Now, this is speaking from only reading a few comics (I've read a lot, but I'm definitely sure more people have more to say about it than I do :P), but it seems a lot of people are late with comics.

Whether it's webcomic (VGCats is the best example I can think of)
Or a print comic (Scud the Disposable Assassin was apparently usually late back in the 90's)

VGCats is a terribly popular webcomic, as I'm sure we're all aware of. It updates once a month, maybe, and yet, he gets tons of views every single day. And when it does update, it's some 5-second put together, no effort into it comic strip. And yet, everybody loves it.

Scud...well...Scud is excused for it, because Scud was amazing.

But I realize that quite a few comics have a tendency to be "late", Welcome to Pixelton [welcometopixelton] is another good example. Back when it would update every week, it was amazing. I would look forward to it. But then updates got farther and farther between, and I was disappointed.

So, with that all being said.
What is it with comics being late?
Discuss :]

A comic like VG cats has such a huge following that it does not need to update very often, the fan base is already there and already fanatically loyal.
For web comics like mine or yours that are just starting out, you have to be more dependable.
A new web comic could easily pack up and fold at any time, so there is a need to constantly keep putting it out to remind people you are still there and reassure them that you will stick with it.
Once you get 50,000 views a day, then you have it made....but don't get too casual!

Constant lateness is usually due to one or two of the reasons below -

1: The artist is busy (usually with jobs, school, and/or just plain real life) and just can't update as often as they like.

2: If the comic is highly detailed, it just takes a while to finish a single page.

3: The artist is just doing this in there spare time and not to get popular, maybe not even really expecting to finish the comic. (Or that would make sense, I hate it when people stop updating for months and wonder why there are no people commenting when they finally do =/).

4: The artist is just. plain. lazy. XD

5: Or, like harkovast mentioned, they may just be popular enough that they don't need to update constantly! Those lucky bastards...

6: The artist doesn't have as much interest as they should.

7: I'll go ahead and add sickness as a reason too.

SarahN
Constant lateness is usually due to one or two of the reasons below -

1: The artist is busy (usually with jobs, school, and/or just plain real life) and just can't update as often as they like.

Right now I update twice a week, and that has been one of the main reasons why I've missed updates (especially this week =_=). Also, I'd add being sick to that. I have a pretty extreme case of anemia, so I get sick and tired very often and I can't draw when I'm in that state. Luckily, I feel well enough now to update tomorrow and take the time to draw a buffer today @_@

But, you know, I guess I don't really mind some lateness in comics, it all just depends on the reason. If the artist just disappears, that's sort of disappointing, but if the artist is sick, busy, or reworking pages or something I think it's understandable.

I think it's a bit unreasonable to expect someone to update everytime, because they do have a life XD, but I think it's good for the artist to explain why they were gone.

Nicotine

SarahN
Constant lateness is usually due to one or two of the reasons below -

1: The artist is busy (usually with jobs, school, and/or just plain real life) and just can't update as often as they like.

Right now I update twice a week, and that has been one of the main reasons why I've missed updates (especially this week =_=). Also, I'd add being sick to that. I have a pretty extreme case of anemia, so I get sick and tired very often and I can't draw when I'm in that state. Luckily, I feel well enough now to update tomorrow and take the time to draw a buffer today @_@

But, you know, I guess I don't really mind some lateness in comics, it all just depends on the reason. If the artist just disappears, that's sort of disappointing, but if the artist is sick, busy, or reworking pages or something I think it's understandable.

I think it's a bit unreasonable to expect someone to update everytime, because they do have a life XD, but I think it's good for the artist to explain why they were gone.

Yeah, that's totally understandable.
But I mean, if an artist misses updates constantly, and is still one of the top comics.

for me, it's because i'm part lazy and part busy.

i usually don't mind when the comic is late, but when it stops updating for over a month, it falls off on my radar. subconciously too.

yup there are so many reasons for this, i generally don't mind some level of lateness in webcomics i read, but there are just some people who just don't have an excuse ...

even then i sort of feel some sort of empathy for some artists, i even stopped updating for three week because i got really sick (not on purpose)

I'm late all the time these days and kinda popular too (oh noes!). My main problem is all of the comics are, like, five times longer than when I started so sticking to the same update schedule is kicking my ass.

Lateness is unprofessional end of story. Im not saying its completely unavoidable and once you are late you're a scrub, just that it should always be avoided and NEVER become a habit. Once you gain the stigma of being late and lazy you never lose it. and you dont want some editor of a comic company thinking you are lazy when you are submitting work.

NickGuy
Lateness is unprofessional end of story.

Yeah, but one of the points of webcomics is you don't have to be professional. You don't have editors, you don't have rules for what you can and can't write/draw, and yeah, the only thing keeping you updating at all is fan demand.

Sure, we're jealous that such comics as VG Cats can update once a month and have thousands of hits a day, but it's not like he's monopolizing those fans. It's not like he's hoarding all the fans and won't let us have any. Those VG Cats fans go off and read other comics, some of them mine, some of them yours.

It's good to update frequently, but there's nothing saying we have to. Most of us still have day jobs, a lot of us attend school, some of us have kids and a family. We get sick. In other words, shit happens.

megan_rose

NickGuy
Lateness is unprofessional end of story.

Yeah, but one of the points of webcomics is you don't have to be professional. You don't have editors, you don't have rules for what you can and can't write/draw, and yeah, the only thing keeping you updating at all is fan demand.

Sure, we're jealous that such comics as VG Cats can update once a month and have thousands of hits a day, but it's not like he's monopolizing those fans. It's not like he's hoarding all the fans and won't let us have any. Those VG Cats fans go off and read other comics, some of them mine, some of them yours.

It's good to update frequently, but there's nothing saying we have to. Most of us still have day jobs, a lot of us attend school, some of us have kids and a family. We get sick. In other words, shit happens.

oh definately and i definately understand that. I also understand that for a vast majority of webcomickers out there, this is just a hobby. They do a page and go outside and grill and hang with their families. thats all cool and dandy. like you said no one HAS to be professional. and no one has to be taken professionally either. If you want to play around with your comic, then thats what this is for, after all!

But for people like me who are serious about their art and want it to eventually lead somewhere and maybe even break into mainstream comics....you cant be late.

NickGuy

megan_rose

NickGuy
Lateness is unprofessional end of story.

Yeah, but one of the points of webcomics is you don't have to be professional. You don't have editors, you don't have rules for what you can and can't write/draw, and yeah, the only thing keeping you updating at all is fan demand.

Sure, we're jealous that such comics as VG Cats can update once a month and have thousands of hits a day, but it's not like he's monopolizing those fans. It's not like he's hoarding all the fans and won't let us have any. Those VG Cats fans go off and read other comics, some of them mine, some of them yours.

It's good to update frequently, but there's nothing saying we have to. Most of us still have day jobs, a lot of us attend school, some of us have kids and a family. We get sick. In other words, shit happens.

oh definately and i definately understand that. I also understand that for a vast majority of webcomickers out there, this is just a hobby. They do a page and go outside and grill and hang with their families. thats all cool and dandy. like you said no one HAS to be professional. and no one has to be taken professionally either. If you want to play around with your comic, then thats what this is for, after all!

But for people like me who are serious about their art and want it to eventually lead somewhere and maybe even break into mainstream comics....you cant be late.

Amen to that, brah.

I mean, it's all good if you're sick and stuff, but that's exactly why you should build a buffer. If you have a buffer or pages, then it's not a problem.

NickGuy
But for people like me who are serious about their art and want it to eventually lead somewhere and maybe even break into mainstream comics....you cant be late.

If you were really serious- you'd be trying harder to improve the actual quality of your work, not pump out on time pages that look to be drawn in mspaint. You'd be spending months to get your art at least on par with this:
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/jj88/JoeyStone_photo/inkwork/RS_01_pg13_Inks.jpg?t=1238353401
In learning anatomy, proportions, perspective, composition, backgrounds, inking techniques, and then how to break up and manage your page time.

I'd honestly suggest taking a break from your comic for a month- learning backgrounds and line weight and all that other good stuff- then come back and see the difference in your quality.

Skullbie

NickGuy
But for people like me who are serious about their art and want it to eventually lead somewhere and maybe even break into mainstream comics....you cant be late.

If you were really serious- you'd be trying harder to improve the actual quality of your work, not pump out on time pages that look to be drawn in mspaint. You'd be spending months to get your art at least on par with this:
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/jj88/JoeyStone_photo/inkwork/RS_01_pg13_Inks.jpg?t=1238353401
In learning anatomy, proportions, perspective, composition, backgrounds, inking techniques, and then how to break up and manage your page time.

I'd honestly suggest taking a break from your comic for a month- learning backgrounds and line weight and all that other good stuff- then come back and see the difference in your quality.

well theres always the strive to get better regardless....But now that ive already started Im not going to stop. once you build the fanbase you have a certain obligation to them to keep going, IMO.

I dont care how good the art is, quality does not trump being on time. Look at mainstream comics. their books are late ALL THE TIME. Is the quality worth it? I dont necessarily think so.

I think that majorly contradicts what you just said about being serious about your art, but alrighty then.

And i'm not attacking you or anything, i'm just kind of peeved you made it sound like people that aren't on time aren't serious about art at all, when in fact they're doing work that's 30x the difficulty/work of most comics here. (coloring, actual lettering, actual editing in photoshop, etc) They're late yeah- but they went the extra mile on that page and beyond.

I dont see how thats contradicting...you always strive to get better and practice outside your comic, and then those improvements show up in comic...theres a way to do it without being late, though. Buffer pages, for example. the pae you are working on now should not be the next page in your story.

Skullbie

NickGuy
But for people like me who are serious about their art and want it to eventually lead somewhere and maybe even break into mainstream comics....you cant be late.

If you were really serious- you'd be trying harder to improve the actual quality of your work, not pump out on time pages that look to be drawn in mspaint. You'd be spending months to get your art at least on par with this:
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/jj88/JoeyStone_photo/inkwork/RS_01_pg13_Inks.jpg?t=1238353401
In learning anatomy, proportions, perspective, composition, backgrounds, inking techniques, and then how to break up and manage your page time.

I'd honestly suggest taking a break from your comic for a month- learning backgrounds and line weight and all that other good stuff- then come back and see the difference in your quality.

I should totally do that.
I tried it before, but it bored me to death.
That was back when I uber sucked.
Now I just moderately suck.

At least I'm slightly getting better with anatomy.
Right?
...right?
:)

I don't think late or inconsistent updates are indicative of a lack of seriousness about what you're doing. Probably you benefit more from consistent, on-schedule updates, but it ain't a deal-breaker. I think webcomics allow more leeway in missing/late updates, anyway. People kind of expect it, even with some of the more popular names (like Ryu was originally bringing up).

If you don't have any kind of buffer and find you're rushing pages, then yeah- take a break, focus on making a good-sized supply of quality pages. Figure out how long it takes you to do a page, learn to manage your time, and stay on a schedule so that you always stay ahead of yourself, and don't miss an update. I don't subscribe to the "OMG stop what yer doin' and go learn to draw proper, ya worthless hack!!!" line of thinking, though. ;) Ya get better by sticking with it, and challenging yourself to make each page better than the last. If you're paying attention and actively seeking to improve, you will.

Id also add that lateness can easily be avoided with patience. dont just run on here and start posting your comic the second you finish page 1. get a good, SOLID amount of buffer pages set to preupload so you can not be late if emergencies like sickness or a trip or something happens.

i think being late is ok, just not too late...well for me i didn't update for like 5 days due to personal stuff. To make up for my tardiness, i decided to post a really long strip to make up for it. So for in my opinion, being late is ok as long as you have a good reason.

It might be wierd but for me, i have no script. I usually just start on the next page's script about 1-2 days after the latest update because I usually ask some readers what they think would happen so i guess you u can say i just wing it...hehehe....it's so fun to hear when they tell u about their theories and expectations..

Man, I have no buffer pages. I don't feel like a page is done until I "publish" it by putting it out on the web. So I got into the bad habit of finishing a page whenever, posting it right away, and moving on to the next one. Bad idea.

I've recently gone to Mondays only so hopefully I'll start to build up a buffer.

I generally dislike being late in my own work, but I've come to accept that it's pretty normal. I spend 50+ hours on school work outside of school and have commission work on top of it that can get pretty time intensive. I'm a little more lenient in other people's cases for whatever reason, unless they already have a large following. In that case I generally expect that you're going to update on time. Guys like Jeph Jacques don't really get an excuse in my book because it's their job. They don't necessarily have a day job to work around and barring major sickness, they really shouldn't be missing updates.

The thing that amazes me though is just how loyal some fans can be. My last update came a couple months after the previous one, and almost all my fans who normally comment came back and said there was no way they'd consider abandoning following me. It blows my mind to think that some of the people who read a comic could have the same or higher level of devotion to it than it's creator. It makes me feel bad that it's been about a month since I got a chance to update.

As important as promptness is, I think the quality of the work carries more weight than how regularly new pages show up. As long as it's worth reading, fans will put up with a LOT to get their newest pages. Granted, that kind of thinking only applies to a comic that's already GOT fans. I definitely think that a new comic looking for readers needs to stick to a schedule pretty closely. You gotta condition the masses to revisit your site on a regular basis, after all, and they won't do that if you can't provide them with tempting treats when they show up.

(If I were a more conceited, self-absorbed person, I would take this opportunity to point out that in the 13+ months I've been drawing Far Out There, I've not ONCE missed a scheduled update. Boy, good thing I'm not THAT lame, huh?)

i don't feel tardy....

okay....i'll join this party....

since i've been re-writing/re-drawing my 3rd chapter on a complete whim to make this "lull" in the story more exciting......i've had to depart from my "midnight everyday" update schedule. which was i thought was fine with my huge buffer of pages......

but some "funny" jokes came up in brainstorming that i couldn't pass up writing in....which required creating pages from scratch......add to that work and the SXSW music festival here in austin with which i hardly even saw my own bedroom for like 4 days.......a webcomic i draw for my friends that make me ZERO income, was the least of my worries. i didn't want to rush the new pages more than was necessary....and i also still needed to live my life and not just work for 8 hours a day and spend the other 8 hours drawing a comicbook that not that many people read so i could maintain this update schedule that worked fine when i had a stack of finished pages.

but i also realize (as i hope my readers do) that i set up a lofty goal for a daily update when i had a buffer of 200 pages......but i have since listened to my new readers and taken their suggestions to heart and along with my assistant added to the storyline. and the creation of new pages does take time....and they create these little bubbles of space where i have to juggle real life shit (work, relationships, good live music shows) and still find time to get a couple hours to work on my comic. i suppose this would be the problem with a comic that is at times organic enough to take into account what the readers want to an extent.

For me its usually real life stuff that gets in the way... :(

I haven't missed one update as I always pre-uploaded a set of pages, but I had to go on hiatus at the end of second chapter (right in the middle of the story) which is a stain on the record, haha. There were no other delays until the end.

Right now the goal is to finally get the slightly revised edition into print and restart the webcomic (with cleaned up and relettered pages in b&w instead color) and follow it with "volume two". Going through the same pages again will give me enough time to draw second and perhaps the third volume before I reach the end. This should give me a large enough buffer I hope.

I also hope to avoid any holdups on future pages/comics.

For me life got in the way just when I planned to make buffer pages...

I think it's good to have buffer pages before you start a webcomic, but it's easier said than done. I was not be able to start really before I submitted the first page to the web. Yes, I'm a bad webcomic artist,with no buffer (although I've got the general script and try to be ahead with detailed script). And still working out the schedule, eh...

Pedes
For me life got in the way just when I planned to make buffer pages...

I think it's good to have buffer pages before you start a webcomic, but it's easier said than done. I was not be able to start really before I submitted the first page to the web. Yes, I'm a bad webcomic artist,with no buffer (although I've got the general script and try to be ahead with detailed script). And still working out the schedule, eh...

then you shouldve just waited to launch the first page. haste makes waste.

NickGuy

Pedes
For me life got in the way just when I planned to make buffer pages...

I think it's good to have buffer pages before you start a webcomic, but it's easier said than done. I was not be able to start really before I submitted the first page to the web. Yes, I'm a bad webcomic artist,with no buffer (although I've got the general script and try to be ahead with detailed script). And still working out the schedule, eh...

then you shouldve just waited to launch the first page. haste makes waste.

It's not exactly that easy.
I'm kind of the same way. Like, I feel I can't truly get down and work unless I have at LEAST something established on the web for the comic.
I've done this about 6 or so times now. So yeaaaah.

Also, if you miss updates because you're taking the time to learn anatomy/perspective, or just learning new art stuff generally, then I think it's okay. Because then the readers know that you care enough about your comic to take the time to improve it.
(which is what I'm doing)

Ryuthehedgewolf
It's not exactly that easy.
I'm kind of the same way. Like, I feel I can't truly get down and work unless I have at LEAST something established on the web for the comic.
I've done this about 6 or so times now. So yeaaaah.

then you really havent gotten down and worked if youve done it 6 or so times now :P Thats just your own narcissism getting in your way there, when you feel the need to put a page up and get comments when you have nothing to back it up.