For those with comics- How long will it take you...

[VeryCuddlyCornpone]

to tell your whole story? Or, if you do gag-a-day work, how long do you intend on continuing it?

I ask because a friend and I were discussing our comics yesterday and I came to the realization that it will take me a minimum of five years to tell my whole story, and anywhere up to eight. That's doing a hundred updates a year- twice a week, with two weeks off.

Now I might stray from that and take breaks or whatever- don't really want to, but you can never be fully sure. It kinda freaked me out though, because 5-8 years... that's a long time. Putting it in my own perspective, five years ago I was just starting high school, eight years ago I was in sixth grade and didn't even have my braces on yet. That's.... that's a long time, you know?

Anyway, just curious about all y'alls intentions. How long's it gonna take you? Do you have faith that you'll even get all the way to the end?

[SergeXIII]

Red City is moving very slow for two reasons:

1. No exposition. I made this decision to make the story more natural feeling and so that characters wouldn't lose out on development, but it makes the story drag out and seem boring at times (I guess). There is a lot of talking.
2. Grad School. This limits me to one comic a week, but hey, thats an accomplishment for this level of education.

Its irritating man, because I have tons of awesome stuff planned for RC, but its creeping there at a snails pace. BTW, 3 comics away from violence!

So, anyway, average time frame for Red City:

Thumbnail: 1Hour
Since I need to keep consistancies, I give thumbnails about an hour so I don't miss anything. This includes measuring out a page.

Drawing: ~3-4 Hours
This is on account of me still getting used to drawing most of the cast, especially Irving, which sucks because she is who the plot is revolving around right now.

Inking: 2-4 hours
All depends on my pens, if they fight me or play along.

Digital Cleaning: >1-3 hours
Depends on the quality of the scan.

Coloring: 3-5+ hours
We all know how that is.

[Bustertheclown]

I don't work on projects I can't easily abandon.

[Cope]

All I know is that I underestimated how long Atavism would be. My earlier estimates were that it would take me about 2-3 years and maybe 300 pages to see it to completion; the damn thing ended up taking 4 years and 660 pages. For that reason, I'm not wagering a guess for how long I have to go on my current comic.

[VeryCuddlyCornpone]

You know, I haven't timed myself lately in terms of how long it takes me to finish a Loud Era update. The problem is it's so conditional, like it all depends on the level of detail, how many faces, how much dialogue, et cetera is in each update. And obviously the size of the update as well affects how long I need to make.

Altogether it kind of bothers me and freaks me out, both how many hours I will take of my life to tell this story and how many years I'm going to need to keep at it. Also the amount of materials I will go through over the course of it's run. Darn traditional media and its expenses

[Bustertheclown]

Why feel daunted at all? Some people play golf, some people build dollhouses, some people pan for gold. We've all got our hobbies, and they all take up time and cost money. You just happen to draw comics. You begin to treat it like a chore, it's going to start feeling like a chore.

[Terotrous]

Don't think about how long it'll take to finish, that's the only way.

[Spaceprincess]

I love drawing and there are few other things I'd rather do. I never think about the time put in because it's time well spent. as for how long it will run, I plan on doing it as long as I can. doing a comic I feel like Im actually accomplishing something. after working on it for several years I can say hey this is what i've done. its nice looking at the comic folder on my HD and seeing how big its gotten.

[Netpoet]

Heh, TTG's been running now for 5 years. We're about halfway through chapter two now. Admittedly, we update monthly, but still...

To heck with time. :p

[Brockway]

Been like 7 years now. Sorta funny, but I'm really just doing it for me now. I'm quite fond of my characters and story, and keep working on them and their motivations even though I haven't updated in like a year. I already decided when I began chapter 2 (like 3 years ago, gah) that I wouldn't compromise on the strip's art just to get something out on a schedule.

[Tenma]

I've been doing TG for almost 7 years, and I probably would be a lot further along if I hadn't taken so many OMG I HATE ART breaks. It's part storyline and part gag-a-day, and although I have another comic project I'd really like to work on, I'm intent on finishing what I've started first. My thought is that the more practice I get doing this comic, the better my next one will be.

[McDuffies]

When I resume Little White Knight it'll take me less than a year to finish it. I'm something like in 2/3 the story now. It was intended as a tidy one-shot story and storytelling is very condensed, without the kind of narrative detours that most of webcomickers make, and I'm rather satisfied with that.
Kill'er now will take a few years... The script is already written, tho I'll probably keep tidying it up as I go.

If I resumed mcDuffies, it would probably take me several years to just crack all the ideas and plans that I had. That was one of discouraging factors for me, making a comic for years and then realising that you've only begun a bunch of things. Discouraging thing about this kind of estimation is, you get to count how much time you have till you can properly dedicate to another project, and if estimated time is, like, ten years - that just seems too long. To me at least, being that I fall in love with new ideas all the time.

[VeryCuddlyCornpone]

Discouraging thing about this kind of estimation is, you get to count how much time you have till you can properly dedicate to another project, and if estimated time is, like, ten years - that just seems too long. To me at least, being that I fall in love with new ideas all the time.

That's exactly what my problem was. Like, as I'm writing, I keep coming up with all of these other things I'd love to eventually write. Unfortunately I can only reliably write one big thing at a time. It roosts in my daydreams and haunts my all the hours, in a good way though, I'm not complaining about that. It just disappoints me to think that I've got all these stories that may like to be told, and so few score years to finish them all

Oh well. I think I'm going to have to get over it. I want to finish this story quite a bit, and I hope I don't become disenchanted with it, as the end ought to be pretty powerful by the time I get around to it. Bah. Just being a worrywart, I suppose.

[McDuffies]

That's why I wanna concentrate on single stories instead of developing a world or something (not strictly in fantasy sence). If I like characters or a setup enough, I can always write another story with them. Like, Little White Knight is prolly donna end in a way that allows for more story, so that if I ever get an idea how to continue it, I'll can.

[Yeahduff]

Pretty much. Not sure I'll every properly end 8:1, not sure how I ever would. Mostly writing it in episodes these days, and doing short stories on the side. It's an exciting time to be alive.

[Bustertheclown]

Mostly writing it in episodes these days, and doing short stories on the side. It's an exciting time to be alive.

That's a good way to approach it. That way, you can keep up with the constant, but still give yourself the opportunity to do something new once in awhile.

[K-Dawg]

At my current pace somewhere around 2036.

[Ti-Phil]

Well, I've been doing the Volet for 8 years now and I'm about 3/4th throught it.
Evil Overlords... I have no idea how long it will take for Times of the Tignies, but Deception's tail I'd say maybe another year or so.

[MixedMyth]

Nooo idea. Mixed myth took four years for me to finish. and I have to watch it with my hands. But I see Oddewulf going for a number of issues, and RLF going for the forseeable future. Just so long as my hands are healthy and I don't jump shark.

[Bustertheclown]

Your hands?