Ending Star Power.

As you may have read in Garth’s blog post this week, or surmised from the wording on the image cover for this latest Issue, this will be the last installment of STAR POWER. Garth’s blog accurately describes what led us to the decision to end this comic, but I thought I should add my own thoughts on the matter. This won’t include any further insight or new details on our decision, just my two cents on the matter.

I’m bummed that STAR POWER is ending. I had a few more stories I wanted to tell before I thought it would be time to wrap things up, but a collaboration is a team effort, and for a team to perform at their best, everyone has to be happy. The last thing I want for anyone who works with me is to feel more obligated than excited. I respect Garth’s desire to move on to new projects, and that he’s staying on to give STAR POWER a definite ending is a testament to his professionalism and our friendship.

And I am so glad we’re going to give you folks a proper ending. It may be happening sooner than I expected, but I’m still happy with the conclusion we have planned. We won’t be slowly stopping updates in the middle of a chapter without explanation, nor has our friendship imploded and taken the comic with it. You’ve been with us for the past seven years. Your love and support is the reason we kept going for as long as we did, and to leave you with a feeling of “wait, that’s it?!” or “oh, I guess they’re done” would be a betrayal of the trust you’ve placed in us.

You may be tempted to ask me, “If you still want to work on this, why not try to continue it with someone else?” That is simply not an option. STAR POWER has never belonged to just one of us. This comic is the result of our chemistry as a team. Ideas we bounced back and forth became new concepts that neither of us anticipated. His perspective on my writing, and mine on his art, forced us both to challenge ourselves as creators and become flexible in ways we were unaccustomed to. Would I work with someone else on something else? That’s possible. But I could never work on STAR POWER with anyone besides Garth. To do otherwise would feel like a betrayal of our past teamwork.

As Garth mentioned in his blog, the superhero genre is currently flooded, and it’s a tough field to play in. Lots of publishers won’t even consider a superhero book these days. But a difficult genre to break in to, the blind eye of indie publishers, and an oversaturation of content never stopped us from trying anyway. I didn’t pitch STAR POWER to Garth because I wanted to use it as a springboard or a stepping stone to something bigger in the superhero genre. We did this because we love superheroes, and we don’t think the genre should only belong to two megacorporations. We may have never had a big break or gone viral, but we still managed to make an independent, original superhero book on our terms for close to a decade. When all is said and done, maybe that alone will be the statement of STAR POWER’S success.

But it’s not over yet! We’ve still got a last chapter to deliver, and we hope you’ll enjoy it.