Pretty much the title says it all. When should you realize a comic is not working and start again?

I'm considering homicide and putting my comic out of my misery.

If you can't seem to find the proper audience for your comic or you have found an audience that isn't quite getting it, then it might be time to reconsider the path of your comic.

I agree with Blkknight here, if you don't have an audience despite how much you've promoted/advertised/etc then i would give up myself.
In fact i did a while ago, put my comic on haitus. I used those few months to draw whatever the hell i wanted and just not focus on it- i thought about making a new comic, have a plot i actually thought out etc. I learned more in those few months of not focusing on the comic then when i did- came back with a new art style and now i'm trying to make the story a tad more mature.

So if your comic is young and has a decent fanbase why not just experiment with it. If it's large with a small fanbase then start over(assuming you don't enjoy doing it anymore)

I don't know if the audience is the whole answer. If you feel inside yourself that the comic is dead, than it probably IS dead. Otherwise, you would probably work on changes here and there that may bring an audience around.

When you feel like updating is more like a chore. If you've grown to hate your characters or taken the story down a path you now really regret then its probably worth giving up too. If there are quite a few pages giving it a short ending might be a good idea; if you have any readers it'll avoid getting them really disapointed too.

Thank you for your well considered responses.

Time to start again with a better paced story.

Ditto on some of the comments above. If you personally no longer have the joy or passion for your own comic, it might start reflecting in your work. Its kind of a strange cycle though, that passion most of the time comes from your audience building. But if you enjoy your story, and you're doing this for fun and for mostly yourself, then I suggest you keep going, it doesn't hurt anyone. If you're doing this to make a living off of...maybe its a good idea to try different approaches. This is coming from a guy who has a VERY small fan base, luckily I'm totally doing this as a hobby and for fun!

I think alot of people, off the bat, make the mistake of doing comics that are totally open-ended or are meant to go on forever. You're way better off having a set storyline with a beginning, middle and end. Then you can get out something complete and reevaluate whether or not it's worth continuing in, say, a sequel.

If you don't want to do your comic anymore, and there isn't really anyone who cares, then let it go dude. Move on to a different project, something that's easier to stomach.

But you know what they say is the difference between the people who make it and the people who don't.

The people who make it just don't quit

I say as soon as your comic isn't fun to draw anymore there's no point in still doing it. I've quit drawing comics that readers liked because I just wasn't getting anything out of them anymore.

Yep in the end it's about what you think, not what you think your readers think. If you don't like it anymore, then give it up. If you love it but other ppl don't seem to, then join the club of 90% of the other comics on DD. Difference is whether you love it enough to keep going at it alone.

That's the truth right there. I'm sure we could come up with a pretty long list of great novels and works of art nobody paid much attention to at the time.Sometimes you have to be dead to get noticed.

Don't do anything rash mind!

I say do what you want to do. It's just that simple.

If you dont like your comic as the way it is now...change it till its the comic you want it to be! I mean, you dont have to give up on good characters and ideas, you can just twist it till its someting you are satisfied with. its a samurai story but you wanna change it to a western? then do so! unless youve tried it already and failed...then go ahead and start fresh.