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Comic Discussion => QUESTIONABLE CONTENT => Topic started by: A Duck on 23 Jan 2015, 09:04

Title: Is QC close to its ending?
Post by: A Duck on 23 Jan 2015, 09:04
This year will mark the 12th year of QC. Jeph has been doing this for much longer than most webcomic artists do.
Last year he started Alice Grove. As much as it's not supposed to be a replacement for QC, Jeph has reffered to it as a "pet project".

And now, well, the fecal matter hit the revolving blades hard with the Faye situation.

This is a question i've seen coming up quite frequently on the WCDTs... Is Jeph leading QC to it's conclusion somewhat soon?
Title: Re: Is QC close to its ending?
Post by: pwhodges on 23 Jan 2015, 09:11
I think that to end it, Jeph would want to take Marten - the original and consistent core of the comic - to a settled place.  But he's only just embarking on a new relationship, so surely that point won't be reached any time soon.
Title: Re: Is QC close to its ending?
Post by: Consilium on 23 Jan 2015, 09:16
Idk, I think it'd be cool if Claireten was endgame.
Title: Re: Is QC close to its ending?
Post by: TheEvilDog on 23 Jan 2015, 09:20
Jim Davis has been working on Garfield since 1978.
Bill Watterson worked on Calvin & Hobbes from 1985 to 1995
Cathy, by Cathy Guisewite ran from 1976 to 2010.

There's no real way of knowing if Jeph is ending QC. A lot of people are worried, especially in light of GWS' recent announcement and Shortpacked ending.
Then again, this is just pointless supposition at this point precisely because Jeph has not made any announcement of any kind. There hasn't been any announcement on the comic, nor has there been one on Patreon. Jeph's been pretty good to the readers and I doubt that he would just.....end the comic without some sort of forewarning.

Alice Grove is a story that Jeph has wanted to tell for a few years
Title: Re: Is QC close to its ending?
Post by: BenRG on 23 Jan 2015, 09:28
One of the sequential art record holders is Peanuts (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peanuts), which lasted fifty years and only ended when Charles Schultz was too ill to continue to draw the strips.

I doubt that Jeph wants to keep making QC that long. That said, I'm not sure if we're looking at the plot endgame. There are two implied major plot lines to be addressed - Hannelore learning to be 'normal' (or as normal as she gets) and Momo's quest to be fully accepted, especially in her own perceptions, as a real person. That sets aside whatever else Jeph can choose to add in strips to come; there is lots of story-telling potential hovering around relatively new characters like Emily and Claire's mother.

Ultimately, as with Watterson, in the end it will depend on when Jeph thinks that he has told all the stories that the universe allows him to tell or if, like Tim Buckley of Ctrl+Alt+Del, he decides he's written himself into a characterisation and plot corner that requires a reset (which he subsequently cancels as he's lost interest).
Title: Re: Is QC close to its ending?
Post by: Consilium on 23 Jan 2015, 09:52
There are two implied major plot lines to be addressed - Hannelore learning to be 'normal' (or as normal as she gets) and Momo's quest to be fully accepted, especially in her own perceptions, as a real person.

I really think the 'AI Rights' campaign would be an awesome arc. Jeph touched on it with May, but kinda left it alone. It certainly pertains to current events in the real world (Gay marriage; Ferguson riots), and I'm sure many readers, and even characters, could and would identify with the plight of the artificially intelligent.

Hanners has shown so much progress already, to the point where she just seems like a quirky, innocent girl most of the time. I personally believe her character has grown to where it needs to be, and her subplot could honestly be capped by a formal address of it by the cast. That's not to say her place as a main-ish character is done, but rather that she's as 'normal' as she really needs to be. On that topic, her friendship is valued by the cast, especially Marigold and Marten, so I think it'd be fitting for her to stay around a while.
This is all obviously just my take on things.

Other things I'd like to see before the comic ends:
Title: Re: Is QC close to its ending?
Post by: Natswash on 23 Jan 2015, 10:00
Jim Davis has been working on Garfield since 1978.
Bill Watterson worked on Calvin & Hobbes from 1985 to 1995
Cathy, by Cathy Guisewite ran from 1976 to 2010.

And on the Webcomics side we have Howard Taylor running Schlock Mercenary which has not missed a day since June 12, 2000. Even when the server farm had an explosion that took out two walls.

I'd say QC is safe
Title: Re: Is QC close to its ending?
Post by: A Duck on 23 Jan 2015, 10:10
I don't think time is a very relevant metric. QC is a plot driven comic, unlike, for example, Peanuts.

I really do hope Claire is Marten's endgame. I really like her, which wasn't the case with Dora, Faye or Padma. It's also a way "healthier" relationship, at least for now.
Title: Re: Is QC close to its ending?
Post by: Orkboy on 23 Jan 2015, 11:17
There's also the consideration that Jeph makes money from QC.  Until Alice Grove makes as much money, he might not be comfortable ending QC.  Budgeting and financial planning and all that.  Being a responsible adult kinda sucks. 
Title: Re: Is QC close to its ending?
Post by: TheEvilDog on 23 Jan 2015, 11:27
At the moment, Jeph makes approximately 10k a month from Patreon and most of that is due to QC. I would presume that most of the money tends to go towards the costs of going to cons, from travel expenses, resupplying stocks. Jeph is one of a handful of webcomic artists who make their money solely from what they produce, QC is a business and Patreon are investors in a way.
Title: Re: Is QC close to its ending?
Post by: gprimr1 on 23 Jan 2015, 12:08
I don't think it's ending, but it's possible a major set of story arcs are ending, but that means new ones can launch.

There's still a lot to be written about Faye, is this rock bottom? Will she just recover and go back on the bottle? Plenty of material either way.

Martin's relationship has just begun.

Hannelore is much more normal, but she still has some steps to make.

I thinkt here is still plenty of material.
Title: Re: Is QC close to its ending?
Post by: Kugai on 23 Jan 2015, 12:13
There are long running Comics that, even today, still have a following

The Guinniss Book of World Records cites that the longest running Strip Comic was Bristow (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristow_%28cartoon%29)

Down here, Footrot Flats (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Footrot_Flats) is considered one of the longest running, lasting from 1975 to 1994


As for QC ending, I don't think Jeph would do so without saying something to his Fanbase.
Title: Re: Is QC close to its ending?
Post by: DrBear on 23 Jan 2015, 16:19
Oh, and if you want a serious cranking out, Tatsuya Ishida has been doing Sinfest 7 a week for since 2000 (although it's usually four B&W panels, one color strip on Sundays), and just marked 15 years a few days ago.

(By the way, if you polled the forum, I bet the overwhelming choice for a final QC would be at the Marten-Claire wedding where Hanners gathers up her courage ... and gives Marten a kiss on the cheek.)
Title: Re: Is QC close to its ending?
Post by: A Duck on 23 Jan 2015, 16:43
I just hope Jeph doesn't pull a 180 and makes Marten end up with Faye after saying all these years he wouldn't...
I've been burned like that before, wasn't nice.
Title: Re: Is QC close to its ending?
Post by: jwhouk on 23 Jan 2015, 18:03
Obviously, we are closer to the end of QC than we are the beginning. But I don't think we're going to see the end of QC anytime soon.

Title: Re: Is QC close to its ending?
Post by: Blackbird on 23 Jan 2015, 20:28
Just to wrap up the hanging plot threads (Marten & Claire getting to a stable place, the Bianchis working out their issues, Emily & Clinton, #holyshitfaye, the Marigold/Dale/Momo/May cluster of stories, Hanners and Juicy, etc.) would take Jeph about 200 strips minimum (and 400 minimum to not do a rush job). 

Once Alice Grove takes off more, I wouldn't be surprised if we see QC go back to three days a week like it was way back in the day, but it's a long way from ending entirely. 
Title: Re: Is QC close to its ending?
Post by: mustang6172 on 23 Jan 2015, 21:47
I don't think Jeph can ever go back to having a real job.
Title: Re: Is QC close to its ending?
Post by: Carl-E on 24 Jan 2015, 09:53
Obviously, we are closer to the end of QC than we are the beginning. But I don't think we're going to see the end of QC anytime soon.

That wuld imp[ly we're more than halfway through.  I think you mean, "we are closer to the end of QC than we were at the beginning".
Title: Re: Is QC close to its ending?
Post by: freeman on 24 Jan 2015, 12:20
Jim Davis has been working on Garfield since 1978.
Bill Watterson worked on Calvin & Hobbes from 1985 to 1995
Cathy, by Cathy Guisewite ran from 1976 to 2010.

Garfield is especially notable, considering how constrained the setting is. I secretly thing Jim scripted all the JonXLiz strips during the years as he went and cached them for the day when he felt he finally  ran out of jokes. Surprisingly long he went, don't you all agree?

Now that long runners are the subject, I have to mention an infamous one: goddamn Phantom, in newspaper three panels a day format. For instance, one arch where Phantom was saving his Diana from a smugglers' cave lasted over a year.
Title: Re: Is QC close to its ending?
Post by: pwhodges on 24 Jan 2015, 13:35
I don't think Jeph can ever go back to having a real job.

He has a real job, and makes his living from it.  You mean he couldn't go back into menial employment, I think.
Title: Re: Is QC close to its ending?
Post by: ybtlamw on 24 Jan 2015, 18:13
I don't think it's going to end any time soon. I think Jeph's fully-committed to telling the entire story and he'll probably want to wrap up every storyline before it's over (except, maybe, for Pizza Girl; I think she'll forever be a mystery).

As long as the strip doesn't end the way Ctrl+Alt+Del did, I think I'll be fine with whatever Jeph chooses. (Seriously, CAD wasn't that good to begin with—but that ending was utter horseshit.)
Title: Re: Is QC close to its ending?
Post by: Storel on 25 Jan 2015, 00:59
As long as the strip doesn't end the way Ctrl+Alt+Del did, I think I'll be fine with whatever Jeph chooses. (Seriously, CAD wasn't that good to begin with—but that ending was utter horseshit.)

How did that strip end? That's not one I'm familiar with.
Title: Re: Is QC close to its ending?
Post by: ybtlamw on 25 Jan 2015, 01:41
How did that strip end? That's not one I'm familiar with.

I don't remember—not exactly. There was an ill-conceived miscarriage arc, and then the main character committed suicide by way of a time machine. It was all very, very convoluted. Although I brought it up, I'm certainly not the person to ask how it ended. My apologies.
Title: Re: Is QC close to its ending?
Post by: BenRG on 25 Jan 2015, 01:53
As long as the strip doesn't end the way Ctrl+Alt+Del did, I think I'll be fine with whatever Jeph chooses. (Seriously, CAD wasn't that good to begin with—but that ending was utter horseshit.)

How did that strip end? That's not one I'm familiar with.

There was a 'AI is a Crapshoot' plot device married to a strange inverted Terminator-style time-travel plot. However, by the point Tim had got to writing that arc, he had already decided that he had written himself into a corner and had decided to hit the reset button. The entire plot was a sort of Star Trek-2009-style justification for the time paradox that he was going to invoke for claiming that the reboot wasn't an alternate universe.
Title: Re: Is QC close to its ending?
Post by: explicit on 25 Jan 2015, 22:13
Jeph makes almost $10,000 a month (which doesn't include the ads) making this. While I believe he could keep most of that if he decides to make a new comic, it's a huge financial risk. Unless he gets disillusioned with the whole thing I can't imagine him trying something else for quite some time. There's still plenty of places for this story to go.

Plus, people aren't losing any interest in this comic. I can only speak for myself, but I was getting a little bored with GWS and Shortpacked! (which really just needed that wedding scene to be over). The story hasn't run its course, but I guess it helps that there are so many characters. He also just started to write about Claire a decent amount, we still know nothing about her. We know her quirks (the flustering!), her puns, she likes books and the trans thing. Jeph seems to really like her as a character and I'd be shocked if he didn't want to develop her more.
Title: Re: Is QC close to its ending?
Post by: jwhouk on 26 Jan 2015, 01:47
Anyone who thinks there's a lack of interest in the comic hasn't tried to post in the WCDT today.
Title: Re: Is QC close to its ending?
Post by: jwhouk on 26 Jan 2015, 01:48
Anyone who thinks there's a lack of interest in the comic hasn't tried to post in the WCDT today.
Title: Re: Is QC close to its ending?
Post by: jwhouk on 26 Jan 2015, 01:49
EDIT: ....and this post is proof if it.

Quote
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Title: Re: Is QC close to its ending?
Post by: ASB84 on 26 Jan 2015, 02:11
I could see Jeph taking the strip in a slightly different direction or jumpstarting some significant character growth and changes, but I'm not sure about it gearing up for a finale. We may be at a landmark event, the end of an era perhaps, but I'm guessing we're not at The End just yet.
Title: Re: Is QC close to its ending?
Post by: Oilman on 26 Jan 2015, 05:58
I usually reckon a comic is getting near the end when it descends into bizarre plots and author agenda pushing. Lil Abner was a classic example; the later years of declining circulation were marked by increasingly curmudgeonly attitudes and political ranting.

GWS has been showing signs of this for a while now. Jamie's wierd relationship with Erin, which makes no real sense in terms of her past character; Hazel has been in a rut for a long time; the introduction of Mimi so that Thea could have a gay wedding... it's all of a piece. Jameson and Maureen are rather sweet but don't have the potential to be main characters; Chris and Melody haven't been seen in a long while, Joshua and Clarice are another rather touching couple but can only follow a trajectory away from the main group.

Sinfest has become almost unreadable, a bitter feminist rant with none of the whimsical or downright out-there style of its earlier years.

I never really did care for shortpacked, so no comment on that.

I DO think that QC needs a new direction. Marten has been a useless layabout and general doormat for too long, albeit a good-hearted one. FAYE has pretty much worn out her welcome. Tai is basically an entitled brat who would get sacked toot-sweet anywhere else. Dale and Marigold deserve some development, they are a likeable, hard-working couple who take their responsibilities seriously (incidentally, how do they balance their relationship with playing games on different servers for hours on end? Am I just missing something?) Dora needs some decent staff and a proper business plan.

I'd like to see more of Momo's attempts to be regarded as a person, May given a good kick up the backside or moved on, Pintsize taken in a new direction. He reminds me of Marvin the Paranoid Android's joke about "brain the size if a planet, and nobody cares" except it doesn't seem to bother him.
Just my 2c worth, anyway
Title: Re: Is QC close to its ending?
Post by: Scarblac on 26 Jan 2015, 06:14
The first web comic I started to read was Sluggy Freelance, way back when. I probably stopped reading it a decade ago and just checked it for the first time in five, and fair enough it's still going.

It also started as a daily gag involving just a few characters, and then the stories became better and better, and then they became incredibly convoluted and then it became impossible for new readers to ever understand it (I imagine). And yet it's still going many years after that.

Jeph's plots revolve around relationships, and seem a lot easier to keep fresh and understandable.
Title: Re: Is QC close to its ending?
Post by: Aziraphale on 26 Jan 2015, 08:56
Leaving aside the money, I don't think we're anywhere near the end yet. Granted, there are characters that Jeph seems to have grown tired of (Hanners) or has written himself into a corner with for the time being (Emily), but in terms of the overall story, there are enough loose ends at this point that he could, if he wanted, go for several years more.

Speaking of endings, Jeph mentioned that there could be some crossover between QC and Alice Grove. What if AG is QC's endgame, and that's a post-apocalyptic/post-pandemic Northampton?* Not the most likely way to end QC, but not entirely implausible given the mechanics of the QC-verse, either.

*This may well have been raised in the AG MCDT, which I haven't been following; if so, apologies for beating a dead horse
Title: Re: Is QC close to its ending?
Post by: bhtooefr on 26 Jan 2015, 09:11
What if the Praeses are actually Station?
Title: Re: Is QC close to its ending?
Post by: Zebediah on 26 Jan 2015, 09:14
Actually, I was thinking that it would have been cool if the EMTs in today's QC had been cameos by Alice and Jack.
Title: Re: Is QC close to its ending?
Post by: cesium133 on 26 Jan 2015, 09:16
That could work out well. Alice could use her nanotechnology to fix Faye up, then use her fighting skills to kick Faye's ass.
Title: Re: Is QC close to its ending?
Post by: Oilman on 26 Jan 2015, 09:28
I glanced at Alice Grove and won't be returning. How the characters would cross over into the QC setting, or vice versa, I can't imagine at all. They seem completely unrelated.

I do agree that QC would benefit from a clearout of minor characters.
Title: Re: Is QC close to its ending?
Post by: BenRG on 26 Jan 2015, 09:31
@ Oilman,

Seriously, what do you like about QC and what made you read it in the first place?
Title: Re: Is QC close to its ending?
Post by: Oilman on 26 Jan 2015, 09:42
At the moment, Jeph makes approximately 10k a month from Patreon and most of that is due to QC. I would presume that most of the money tends to go towards the costs of going to cons, from travel expenses, resupplying stocks. Jeph is one of a handful of webcomic artists who make their money solely from what they produce, QC is a business and Patreon are investors in a way.

I don't see Patreon or for that matter, kickstarter as investment vehicles. They seem more akin to patronage, sponsorship or donation - there is no investment element that I can identify
Title: Re: Is QC close to its ending?
Post by: osaka on 26 Jan 2015, 10:11
What if the Praeses are actually Station?
Headcanon accepted.


Speaking of endings, Jeph mentioned that there could be some crossover between QC and Alice Grove. What if AG is QC's endgame, and that's a post-apocalyptic/post-pandemic Northampton?* Not the most likely way to end QC, but not entirely implausible given the mechanics of the QC-verse, either.

*This may well have been raised in the AG MCDT, which I haven't been following; if so, apologies for beating a dead horse

You don't even begin to comprehend how things are starting to come together now (http://questionablecontent.net/2443)
Title: Re: Is QC close to its ending?
Post by: Aziraphale on 26 Jan 2015, 10:24
I was thinking of that strip when I wrote that, but I couldn't find it.

And Station as the Praeses is brilliant, btw.
Title: Re: Is QC close to its ending?
Post by: osaka on 26 Jan 2015, 10:34
It's what makes everything come to full circle
Title: Re: Is QC close to its ending?
Post by: Jedit on 26 Jan 2015, 11:12
There was a 'AI is a Crapshoot' plot device married to a strange inverted Terminator-style time-travel plot.

And then he killed the strip right in front of us.  :roll:

Regarding long running webcomics: Real Life Comics still updates periodically and has been going since 1999, and Something Positive just started Year 14.
Title: Re: Is QC close to its ending?
Post by: jeph on 26 Jan 2015, 11:30
I have no plans to end QC anytime soon.
Title: Re: Is QC close to its ending?
Post by: Masterpiece on 26 Jan 2015, 11:37
Yay! Awesome.

One more thing: the thread title is misspelled.
Title: Re: Is QC close to its ending?
Post by: jwhouk on 26 Jan 2015, 11:40
I have no plans to end QC anytime soon.

Thank you so much. :)

/thread_over
Title: Re: Is QC close to its ending?
Post by: pwhodges on 26 Jan 2015, 12:35
One more thing: the thread title is misspelled.

Sorted; and thread locked as saying more would obscure the important message.