How do you structure your comic? Seasons? Just episodes?

[TedGravesArt]

With Heaven Hunters season 1 coming to a close, I'm posting an intermission with a Q and A and concept art sheets while I spin up the next season, and it got me thinking about my comic's overarching structure. So far I've been making standard size issues (about 20-30 traditional style pages), but thinking about the sections of the comic overall like seasons of a show, with either a big reveal or a climax at the end of each season. I like this structure because it gives me something really spectacular to work towards (season 1's climax was nuts!), rather than pages kind of running together after a while. I know a few other comics I read do something similar. Part of why I do this is to keep myself motivated, cause I know that if I'm chasing a mini goal it'll keep me focused.
How is this different than how you've structured your comic? Do you build your comic around your own work habits like me?

Heaven Hunters | Tapas

Heaven Hunters

[Chaz]

https://tapas.io/series/Apple-and-Grape

I set up each comic as a part of an episode (6 comics per episode). I do one-shots for announcements and special occasions.

[TheLemmaLlama]

I structure my comic in 'arcs', I guess They can have any number of pages or climactic scenes; I guess they're more defined by 'when I've said all I wanted to say about this character's (current) plight', that's when an arc ends and then I introduce another character to focus on, which marks the start of a new arc.

My entire comic doesn't really have a 'beginning, middle and end' because it's like 4 smaller plots strung together that have their own 'beginning, middle and end', so an 'arc' would be one of those 4 'component plots' that you can map a 'beginning, middle and end' onto.

I also find having a structure keeps me motivated, because the end of an arc is far closer than the end of the whole comic and I can just taste it :'D Since each arc has direction, it also keeps my story from 'kind of running together after a while'. But I guess I didn't define this structure in order to help with my work habits; it's more like I discovered my comic naturally falls into this structure when I was trying to figure out what I want to say with my comic and where it's headed

[BLTX]

Mine is just structed episode by episode, with each episode being a major turning point in the story. Resulting in alot of time being skipped over.

[BreakingChalk]

I structured my comic with Tapas episodes(common uploads), then ACTUAL episodes or Chapters as I wrote in their covers (made of 6-8 tapas uploads), and they make for Arcs (around 4 to 8 chapters) and those arcs make for Sagas (with different protagonists, ala jojos)

Although I'm rebooting my comic with a similar structure to the latter, I want to make it feel more homogeneous, but there are still some years before I change from the first to the second protagonist.

[smokesalty]

My story is kind of structured like a novel at the moment, since the plot has a very specific start and end point. My comic builds tension with specific major plot points up to the big climax scene at the end. My story isn't superrr long, so I don't feel the need to split it into seasons

I usually split my pages into scenes and put scenes into chapters. So I usually name my episodes "Chapter X, part Y."

I've planned where volumes start and end because I'd like to print one day. Volumes usually end when something major is established to be continued onto the next volume.

[Stargazer31]

I split my story arcs into chapters, and I split those chapters into 4 parts

Realmwalker | Tapas

[allenT]

My story is structured in acts, like in movies. I probably will have 6 acts (some short some long) I'm not following standardized act structure.

There are several chapters (6~9) within my act. Yet the chapters are formatted in manga standards (15~30 pages) I want it look just like a manga. For Tapas I split chapters into 3~6 episodes for comic updates.

[darthmongoose]

Errant is structured into Chapters and Books. So Prologue plus chapter 1-3 make up "Book 1". Generally a chapter is roughly 30-40 pages (except Chapter 3 which got out of hand lol), and a book tends to be structured to have a setup and then a climax and some sort of resolution that leads forward. I'm hoping for each book to be around 4 chapters and 150-200 pages.

[IndigoShirtProd]

I structure The Black Belt Society by volumes and chapters, with each volume containing an arc. The volumes are numbered and the arc are named. For example, the present volume is Vol. One and the present are is called the Trials Arc (because the characters are goi g theough a bunch of trials). The same conventions will be used for future volumes. Pages for the current volume are around 30, except for the fifth chapter which is 54 pg long. Most episodes are 2 pg in length. The page number per chapter will likely go up for thr next volume. Such fun.

[river121693]

I structure mine by chapters and story arcs. Each arc deals with a specific theme/challenge/character, and contain 1-5 chapters.

[goatbat]

I used to read a lot of screenwriting books and took a screenwriting class, so I structured Real Lies like it was a movie- then, I split that into chapters that I thought made sense. After that I did some editing, I then tried to make sure the chapters felt like they had a bit of "resolution" to them, so it's little bits leading to the same ultimate arc, so little bits of information are revealed about the characters slowly. It's still a bit messy lol, but structuring comic stuff is tricky ¯_(ツ)_/¯

[Geklelo]

I structure it in arcs. (e.g. From chapter 1 to 4 event A takes place), but stuff also happens in different patterns to keep it entertaining and make it feel less episodical (Event A covers chapters 1 to 4, but event A1 and A2 cover chapters 2-3 and 4-5). It livens up the compositions, truly!
https://tapas.io/episode/2404342

[toonben]

Chion and Kobi is made like a TV show. There episodes that made a season. I made two seasons with one more to go. The Tapas episode list are 2 pages each for one episode or chapter like a traditional webcomic or TV show. I plan to redraw it for publishing if it happens. I have 1 season of five episodes published and currently publishing season 2 with the second episode almost done.

After that, I'm done with the episodic TV show like format because it's too much for me and I'd rather make one-off stories in vein of a movie, video game, or novel.

Chion and Kobi | Tapas

[powerplantanimations]

I do "half-a-season" and then I ask Q&A's. Whenever I stop at half-a-seasons, I make sure to reveal something HUGE that will make readers go "... What". Basically something that'll shatter their views on the comic as a whole, leaving them wanting for more.

But when I build my comic I try to make it as short and concise as possible. Each episode is written like its own thing despite being part of something big. I usually take my time to outline the entire story. Whenever I finish an episode, I just... go back and reshape the outline so I won't be like "UH-OH!!!! I'M STUCK!".

I be like water. Go with the flow bebe.

That Stick Figure Isekai | Tapas

[system]

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