With Great Abandon

Bonus and Final Update (3/3)

And there we have it! Interestingly, the comic is ending nearly exactly a year since I first had the idea for it: on a miserable holiday in London I saw a guy in Forbidden Planet with Pride Flag coloured earrings and later went to eat at a restaurant with a short, sassy waiter. So to create some sense of solace for myself as my real life was crumbling around me, I decided to think about what would happen if they met...

As I was making this comic I had a good number of people ask me if this was based on real life or had happened to me. I was quite surprised by this. I'll just say quickly that, no, the events and story aren't real, but I did draw a lot from my own life to create this comic. Things from Harry's dad introducing him to animation via a stickman flipbook or various things Russ thinks about art, these all come from my life.

Even Harry's name kind of comes from my life as well as a few people have said I looked like and have called me Harry Potter. As for other names, Russ is named after Russell from the movie Weekend. That movie was a huge source of inspiration for this comic. I really wanted to try and capture its sense of mundane space and existence, but give it a happy ending. Reese is named after the character Reese from Zoids, my favourite show growing up as a kid. Marion is named after a contestant on the show Project Runway whose dress I really liked, but they were sent home anyway. I don't know why Cole is called Cole. He just is. Gertrud and Mindy are in reference to Gertrude and Minna from the show Strike Witches which one of my closest friends loves a great deal and ships together. Oh, Gertrud and Mindy are married. I forgot to mention that earlier. Isara is named thus because that's one of my other close friend's favourite names. And Wilden is kinda named after my other other close friend.

To know about my next project you can follow me on my main art places: @m4pala on Twitter and Instagram. It's a bit quiet there as I've been taking a break from the internet, but I'll definitely talk about any comic updates I have there.