Trivia / Jack (David Hopkins)

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• The Abridged Series: At the now-defunct Kate Comics, which also hosted a general critique of the series.
• Creator Backlash:
  • One gets the sense that Hopkins is starting to view the comic on the whole as this after asking the original website not to be put back up at his request after it went down due to technical issues. Given he started in it 2001 as a self-admitted coping mechanism for his mental health, it's possible he's ashamed of some of the extremes he chose to portray in the comic. The Schedule Slip shown by the last two arcs failing to come out despite his assurances they will appear on his FurAffinity account since 2017 could show a certain amount of reluctance on how to end it as he originally intended since he's changed mentally as a person.
  • Hopkins admitted that "Hell Is that Noise" (where a World War I soldier is condemned to Hell for his choices, only for the story to show his claims of being manipulated into damnation are absolutely correct) is one of his least-liked arcs to the point where he could barely remember the main character's name.
  • He's also talked about removing the Musical Holes scene from "Games We Play in Hell."
    • Dave made edits to the arc, removing this problematic scene from the version that used to be hosted on FurAffinity, though the original version is still up on the website.
• God Does Not Own This World: Invoked. Hopkins has deliberately released all the characters that he owns into the public domain, (though those he only half-owns or that were come up with by other people are still off-limits unless their express permission is given) allowing people to do whatever they want with them. The website now encourages people to send in their own comics and fanart that will be added into the canon and Hopkins has said anything goes as he will not be contributing any longer after the finale is posted. The most prolific contributor is Darkwing Dude, who hosts and runs the website.
• Reality Subtext: "Mahalo" centers on a call-in radio show was evidently inspired by a disturbing call Hopkins' girlfriend made to Loveline, with Christopher Titus advising her to run away from him.
• Schedule Slip: After running consistently for many years on a Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule, Hopkins decided to only release arcs once they were entirely completed. After the arc "Prayer of the Mantis" ended in 2017, the comic went on a hiatus which lasted three years until late in 2020 as Hopkins said the next arc that would be posted would be the final one. Darkwing Dude now posts arcs again on the Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule after they're completed while David works on the finale, which has now come to expand to four separate parts.
• What Could Have Been: Following the end of a story arc, story notes were put into a journal entry posted to his account on FurAffinity, outlining not only what he had planned, but noting where he decided to change from the plan for storytelling purposes. Alas, these have all been deleted when the account was deactivated.
  • Two big ones involving comics that were put into print is that a third Cliff comic was meant to come out, as Cliff is last seen succumbing to Drip's influence and is only next seen in Hell already dead with no mention of how he died or got there, though no other details were given out about it. The other was that Sandy from The Screaming Barrel who is last seen abruptly abandoned by Drip on the side of the road crying was going to contact Richek in a new story trying to reveal the horrors of the titular place. Both ideas were canned due to poor sales of the comics.
• Word of God:invoked There's some details that never made it into the comic proper and were only mentioned elsewhere:
  • Dave originally stated that Drip is also his Author Avatar. Complete with all the Unfortunate Implications that being represented by a character whose only personality trait is "rape" brings. This appears to have lessened over the years as the comic began to go in a different direction than the initial therapy project it started out as.
  • Cliff was also revealed to be due to Dave coming up with the most painful and nightmarish ideas he could think of for what could happen to him in real life: how horrible it would be as an artist to get his hands cut off, lose an eye due to torture, and have someone he loved killed right in front of him. He later admitted this now comes off as more like over-the-top childish Wangst and these days he would have gone in a completely different direction with the character.
  • Though it is never mentioned in the comic properly, it was revealed in the comments section of the current site that Jink was Drip's first apprentice (though Dave did mention he'd forgotten this until a reader reminded him), which really raises a lot more questions than it answers. The mention of his first apprentice being a "he" by Taylor was apparently either deliberate misdirection by Hopkins or Taylor honestly not knowing since he met Drip long after Jink was already dead.
  • Farrago is shown in colored pics not hosted on the website as having been brown in life and only voluntarily changed her coloration to be black-and-white when she got to Heaven to emulate Central, who she greatly admires.
  • Drip's name was given by his grandmother naming him after the blood that was dripping down the walls after his parents died when he was a baby.
• Writing by the Seat of Your Pants: Hopkins has admitted there was a number of plot hints dropped that were mainly there to add "flavor" or "texture" to the overall storyline (Drip's first apprentice being mentioned only once and Rachel's existence as two examples) and he never intended to follow up on (a not uncommon problem with long-running webcomics to be sure), though some fans took them more as signs of a Kudzu Plot that would all come together instead of just the hints they were meant to stay as. Though he has also encouraged any future contributors of writers and artists to the universe to explore these hints to create full storylines if they want to.

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