91 END
March 3rd, 2010
Father took a shower, or ten.
The story has ended, but there’s still one more page to go. I’ll see you on Friday for the goodbyes.
In the meantime, if you have any doubts about the story, now is the time to ask! I can’t promise to answer everything though, because I think there is value in preserving your own interpretations of what happened. But I’ll give it a try 
Also: don’t forget to check again tomorrow for a glimpse of my next comic.
so let me get his all clear in my head… the “story” was about how the “daughter” helped a father that lost his family in some way fight off the depression and heartbreak so that he could live his life again, in a nut shell I mean
Hmm… well, you could put it that way
Father went through an spiritual journey… and in the end, he wrote about it. Or drew about it, whatever.
well thank you for taking us on this trip it was wonderful…
Bravo. You don’t see many “The End”‘s in webcomics, Imaginary Daughter was a simple and fun, yet philosophical story. I enjoyed it very much and await the final page ^^
Thanks, I’m glad you liked it
We get to ask questions? Yay!
So, what was the spectre?
As many have said, the Spectre can be seen as the manifestation of (or, perhaps, just a metaphor of) Father’s grief and despair; the part of him that is always trying to destroy him, to bring him down
Sorry for being so dense here, but I don’t see why that would mean it could only go down before, or why facing the deaths of his wife and daughter suddenly allowed it to fly.
Hehe, it’s cool, you aren’t being dense
I’ll give you a partial answer here. The Spectre – and everything else indeed – is bound by the rules of the universe it’s in. And the universe in this case is Father’s mind, his heart, particularly his imagination. In there, the Spectre appears as the manifestation of Father’s pain, and it can only go down because it can only bring Father down – something Daughter (a part of Father bent on saving him) recognizes and uses to their advantage.
When I put it in words it certainly sounds even clumsier than in the actual execution
As for later on, the only one who goes up is Father while he’s flying. Spectre can only sort of float ever so slightly downwards. They only move upwards because they’re tangled and fighting.
Hope that clears some of your doubts
That does explain it quite well, thank you! The main bit I was tripping over was the part where they were fighting, and the spectre was clearly going upwards. Thanks again for clearing it up.
Looking forwards to your epilogue!
This was a good storyline and webcomic; I’ll be sad to see it go.
Thanks, I’m glad you enjoyed it
I’ve been reading this for a while, but don’t think I’ve commented before, but I did want to say that I liked this webcomic a lot.
You managed to take a lighthearted take on things like Father’s depression for most of the story, until near the end where it really hit. You kept us wondering what would happen next, yet still made it seem expected in some way afterward, if you know what I mean.
And you did well to give us mixed feelings when Daughter disappeared. We knew it would happen, yet it still managed to be a bit of a shock.
Congratulations on making such an excellent story. Thank you.
Thank you for your comments, you really are too kind
A while ago you hinted that there was a hint on this page… http://karchesky.com/comics/imaginarydaughter/045-wherein-the-final-change-occurs/
…was that the scar?
Yup. I think that was in the context of a discussion of whether or not Father was present at the accident that killed his family. That older comic contained the answer to the question
This was an Incredible comic, you can’t really pin it down as any single type of story either, it’s very unique as well.
Thanks, I’m really glad you liked it
I really enjoyed this comic, thank you!
Now for a very personal question about it, it’s okay with me if you don’t want to answer it or only partially.
Actually, Father in the comic draws just the comic you did. So the thought came up that you and father could be the same person, more or less.
Is Father you?
If so, to which extent did you live through this spiritual journey?
Some other questions:
Why had Father forgotten about his family?
The little girls’ clothes, did they belong to his former, real daughter?
Why the daughter instead of anything else? And why didn’t she awake the memories of his family right away? I mean, just by appearing.
That’s everything. Please excuse my English, I’m actually German <.< and sorry for any inadequate questions of those, I tend to be blunt and curious.
Being that, this comic was kind of just right for me. :3
Sweetly greeting,
Broeckchen
Thank you for your comments! Let’s try to answer some of your questions:
No, I am not Father, nor is he based on anyone I know. Rather, events from my life and the lives of others helped give form to his story; and these events were rather dissimilar themselves. I’d say that as the years go by, it becomes almost impossible to escape some form of loss and grief, and we all have to learn to overcome that. And then, stories that resonate with those memories are born. Which I guess is why we can empathize with these sort of tales; few of us, thankfully, know the pain of losing a child and a spouse at the same time, the way Father did. But we all know loss, and we can thus relate to Father’s pain in a way.
The story is purposefully vague about certain things as revealed in the last couple of pages. Father is drawing a comic about his life, but did he really believe he was accompanied by an imaginary Daughter and chased by a monster through a barren city? This is discussed in the few first pages and then glossed over until the end. I think that at some point Father was indeed less than 100% sane. But I don’t think he ever really “forgot” his loved ones. The exchange between Father (the character in the strip-within-a-strip) and Daughter might be Father’s (the real one) attempt to address his realization that refusing to deal with a painful past was taking him nowhere. But, what do I know – I’m not Father
The chest with Daughter’s clothes was interesting to draw. Initially, Father doesn’t remember the chest, nor the clothes, just as he doesn’t remember other things (see above). As it turns out, those must have been the clothes of his real daughter. But in the last couple of pages you might have noticed that while most of the apartment looks the same, the chest is nowhere to be seen. I’ll leave it to you to ponder about the significance of the chest appearing on Father’s comic but not in his reality
Don’t worry about your English, it’s really good (if you would accept such a compliment from someone whose main language is actually Spanish
).
Again, thanks for your kind comments