In 2020, I had the idea to just end Hawk & Croc. Just give it a definitive ending. I came up with this idea, wrote some notes, sent them over to Brandon, and got his approval. We planned to drop the full, 10-page story all at once, because it really needs to be read all at once, and not spread out over several weeks.
So I got started, with the story picking up shortly after the events of Hawk Solo: A Hawk & Croc Story. And then the COVID-19 pandemic continued. And continued. And continued. And we decided that with as rough as the year had been going, ending Hawk & Croc in this way, at that time, was not a good idea. People go to entertainment to escape real life, and ending things this way… wouldn’t have given people that escape.
We talked about this a bit in the Atomic Monsoon episode we did, where Jedi Stephanie interviewed us about the series. I had said maybe I’d post it someday… and today is that day.
So enjoy the Hawk & Croc finale that never happend.
Page 1: I really loved doing the swirly bits in Ems’ hair to show that it was curly, in an abstract way.
Page 2: When Hawk and Ems got caught in Croc’s closet in New Hawk & Croc chapter 5 (page 240), they made a joke about Croc having “too many coats.” I don’t know why, but that really tickled me, so I decided to call it back here.
Ems’ red overcoat from New Hawk & Croc chapter 3, page 1 returns here. I thought she looked really good in it, and always wanted to bring it back. This seemed as good a time as any.
Page 3: I repeated the “WHUMPF!” from page 1 to show that all of page 2 took place between when Ems left the room and the last panel on that page.
These first three pages were 100% complete (minus maybe a couple of quick detail edits) when we decided to not end things this way.
Page 4: This is the first page that wasn’t completed, although all it needed was the shading and dialogue. Croc would’ve yelled out either “HIS HEART’S NOT BEATING!” or “HE’S NOT BREATHING!” in the last panel, depending on how the text looked.
Page 5: Obviously, had we continued, I would’ve drawn a proper ambulance, using photo reference and everything. But for a quick sketch to remember what was supposed to go on this page, I drew this…thing.
Knowing me, I probably would’ve used a Transformers toy for photo reference again.
Page 6: Dr. Baghead and Nurse Betty are back, last seen in Hawk & Croc Classic in 2004. They tell the gang that it doesn’t look good, as Hawk had lost a lot of blood in the fight with Masklaw. That pile of scribbles in the last panel is Croc looking distraught over his best friend’s well-being.
Page 7: No dialogue. I made the characters blue on a separate layer so that I could tell them apart from the chairs when I went to color them…which I obviously never did. But that’s all it would’ve taken to finish this one page, too!
Page 8: This might have had more dialogue had we finished, but Nurse Betty saying “I’m sorry” is really all that’s needed. My original notes actually called for a close-up on Croc in the last panel, but when I got to actually drawing it, I realized it made more sense for him to fall into Alli’s arms. Besides, Croc had already gotten two close-up last panels in the story. So Ems got the wide-eyed close-up, instead.
Page 9: Various characters reacting to the news of Hawk’s condition. Camilla revealed that she was pregnant with Hawk’s child on pages 243-244 of New Hawk & Croc chapter 5, so it made more sense to use her to anchor the page. There wouldn’t have been any dialogue on this page, either. Other than a couple of phone screen details, all this page needed was some color before it would’ve been finished.
Damien, John, Craig, and Gila were all probably at their respective homes. Biff has his World Heavyweight Championship hanging in the background, so he could be anywhere — Possibly either getting ready for, or just finishing a match? I don’t know where Jacky is, but the last time we saw him he said he was going to turn himself in. Last I checked, prison doesn’t let you have cell phones. Hmm!
Page 10: The plan was to have a minister’s words over the top of the funeral’s attendees, before Croc delivers his final line. Looking at this now, I’m not sure that would have been neccessary.
I wanted to go all-out for this one, so I put in every character I could think of who would make sense to show up: Kid America from Hawk & Kid; John Vautour & Craig Aucoin, aka Shadow Vulture & Black Falcon from Fire Raven’s band The Ecto-Coolers AND consistent backup heroes throughout the run of the series; Terrance Beauregard of Hungry Wolf Pizza, who we hadn’t used since 2005; Gila Consuelos, Croc’s rival-turned-ally; Funky ninja asskicker Damien Sword; Biff J. Rockenheimen, Hawk’s high school wrestling teammate; Biff’s manager Janet “Jett” Bovein, who we met at Hawk & Beth’s wedding (New Hawk & Croc chapter 1 page 41); Jett’s sisters Joanie Bovein and Croc’s high school sweetheart, Julia Bovein, both from the School Daze era; their other sister Camilla Wight-Bovein; Dane, Wendy Greenspring, and Erik Thiessen, more of Hawk & Croc’s high school friends; Alli’s father, Komodo Grey who also hadn’t appeared since 2005; Croc, Alli, and Ems, obviously; Croc & Alli’s daughter, Lizzie (aka the future Z-Croc from Hawk & Croc Generation 2); and Bossanova Managerston, aka Boss, Hawk’s manager from Big Choice Video, waaaay back when the comic first started — We’ve been doing this stuff for so long, VIDEO RENTAL STORES were still a thing when we started!
Oh, and Jacky Nightblade hanging out by a tree in the background.
And of course, Hawk would’ve been buried next to his wife, Fire Raven.
I mean, if it was going to be the end, it should celebrate at least some of the history of the comic, right?
Anyways. We decided to NOT do this. As I noted the other day, as of right now, the end of New Hawk & Croc is the canonical ending to the series. But you can see how close it got to happening! Totally laid out, and about half completed! Yikes!
So that’s a finale that didn’t happen. Thursday is the end of Hawk & Croc’s 19th Anniversary Celebration here on PsychoAndy.com. So come back tomorrow for more H&C mighteousness.