NickGuy

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.

Well it's not that.
It's like, as SOON as I put up the first page, I basically start to kick ass. I dunno, it's probably something personal.

Considering, at one point, I had about...20 pages of buffer. :]
To each his own, I suppose.

Screw being late. I have little respect for those who can't keep a steady comic schedule just because they're too lazy. I stay up until 5 in the morning sometimes to get Splash Damage updated on time every 2 days, full color, hours of work. It's all about effort. Does the artist care enough about his comic to sacrifice for it?

It's great that you're so into you comic splash damage but late comics don't necessarily equal laziness. People get jobs and lives, which are really worth waaay more than making a free comic on the internet. Sacrificing to do what you love is nice just not to the point of repeated lack of sleep and blowing off chances to be with friends.

On top of that passion can seep away as time goes on, that comic you started when you were 16 that seemed so awesome and badass then becomes juvenile and embarrassing when you're 18.
...i want my youth back bawwwww ;----;

Skullbie
It's great that you're so into you comic splash damage but late comics don't necessarily equal laziness. People get jobs and lives, which are really worth waaay more than making a free comic on the internet. Sacrificing to do what you love is nice just not to the point of repeated lack of sleep and blowing off chances to be with friends.

On top of that passion can seep away as time goes on, that comic you started when you were 16 that seemed so awesome and badass then becomes juvenile and embarrassing when you're 18.
...i want my youth back bawwwww ;----;

Touche. I do think that the comic should change as the writer gets older though. Teenage music artists who wrote music for kids grow up and eventually start talking about more mature stuff in their music. People grow up. The things that you create should grow up with you until you have a midlife crisis and you start reliving your childhood.

And I still think it's laziness to a degree. I definitely don't sacrifice anything but sleep. And I only sacrifice that much because my time management isn't up to snuff.

-Darrel

Splash Damage
And I still think it's laziness to a degree. I definitely don't sacrifice anything but sleep. And I only sacrifice that much because my time management isn't up to snuff.

I agree with Skull.
Besides, different types of comic can't be produced to the same regular schedule as others... Sometimes they need a lot of intensive work, hours of planning, and then hours of inspiration to get the motivation to actually approach the subject. And if something takes away that time it snowballs and delays escalate throughout the whole process.

Personally, I think sticking with something- as a reader OR creator, and not giving up on it and throwing in the towel despite delays, hiatuses and whatever is just as admirable, if not more so in some cases, as grinding out something on time every time.

I speak in a completely self involved, 100% biased non-neutral manner here. :)

To be honest I've never gotten upset when a webcomic I read has failed to update on time. I guess when you're an old man like I am :) you realize that sometimes other priorities have to come first sometimes.

If I was still in my teens or early 20's I could've probably cranked out a page every day or every other day. But now it's a struggle to make it once a week sometimes. Does that make me lazy? I don't think so. I still enjoy doing my comic and have a passion for it, I just realize sometimes other things may end up coming first.

I'd rather someone produced a late page that looks like some effort was put into it, rather than just throw a half assed page up just to make their update schedule.

Stuff comes up, man. Real world stuff.

You wanna call me lazy 'cause I'm really frickin' sick with some chronic shit that ain't goin' away, and can't work on my comic as much as I'd like? Ya wanna call me lazy because I need to pack up my shit and fix up my house and move across the damn country? Ya wanna call me lazy 'cause I'm strugglin' to pay bills and not be homeless? Because I gotta leave town at a drop of the hat and take care of my Grandmother for a few weeks 'cause she just got out of the hospital?

That's cool, man.

And seriously, this stupid comic stuff is more important to me than sleepin', maintaining relationships in real life, gettin' laid, gettin' drunk, and generally doin' what a grown-ass person might consider fun. Which is sayin' alot, and which is really unhealthy, sure. I know that.

But if I'm makin' all those sacrifices and yet am behind on the comic, go ahead and call me lazy. I guess I deserve it. You're obviously ten times as professional as I am. Probably more talented. And I bet you put 20 hours into every page, too, and still manage to update every two days.

I too speak in a completely self involved, 100% biased, non-neutral manner here, on account of bein' really disappointed in myself for havin' to cut back to once-a-week updates. So don't take it personal, K?

Hyena H_ll
Stuff comes up, man. Real world stuff.

You wanna call me lazy 'cause I'm really frickin' sick with some chronic shit that ain't goin' away, and can't work on my comic as much as I'd like? Ya wanna call me lazy because I need to pack up my shit and fix up my house and move across the damn country? Ya wanna call me lazy 'cause I'm strugglin' to pay bills and not be homeless? Because I gotta leave town at a drop of the hat and take care of my Grandmother for a few weeks 'cause she just got out of the hospital?

That's cool, man.

And seriously, this stupid comic stuff is more important to me than sleepin', maintaining relationships in real life, gettin' laid, gettin' drunk, and generally doin' what a grown-ass person might consider fun. Which is sayin' alot, and which is really unhealthy, sure. I know that.

But if I'm makin' all those sacrifices and yet am behind on the comic, go ahead and call me lazy. I guess I deserve it. You're obviously ten times as professional as I am. Probably more talented. And I bet you put 20 hours into every page, too, and still manage to update every two days.

I echo your sentiments.
welcome to my world.
One can suffer for their art...
try suffering for your life.

real life stuff is real life stuff andthat perfectly acceptable...but if someone keeps having such tremendous real life troubles and they cant upload then their comic, then i think then its a time to just acknowledge that fact and stop. at least you're being up front about it.

Then there is just getting tired of your work schedule. You don't update because you're just sick and tired of the comic and need some time off?

Remember for most of us this is not what we do for a living. It is not our whole world. It's a sideline. Maybe some here need some perspective and realize that your comic won't be your livlihood.

Sometimes a thing you've loved to do all your life becomes drudgery. That's what happened when I started building models for sale. The hobby I had loved for 20 years became a job. All the joy vanished.

Also like mentioned some comics take a lot of set-up and preparation so it's considerably harder to keep to a schedule.

Life in general getting in the way has been discussed a lot here and that's important because it does. Yes I would love to spend the eight hours a day that I work, working on my web-comic if I was paid.

Mentioned as well but with less emphasis, is what goes into a page. Color? Inking? Accurate representation of anatomy? Lettering? Interesting and varied page layout? Actual story? Clearly defined backgrounds? There's nothing wrong with deciding to create a simple comic but don't expect a comic with baroque-complexity to produce as fast as the one doing stick figures.

We should all endeavor to be as professional as possible but it's certainly not only about timing. I made myself update once a week for a while and the art/story turned to crap. It was unprofessional. Someone could bring me a pizza in 10 minutes every time I ordered as well but if something else out there tastes better I'd rather wait 30-50ish, even 60.

NickGuy
real life stuff is real life stuff and that perfectly acceptable...but if someone keeps having such tremendous real life troubles and they cant upload then their comic, then I think then its a time to just acknowledge that fact and stop. at least you're being up front about it.

I don't think that's necessary.
take a break maybe...
but stop, no.
Life does have is complexities but many of us aspire to balance that with the things we love.
Making a comic is one of those loves.

parkbenchbook
Mentioned as well but with less emphasis, is what goes into a page. Color? Inking? Accurate representation of anatomy? Lettering? Interesting and varied page layout? Actual story? Clearly defined backgrounds?

Someone could bring me a pizza in 10 minutes every time I ordered as well but if something else out there tastes better I'd rather wait 30-50ish, even 60.

Totally! A lot of the printed comics out there are done by teams. Writer, penciller, inker, colorist, and letterer are five different people, and they don't have day jobs because this is their day job. So you can expect to get your X-Men on time every month, but webcomics artists are doing everything themselves (on top of maintaining a website) and most of us have to have day jobs to pay the bills.

When I was in high school, with no job and minimal homework, I updated all the frickin time. I'd do five pages a day, post them with regularity.

Then I went to college, had lots of classes and two jobs. My steady schedule quickly fell apart. It wasn't until I started making some money from the webcomics that I could quit one of my jobs, I got done with college, and could start updating regularly again.

I still miss updates, too. I'm not going to miss out on going on vacation because I need to be at home, making new pages. I try to have a buffer, but it doesn't always work out.

It's not that I don't make sacrifices, but a lot of webcomics readers demand TOO MUCH.

How dare you try to get a full 8 hours of sleep! You must sacrifice your health and your firstborn for the sake of me getting 30 seconds of entertainment from you 3 days a week! If your hands aren't bleeding, you're not drawing hard enough!

Any job needs some downtime.

Well when Im late with a comic I explain myself in the newest upload just so people know the scoop.

And it's usually because of paying freelance work getting in the way. As much as I'd love to please my fans (if any! lol) I have bills to pay. Just a sad fact of life I'm afraid.

TheMidge28

NickGuy
real life stuff is real life stuff and that perfectly acceptable...but if someone keeps having such tremendous real life troubles and they cant upload then their comic, then I think then its a time to just acknowledge that fact and stop. at least you're being up front about it.

I don't think that's necessary.
take a break maybe...
but stop, no.
Life does have is complexities but many of us aspire to balance that with the things we love.
Making a comic is one of those loves.

I agree. What sort of loser just gives up on something they love just because of missing updates?
Missing updates is less than nothing in the scheme of things, especially if you look back on a massive body of quality work, realise you're STILL going despite anything that's happened to you since and be proud!

I mean, it's so bloody obvious when you stop to think about- if all the creations, projects, theories, stories, movies etc were given up on because someone couldn't stick to a silly schedule, we'd have nothing.
Sure updates and schedules are a bit of a factor with webcomics, but it's more of a factor if the work you produce is the type no one would care about it at all if it wasn't updated on time...
If you're putting more into it than that then it's something people can appreciate ANY time, even if it's never ON time.

Like MIchelangelo and the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel?

"When will you make an end?!"
"When I'm finished."

Doing something you love means doing it right, not doing it on time. However for me I have to sit back and get perspective because of it just getting to me. But my love always calls me back.

"A work of art is not so much finished as abandoned" (and then posted on your favorite art site :)

When time between updates drag out, I'd like to think of it this way:

Any comic you make is going to exist for eternity (well, sort of... for a long time anyway). Years from now, no one is going to care if you updated on time or not, provided that you updated at all. I think they will notice, though, if parts of the comic is rushed. A good end product is what matters to me.

Lots of things can get in the way... I think the advantage of working on things that have an ending is that you can plan things out a little better. Like for example right now I'm drawing something that's few hundred pages long and I'm not going to post a single page (maybe as a preview of sorts) until the whole thing is all drawn, lettered, proofread by a friend, typos fixed... and then I'll be posting a page a day. Because while I'm pretty sure I can be way ahead with the drawing (I did 2 pages yesterday and 3 today and I'll be trying to get myself into 4-page workmode and obviously it would be updated a page a day at most), I can't plan for all the problems that might get in the way.

megan_rose
A lot of the printed comics out there are done by teams. Writer, penciller, inker, colorist, and letterer are five different people, and they don't have day jobs because this is their day job. So you can expect to get your X-Men on time every month

I'm not a regular buyer of mainstream print comics (I'm one of those awful wait-for-the-trades people!) but, from what I read on the forums, that's not actually true. Even with the vast armies of writers and artists they have working on their books, many DC and Marvel publications still miss their deadlines and hit the news stands late.

And, if those guys expect a little leeway, I think we struggling amateurs can be forgiven a missed deadline or two!

NickGuy
real life stuff is real life stuff andthat perfectly acceptable...but if someone keeps having such tremendous real life troubles and they cant upload then their comic, then i think then its a time to just acknowledge that fact and stop. at least you're being up front about it.

Worst advice ever, and I encourage no one to do as nickguy says. especially hyena hell, whom that comment seemed to be aimed toward... I will hunger strike (codeword for go on a diet?) if the hub dies.

Wow, man, for someone who's all about professionalism... how professional is it to just *give up*?


I for one was just about never, ever, ever late for my comic Misfit Assassins... and then suddenly I was uber-wiped out, and most importantly, too busy hanging out with my shiny new boyfriend to work on my comic. I just didn't feel like it, especially since a lot of my comic was just me fantasizing about different kinds of idealized potential-boyfriends, and now I had a real-life one. So I took a 'hiatus'-- not really though, I just... didn't update for almost two years. Now I'm back in the groove, and you know what? I don't care if it was unprofessional to stop. Keeping my incredibly hectic update schedule (and being lazy and daydreamy and avoiding doing any work) caused me to get horrible grades, and lose about $3000 worth of financial aid grant money. Just thinking about it gives me chills of guilt.


But I'll be honest, I know that if I put all of my ability into making each page as good as it could be, both my comics would look a whole lot better. A WHOLE LOT better. But seeing as I'm not just doing a painting or a drawing, but a mind-bogglingly endless amount of paintings and drawings, I cut corners sometimes. (meaning I don't find references for hard poses.)

Kristen Gudsnuk

NickGuy
real life stuff is real life stuff andthat perfectly acceptable...but if someone keeps having such tremendous real life troubles and they cant upload then their comic, then i think then its a time to just acknowledge that fact and stop. at least you're being up front about it.

Worst advice ever, and I encourage no one to do as nickguy says. especially hyena hell, whom that comment seemed to be aimed toward... I will hunger strike (codeword for go on a diet?) if the hub dies.

Haha. S'okay. Me and Nickguy have opposing opinions on like, everything. I still got mad respect for the dude and for KFK ; his advice is a valid as anybody else's.

And for the record: I've never missed an update, and won't in the foreseeable future. I just gotta scale back to once a week on account of afore-mentioned IRL hassles and whatnot. ;)

well nonetheless, I still think it's a terribly defeatist attitude to have. I mean, if you have fans who want to see more of your comic, that means you've probably got something of decent-to-good quality to show off anyway. And like someone else said, it's not so much how long it takes to reach the finished product, but how it turns out in the end.

Skullbie
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.

Agreed. I know too well about this. NickGuy mentions keeping momentum with the fanbase... that's true in a sense too.

I am more of a "I do this as a hobby" person. So when I started updating I wanted to update as much as possible as fast as possible. Thinking that updating alone will give me practice. It did, I learned... but fast forward to the end. I still have a LOT of the same inconsistencies with my art as Skullbie mentioned in her quote above.

I hate the story not moving and I hate telling ppl I will do something and then being late. Regardless of the excuses. I've scheduled off work to get more time to put detail in a page so I wouldn't be late. ESPECIALLY if it is for someone else's comic deadline.

My solution? I pressed on till I got to the end of my story. I won't start the new story till next year and devote my time to practicing things like Skullbie mentioned. My art isn't as strong as the heart I put into the comic. Wanting to be professional or not I think it's a good idea to focus on those things.

If I can improve half as much as Skullbie did when she took time off to practice I will be very very happy.