12/24/2015
In the earliest draft of Memento Mori the Jemini duplicate was to have been killed off at the very beginning, which would have left Scapula in an emotionally volatile state for the events that followed. So many things have changed over the course of this story, however, and one of the biggest changes was not only allowing the double of Jemini to live but to finally grow into an individual of her own.
There came a point in creating SCAPULA when the characters really took over and began dictating what happened in the series; this is why the Sinister Monsters tossed out Scapula after being betrayed and why Scapula’s revenge on Knuckle Sam was much more drastic. These were not events that had originally been written in the rough plot outlines, but choices that came about when I finally began to learn each character’s unique logic, personality, and identity, something that only came to light after writing them for many years. The characters grew as people (maybe not good people, but that’s the fun of fiction), and the stories were from then on guided by their choices and the ensuing actions instead of merely the demands of the plot.
Jemini’s duplicate (who has never been given an official name, but oh well) grew as a character in a way that the original Jemini never quite did; I’m not sure why, but I think it was because of her relationship with Scapula. It didn’t necessarily have to be a romantic one to make her important, but the fact that she could truly interact with him helped a lot (the original Jemini was strictly a rival from the beginning, and the early storylines of Scap and Jem teaming up didn’t quite work as well as I had hoped). Whichever Jemini is the more interesting or entertaining one is up to the reader to decide, although I am genuinely surprised (and pleased) that a character that had originally been considered disposable has instead ended up taking center stage.
Speaking of theatrical terms, the final curtain runs down in our next webcomic update. Before the show ends we have one last number with Scapula, the Sinister Monster Doom Legion, and a number of freakish fans who want to share the big finale. Have yourselves a Merry Christmas tomorrow, and join us for one last hurrah this Sunday!
Relationship status: It’s complicated.
Comic status: it’s complicated…and friggin’ weird!
Was there a contest to be in the finale? Damn. I’d have jumped all over that.
Egad! You didn’t see the notice! But I posted it very clearly!…in a cellar, in a locked cabinet inside of a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying, ‘beware of the leopard’.
But seriously, no, you didn’t miss anything, although you can still see yourself in the Halloween Gang if you’re a Patreon backer!
Well whadaya know? Scap and Jem are friends.
And if Jem 2 needs a name, Gemini isn’t the only set of twins in the zodiac. Pisces is considered a twin set as well.
It’s better than calling her “Eng and Cheng”, “Zan and Jana”, or “Akbar and Jeff”!
There was, if memory serves correctly, a two-headed (or at least, two-faced) god in Roman myth, who was called Janus.
Granted, said god was a man, not a woman, but it’s the only other two-faced mythic figure that comes to mind, aside of Orthrus, the two-headed dog that was sibling to the famous three-headed hellhound Cerberus and guarded the man-eating cattle owned by the giant Geryon… but I doubt you’d wanna name a female character after a literal bitch of such obscurity…
Janus is also called Janus-Jana sometimes, so Jana would work. (he occasionally has been shown as being both genders, one per side.)
Interesting! Oddly enough, I know of Janus, but have never heard of any of the actual Greek mythology stories where he/she actually played a part.
A lot of people from my generation owned a children’s book called D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths, which had some really disturbing artwork if you were an impressionable youth (as I was). Janus wasn’t in any of the stories, so I wonder if the ‘character’ was either passive and didn’t get involved much (see Marvel’s Watcher) or was just in boring stories that no one cares to remember.
But for a REALLY disturbing ‘Janus’ tale, read about Edward Mordake…
That quiet moment before Ragnarok? Since we are talking Scapula, events might conspire to rob him of his final bit of thunder.
The wolf eats the sun, then stops off for a frozen yogurt to cool off its tongue (the sun is a tad spicy).
Will something go horribly wrong in the last comic? Anything is possible (even that wolf eating the sun business).
I’ll be here sunday, you betcha! I gotta see the outro to this fantastic run!
Here’s hoping it doesn’t disappoint! I still hear people who whine over the end of ‘The Sopranos’ and ‘How I Beat Your Mother’.
huh. never expected the call to end on a friendly footing. so. the final curtain call is coming up next issue. sad to see it go. A compliment to your writing. will be interested in what you have next in the proverbial pipeline.
You wont have to wait long, rest assured. There will be more news about Scapula Comics coming up soon!
Good to hear.
The end looms ever-closer…
They shall be missed. Hopefully, you won’t be an absolute cocksack and kill everyone off – a couple of long-running webcomics I used to follow (and whom I won’t name) pulled that stunt in their final few strips, thinking it would be a “clever unexpected twist”, and all it did, as you might guess, was it shocked and pissed off a LOT of people, basically destroying the artist’s reputation.
Well, so much for the Dadaman blowing up the Earth ending…
Would a finale that killed off the entire cast be so terrible? At least two seasons of Blackadder ended with every character being killed (the first instance was played as a humorous shock ending, the second was more serious, sad, and poignant). I’m trying to think of any other instances in fiction where wiping out everyone occurred (funny or otherwise); if any of you can mention anything (yes, Josh, you’re free to discuss any of those other webcomics unless if you choose not to) I’d like to hear more on the subject.
Well, I’m not gonna detail them all, partly as a couple of them not only ended, but no longer exist online from what I can tell, due to their artists either letting domain-names lapse, wiping the archives in a fit of petty anger, or other such situations, but one that comes to mind is Bigger Than Cheeses, which, about 4-5 years ago, ended their ten-year comic run by not only killing off their own comic’s cast, but supposedly destroying the entire webcomic multiverse in a single blast during a DBZ-esque battle between the main charcter and his evil twin. The fact the artist hasn’t been seen anywhere since then speaks heavily of how poorly this bizarre move was received by the fanbase.