Do most people finish comics...?

[DokiDokiTsuna]

In my experience, most of the ongoing webcomics I start reading mysteriously drop off at some point. For example, about half of the comics I've subbed to on Smackjeeves are no longer active; some have been out of the game for almost a full year. I understand that doesn't necessarily mean they're dead (I've come back from hiatuses as long as six months), but then, not many artists are as stubborn as I am. ^^;

Also, I don't think I've ever seen any ongoing comic actually end. Like, if I've read the end of a webcomic, it's because it ended before I started it, not because I was there with the artist for the whole ride.

It's kind of encouraging in a dark way, because there's a good chance that your competition will weed itself out. ^^ But it's also kind of scary, like...if it's that difficult to finish a webcomic, what are the odds that I won't be one of the quitters??

But before I go thinking those thoughts, I'd like to know what everyone else's experience is. How many times have you seen a webcomic end?

[skicoak]

In general, the history of comics has been a medium that doesn't do "endings".

Newspaper strips were generally serialized/owned by companies that intended to run them for infinity or cancellation...the comic book industry has generally had the same mindset.

I always figured the companies were the instigators of that philosophy but with webcomics being mainly individually controlled... maybe it's just the medium.

[Moxxi]

That's why I came back to Tapastic after 9 months of inactivity. Couldn't stand leaving my stories unresolved after putting in so much of my passion into each and every one of them. I want to finish at least one in my life.

[baasinsimple]

No, in the realm of Indie comics anyway. Most people think they'll have arcs for characters in the story, have a rude awakening, discovering making comics is hard. upload a page a week, never realistically make progress and drop it within a couple years at best. Only with a handful of subscribers, getting discouraged discovering they'll never make progress and notice that schedules where they can do more in an allotted amount of time which is still the technical amount of time as before where less work is done isn't favorable for readers. Then they'll grow up and think "I have rent to pay" and "fuck, I don't even have time anymore to make progress" then they ditch it. Because no matter how much they work towards uploading more, making more progress and telling a story they've been trying to tell for years, even less people may read because to tell that story they care about with all their heart they ditch parts of art for the sake of the story or their health. They took the leap to tell a story they fucking love and no one gave a shit enough to comment sub or even fucking drop a like here and there. What the fuck would be the point of continuing when people were just casual readers? Some of those quitters put their heart and soul into their comics and no one seems to give a shit anyway, so for their own sake they decided to not give a shit as well.

[ben]

I think that’s something you see a lot in webcomics because there’s so many non-professional people trying to do them who try to jump into big ambitious stories without having finished any smaller works before that. I haven’t really had much of a problem finishing comics since it’s my job now but I’ve also had a lot of practice actually wrapping things up. But I’m also not really interested in making comics that take me like five years to do so that probably helps.

But not only do people do that thing of trying to do big ambitious projects but they often do them without actually knowing what direction they’re going in or how they’re ending it and I’ve found that having a solid ending point in mind that you’re working towards is super important.

[DasIstWunderblyat]

Seconded @baasinsimple

The one who quits mostly the small hobbyist creators that presented with the effort is not worth the result, those people comprise big part of webcomic creators compared to professionals. It can be result of disappointment with low audience, not having enough time, just bored and never meant to finish the comic, or too lazy to continue it; It is totally understandable.

For professionals they are less likely to drop midway even if their audience isn't something massive, it's their way to get money and they must fullfil contract. Bigger community creators might quit if they think their audience base isn't condusive enough (like sending death threat when they wanna take a break because of illness), they're involved in drama (some people who mysteriously disappears quitting because of some drama or scandal, like scamming), being harassed/bullied by haters, and many other reasons (including those what made small creators quit)

Sometimes I think, the creators who quit midway may be actually have died

I have discontinued shits and revamped things many times. I recently discontinued my comic because making comic is really hard and tedious despite I'm more experienced as an artist than a writer.
I have recurring thought of discontinuing my story here because I have fragile self esteem and I suck so hard, I feel people do not like it and I should stop, all after discontinued posting on Wattpad and deviantArt. I hope I can do better on Tapas

[baasinsimple]

Yeah, I was just stating a personal experience that's happened to me and alot of friends. Again we got bills to pay doesn't matter how much we care about a story. Life moves on without us and so do readers. Nothing we can do.

[DasIstWunderblyat]

Yeah!

Of topic, it bugs me when people give advice to creators who struggle with their audience to not quit with the classic: "Don't quit, don't care about the audience numbers, create it for your own self!"

Like if we create for our own selves we won't be making it and publishing it here, because it's all in our head and we already know what's going on also what can you pay with "subscriber number on Tapas"?

It's sad to see a creator quits, but it's indeed their calculation and choice which people must be aware and accepting of

[baasinsimple]

When it comes to readers, it seems like they'll barely engage with the creator, and I don't know if that's better or worse than the "omg you're so goooood" or "if you don't like this don't read it" attitude on Webtoon

[VibrantFox]

i think one thing worth considering is that every case is different.

ive seen a good handful of series actually reach their "ending" and some that were dropped or abandoned as well as ones that follow the ongoing model that newspaper comics or even serialized comics follow.

i think its true that some people will go into a project or idea unprepared and end up not being able to finish this big thing they thought they could. theres also instances where a person just falls out of love with an idea and don't want to work on it.

but in terms of series that ive seen brought to an actual close i believe its because they had an end in mind or at least knew where they wanted things to draw to a close story wise or just sequentially. its because of things like that that give me confidence enough to know a webcomic can be completed but understand that its also about intent. "do i eant this to end and if so when/where/how/why?"

but to answer the question of do most people finish comics probably not; but can they i believe so

[AmysGames]

I'd say from my observations, webcomics usually fall into one of three categories: 1) they run their course and they eventually end, 2) they just keep going for years and years, or 3) they go into indefinite hiatus to never be heard from again.

Definitely a not insignificant amount of them fall into that third category. Most of the comics I follow are in the second. But I can think of several webcomics that did come to a definitive end. Usually short ones—I myself have finished several short comics—but there's a few I can think of that lasted for quite a long time, with the longest I can think of lasting a full 14 years before finally reaching its story conclusion.

I guess what I'm saying here is, there definitely are webcomics that end, but it does require some good planning and a lot of work. Definitely there are a lot of people who go into it without being prepared for it. And short comics are a lot easier to manage.

[Kura]

I mean, I used to work on several comics at once, but as my health got worse I had to stop a few of them or risk losing the ability to draw, which of course upset a lot of my readers for those series but, what can I do about it?

Not sure if I'll finish the ones I'm still working on (I hope I can), that's honestly up for the arthritis to decide so it's out of my hands. Though I do have back up endings for all of them just in case I do have to stop so even if I don't reach my desired ending, they will at least have endings to give readers some kind of closure. (Though I've had some readers comment that they would actually NOT want me to do that when I mentioned it in an Q&A, a good amount of people said they would rather I just stop updating and finish it as a novel or something instead of give the comic a different or rushed ending)

[Rhonder]

I think that’s something you see a lot in webcomics because there’s so many non-professional people trying to do them who try to jump into big ambitious stories without having finished any smaller works before that.

This pretty much summarizes my thoughts on the topic. It's why many people advise to start with at least 1 shorter project so new creators can get a feel for the workload that making a comic actually entails. It's all fun and games until you start going for a few months or year and realize "dang, this is time consuming and hard!" xD That type of experience (as well as seeing how well your style works in comic format, how fast you can draw pages/episodes, etc.) are all things that are useful to know and can help inform your next project.

But yeah a lot of people just skip that step completely, jump into the deep end and many end up drowning, sadly :X

[qwerty]

I don't read all that many webcomics, but I'm pretty sure the only one I ever saw that ended was @monotone_ink 's Catma (hilarious btw, would recommend). At the time I was newer on Tapas and was actually thinking the same thing, "do any of these comics ever actually finish?" When I saw one that actually completed I just sat there in a kind of reverence for a minute.

Also, what Rhonder and Benji said, nods head

[ryoko]

I have quite a few comics in my library that I was reading, but then they just weren't being updated anymore. Off the top of my head, series like "Oops, comic adventure" "Mommy, Me and Komi", "Sun Daze" and "Oren's Forge" are several series that had a huge following, beautiful art and great storylines that simply disappeared. I honestly can't think of one that's ended that I've been reading.

For my own comic, I know exactly how it ends down to the final scene. It's still a long way off and I've been posting it since Oct of 2015 here on Tapas. I think that sometimes, life gets in the way for some creators and they are unable to finish their stories. Or, in the case of some, never had an end plan in place. Gag-a-day comics don't really need to be 'finished' in the traditional sense, so I can see them just ending.

[ben]

I’m sure we’ve talked about this before but there really is just SO MUCH to be said about just having finished a project like that. Seeing a comic through to the end immediately makes it easier to finish the next one.

There’s a book I really like on writing and drawing comics that asks you to start really small and do single page comics, then 5 page comics, then you just keep adding more pages to your next short story and it really does help.

[JBrentonParker]

Well, Detective Conan is going on twenty years strong without having to recourse to spin-offs or increasingly over-the-top villains, so in theory, I suppose a comic could just limp on indefinitely if there's an audience, haha.
It's obviously a professional published manga, but its run is still damn impressive.

I don't write comics, though I do read them, and I know it bums me out to find one that just burnt out halfway through, especially if there is a big mystery, quest, or romance involved. If it's more an episodic series with little overarching plot, it's still sad to see the series peter out, but not quite as frustrating.

I think on a semi-professional (but not financially supporting) scale, a lot of web-comic artists reach a point where real life starts to become more demanding, and they reach a fork in the road: quit their job and do comics full time, or give up on their comic/website/whatever and put their time into their jobs, spouses, and kids. And if they aren't already making decent money off their comic, the choice is made for them.

On a personal level, and as for writing in general... I had a story I posted online that took me ten years to finish. I had 200 subscribers on a fairly small website where that was a robust number, and by the time I finally posted the last chapter, the number of people still reading was... six.
I don't blame the other 200, I was a TERRIBLE updater! I went over a year without updating on at least one occasion, I think twice. Going 4 or 5 months between chapters wasn't uncommon. Actually, it was a miracle it only took me ten years to finish it. I'm amazed I had any readers at all whatsoever by the end (though my updating schedule picked up with the last 50k of the story with a new stricter writing regimine).
Comics, of course, as very different creatures. There's so much more potentially for infinitally fractaling subplots, and the ability to keep a reader engaged for years on end without driving them insane, which you don't have with novels (you're pushing your luck, George R. R. Martin and Clive Barker).

[Rhonder]

Well, Detective Conan is going on twenty years strong without having to recourse to spin-offs or increasingly over-the-top villains, so in theory, I suppose a comic could just limp on indefinitely if there's an audience, haha.It's obviously a professional published manga, but its run is still damn impressive.

Ah yeah, I just watched some of this series for the first time earlier this year (had briefly seen it mentioned here or there back in like middle school (2007ish) and hot dang, I was not expecting a One Piece-esque length series!

This is another point that I forgot to mention in my original reply but is a good one I like to talk about at times:

It's definitely a trap to use serialized manga (and comics for that matter) as a role model when starting out as a newbie/planning your story. Part of the reason those stories can afford to be so long is because they work full time on them, and thus crank out a full chapter a week, more or less. That said, the amount of years it stretches out is crazy in some cases too (Detective Conan, One Piece, etc.) but like at that rapid pace you can tell a long story much quicker without necessarily boring your readers with a snail's pace.

That snail's pace is unfortunately the max most casual webcomics creators are capable of. It seems smart, to me at least, to think about how long it'll take to get through your introduction and through to the important part of the story. A manga that might take 2 or 3 weeks to get through the slow burn introductory chapters that are setting up the epic 100 chapter adventure would take the average webcomic creator... what 1 page a week, a chapter is ~20 pages x 3... 60 weeks, 15 months? Planning out a comic with that slow of a start in this type of format can be potentially disasterous. Not only are you stuck drawing "boring set up" for over a year, but all of your early readers are taking forever to get to the good stuff as well. Whether the solution is starting in the middle of the action or just optimizing the path to get there (or something else) is variable story to story... but it's worth thinking about.

I talk a lot about the shonen inspired comic I started writing in middle school and working on through college. Late 2017 I did a "final reboot" of it, but by the time January rolled around and I had 8 pages drawn, I realized it would take until like... November this year to maybe get to the first fight sequence... in a shonen action story LOL I realized that pacing was dumb and I should try something else, so I dropped it before I got too invested...

[GesuGesu]

Most of the really good artists who draw ones I tend to follow tend to drop off. I don't mind since I assume they probably have better things to do than draw webcomics.

[joannekwan]

I mean, I write all my stories with endings, got a couple that are completed already.

But yeah like others have said, there are lots of reasons why people stop or go on indefinite hiatus. But ultimately, most comics are side-projects for people, so it's not uncommon that they fall by the wayside.

Personally in the 3 and a half years I've been on this site, aside from short series (less than 200 pages) I've seen a few end from the time I started following them.
The longest one that comes to mind is

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