For how long do you plan your comic/series to run for?

[GrimRose]

If you have an idea for a comic series and have just started or are part way through, how long do you think your comic will run for?

I always think of how amazing it is for a series to run on for several years, the writer planning several arcs and developments to their story. (i love long running series tbh, there is so much story and character development potential.)

Whether you have a whole script planned out or just a few character arcs or chapters. Give your thoughts on the future of your comics.

Ex:
I plan on having 4 major turning points in my story. And several story arcs in between. I know that it's going to be long running, but so far i can't accurately say how many episodes i have planned.

I hope to finish the introduction story arc by at least episode 25.

So these are my goals. What are yours?

[Kann]

My comic's plot is very long, so I plan to go on for several years. There's that one scene I really want to get to, but it's gonna take me one year or so... xD That much plot is the reason I update three times a week, but I'll probably change my schedule if I won't be able to keep up.

There's also a slow burn romance (because I'm a sucker for those) plot, so another important point in the plot would be the moment when the two main characters finally get together. xD

[ghostmaya]

Until my ideas run out XD

[feardeer]

Underworld Engine is a long one... At least 20 chapters and 3 story arcs. but I've been reworking the latter portions of the story, and may be able to consolidate some of that. As much as I love the story and characters to death, I'll only survive this if I can find more time to work on other projects alongside it. Gotta exercise those creative muscles and keep things fresh.

Most story ideas that I form an attachment too are rather grand in scale. I'm trying to build a library of smaller ideas though, so I can work on one shots and shorter runs too.

[AllynCrowe]

Years. I have two books already set out, and it's supposed to be a full fledged series of at least 6 books. So I got quite a ways to go!

[SilentHamster102]

At least for five years. For example, I drawed my current series on paper 2014 - 02.2018 and made roughly a 50% of ideas I already had at that moment. I hope nothing will interrupt me

[jpnakashima]

The way I plan my series, I like to divide them in ''parts'', or seasons, with each of them being, I hope, a good ending point. So I plan for my series to end sooner, but with ways to keep them going if me and my partners feel like it. I like to have this flexibility to try and wrap a series nicely if we get tired of doing it, instead of having to cram it someway.

I planned my Maxiboy series to have 4 seasons maximum, and I have a good idea of what is the story for each. Currently, we're at almost 1 year of publication, with Part 1 probably lasting until the 3 and a half year mark. I already have planned the outline for all strips in Year 2, because I like to plan those things in detail in advance (but not so much) and to have an idea of how long things were going to take.

[shazzbaa]

My guestimation is "at least ten years," based on the average number of pages in each chapter and the number of chapters I have planned.

[Ayumi]

Dreamcatchers is my first comic, which I'm drawing for around 10 years, because I'm so slow. It will have 27 chapters, and I'm drawing now the 21st chapter. I hope I can finish it in 2-3 years.. X.X

Furusato House will be 6 volume (I imagined how would I divide it if it would be printed, but of course it won't be, haha :D), with 32 chapter. I'm coloring the 16th chapter, so half of it is still left. I'm sure I can finish Dreamcatchers someday, but I don't know how long would it take to finish Furusato House. So I just try to draw as much chapter as I can.

And in the future? Well, I can only dream about it right now, but I have so many other story I wanna draw.

[rmdooley]

At the pace I'm going at, probably into the next century.

[PennieWagner]

Well, with my Other Realm series as a whole (with all the inside-series and stories I have left planned to work on in my head), a good....30, 40 years? Just with the Frost Family Series I'm working on now, it'll be 6-7 books. Plus I need to do a series for the Canis, Fae, and Westa families. Then there's the individual stories exploring the "Human Rights Act" brought about by Lady Nisha Frost, as well as the Souls story and the (possible?) series Switched at Death may turn into. Let alone the 7 other stories/series I only have a tiny inkling about and so have no real plans for. Oh! Yes, I almost forgot. I have to keep reminding myself that Slendie (Slender Man) needs his own story as well. Too many readers enjoyed his character not to.
But, yes...Oh my, I have my work cut out for me.
Seeing it all laid out there in plain words really is quite intimidating. But! In a year I finished the 1st drafts of 5 of the Frost Family books, so that's something at least! Now to keep up my efforts getting the 2nd drafts of them worked through and finished.

[aqua03]

For the two long webcomics I'm working on (Edible Green Tea and the WIP DRGN), I have a sort of "dry-run" length of strips/episodes I plan for and when I complete that initial run, I'll see if I want to continue with them. I also write down future plans in advance in case I want to continue past my dry run period.

FOR EXAMPLE: I'm planning on doing at least 100-ish strips of Edible Green Tea for sure, and have a lot of ideas for story arcs and future strips planned out after those first 100-ish if decide I want to continue it.

[spadesart]

im about....16% finished with season 1/the first main arc of spire, there's two planned parts/seasons/arcs, the first one is the longer of the two at about 18 estimated chapters. its probably gonna be a super long term project, at least over 5 more years of work. after that i have a prequel planned for the story that takes place 2000 years before the comic.

[fleohr]

I think it depends, if you say updating it weekly or monthly

My comic has 16 episodes so far, with 30~45 panels per episode, running for about 4~5 months, if everything goes well, it will be running for almost a year!

[SteamTK]

who knows

I'll probably stop when I run out of ideas

[MK_Wizard]

I am aiming for it to be four books long. No more no less.

[Shanny8]

Not entirely sure. I know it's gonna be longer than 5 yrs, but my plan is still a little murky if it'll be between 10 or 15. Right now I'm brainstorming over the ending- one ending could be "that's that" while the other ending could lead to a whole new story altogether.

[vfinnigan]

My September 11 mini will end on September 11. Go figure.

As for Tiger on the Storm, since I've got a lot of pages left to post and I'm only posting weekly, that will go on for another year or so.

Once I get the Real Women of the US Military up and going, I could keep that going indefinitely as long as I keep paying my illustrator.

[vworksart]

Most likely a good couple years. I have a huge story in mind and after drawing the first 3 chapters, I can already tell the scope is a lot bigger than I had planned initially.

[LT1986]

Thank you for making the forum topic. Right now I've been on a pace to finish in ten years. The time might become extended, because my sagas are becoming longer and I spend more time on each page to try to constantly improve my artwork. If I go ahead and fuse another story that I've written with Warrior's Triumph, I could be working on the web comic for about twenty years.