Hiatus: How do you manage your comic "holidays"?

[DeadAccount]

So, a week from now Drugs & Wires is going to wrap up its first chapter and go on a break, estimating 6 weeks or so. Now, we do have plenty of content to put out during that time, like info dumps and articles, concept/behind the scenes art and maybe even comic strips, but what do you guys think of having "extras" in between the episodes? Is it better to make a separate series for it, or just a separate episode within the existing series?
I was trying to think about it from a reader's point of view, but it all kind of depends on the comic I'm reading and how invested I am in its development. I'm a fan of some and just a casual reader for others. Guess I'm trying to make sure I don't annoy half my reader base on Tapastic

[nobody]

First of all - awesome comic! Subscribed!
Secondly - I think what you're talking about is a matter of personal taste. If I'm already following a comic I really like, I'm not going to unsubscribe just because the creator starts posting extras while they're on a "comic holiday". But when I discover new comics (like I just did with yours), I like to be able to read through it without too much clutter interrupting the flow of the story. Extras can be interesting, but I personally prefer to be able to read them separately.

Again, I really think that this is a matter of personal taste, and even if you do decide to put up extras within the existing series you're not going to lose me as a reader

[Silerna]

By simply drawing them on their holidays XD

[SpavVy]

I just went on hiatus and it's going to be a long one, still going to work on the comic a lot but it's on hiatus only for uploading. I don't know how I'm going to keep my readers entertained in the meantime.

[SandraMJ]

I keep forgetting that I have two comics I'm supposed to work on.

...That's how my holidays work.

[allenthomas]

I've only had two "holidays" since I started in January and they were only for a week. (Which I'm not sure if I could pull that off next time) I think a 2 week or so long break would be great with some added concept art or behind the scenes material.

To answer cryoclaire, I wouldn't mind either way if there was an extra in between episodes or if there was a seperate series for it as long as the readers were made aware of that fact. Either way works for me.

[scythe]

Holidays, I remember those.

[Kamikaze]

As long as you're posting content of some kind I don't think you've got much to worry about

What my team and I are doing during our first hiatus (mostly so we can get an actual buffer of pages), is bringing a few other artists we know to do a guest story. It's short, but will feature stuff our viewers won't get to see for a bit. So it'll be exciting for them to see more of the world and the characters we always get asked about.

For other holidays, dude, just some nice splash/pin up (as in just really pretty pictures, not titillating stuff), can do wonders too! Stuff like this:

This one was for the winter holidays

A fathers day post we did with our clean up and character artist and Havana. She talked about how her dad inspired our leads father, Toshi.

This was a new years image we did, and one we use for our thank you posts (oh jeez...I gotta catch up on those!)

I think the development art is a really good idea as well. People love flipping through our dev art book at cons, I'm sure they'll love seeing your early work too!

[AnnaLandin]

I take a week-long break between chapters, because I have the buffer necessary to do so.

As for extras - I tend to post mine on Patreon, or for my Supporters here on Tapastic (speaking of which, my Supporters are due for a sketch-post this week) - and they are therefore separate from my main comic. This means I won't have any extra posts breaking up the flow of the story for new readers who are going through the archives.

As a reader, I don't really mind either way, but I have to say that if I'm catching up on a series, scrolling through a lot of extras (concept art, sketches, etc.: basically anything that isn't strictly a comic) becomes a little tedious. So I recommend either putting them in a separate episode - so that readers who just want the story can skip them while reading through it - or as a separate series.

[gateofselidor]

I never really take a 'holiday' from my comic. I take two week breaks between chapters, which I use to prepare for the next chapter by drawin page layouts and editing the script. Any other breaks are either for health reasons and I draw nothing, which is very stressful, or because I'm so busy that I don't have time to get the next page finished.

As for extras, I don't mind them, but it's definitely not a good idea to let too many pile up in your episodes. I've seen webcomics with so many extras that they outnumber the actual pages, and it's very off-putting. I follow artists on Tumblr and/or Twitter if I want to see lots of extra art. Here on Tapastic, you can always post them to your wall and notify subscribers.

[pixelsnplay]

I'm curious about this too- so I'm glad you posted ^^
@Kamikaze especially (lovely art btw) I wonder did you post those in your comic itself- like a separate episode or on your main page? I wonder because would that count as making an announcement in your comic (which I think is a no-no but I am a Tapastic newbie so not 100% sure about that or anything)?
Again I'm fairly new here, but personally if one of the comics I was following ended a chapter and even just in the comments the creator said that s/he was going to take a small break for XX weeks that would be enough for me. I personally wouldn't expect anything until s/he came back. I would enjoy seeing sketches or behind the scenes stuff but more likely all together in one post or another series for them otherwise every time I got a Tapastic notification that the comic was updated but not really it would be a little disappointing-but not the end of the world ^^'

[ashriott]

I'm currently on a personal break, but it's business as usual updating my comic every week. I've got a bit of buffer which is allowing me to take a long mental break. My comic is still in its early stages, so I'm reluctant to actually go on full hiatus mode and stop updating altogether...

But like some of the above posters mentioned, it's up to personal taste on how you like to treat your fans during hiatus. If someone says they're going on hiatus, I just assume they won't update at all, unless it's on their other platforms like dA/Twitter/Tumblr etc... However, posting things like extras, articles, illustrations etc sounds like a good idea to me! As a reader I would be into seeing stuff like that. Naturally they have to be things of substance for readers to be interested.

[Kamikaze]

That's a really good question @pixelsnplay!
A lot of the landscape images we didn't post in comic, but those that are portrait oriented we did post up on the comic. The landscapes were earlier stuff that we threw up on social media for our fans. They really loved it. We try to keep our comics here on Tapastic to a minimum with the 'extras' but we're slowly beginning to think maybe that's not such a bad idea you know?

[pixelsnplay]

Thanks, and that seems like a good way to get fans of your comic involved in following you on other platforms too. Personally I think I would prefer that- especially now that Tumblr has notifications set up for blogs you don't want to miss updates for.

[Doubtcent]

Maybe you can do what I'll be doing next week. Since I'll be gone, but I don't want to lose any of my schedule, I asked for guest comic opportunities, and got a lot of response. I'll then pre-upload them so I can go and enjoy my "week off". It's not really a week off, but it is a time for me to get away from the city and screens. Maybe I'll find some time for relaxation, but otherwise, I'll be working at keeping youngsters in line.