Do you plan comics with an end in mind?

[eleoza]

I've planned the ending for my comic In fact I have the whole story thought out. With room for possible edits and new inspirations in the middle.

The bad side of having a story all planned out is... you can get really excited about the future parts which haven't been drawn yet and rush a comic to get to those parts just because you want to draw those parts so badly.

[vonblinden22]

I like to think of the world for any stories I concoct to be like a sandbox, a framework of potential for any number of stories to be told in, but like to create each story, whether it's one page, or a hundred, to have a set ending in mind.

[timinabox24]

I have one that will just go on forever, if I can keep it up that long
and the other one will end at some point
I'm not sure when tho because I haven't been working on for a while now

[avalonmao]

Same speaking of which last evening I was just ruminating on my webcomic ending lol #existentialcrisismuch

[PorcheJ]

I actually plan on ending it. A story with a beginning and end is easy to follow. If you don't have an end to the story, then you're going to be in a loophole, trying to figure out where your characters should go and what they should do.

Spoilers if you haven't seen the first trilogy of Star Wars!

It's like Star Wars. That has a beginning to end. From A New Hope to Return of the Jedi.
- Luke Skywalker starts out as a simple farm boy, wanting adventure. He is called to action when his relatives are killed. He then journeys on to save the Princess with his Mentor and new Allies. This leads to him joining the Rebellion against the evil Empire.
- After he destroys the First Death Star, he is called to train with a new Mentor. Then he faces the Ultimate Evil's right hand man, Darth Vader. Turns out, he is Luke's father. O_O
- After escaping Vader, Luke trains once more, and becomes a mature Jedi. He then faces the Ultimate Evil which is the Emperor. But after his father saves him, the Rebellion wins and the Empire is defeated.

It's always good to have an ending, so after your readers been through the journey with your characters, they can be at peace and know that they had a fun ride. Some endings are good, some tragic. But all that matters is that your readers had a great time with the characters and the new world they experienced.

[jeffanime1]

I usually have a vague Idea in my mind.
Sometime it's so exciting I wanna cut straight to the finale.

[RandomEncounterComic]

The best stories have a satisfying ending, no matter how long they may run for! Planning a vague beginning, middle, and end is also a must for character development. I need to know how everyone (and the world) will change and grow over time so planning out an ending is a big part of the creative process.

[navyzerimar]

Yes...
Well I do at least with all the stories I want to tell I always plan an ending: but I am also guessing it depends on the kind of comic it is, like if it has a continuous story with characters and an overarching narrative: but if you only tell short stories and the likes then not necessarily right...?

[apurviance]

"Quitting is easy. I've done it lots of times."

Right now I'm scripting my 3rd ending, aka book number three. I can quit any time I want.

[shaneoid77]

I prefer to work with vague ideas and let the story flow, working within the Superhero genre is good for that, as there's usually lots of stories going on so an official end is rare anyway. Right now I work from synopsis/art/script, so the story is taken along visually first.

[Greg_Dickson]

I've revised my ending about 5 times, but recently, I've come to an ending that I'm so satisfied with and confident in, that I decided to create a short prologue that takes place in the future right before the final confrontation. I now know what my cast will start like and where they will need to be by the ending, so it's a good way for me to keep on track.

[TeamReGrBl]

@skyfish @hushicho

Have you guys ever watched the anime, Bakuman? It's about a kid who wants to be a mangaka and it does a good job depicting the process of becoming one and how they work creating manga as well as working with editors. I really enjoyed seeing all the inner workings behind how the whole mangaka process works; like having an actual studio set up to work with other assistant artists and how manga stories are ranked, as well as how manga gets picked up for anime adaptations, etc. it was cool.

I agree with the importance of being flexible - we have an ending in mind for our comic, but it's more of an overall idea of how things will end, with no specific details, so it still gives freedom for new things to happen till we get there. Plus having an ending in mind helps the story eventually reach that point organically, and not feel like it ended abruptly or 'out-of-left-field'

[cylmill]

Yes! I unconsciously imagine how it ends first than it starts haha....and then I think later of how to fill in the stuff in the middle of it all!

[lilybugged]

lol no
I'm planning a few pages ahead, but I do my comic as more of a side thing so I'm not sure when the ending will be.
I find it more fun that way, because if I decide later that I want to take it in a different direction, I can.
My layout helps with this sort of flexibility, too. Each sorta "chapter" thing just has a name, sort of like a topic, so if I decide I want to start something in a different direction or pertaining to another part of the story, I'll just find a topic name and start a new chapter with it.
Shameless self-promotion: https://tapastic.com/episode/353028

[Tentakustar]

Always. I need to have an ending in mind in order for me to know how my story is going to go. that's just how I do it at least. Having and ending and beginning helps create the middle ground of my stories. pretty much the "on-going" parts. I need the ending and beginning parts so I don't make something that trails off from the elements of the story if that makes sense? it basically just helps me keep things more uniformed.

[Fox_Den7]

I have an ending in mind for my comic but~ that could change who knows!

[punkarsenic]

oh yeah, you gotta know where it ends. you also need to know at least vaguely whats gonna happen in the middle, otherwise thats gonna be... a mess.

comics theoretically could go on and on, especially slice of life comics with decent characters. but hey, look at marvel and dc - they run on and on and on by creating new arcs, constantly. to an extent, it works, but honestly they both have awful continuity and every so often they have to have an apocalypse to keep iron man 20. either way, these comics have arcs that have a planned ending, so i dont think its really possible to write a story with a plot without some kind of ending, even if its lots of small ones.

[Jenny-Toons]

Most definitely. A lot of times, I like to know where my concrete ending is and where my concrete beginning is. And then it's just connect the dots from then on, for me.

I really like to have conclusions to my stories, and I'm not really a big fan of filler arcs that sorta digress from the story (UNLESS they're side stories that add to the story and give information that didn't fit nicely into the main plot).

[OliviaMerteli]

The end is generally the first thing that pop in my mind when I find a new idea.
Next, I just have to find a beginning, a middle and a context

[YangKoete]

So far most of mine that are planned are just slice of life, but I do have one massive story comic planned that I want to draw.