The Circle of KEEN-Life

[Twentyfour]

Okee Dokee.... When I first came back there was a huge onrush of new comics and people plugging themselves, then there was a silence. But we filled that silence with meaningful conversations... about canadians loving mayonaise, and zombie forums, and polls about pretty much EVERYTHING... But I kinda noticed a bit of a jump in the amount of people going on hiatus..... I was just wondering, if you have less than 30 comics, can you really justify needing a week off from doing your comics? I've come across two artists pulling this stunt(I don't think I found em on the boards, these people were random links). And then there's people begging for guest art... I can't say too much against that, I like supplying people with my work. But there's been a lot of people asking for stuff lately. I'm just wondering what other peoples opinions are on this

[ZOMBIE USER 8296]

on the topic of needing time off, that really depends on the person, they may suddenly just not have enough time to do the comic or something along those lines. now, if we're talking about people asking/begging for guest art, I'd have to say that I don't care for that, if you're not going to be around to do your own comic, just tell the people and if they like the comic enough to come back, well there you go. and if people are willing to give you guest art because they like your comic without you asking for it, that's great! but the way I see it, when someone asks/begs for guest art, they're kinda asking someone else to do their 'job' for them, but hey, that's just me

[Dragonsong12]

Well, as for the going on hiatus thingy...that kinda irritates me too, to some extent. I mean, I take a long time to do my comics, it takes a lot of work for one page, so I can understand people taking a little longer than they had thought to get pages done, but just not working on them?! Example: Albaster's comic (an old friend of mine, who I heard about keenspace from), Forgotten Memories, has been up since I joined 3 months ago...he's only on page 2! Sure his art's great, but what good is it?

Ech, now I'm ranting *sigh* sorry, had to vent that one...

As for the gift art thing. Just asking people for gift art is, in my opinion, kind of ridiculous. (ooo, am I a hypocrite or what?) but it just seems like taking the lazy way out. On the other hand, offering something in return is another matter entirely. Art swaps benefit everybody, I think, and I certainly intend to ask people if they're interested once I get past simply introducing the characters in my comic...(you know, once I get to the really fun stuff, so that people can have fun drawing it) I like to try to draw other people's characters, and I like to see what other people can make with mine.

I dunno...that's just my opinion *looks at the post*...my very loooong opinion.

But hey! I counted and I've got more that 30 comics up! Does that mean I get to take a hiatus?
Joking, joking! Don't hurt me! *ducks various punches, and thrown pointy objects* hehehehe
K, that's all from me for now! (yay!)

[MixedMyth]

I do get put of by excessive haiti (plural?), but if there's one thing I've found, it's this: Real Life Happens. Even if you've just started, sometimes real life will ambush you from behind and wrestle you into submission.;} Of course, it seems to be happening quite a lot.

As to fanart...I don't really mind. I would prefer it if people did it creativly rather than 'gimme artwork!' and put some thought into it. I do get annoyed by too much plugging, but I think that I've been guilty of that myself.

[Chris.LAS]

My comic has a *lot* less than thirty comics, but due to a quickly thrown-together site so that what we did have could be shown-off to a few people, Josh and myself figured that we should re-do the site to make it a little more "User Friendly". Things are progress quite well, but due to a hard drive failure (where I lost 1/4 of my drive to bad sectors), things have been impeeded, and are consiquently taking a hell of a lot longer than I originally thought/hoped. I've had a few people email me and tell me that I should get off my ass and get to work (which is good to hear, as it confirms people are still interested in the strip), but I hate not really being able to post anything because what I'm working on can't be posted until it's completely finished.

As for week-long hiatuses, I completely agree with MixedMyth. It doesn't matter if your a MacHall of a Megatokyo, or if your two days out-of-the-box, shit happens, and things get delayed. Art swaps are great, and I really don't see much of a problem with them, so long as that isn't *all* you have up.

*Looks at post and sighs* Time to finish the contact page....^_^i

[Sss]

You'll probably find that with school starting up again for most people haitus's will also become more common. The solution? Build up a back log of comics for just such occasions! I keep a few single gag comics in my backlog that I can use if need be. That way if you need to take a week off you can afford to without disappointing what readers you do have.

[Twentyfour]

Alrighty, just clear what I was intending here. I meant when people take time off to refill there creativity tank. An intentional break from the comic. Life DOES happen, hell I'm 6 or so comics behind because of "life" but I still posted some news and whatnot to let people know I'm still around. There are some Keenspot comics that don't even do that. Uhhh.. Cool Cat Studios for instance.. I think she's quitting now, she hasn't had anything new up for a VERY long time, and... Spooner too, I hear rumours it's dropping off now. Everyone has a reason for being gone sometimes. But when it's because you "need time to work things out" for your comic, and you have yet to introduce all 3 of your main characters.... maybe you shouldn't have started yet! Take a peek around sometime, see how many comics you can find that all there news articles are about reasons they were late for this, or why this was post-poned. I have one in mind that has 6 articles and all but the first are about lateness reports. The first was a "welcome to my comic". I won't post the link, that's mean to point and make fun.

Well, that's enough for now...

[Scrubbo]

Well, when people start out, they have no idea how much time and effort a web comic REALLY takes.

I started at 5 days a week, and found that I could do that. So I jumped to 7 days with colored sundays for a LONG time. (Over a year.) When I got bogged down with life, I dropped to 5 days and now to 3 days (Which I hope won't last as long as I'm afraid it will.)

Cool Cat Studio is indeed dead. Gisele' said she's not doing it any more.

Taking time off from a comic isn't a bad thing, necessarily. But a prolonged break, especially for a newer comic, is definately a sign of somebody who bit off more than they can chew. They'd be better off just backing down their schedule for awhile. Yah, it disappoints the fans, but not as much as not updating does.

*sigh*

[KODAMA]

:d...
I have had my keenspace thing for about 7 months now..
I have about 136 comics so far; 22 of them being filler comics (bwahaha)
Xd ...I have to admit keeping up with comics everyday is kind of hard:
a lot of times I don't even had a clue about what I am going to draw (plot-wise, that is),
and sometimes, out of desperation I'd just scratch something on a piece of bubble gum wrapper,
scan it, edit it a bit and upload it.

But after about 7 months of being chased by the midnight auto update,
I've grown used to drawing comics ahead of time... (just in case ANYTHING happens)
Usually I draw about 1~2 weeks head of time.
One time I was 3 weeks ahead... hehehe.

Oh, and I used to upload everyday.. but I finally decided I can't really keep that up
(Something always happens everyweek >.<;)
Now I upload Mondays, wednesdays and fridays... and maybe a short rant-comic for Sunday.


XD And about gift-art..
How can it possibly be gift-art if you ASKED for it
Gift-art is like rewards. If you deserve it, you will get it.


[looks for lost tablet mouse]

:O Let the upload wars begin. (Gives off war cry)

[Joshnickerson]

It is indeed hard sometimes. Especially if you've been doing this for three years, six days a week, and still have no recognition and a steady drop in hits despite putting out what you believe to be your best work, and even though it doesn't feature violent swearing lesbian anime cyborgs IT'S STILL A GOOD COMIC, DAMN IT!!!
Uh, I'm getting off track here...
But yeah, sometimes it can get hard, so the occasional break once in a while is forgiveable. I usually take about a month off during the summer, posting stuff from my old sketchbooks while I work on some new ideas and build up my backlog. 8)
But it's probably a bad idea to take every other week off. And if you do take time off, be SURE to tell your readers what's up, or they may just decide to forget about you.

[ZOMBIE USER 9264]

This is very true. Sometimes you get discouraged and start thinking. Thinking always leads to problems! That's why I never check my logs anymore. I'm not doing it for the hits, so why check? I do it every-so-often but that's all.

[Ratbert]

Asking for guest art isn't that bad...for example, if it's an anniversary. I'll do it for example if someone is bored and wants to draw something. Guest strips are always nice, not because you don't want to do them, but because you want to see someone else try their hand at your strip. You have to be really popular to get people to do that on their own...

Looking at logs always discourages me too, seeing as I have very few readers. But hey, I'll do it for them.

[McBean]

Earlier this summer I got a job a makor retail video rental store. I worked there for about a month, having my will to live slowly decay amidst the idocy that is the general public. I told them about three weeks in advance that I was going on a week long vacation with my family. The angry lesbian boss lady who for some reason didn't like my 'think for yourself' attitude told me that if I left that they probably wouldn't have my job when I got back. I didn't really care that much so I just went back to pick up my paycheck. The point of that story is that if you take a week off after starting your webcomic, don't expect the angry lesbian boss lady to be very leniant on you.

[Jamie!]

A hiatus? Thats like a pill that helps you make with the funny, right?

[Sidwood]

I've taken about 2 major hiati in my comics' existence: once for finals last school year, and just recently for high school marching band activities. I managed to craft a massive storyline with all the extra time I had. A hiatus refreshes the mind for ideas, as far as I'm concerned. And if people complain... screw them. It's free. When you start paying me to put out comics every single week, that's when I'll sacrifice story quality and my own personal schedule.

[Kisai]

Hmm what step was this in the "newbie webcomic agenda" ...

1. get webspace
2. pump out a lot of comics
3. run out of ideas
4. beg for guest art
5. pull lazy-artist jokes
6. go on hiatus with promise of coming back
7. forget to come back

^^

[Twentyfour]

1. Register for comic
2. never use account

Anyone ever look at the list.. I think it says how many comics that have NO comics at all.. it's really sad

[ZOMBIE USER 9264]

Hey mine is listed as 'no comic detected' cause i update manually!