I was wondering which you would prefer - An update a day on a comic everyday, or 30 pages released once a month in one go.

I'd prefer the 30 pages in one go personally

ERasER
I was wondering which you would prefer - An update a day on a comic everyday, or 30 pages released once a month in one go.

I'd prefer the 30 pages in one go personally

Me too.

It's way more beneficial to the author to do it daily, readership gaining, advertisement hits, and comment wise.

Phoenix requiem has a good way of handling this though, it updates 2-3 pages three days a week. She has a huge buffer though.

Honestly i'd prefer 1-2 pages a week of good quality then some bad looking daily pages (not saying people can't do them good, but those people are most often pros who know what they're doing and mastered the basics) Unless it's a strip comic good art will often draw in more fans then daily updates.

I prefer daily, or at least regular updates, for the simple reason that I'd completely forget to check up otherwise.

I prefer one update a day, or maybe every other day, or once a week. Any longer and I honestly tend to forget what's going on or lose interest lol

Depends on the comic, some story comics adjust to the web medium well and can update one page at a time without becoming boring. Other comics just become boring because each page is treated as part of the overall story rather than an individual page. I think if a comic is going to act like a graphic novel it should at least update like one.

Freak Angels has 6 page updates every Friday-- I'm enjoying that schedule more than any others I can think of.

I'd prefer the entire thing printed, bound and sitting in my lap as I read it cover to cover, all pages of it.

30 pages at once is a nice idea... IF you're actually doing something with that. If it's simply a graphic novel of let's say 250 pages and there's no set chapter lenght that you stick to, I guess going that way is kinda pointless. On the other hand if you go for let's say 24 page long chapters and make sure to make each one different in some way, sure, why not, do entire chapters.

Actually I had this crazy idea for a manga-style magazine, few hundred pages quarterly with a bunch of titles ongoing at the same time. But keeping that schedule would be a NIGHTMARE (unless you can hire a bunch of assistants) and if anything happens, you're not abandoing one comic but five or fifteen. Still, working on a bunch of books, as long as you don't work yourself to death, could be good for boredom. One day you're drawing outer space monsters and the next zombies crawling from the crypt (or two guys kissing, whatever you prefer). But I'm derailing myself.

I guess doing a page at a time in steady updates works on the web. And if the story doesn't glue that well in this form? Well, one more reason for the reader to pick up the printed collection OR come by once a month and read the updates. That's how I read most of my webcomics, I let the pages/strips pile up and then dive in for a nice chunk of reading.

Well, I would say that it is generally better to do a daily update because that way people leave comments and ratings and you get a better picture of how readers are liking your stuff. If you have the buffer to do it comfortably, I'd suggest you post daily as long as you can.
However, as a reader, I would actually wait until you have posted 20 or so pages to even begin reading. But that's just me.

One a day. Having something update per month can make it more an afterthought than something I'd remember to look at. At least, online.

One update per day or week (or anything in between). I like to devote a small amount of time each day to looking at comics -- and have something to look forward to regularly. A bunch of updates at once is off-putting because it requires more time and attention in one sitting.

It seems to vary widely. As far as the majority of readers are concerned, though, it seems to me that it has become accepted for webcomics to update one page at a time. In fact, regular readers often have so many webcomics to read every day that it would disrupt their routine to have to read through what is essentially a backlog of 20 or 30 pages.

Warren Ellis's Freak Angels is something of an exception. He has a name to attract people and I suspect a lot of his readers are fans of his print works who don't follow many other webcomics.

Also, contrary to some others here, I don't believe it's essential to make each page in a graphic novel length story capable of standing alone. I used to think that was necessary for the web but, the more comics I follow, the more apparent it becomes that readers are quite capable (and willing) to follow the story in the way it was intended.

As for frequency, I'd say one page a day is the optimum. If that's not possible then two or three pages per week are almost as good. One page a week (which is all I can manage!) is probably the minimum to ensure readers still remember what's going on.

But there are exceptions to everything and many of the most popular comics on the web update far less frequently than this. Here at DD, for example, Purgatory Tower (possibly no longer updating?) and Pinky TA have/had very erratic update schedules but still commanded huge readerships (at least, compared the comics made by the rest of us mere mortals!)

usedbooks
One update per day or week (or anything in between). I like to devote a small amount of time each day to looking at comics -- and have something to look forward to regularly. A bunch of updates at once is off-putting because it requires more time and attention in one sitting.

I see what you mean, But what I've always found off-putting is that you have to wait days at a time to read 1 page. Whereas if it was updated like an Issue to a comic book then you could sit and have a good read.

I'm surprised by how much interest there is in this ^^

usedbooks
One update per day or week (or anything in between). I like to devote a small amount of time each day to looking at comics -- and have something to look forward to regularly. A bunch of updates at once is off-putting because it requires more time and attention in one sitting.

I'm with Usedbooks here. One a week is cool for me usually. I have some comics I read daily with breakfast, but they're all strip comics. For story comics one page a week is lovely. Reminds me of when I was little and there'd be the big one page special comics in the Sunday newspaper. I'd really look forward to those. :)

DAJB
But there are exceptions to everything and many of the most popular comics on the web update far less frequently than this. Here at DD, for example, Purgatory Tower (possibly no longer updating?) and Pinky TA have/had very erratic update schedules but still commanded huge readerships (at least, compared the comics made by the rest of us mere mortals!)

:)
That's because of reader loyalty I'd say...? The people that got into it initially were all lovely, intelligent, patient people and they didn't mind waiting for something like that because they're good people. :)

if you're gunna do 30 pages in one go you should photoshop them all together to make a sort of emense scroll that spans 40,ooo pixles in hight # that way people will know where to start reading each time you update

ozoneocean
I have some comics I read daily with breakfast, but they're all strip comics. For story comics one page a week is lovely. Reminds me of when I was little and there'd be the big one page special comics in the Sunday newspaper. I'd really look forward to those. :)

I was leaning more towards Comic Story than Comic strips (which I have to say I prefer daily) but yeah I agree it does give something to look forward too

Custard Trout
I prefer daily, or at least regular updates, for the simple reason that I'd completely forget to check up otherwise.

Same here.

I'm writing the scripts for and drawing the pages for two of mine up to a certain point, then I'll publish about one or two a week when I'm done to give myself a head start for security in case I can't make an update because of something or other.
Also, it makes it easier to change the SCI-FI stories when scientific advances are made. Like something that happened this week which I can't say.

Hopefully, that should work out okay.

Others, I'm not so sure about. I'm thinking of maybe doing my one-shots all at once or in a few weekly chapters over a few months to a year.

It's why it's taking me so long to get my work up. So I never get in this state again.

I for one am about as erratic as can be for updates because I work 2 jobs, so unfortunately my daytime and weekend nights are taken up, and any free time I do have I try to balance too many hobbies in. :D

Because of that, I can't update as much as I'd like, but I have noticed that I can work through a storyline idea more evenly and get dialog to flow better if I have a few days to work on it.

Unfortunately, I know my readership suffers from it.

So, for me, as long as someone updates, I can live with long times inbetween updates. I just hate filler posts. :D

I've been going back and forth on this. The most I can muster is one full comic page (typical 11x17) every week. And that's the frequency I post here at Drunk Duck.

However lately, I've been thinking that the web is more conducive to smaller, more frequent updates to keep readers interested, create traffic for advertising, etc. So I've been drawing all of my full pages with a panel break across the middle so I can split them in half if I so choose. And as an experiment, I've been posting half pages twice a week on the Endstone website. If I get a big enough buffer perhaps I could expand it to three half-pages a week. That would be my goal.

I'm still not sure if I'll stick with one full page a week, or half pages twice a week.