The Standard

Right from the beginning, I knew what the last panel was going to be.  The statues of both generations of The Standard, standing side by side, the past and present of the superhero genre brought together as part of a rich, shared legacy that continues on.  And here is that more upbeat final page we decided upon.  This little tag at the end was intended to leave a little nugget of future story potential, should Jon and I ever be in the position in future to tell more stories of Gilbert Graham and his friends and foes.  Will there be a sequel to THE STANDARD?  I’m not sure.  But even if this is the end, I like stories that end by opening up the reader’s mind to future possibilities on how the world they’ve spent a time in might continue on without them.

This last entry of THE STANDARD webcomic serialisation is scheduled to go online on Thursday, October 8th, the first day of New York Comic Con.  That feels very appropriate to me.  See, the concept for this webcomic began as an initiative to raise awareness for our Kickstarter to create THE STANDARD Ultimate Collection, a deluxe, oversized hardcover graphic novel collecting the series.  And so it seems right that this webcomic comes to an end on the first day that this book will be in my hands and available for sale.

It’s been quite a journey going through this webcomic.  In the time that I’ve been running it, I’ve had a personal bereavement, professional successes and setbacks, and I’ve launched a new comic.  And through it all, this has gone up most weekdays, and hopefully there are a few of you out there who have been reading and enjoying it daily.  The process of revisiting the series has been a really enjoyable one for me, too.  After years of pitching it at conventions, and years before that working on it, I’d become a little bored of THE STANDARD.  But running this webcomic has reminded me of what I loved about this series, reminded me that this was, at the time I did it, my passion project.  I’ll always care deeply about THE STANDARD.

Thank you to the creative team who all take their final bows on this last page – artist Jonathan Rector, colorist Mike Gagnon, letterer Kel Nuttall, editor Steven Forbes.  Thank you to Tyler James and ComixTribe for their continual support.  And thanks to all of you, bold readers, for joining me on this trip down memory lane.