What "buffer" do you use?

Birdie · Post by **Birdie** » Tue Aug 03, 2004 8:48 pm

Before I joined Keenspace I drew about 50-60 comics, and I used the first 30 or so and had them pre-uploaded so the entire month of November and December I could see if I could draw comics and work on a schedule that would allow me to update three times a week. In my best moments I have a month's worth of comics in advance (Currently I have at least 3 weeks worth of strips) in my worst I either have a two day buffer or I'm at least able to keep on time. (I've never been more than a few hours late in updating a comic). Of course my comic is cut and paste and I just have to write a few funny jokes a day to keep up with my weekly work.

Tim · Post by **Tim** » Tue Aug 03, 2004 8:53 pm

First I had a nice buffer. Then I procrastinated. Then I reset my comic and once again had a very nice buffer. Then it slowly dwindled away until now, where I'm struggling to maintain a thrice-weekly update. I'd like to have a buffer again, but chances are good I'd waste it again. The End.

Liriel · Post by **Liriel** » Tue Aug 03, 2004 9:02 pm

Buffer?

One page a week, that's all I ask of my tortured body.

~Liriel

Faub · Post by **Faub** » Tue Aug 03, 2004 9:15 pm

At this very moment, my buffer stands at two comics. By friday, that will be cut to one. Of course, I have 5 comics drawn and ready to be scanned and a cover that's coming along nicely.

BERSERKERCREW · Post by **BERSERKERCREW** » Tue Aug 03, 2004 9:35 pm

i update whenever i feel like it. (though it's been itching since i want to get to the end to get to other projects.) how's it easy, no feedback,
it's a world of smooth riding when you don't know whether your comic sucks or not.

Lintjinks · Post by **Lintjinks** » Tue Aug 03, 2004 9:48 pm

I like having a buffer of a month, or about 10 pages. That way I'm far enough ahead to where if something happened I wouldn't miss an update, but it's not so far ahead to where my readers are ridiculously behind what I'm into right now with the story.

Friend · Post by **Friend** » Tue Aug 03, 2004 10:27 pm

I used to have a buffer of about five episodes, back when I have a comic.
But now, I don't have a comic. So buffer is irrelevant.

The real reason for this post is this:
WOW JEFFREY, WE HAVE THE SAME LAST NAME!!
INCREDIBLE.

Esoterik · Post by **Esoterik** » Tue Aug 03, 2004 10:37 pm

SuperSnob wrote:My buffer is only 4-5 comics because they take so long to draw. Eek. But we only update once a week so that gives me a month to draw 4-5 pages.

This is also true for me.

A 50-strip buffer? That's insane. I can see maybe a 10-20 strip buffer, but even that would take a LOT of effort. Not saying that it wouldn't be a good idea, though.

The most I've had in my buffer is about 7, which is 7 weeks.

I think that's plenty of time.

TheBladeRoden2 · Post by **TheBladeRoden2** » Tue Aug 03, 2004 10:49 pm

Buffer? I just embrace the eternal months of inactivity.

JexKerome · Post by **JexKerome** » Tue Aug 03, 2004 10:51 pm

My buffer ranges from nowhere to about a week. Right now it's at nothing.

Since I update MWF, I draw on the update day (next update's page, of course), and process it the next day. That is, for the Wednesday update I draw and ink on monday and scan and process on Tuesday. I only try to creat a buffer when I expect to be busy enough that I won't be able to draw at all for some days.

The method works for me and I see no reason to change it, as I rarely miss an update.

Bekka · Post by **Bekka** » Wed Aug 04, 2004 1:03 am

I have a buffer of only one panel, and I am in a panic. I started drawing the comic last month with my friends in mind as a forgiving public, and I didn't imagine it would become so popular (in relative terms of course, i.e. compared to my expectations). Now I feel that I owe my three-weekly updates in time and it takes me between 6 and 8 hours to complete a panel. GOD GOD WHAT HAVE I DONE!?!

My wildest dream would be to have a buffer of around 5 panels, your suggestion of 50 is totally impossible for me, I am afraid

YarpsDat · Post by **YarpsDat** » Wed Aug 04, 2004 3:36 am

Okay, I'll list various stages.

1. No buffer/1 page. Making 2 comics a week, updating two times a week. Making 2 pages a week usually isn't a problem... but for me it was too slow to keep me interested in improving, and the story was going way to slow.
2. No buffer/1 page. Making 3 comics a week, updating 3 times a week. Surprisingly enough, after a while, drawing 3 comics a week seemed to take less work than drawing 2. o_@. I think all the extra practice simply made me work faster.
And updates were fast enough to give the story a relatively good flow.
3. Some buffer. Making 4 comics a week, updating 3 times a week. Hell yeah!
The updates were fast, I was drawing a lot and learning a lot, and I didn't even have time to forget the last page, so coming up with the next was way easier.
(My shedule was to: pencil 3 pages during weekend, ink two of them, and then during easier days in the week ink the 3rd one, and pencil and ink another one.)
It was a bit weird at first, when the buffer was oscilating between 1-3 comics - I had no idea which page had just updated, and I wasn't sure if I'm one or two pages ahead, and it was slightly messing with my brain.

4.Large buffer. Once the buffer grown to 6 pages/two weeks, things got even cooler.
I finally could write the dialogs ahead, plan the settings, research stuff and get refference materials for weapons, backgrounds, carefully plan action sequences, even ask people for opinions!
And the buffer was still growing.

5.Back to no buffer. Unfortunatelly, a set of unlucky coincidences made me take a 3 weeks break from drawing - just enough to use the whole buffer I had at the time.
I never managed to build it back. I started to fail behind, at first it was just updating a couple of hours late, then I finally had to skip a day or two...
eventually, a similar set of unlucky coincidences made ma take a 2 weeks break from drawing, and apart from 2 or 3 pages I haven't updated after that.

So yeah, buffer is good. I think the numbers you listed are a bit astronomic though. Month/ year??? Draw 30-50 comics???
Sure large buffer could be cool, but two-three weeks are enough. Especially if you don't want to look at your page and go "Eugh, I've really drawn something like that? Damn! I sucked a big time two months ago..."

BTW.

Jeffery McLean wrote: After a week I'm gone.

I think most readers are like this.

Well, I don't think so.
After I stopped updating, my visits kept raising for 2 months, and almost doubled my visits from the time I was updating.

McDuffies · Post by **McDuffies** » Wed Aug 04, 2004 8:38 am

I usually make a month'n'a half buffer, then rest while the buffer thins down, then draw like hell again...

Jim North · Post by **Jim North** » Wed Aug 04, 2004 11:27 am

I started off my comic with about a two to three week buffer in place, but I came to find that having a buffer just makes me extremely lazy. I'd put up a comic and think "Ah, why the heck do I really need to make another strip today? I can do it tomorrow! After all, I've got a buffer!"

It also confused me when writing up newsposts for the comics I made weeks beforehand since the comic I was currently working on was the one freshest on my mind. I actually almost wrote up an entire post talking about the newest comic rather than the one I was just putting up.

So now I have no buffer, and while it does cause problems every once in a while, it's much easier on my peace of mind.

Garasade · Post by **Garasade** » Wed Aug 04, 2004 12:31 pm

I should consider drawing more for buffer purposes. But so far, no buffer exists; the looming deadline each week has been one of few motivations, if not only one, to compell me to just complete the work without poring over what it could've been given more time. I guess I am just used to work under pressure, without which I can really do nothing substantial.

Ti-Phil · Post by **Ti-Phil** » Wed Aug 04, 2004 2:09 pm

A buffer.. well I guess I always have four weeks in advances (so four strips.. it's not much but it takes me a week to do a full coloured page so... niah!)

Grayswandir · Post by **Grayswandir** » Wed Aug 04, 2004 2:20 pm

What I try and do is somehow contact (email, IM, or message boards) the people who read my comic and tell them when my next update will be. So, they don't keep coming back to my site and finding something they've already read.
I do this even when I don't have any buffer. My buffer is ranges from one to three days ahead (I plan out each page many, many times...or maybe I'm just lazy)

Post by **Mercury Hat** » Wed Aug 04, 2004 2:55 pm

Buffer? Hahahahahaha. I should have one, but don't, I don't think I ever have.

I don't know, I like the instant thing of it. Telling people there's a new comic works just fine.

Honestly, I'd love to do regular updates and have even just three buffer pages, but I'm very fickle in my drawing moods and it just, unfortunately, never works out that way.

As long as I get out at least one a week, I'm good.

Vorticus · Post by **Vorticus** » Wed Aug 04, 2004 6:24 pm

Buffer? Currently its stands at a month's worth. 50 comic buffer? I might be able to work up to that eventually, but I don't get enough ideas per day to increase my buffer by more than a comic a day.

Ratbert · Post by **Ratbert** » Wed Aug 04, 2004 6:46 pm

My biggest buffer was one comic. For you see, a lot of my comic is based off the news....or at least it was at one point.

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What "buffer" do you use?

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Re: What "buffer" do you use?