Thoughts on the End of SSSS

[catbirds]

I figured since a couple of us have been lamenting the end of SSSS, between the personal board, comment section, and the latest page chitchat, it might be good to have a thread to write our thoughts on it here.

So here's a thread for all of us to write about our feelings, memories, and thoughts about the end of the comic, and maybe reflect a little. Maybe appreciating the journey, or the friends that you've met along the way, or how you've been inspired by it, or maybe even critiques about things that you thought would get better about the story but just didn't.

Better yet, what'll you be looking forward to in the future, how you'll interpret or make derivative works of SSSS in the future, things you want to do in the community that formed around it, and anything else you can think of. I don't want this to be a totally tearful end! This comic meant a lot to me and I'm sure it was the same for many others, so I want us to look back on it happily and bravely! Maybe if you're looking forward to Minna's future work, if you did sign up for updates on that? I haven't personally, but I'm a little curious about it. Though the contents of that story should probably be discussed in a separate thread since this one's about SSSS.

Feel free to share any of your thoughts and feelings that you're comfortable sharing! And discuss them with others! It might be a bit early, but I think it'd be nice to talk about it so we aren't flooded with feelings at the very end and can go through it slowly together.

(The general discussion about the future of the fandom can be found here)

The title of the thread is a bit of a misnomer because SSSS isn't guaranteed to be gone forever, but also the amount of uncertainty about the comic's future means that it could just end with adventure 2.


My own thoughts!

I've been keeping up with SSSS for over 4 years now, and I still think it had a lot of nice, emotional moments that are down-to-earth and realistic, especially in the first adventure, and I loved the usual fare of nice worldbuilding and great art. That was probably why a lot of people were so attached to it! Outputting pages so regularly and with consistent quality for so many years is something that is rarely seen for comics. One of my favourite examples of this was the part around adventure 1, page 833, because the combination of blue hues and the character interactions made the sense of melancholy of the situation almost tangible. Also, I've gotten so attached to the characters over the years that their growth and development makes me happy, in such a way that few characters from other media can achieve the same thing. It's great that even though the premise of the comic sounded like the characters would be stereotypes of their respective comics, they ended up having emotional developments and characteristics that set themselves apart from the crowd and give them all a much more human quality.

Spoiler: suuuuuper long post • show

Watching Minna's Saturday streams was what made me want to start posting and sharing art, which is a big reason for why I started developing my art skills at all! I couldn't have gotten anywhere near where I am now without SSSS and the community around it, and it probably influenced my decisions for uni and my future plans too. It's a huge part of my life and I'm definitely happier for it. As sad as I am that it's ending soon, I am still so grateful for what I've gotten out of this series. Doing art is one of the few ways I can imagine myself in the future.

A lot of people were confused by the wavering quality of the last few chapters, but the last pages of chapter 15 have gotten better again. I agree that it also felt like it was getting utilitarian or mechanical at some points, but seems to be recovering now. It was probably just the uncertainty and the fact that Minna was looking forward to starting another project, which I'm happy for, even though I'm not interested in the story itself. I hope that it won't be something that has such a strict and intense update schedule, though, because it's quite worrying when an artist works too much. Something about its effects on both physical and mental health...

I've almost gotten out of a period where I don't really have anyone to look up to, though, ever since I became a bit detached from the fandom and creator. It's nice, even if it means I am missing a significant motivator... though looking back on SSSS, I can still feel the same sense of awe and inspiration that I found when I started the series.

I have a couple of minor criticisms of the story, though, but it also feels kind of unfair when you consider that SSSS was all the work of one person. For the sake of sharing, just minor things like that it doesn't really experiment as much with visuals except for occasionally in the dream world (though the art is very technically good), or that I feel like its depictions of nature were kind of aimless, or the lack of any consistently explored or overarching themes, and sometimes when the dialogue is a little stilted. They're not big issues, and for one person's comic which is never proofread or edited by another party, SSSS is still exceptional. Though the instances where she's said something offensive in the past are obviously indefensible. Even then, it makes me uneasy at times when large companies can do the same with little negative impact to their brand while an independent creator can get their entire careers ruined. It's just one of those injustices that I can't really think of a good solution for, but everyone except the corporation loses in the end. (Edit: to be clear I think we should be harder on corporations, not softer on bigoted people, but it's very hard to collectively do that)

This community, though, is definitely one of the nicer bits of the internet that I hope will continue to exist long after SSSS ends. I don't really feel like I'm as close to anyone as some of you are, but it's nice to be in a space where open discussion and organizing small events that anyone can participate in is encouraged. Especially when all other social media is super competitive in terms of creative work, this is the one place I'm in where everyone's unique creations gets shared without any pressure to get a Big Number! Umm... honestly, I'm a little more busy than I used to be in high school, though, so it's a bit harder to participate and do art in general. But it's always nice to come back here and see everyone's still here!

That's all I can think of for now! And despite everything, I still hope everything gets better for everyone.

[Róisín]

catbirds, that is a fascinating essay. For me, getting involved with an online community was a totally new experience, since I had never even read a webcomic before. While I knew they existed and occasionally my husband, who was familiar with such things because he worked with computers and the internet, would tell me about what he was reading, I had never read one myself. Eventually I also began reading Girl Genius because he liked it and showed me some good bits. Life was busy and I struggled to find time to read physical books for pleasure, little say reading things online, and apart from things that I was writing and publishing as part of my work I found little time to write for pleasure. Most of what I did write was technical reports, information handouts and articles about such subjects as botany, bushcraft, wild food foraging, folklore and traditional culture, arts and crafts. What I wrote for my own pleasure was mostly poetry, an occasional song and a bit of hard science fiction (that is, SF rather than fantasy). I am also slowly compiling a cookery book and one about wild food foraging.

Then one of my greatnieces who knew I was fond of folklore and beautiful art pointed me at A Redtail’s Dream and I went on to read Minna’s later work.

When I realised that the pages had comments I began to read them and eventually to reply to a few. Then I was introduced to the concept of fanfic and before I knew it I was writing some and have continued to do so (I am Tanist over on Archive of Our Own). I became involved in the Forum and was delighted to discover that some of my real-world skills and interests translated very well to this context and were of use and interest to others here. When I introduced some real-world friends to the comic and the Forum they liked it and have stayed, some joining in and some remaining as lurkers. I enjoy watching them have fun here.

[Keep Looking]

I started reading SSSS about two and a half years ago, although because of the craziness of my final year of high school and the monotony of the Bear Chapters I haven't really kept up with the comic much this year. But SSSS and especially this fan community hold a really special place in my heart, and looking back has had a really, really big impact on my life these past few years.

From the start of my involvement, it was the SSSS comments section and the lovely people there (many of whom are over here as well - Róisín, Grey and Jitter, I especially remember having lovely interactions with you guys in the comments) which threw me back into writing poetry. I wrote a lot of poems over 2019 and 2020 for the new pages of SSSS. Writing those poems so regularly was really fun and also honed my poetic and wordplay skills - if I look back on the poems I wrote now, I can see how much I improved! Also, a shoutout to the other poets from the comments section, many of whom I looked to for inspiration, some of whom are active now and some who are not - Nellie McEnt's lovely sonnets, ScottishNottish (I've still got their beautiful poetic soundscape bookmarked on my laptop), and Corncobman, whose sheer consistency of poetic production over so many years both impresses and terrifies me. I don't really write SSSS poetry anymore (except for forum events!), but I still write poetry for myself now, and I'm planning to find some poetry groups in my city once I'm done with my exams.

SSSS also helped me stay sane and get through Covid back in 2020 - writing poems in the comments section was one little bit of consistency in my life. That was what prompted me into organising the first Chapter Break Filler event (I genuinely didn't know how I'd get through the break), in which I got to see so many creative works and also learned a lot about organising events and co-operating with other people. While Chapter Break Fillers have been taken over by others (thanks Jitter!) while my study's been ramping up, and won't really be a thing once SSSS ends, that first Chapter Break Filler was the one consistent task I could set my mind to doing in the midst of all the uncertainty of April 2020, when I wasn't sure how far Covid would spread, or whether school would go back, or how anything at all would turn out.

The Chapter Break Filler also catapulted me into becoming a skald on the forum staff. With all the chaos of the Bunny Comic and then the great forum restructuring, I actually learned a lot about working together with other people in the face of chaos, and I admire this fandom so much for being able to stick together and still maintain such a good environment despite everything that's happened. Learning how to be an admin on this site has also taught me loads about how websites work behind-the-scenes. I definitely have a much stronger admiration for my friends who study computer science after I went through the trials and tribulations of altering the site code to update the help page. If you ever want to know how you update code, the answer is: very, very slowly. Syntax errors are everywhere and they are the bane of your existence.

I've made so many friends and had so many good conversations in the comments, on the forum, and also on the SSSS discord server, and this is definitely the most and longest I've been involved in any fan community. SSSS itself and Minna were what brought me here, and I definitely went through a phase where I ardently loved and kept up with the comic itself (as well as Minna's YT videos!), and I'm sad that it's ending, but as time goes on the thing that keeps pulling me back to this place is the people.

Róisín, I have my driving license now, so expect a visit from me sometime in the next few years (maybe this winter, or the next summer around)! I've always wanted to drive across the Nullabor, anyway, I think it'd be really cool.

[Jitter]

Catbirds, thank you for this! I will get back to reading as well as sharing my own thoughts. You are absolutely right, let’s celebrate what we have.

If I may suggest, maybe we should make a separate thread for things that we hoped or excepted to see but didn’t? Firstly it might attract comments from Forumites who don’t have such strong feelings about this, or who don’t feel like sharing their feelings publicly. Secondly I expect there to be a great variety of ideas and it would be easier to follow if the thread were dedicated to that.

[Róisín]

KeepLooking, you have your licence! Hooray, Huzzah! It will be good to meet you in the flesh! Maybe if you can show me how to do so we can record some of those traditional stories you wanted. And I can show you the forest, the community garden and Recreate, our farmers market, the Gumeracha Artisans Market and if you are here for the last Saturday of the month, one of my music nights. That would be awesome!

[midwestmutt]

Minna promised us a tale of adventure and growing friendships in a Nordic setting completely new to me and she has delivered. My only regret at this ending is the loose ends of background stories of some the characters especially Emil. The Finns were covered in good depth since this has been essentially their story. The community that grew around the comic was an unexpected delight which became a part of my daily life. I found myself trying new things like haiku and exploring new places through the photos from other fans. I even got a little better at using computers so I could share in the group conversation. This comic has been unique from the start.

[tehta]

I feel a bit sheepish here, since I only discovered SSSS in June. I remember most of my first read-through (staying up late to see how the fight with Sleipnope would turn out, loving the Iceland content, then wondering at the change in the art) and then my adventures on AO3 (noticing how high-quality the writing was, wondering why so many writers seemed to have stopped a year or two back, leaving comments and finding out the reason...) But then, I got bitten by the fanfic bug for the first time in years, and remembered how much I love writing. And, somewhere along the line, I started poking my toe into the fandom, and I agree with what many of you state or suspect: this fandom is special. I have been a part of several others, and watched a few more from the sidelines, and this one just feels so welcoming and pleasant and mature.

I am left with two thoughts:

• I really hope this community makes it past the end of the comic! I am convinced that many of the friendships I can see will survive (I still have several longterm friends from old fandoms, and I am far less socially apt than most of you!) but having something more group-oriented would be even better.
• I am so, so grateful to both the comic and the fandom for rekindling my love of writing by driving me to write some 50k words since June... I find this world very easy to play in, somehow, and I definitely intend to keep at it past the end of the story.

One event I think I would like to see is some kind of post-comic challenge with in-universe continuation stories due a couple of months after the story ends, to give people time to process whatever happens.

[catbirds]

Catbirds, thank you for this! I will get back to reading as well as sharing my own thoughts. You are absolutely right, let’s celebrate what we have.

If I may suggest, maybe we should make a separate thread for things that we hoped or excepted to see but didn’t? Firstly it might attract comments from Forumites who don’t have such strong feelings about this, or who don’t feel like sharing their feelings publicly. Secondly I expect there to be a great variety of ideas and it would be easier to follow if the thread were dedicated to that.

And thank you for making that thread! It felt like a brainstorm thread that just jogged my memory a liiittle bit. There were just a couple things that I totally forgot about until I started writing something, especially considering pages come out over several long, long years (and my memory is bad!)

Honestly my thoughts are pretty scattered on everything, too. We'll probably need many more end-of-SSSS threads as the end draws near.

I became involved in the Forum and was delighted to discover that some of my real-world skills and interests translated very well to this context and were of use and interest to others here. When I introduced some real-world friends to the comic and the Forum they liked it and have stayed, some joining in and some remaining as lurkers. I enjoy watching them have fun here.

Yeah, pretty much everything you know has been super interesting to hear about! It's actually really rare to have an internet community with people that have quite as much wisdom (and as many skills) as you and all others in this forum have collectively. I've been in a lot of online communities for much shorter periods of time, and nothing's ever been quite like this forum

SSSS also helped me stay sane and get through Covid back in 2020 - writing poems in the comments section was one little bit of consistency in my life. That was what prompted me into organising the first Chapter Break Filler event (I genuinely didn't know how I'd get through the break), in which I got to see so many creative works and also learned a lot about organising events and co-operating with other people. While Chapter Break Fillers have been taken over by others (thanks Jitter!) while my study's been ramping up, and won't really be a thing once SSSS ends, that first Chapter Break Filler was the one consistent task I could set my mind to doing in the midst of all the uncertainty of April 2020, when I wasn't sure how far Covid would spread, or whether school would go back, or how anything at all would turn out.

It's great to hear that so many others started doing something creative because of SSSS! It's definitely what I mean when I say that even if your relationship with the comic wanes, our lives (artists or not) are richer for this comic, or at least the fandom around it. Especially during Covid, since that was so bizarre and anxiety-inducing when it started that people were struggling to grab onto any consistency.

(Speaking of, one of my greatest regrets was probably leaving here in the first summer after COVID started, but what can you do! It might be odd but I feel like I could've connected more with this community rather than leave.)

The Chapter Break Fillers are a great idea, too! I've laughed and cried at so many people's creations, and they also make the experience of reading the comic so much better. And I feel like daily sign-up formats are something that this forum is exceptionally good for, especially with the comment visibility.

I hope you enjoy driving/travelling across Australia soon!

[Jitter]

I was never part of a fandom before SSSS. I mean I was a general nerd as a teenager (and ever since), I played D&D (sadly that's long past now) and read Science Fiction and fantasy, you know how it is. But I never was so close with so many people in the same fandom! When I started with SSSS I tried to get my family members to read it, and my husband does but he doesn't have any passion. My sons for some reason never took the interest, I don't understand how that's possible! But anyways I wanted to have someone to talk about it with!

I have a history of spending far too much time on Facebook so I was very wary of joining the commentariat. But eventually I had to, and it was the best decision in many years! When I say eventually it sounds like I held off for a considerable time, but actually I started reading in the very beginning of on 2019, and was already on Disqus in February. I actually tried to hold off for a while after reaching end of Adventure 1, because I didn't want to wait for each page so I thought I'd let them accumulate but as you know that is impossible The experience of reading something is very different, once you are caught up in comparison to when you can just read the next and the next and the next page.

I have actually been in a similar situation earlier, when in my teens I was a huge fan of Elfquest, and I had the comic books mailed to me from a comic shop in another city. Postage was expensive, so I waited for a few books to come out between orders, and got about 3 issues every few months apart. Oh that was painful! Note that I was a fan but not in a fandom. There was a usenet news group (the old ones among you may remember what that was) but it was not really a community, at least for me.

The fandom has given me friends, a social outlet in the time of isolation (I live with my husband and two sons so I haven't been truly alone, but still this is very very important) and got me re-connected with my creativity, which I wrote about in another thread in the Academy board so won't repeat it here.

The comic, the characters etc. are wonderful and have enriched my life for nearly three years. However the really important thing I have gained is this community. I hope we can keep it alive! The crisis created by the Bunny Comic was really bad for me. I was sad to learn Adventure 2 would be the last one, but I was a lot more sad about losing this community. And for a bit it was looking bad. But we pulled through and we have rebuilt, and I sincerely hope we will stay here even after the comic ends for good.

But, I also hope we can keep the flame burning for SSSS and continue with the fanworks. The world exists for us now, and the characters are there, the stories are there, and it's up to us to bring them forth. The ending of canon actually frees up a lot of threads to pull on, to interpret and build on without having to wonder how the canon will be. That can be a good thing.

[crowbarrd]

Although SSSS is not the first (or last) fandom I've been in, it's perhaps one of the fandoms I've been most dedicated to. I spent a lot of my time on Tumblr and Twitter in the past catching up with fandom content, and although I've found many amazing artists, I've always been a lurker. SSSS is probably the first time I have faced up to the fact that I'm in the fandom, contributing to the fandom and am part of the community.

Spoiler: me blathering • show

Other than playing Flight Rising, I've not had much experience with a 'forum' style of communication (?) so I suppose it has also introduced me to this style of website ! (Talking about that, I suppose this style also preserves my writing skills? In the modern age I've been losing my grasp of it amid the flood of lols and lmaos and other short forms, so it's nice to exercise it)

And I agree with JItter !! What I love most about SSSS is its community; I'm in fandoms that are toxic hellscapes, so to have such a close knit, wonderful fandom is to me like an oasis in a desert. The people here are amazing and varied, as well as not only being dedicated to SSSS but a range of things like poetry and personal interests, which is incredibly inspiring ! I really hope that even after the end of the webcomic, we'll all still be here with our fanwork 

[Róisín]

Oh, Jitter, another old Elfquest fan here! And Yastreb is one more, as is Star and as are several other people we know! But despite going into Melbourne every few months to buy physical copies of the Elfquest comic from old Space Age Books, we were never in the fandom as such, though eventually I met both the Pinis and the Foglios through conventions. I in particular didn’t really have the concept of ‘fandom community’, though I had long been deeply involved in several other communities: Melbourne had long had serious communities of folk music enthusiasts, which had a considerable overlap with the pagan community, and there were also enthusiasts of reenactment and martial arts, the last two groups in particular having very few women involved, though even folk music was considered very much a male preserve. .

I had always read science fiction, but the arts community in which I had been involved was more of poets and short story writers, playwrights and novelists. SF was not regarded as being literature back then. But I was invited to my first SF convention because I had won an award for science-themed poetry, and the prize was to be presented at a science-fiction convention, one of the first held in Melbourne. I fell into the SF community very easily, and wound up being involved in the organisation of Australia’s first WorldCon. Good times!

[thorny]

Another for the old Elfquest comics, the original run. I didn't keep up with the later stuff.

[Róisín]

I didn’t know there was later stuff!

[Jitter]

There is still later stuff! It got very complicated for many years, first with several titles and then suddenly many storylines getting published in small parts in one book (as in one typical size comic book had a bit of 3-5 storylines) which is when I lost track completely. Now they are making a single series again, but I need to catch up a bit to understand who the characters are.

But, point relevant here: I was a fan, but I was not in a fandom. There were SciFi associations in Finland by the time I was in the uni but I went once, was the only girl, didn’t feel welcome. I also went to local conventions a couple of times and enjoyed it, but didn’t really connect with anyone personally.

[Vulpes]

Several people have mentioned the parallel with finishing a much-loved book, and the odd mix of satisfaction and melancholy that produces. I'm finding the end of SSSS similar but distinct, perhaps because the end is happening in slow motion (obviously that wouldn't be the case if I weren't following as the comics come out) and with a great deal of discussion... like right here and now! I've always been a very solitary reader, and I don't recall ever discussing a book as I read it, other than in English class.

SSSS has been a lot of things - a pleasant distraction, a compelling tale, beautiful artwork, an incredible community, an inspiration to create... so of course it's sad that it will end soon, and with tales untold. But I like to remind myself that I am only aware of the untimely end and untold tales because of the way the comic is delivered, and my involvement in the fandom. If this were a finished book I stumbled on, I would read it, and say to myself, "That was a great tale, what else has she written?" and then be mildly disappointed to find that there was nothing else. I would wonder about the loose ends (Emil's burning house, Mikkel's air of mystery) and perhaps wonder why the creator stopped, but that would be it.

Like any good story that ends, I'll appreciate what it gave me, and perhaps, unlike anything else I've been sad to finish, I'll be able to come back here and see some creative takes on what happened next. Such a gift, both the comic and the community.