As I write and develop my stories I noticed they get shorter, in a good way. It’s because I’m starting to understand the structure of story and how to cut the ‘fatty’ parts from it (I hope the meat metaphor makes sense lol) The ‘kill your darlings’ aspect was a huge factor in this but not in the way I intended. I got to a point where I was miserably frustrated that I couldn’t work around a character or side plot and it resulted in a total halt in the story. The pain of not being able to continue the story out weighed the pain of cutting the characters/side plots. Also I think another thing that throws me for a loop is my perception of a ‘long’ vs ‘short’ comic. I tend to view one chapter as one webtoon episode. I honsetly think most of my WIPs would be around the same length as Sirens lament or Hooky…more or less (Sirens Lament is 182 chapters and Hooky is 222 chapters) but that is still just a guess. I don’t know where I’m going with this anymore but I thought I’d share anyway.
Chuckling nervously as I go past page 600 of 850 of my current comic. I've kept an Excel sheet of the time I've spent on it. I'm at about 2,800 hours. I sure will have a hell of a buffer when I feel like posting.
I am always a proponent of the longer comic if your the type to be attached to characters. IDK short form to me lacks the deep connection and makes me not want to draw something that can finished and read in an hour.
As a reader, i will choose more pages over better art, any time. On the other hand, as an art snob, i like looking at gorgeous art... Maybe the best idea would be, to draw the comic book pages as fast as possible (with little regard to quality), And then spend more time and care, to make some art pieces. That you can sell prints of, and/or use as filler between chapters/arcs/seasons.
As someome who wants to start writing a long comic series, this was really reassuring to hear and makes me more comfortable going into it. Thank you for that so much.
As someone who's currently on break from working on my main comic, I've already got nearly double the amount of panels done than I had planned, and that was just the opening of the issue
I have the problem that I wrote my comic script like a movie script so I have no concept of how many comic pages that will translate into. I also probably heard the advice of keeping your first comic small too late because I was already too committed to the story and the characters to switch to a smaller project. Although that being said, my script is like 140 pages so that doesn’t sound like horrendously long but idk. I basically decided “Screw it, I’m just gonna make it and it will be however long it needs to be.”
Although I will add that while I don’t have prior comic making experience, I did previously write a novel that took me way too long to finish and then I never published it because I hated it by the end of it. So I learned a lot from that about how to pace myself and keep a long project fun for me.
140 pages is very long for a movie script I’d say. It’s more like a series that span multiple seasons. It’s not a problem if you’ve been visualizing a movie while writing the script. Comics are very close to a movie story board when you think about it.
@@pn4960 Online says the average movie script is 90-120 pages long so it is long but I don’t know if I would say it’s multiple seasons long. Presumably it would be like a 3 hour movie so maybe one season? But thats assuming my script is exactly like a movie script, which upon reading the formatting rules for a movie script I realized it’s probably not like that either. I just assumed it was closer to that than a comic script but I guess I don’t know enough about either to really say. So idk how long it is. Depends on how much info I fit into each panel I guess.
@@pn4960 But I guess my point was that I decided I didn’t care if it was long cuz I didn’t have a really good way of telling that the way I wrote it anyway. If I really wanted to write something short, I would’ve switched to making an intentionally shorter project, but I didn’t. I am too invested in this story to switch to something else.
I've worked on a FEW very short comics (think like 20/30 pages max, like a manga chapter length) And I really want to get into writing longer comics, but I'm scared they'll be tto long for a "middle step" story if that makes sense. I guess there's nothing wrong if they end up longer Im just, a bit scared of not finishing them
In my opinion, getting invested in a series (comics, tv show, etc) only for it to be discontinued and/or out of the blue the artist/writer/team starts a new series is one of the worse things they can do. As a viewer, it feels disrespectful to get someone invested in the story only to leave them lost in the woods so to say. I'd also be less likely to check out the new series out of spite until what i was invested in gets completed. And not even in a "the fans want this specific ending to the series" way. I just want to know the ending. So maybe starting with the ending will help. In other words, always finish the tale.
hello! its been a while! this video is perfect for my current situation. i love your comics and content. you and your channel are inspirational and you should be proud of yourself
I've been trying to just start but the perfectionist in me and self-doubt is getting me heavy rn. So far I'm not shy about background put putting everything together is a challenge.
I'm new to comicmaking, just writing the script and just asking what does "buffer" mean in rebooting a comic? The comic I'm doing is a short one, but I wanna know that info for my magnum opus after that. I was anxious at the thought my comic wouldn't get the engagement I expected and just forced to give it up, but after hearing your take I'm curious to know the porcess of rebooting a comic in case I were in a situation I have to
A buffer means pages that you have made but haven’t released. It’s to give you time to work on the comic while consistent updates go out. If you reboot your comic, you can take all the pages down and they then become your buffer.
How many chapters of a long comic (from someone who is slow at drawing) do you consider an decent amount of chapters to keep publishing while you work on later chapters (coming from someone who does not profit from it)? Like, 1/5 of the comic already being ready? Or less chapters? Or more?
Comic writer listening to this: 😃😃
Comic artist listening to this: ☠☠
i'm ironically listening to this whilst working on my small comic lol
x2
*Cries in comic artist*
*Also me, cackling in comic writer*
As I write and develop my stories I noticed they get shorter, in a good way. It’s because I’m starting to understand the structure of story and how to cut the ‘fatty’ parts from it (I hope the meat metaphor makes sense lol) The ‘kill your darlings’ aspect was a huge factor in this but not in the way I intended. I got to a point where I was miserably frustrated that I couldn’t work around a character or side plot and it resulted in a total halt in the story. The pain of not being able to continue the story out weighed the pain of cutting the characters/side plots.
Also I think another thing that throws me for a loop is my perception of a ‘long’ vs ‘short’ comic. I tend to view one chapter as one webtoon episode. I honsetly think most of my WIPs would be around the same length as Sirens lament or Hooky…more or less (Sirens Lament is 182 chapters and Hooky is 222 chapters) but that is still just a guess. I don’t know where I’m going with this anymore but I thought I’d share anyway.
Chuckling nervously as I go past page 600 of 850 of my current comic.
I've kept an Excel sheet of the time I've spent on it. I'm at about 2,800 hours.
I sure will have a hell of a buffer when I feel like posting.
I am always a proponent of the longer comic if your the type to be attached to characters. IDK short form to me lacks the deep connection and makes me not want to draw something that can finished and read in an hour.
I'm actually doing a "pilot" for my comic for a class right now. it's definitely making me rethink my process because it is taking too long lol
Very true!! Loved this vid!
can we read it somewhere?? if not can you tell on what social youll announce it? :3
As a reader, i will choose more pages over better art, any time. On the other hand, as an art snob, i like looking at gorgeous art... Maybe the best idea would be, to draw the comic book pages as fast as possible (with little regard to quality), And then spend more time and care, to make some art pieces. That you can sell prints of, and/or use as filler between chapters/arcs/seasons.
As someome who wants to start writing a long comic series, this was really reassuring to hear and makes me more comfortable going into it. Thank you for that so much.
800 years on a comic 😭
As someone who's currently on break from working on my main comic, I've already got nearly double the amount of panels done than I had planned, and that was just the opening of the issue
YEAHHHH THIS IS SO REAL
I have the problem that I wrote my comic script like a movie script so I have no concept of how many comic pages that will translate into. I also probably heard the advice of keeping your first comic small too late because I was already too committed to the story and the characters to switch to a smaller project.
Although that being said, my script is like 140 pages so that doesn’t sound like horrendously long but idk. I basically decided “Screw it, I’m just gonna make it and it will be however long it needs to be.”
Although I will add that while I don’t have prior comic making experience, I did previously write a novel that took me way too long to finish and then I never published it because I hated it by the end of it. So I learned a lot from that about how to pace myself and keep a long project fun for me.
140 pages is very long for a movie script I’d say. It’s more like a series that span multiple seasons. It’s not a problem if you’ve been visualizing a movie while writing the script. Comics are very close to a movie story board when you think about it.
@@pn4960 Online says the average movie script is 90-120 pages long so it is long but I don’t know if I would say it’s multiple seasons long. Presumably it would be like a 3 hour movie so maybe one season? But thats assuming my script is exactly like a movie script, which upon reading the formatting rules for a movie script I realized it’s probably not like that either. I just assumed it was closer to that than a comic script but I guess I don’t know enough about either to really say. So idk how long it is. Depends on how much info I fit into each panel I guess.
@@pn4960 But I guess my point was that I decided I didn’t care if it was long cuz I didn’t have a really good way of telling that the way I wrote it anyway. If I really wanted to write something short, I would’ve switched to making an intentionally shorter project, but I didn’t. I am too invested in this story to switch to something else.
huh?! people want to ever finish their comic?! ideally, I'm illustrating and writing mine forever lol. until all my bones break!
I've worked on a FEW very short comics (think like 20/30 pages max, like a manga chapter length) And I really want to get into writing longer comics, but I'm scared they'll be tto long for a "middle step" story if that makes sense. I guess there's nothing wrong if they end up longer Im just, a bit scared of not finishing them
In my opinion, getting invested in a series (comics, tv show, etc) only for it to be discontinued and/or out of the blue the artist/writer/team starts a new series is one of the worse things they can do. As a viewer, it feels disrespectful to get someone invested in the story only to leave them lost in the woods so to say. I'd also be less likely to check out the new series out of spite until what i was invested in gets completed. And not even in a "the fans want this specific ending to the series" way. I just want to know the ending. So maybe starting with the ending will help. In other words, always finish the tale.
hello! its been a while! this video is perfect for my current situation. i love your comics and content. you and your channel are inspirational and you should be proud of yourself
Thanks a lot for this! Still gonna start out with a small comic and grow from it though.
See ya!
ngl I watched your wife's videos a few years back and just thought you transitioned ftm over the pandemic 😭
You can check out our comics over here! :)
tapas.io/bonesmckay/series
I definitely do the webtoon reboot thing whenever my audience disappears after a year of no episodes
Currently working on my 10 chapter comic to prep for my 200 chapter comic 😭
I've been trying to just start but the perfectionist in me and self-doubt is getting me heavy rn. So far I'm not shy about background put putting everything together is a challenge.
I'm new to comicmaking, just writing the script and just asking what does "buffer" mean in rebooting a comic? The comic I'm doing is a short one, but I wanna know that info for my magnum opus after that. I was anxious at the thought my comic wouldn't get the engagement I expected and just forced to give it up, but after hearing your take I'm curious to know the porcess of rebooting a comic in case I were in a situation I have to
A buffer means pages that you have made but haven’t released. It’s to give you time to work on the comic while consistent updates go out.
If you reboot your comic, you can take all the pages down and they then become your buffer.
How many chapters of a long comic (from someone who is slow at drawing) do you consider an decent amount of chapters to keep publishing while you work on later chapters (coming from someone who does not profit from it)? Like, 1/5 of the comic already being ready? Or less chapters? Or more?
the should be more homestuck lenght comics out there
Sorry to be a bother, but can somebody please tell me where I could find a link to their discord. I can't access my old account 😢
❤🔥