So When I started my comic, I was nervous about whether I could really deliver a daily comic. So I went for three weeks, making my deadlines, before i started putting my comic up on the web. This was lucky on my part, because it means I started with a 3-week buffer, which turned out to be a smart thing to do.

Tonight up putting up episode #40 and i can't help but notice that my buffer has started to melt away. I still have more than two weeks, but it's only a matter of time before it's gone completely.

It's all my fault - I seem to be slowing down over time.

So Im curious - do you all keep a buffer for your comic? How big is your buffer? Is it melting away like mine, or are you keeping it up? And what do you do to keep your buffer solid?


- stacey

Started with one, don't have one anymore. lol! I discovered that having a buffer makes me feel too "safe", and I get lazy. Plus, I'm impatient and I want to upload pages as soon as I finish them, hehe.

I have an accidental "buffer"...

When I joined DD, I had just over 200 pages written. I wrote my comic only for my friends. My brother talked me into uploading, and I put up a number to start with -- at least to get through my very worst artwork. I write 2 to 4 pages most days. Now I have 435 pages drawn and scanned (but not "cleaned up" ). I have 149 posted at DD. The "buffer" continues growing.

What sucks about it is that even the most useful advice in comments cannot show any "results" for a LONG time, and I worry people will think I ignore them. (I swear I don't!) Plus, I feel embarassed to see my old "art" and have to post it, knowing I can do -- and have done -- much better.

The good thing about it is that I know that readers and comments cannot have any impact (even subconscious) on the plot development. I kinda like that.

When I first started drawing 'Minion' I had about fifty before I started posting. I've posted twenty-six, but I've only drawn four new strips since I first started posting.

silentkitty
Started with one, don't have one anymore. lol! I discovered that having a buffer makes me feel too "safe", and I get lazy. Plus, I'm impatient and I want to upload pages as soon as I finish them, hehe.

I totally agree~ I think I started with one but now I can't stand having any cos I know I'll just sit on my arse until it's used up then panic to hit my deadline. XD It was especially bad when I was updating three times a week - I can easily make three pages in a day~ so for three days work I'd have three weeks buffer... easily enough time for me to fall totally out of habit of the whole comic making process.

I like doing it daily too~! I always have something to do and it's fun~ ^_^

Since I updated once a week, I kept a buffer of about 2 weeks ahead when I started. Then, after a few months, I got more comfortable with the process and (with the seduction provided by silentkitty) turned to the "dark side" and started updating whenever I had new content.
You know what? I still wind up updating on Mondays....I just update on other days as well!)

-Dave

I normally have a buffer of 1 to 2 weeks, though its for fairly practical purposes; that being that the artist of Project Mango doesn't own a scanner and we have to physically meet up for him to give me the new pages, which can be quite difficult since we live pretty far from each other.

Having a buffer would be nice if I had the patience....and the time. Right now I'm a final year uni student, so just getting updates up as soon as I can finish them and upload them is the best I can manage right now. I'm impatient anyway, so I'd probably just upload the pages I'd intended to use as buffers!
Maybe if I do a comic with a proper regular update timetable I'll have a buffer page or two though.

Same as Kate (DarthMongoose). I'm in college and just got out for the semester so updates will pick up, but lately I've been lucky if I update three times in a week. Plus I've been making all my pages up at the college since my laptop doesn't have a scanner (Scanny died. T_T) and I don't have a proper keyboard and mouse.

But I get to filch a $300 tablet and a vertical scanner over the summer so I get to work from home. Yaaaaay.

Aaaand, like SilentKitty and Wyldflowa, I want to show off so I can't keep pages to myself for more than the few hours it takes to get to midnight.

I have a buffer when I want one for Demon Eater, because I can make a lot of pages in a short time. Much of the time I just let the buffer go and have bonus updates.

TPCTH has no buffer because I want the story to go by as fast as it can.

No buffer,

I get up at seven every morning and do the days page! But i suppose i have the story written which helps!

I've enough ideas and sketches to run me for the next two months. I'm about two months ahead right now. I still manage to make new pages everyday to put up too. So I'm pretty good..

I really should make myself a buffer but I usually just go with the moment. I do not want to FORCE myself to do a comic as the fun will be gone, and they would probably be of less quality.

I wish!

For HTBR, we started with a very small buffer, having finished the whole promo-comic before uploading any of it, but we didn't start the actual comic until a few weeks later, so that was gone fast.

For SW, I planned on starting with one, but once I finished the first I was so eager to upload that the whole buffer idea went out the window. :P

Hell, no!

I post a page whenever I finish one. It's strange but I can't stand having a page ready and don't upload it instantly, hehe.

I usually start with a buffer that shrinks as I go through periods of laziness. Frank Baron, NSO has a three strip buffer right now (at one point it was five or six), while Rent-A-Thug has a pseudo-buffer (I have a bunch of material ready but I want to save it for mid-June to coincide with its print release, so I have to make new stuff to fill the gap until then).

The newspaper version of Rent-A-Thug has a massive buffer. The last strip that ran was numbered somewhere in the early 30s, and I've had up to 57 done for quite a while now.

I've only tried it when I have regular set day updates - it goes fine until I hit the one page that takes me forever to draw. Then I run out. I guess that's what the buffer is for, though -

I used to want to update all at once, though, because I was afraid I'd lose the pages before updating. It has happened before - now I just make a few copies, stick one up on Photobucket.

I made the fatal mistake of not having one when I started my comic, and it shortly became an unsufferable burden. That, among other reasons, is why it is on indefinite hiatus. That was part of the experiment, though, to see if I could keep it up, so I learned from the experience. For my next project I'm going to keep a buffer of at least ten pages, not including filler pages.

I have eight weeks of comics already finished from this point, soon to be nine since I am wrapping up another update right now.

I tend to work in a pattern, after I finish a new comic, I do a page for my print comic, then work on an update to the webcomic and so on.

In a good week, I can finish two updates for a webcomic, and two updates for the print comic.

FAL
Hell, no!

I post a page whenever I finish one. It's strange but I can't stand having a page ready and don't upload it instantly, hehe.

I totally know the feeling. I've got a couple of strips finished and just itching to be posted but I need to pace myself.

But I REALLY just want to put it all up and once so people can look at it.

I have a buffer. When I first joined DD, I posted all of Book One and 8 pages of Book Two. Book Two is 22 pages long, so that gave me a 7 week buffer (posting 2 per week). I posted two last week so that cut it down to 6 weeks but I just finished page 1 of Book Three yesterday and should get 1 or 2 more this week.

I don't know if I feel confident enough to make it 3 updates a week, though -- but two seems good right now. :)

I kind of have one =P

I inked every page already for issue 1-1 of my comics.

But issue 1-0 (which comes first) I am just now doing and uploading as I go. Since I decided to just focus one 1 issue now instead of a dual 1st issue (which did not translate well on the net =P) I am behind because I made the 2nd half 1st XD

So once I'm done with issue 1-o I will be quiet a bit ahead as coloring does not take me as long. But the art in it will not be as good either, agh, why didn't I go in order instead of drawing what I wanted to draw the most.

At the moment I actually cracked down and am 3 pages ahead and have been updating every day for the last 3 days ^^

Nope.
I complete like 4 pages before I upload. I am always drawing out the next scene(s). I usually thumbnail 5 pages at a time. Right now I uploaded like 2 pages in 2 days. I will try to do page 3 tomorrow if I can.

Almost never. Sometimes one or two updates buffer but its because I have a sleepless night or something.

What are good buffers to use.

Since I decided to put A007 on the DrunkDuck map, I have a buffer for that comic, once or twice a day, until I am completely updated. I currently have 25 comics, which means it'll be about a week and a half - two weeks until my DD page is up to date.

I have a buffer of one week, which actually isn't much because the first chapter of my story is being put on at the rate of four per week, so I still have to do a fair amount of work.

Buffering is one policy I will make if I want to continue my webcomics.

Tarung Jakarta has its initial 16 pages uploaded already, but I churned it out only once a week. A page of it cost a lot of time !

I should disclose here that due to certain disasters in my life, my buffer has gone from 15 episodes (3 weeks) down to 9 episodes since i started this thread.

Do you suppose I can ever get that extra week of buffer back? I am dubious.

I try to have about four pages finished in advance. What helps me bigtime is that my wife recently started coloring my pages.