault. Don't forget to read the Merry Hell Crossover if you haven't already! Claire Ryan also worked on that one and did a great job as always.
When I started working on the idea for Vigils for Friends, I had a quick look to make sure nobody was already doing it. I found A Ghost Story, which has a vaguely similar premise. I read it and was annoyed to discover it fucking rules. Bea has turned out to be super supportive and did a lovely write up of VfF for her links page. Thanks!
Thank you to everyone on the Gippscord who put up with me hijacking the your-stuff channel and said such kind and encouraging things. You all made the comic better. Thank you to the goons in the webcomic threads on Something Awful, especially Samovar for spreading the word. I am pleased to confirm your story prediction was BANG WRONG.
Thank you to absolutely everyone who has reposted, commented, liked, read, or even glanced at any of the comics.
And then obviously thank you to my kids - sorry you're not allowed to read my sweary comic - and my cool and funny wife.
OK! Enough about other people. Time to talk about ME!! I don't think this is neccessarily the end of Shirley and Kitty, but it's the end of Vigils for Friends as a regularly running webcomic. I'm ending it because I want to work on some other ideas that don't really fit into this format or these characters. I do have a vague idea for a new Vigils for Friends comic, but it'll be a while before I get to that. I want to make a comic that's suitable for my kids to read, I want to adapt some of my old horror short stories, I want to explore a silly genre mash-up idea I had, I want to look into turning VfF into a book shaped thing. And other stuff too.
I started making this comic in late 2021, off the back of doing a few guest strips for my friend Stu's comic Merry Hell. It's almost four years later now and I have yet to explode into the webcomic stratosphere. That's not why I'm stopping by the way! But maybe I could have had a bigger impact if I'd tried harder to promote it, or engaged more with the community (it's worth nothing that whenever I have engaged it's been a good experience). Despite that I hope the comic found its way to most of the people who were likely to love it. Anyway it's not going anywhere.
Writing and drawing a story in this way isn't something I'd done before. I've written a novel or two but most of my experience is in short stories. Making a long form ongoing webcomic is completely different. Telling a serialised story, bumping up against practical limitations (like burn out and a lack of time), leaving and picking up story threads on the fly, all that was new, and enjoyable. And then there's the art. I used to make comics when I was a kid and have always been a habitual doodler, but having to follow through my ideas with new drawings on a regular basis was a challenge. You can see my art improving, as character designs get whittled down to their most important elements, as I get a better feel for how to lay out a panel, as I break bad habits and form new ones. Here's the main thing I learned: I love making comics. All of the new projects I mentioned above are also comics.
OK now I'm really getting into the self-indulgence. Strap in!
For each volume of Vigils for Friends I used a different method for generating story ideas. For Volume 1 I started with locations (toilet, mansion, school, campsite, holiday home). Volume 2 (Above the Deep) is an adaptation of a novel I started writing; it was all planned out and I had the first few chapters. Volume 3 is about haunted objects (telephone, tree, cuddly toy, whistle, coin). Volume 4 is a mix of shorter, more joke based stories (Interludes) and parodies (conventions, cosy crime, Mr Blobby, AI). As I worked on these, I kept a note of any loose threads of story I might want to pick up later. Volume 5 is an attempt to tie off as many as possible. Did any of that come across? I don't know. But it made it feel achievable.
I wasn't sure how I was going to finish the final chapter until very late in the process. I thought Colton would probably heroically sacrifice himself, and that Shirley and Kitty would somehow talk their way out of the end of the world. At pretty much the last minute I subverted both of those ideas. I had Leonora give Colton a dressing down for trying to sacrifice himself, but it was a bit Last Jedi, so that went away too. Ultimately this is a comedy, and one of its main features is abrupt and anticlimactic endings. Why was I grafting an epic ending onto it? So Colton does nothing whatsoever to help, despite his whole arc leading up to this moment, and Shirley and Kitty (of course!) get sidetracked and distracted from their impassioned defence of our reality. And yet somehow the day is saved. And then everything just goes back to normal. The end.
Anyway. See you around I guess! Thank you, thank you, thank you for reading my daft comic. It really does mean a lot.