How long did it take to publish your comic?

[Amberday]

i know there's a similar topic posted just recently but that one's focused on planning. so how long did it take from the very first spark of ideas to creating buffers to finally uploading? i'd love to make a long running comic with long episodes but i still don't know what i want and i might get discouraged at some point. if you like to drop tips and advises, thanks! i really appreciate it

[Shanny8]

Write things out, set up your ideas. Make sure the story is going to go where you want it to go and it's constructed the way you want. Make sure you've created visuals of your characters and draw them enough to be used to drawing them about 200 more times throughout the course of your comic.

There really is not "exact time" you're going to be ready to start your comic- only you can determine that. As for buffers- if this is your first comic ever- yeah, be a good number ahead of the actual page you are releasing/posting. Things happen, and at least you will have pages to post should whatever happens affect your workflow.

How long should you make your comic? That is up to you...just dont create some 900 chapter "epic" that you will lose interest in. Keep things moderately short and evaluate yourself every so often to see if you're still interested in continuing the comic that you're working on.

[Chopythes]

Oh gosh.
My first long running comic took me about 2 months to plan and execute.
My buffer took roughly 2 weeks to make and I made about 30 pages in that amount of time (and they didn't look all that good according to my very honest friends xD I had to go back and fix it later).

The second comic I made, a long runner as well, took me about 10-11 years.
Yeah. I had an idea that I tried, tried and tried so many times to execute but I was never quite happy with it.
I think I re-booted that story about 4-5 times, all with different ideas and angles but it still wasn't interesting to me.
I had to stop at 75 pages, and I just couldn't get myself to work on it anymore. It felt so boring and I just didn't feel like this was something I wanted to work on at all.

It wasn't until I made a few key changes and added a few more things to spice it all up that I felt like: OH MAN I CAN'T WAIT UNTIL I CAN GET MYSELF ONTO WORKING ON THIS YESTERDAY.

When that finally kicked in, it took me about 3 months until I started to thumbnail and sketch and finalize the first chapter.

But we all work at different paces, so I might be considered a fast artist? IDK, but I've been told that xD

As @Shanny8 said: Only you can determine whether or not you're ready!

[kip]

Oh man, about two, maybe three weeks for me I’d say?
Took about a day to develop the idea, the day after that I wrote the general script & page-by-page instructions, then over the next two weekends or so (i work a live-in job so i can’t really draw on weekdays) I finished up the first 5 pages as a buffer.
And my comic did relatively well? took me about 9 months to complete (no hiatuses, weekly updates till later in comic where I switched to bi-weekly), 40 pages, 1.8k subs, twice chosen for daily snacks.
Which I mention because: don’t let anyone tell you you’re working too fast, if you’re confident in what you’re doing there’s no reason to hold yourself back.
THAT SAID, the opposite is also true! It’s not a race, working on a story for months or a year or several years is hoenslty completely legitimate, too! different people have different working speeds and processes.

At the end of the day, you should work on it until you’re ready to post it.

*that said I recommend a 10-15% page buffer !

[nekhcore]

I mean if we're counting from the very second the joke was made that spouted the idea for this comic, then it's probably been maybe a year so far and I still haven't published, since most of the year was us just not talking about it or only talking about it half-seriously or joking. Now we're working on worldbuilding, character development and design, scripting, etc, so that when we start we don't burn out after the first chapter because we have no idea what to do. It all depends on how you work but getting a little bit information about your world and working on a script or at least writing a synopsis (a full detailed summary of everything that happens from beginning to end) is going to help you a lot.

I plan on having around twelve to twenty five pages buffer (approximately half or the entirety of the dirst chapter) when I first start since I tend to work a lot on things when I start them until I peter out and working slows down. Think about how fast you work when you think about your buffer.

Ref sheets for your characters or sketch dumps where you practice drawing them in different poses or faces or clothes are great.

There's a great diagram for novel writing that describes the stages you go through and about halfway through you're expected to give up and absolutely HATE your work before getting the spark back. So if you get discouraged, you're right on track!

[ashersz]

My current was within a month or two but my next will be within 1-2 years lol

[dawgofdawgness]

Honestly it took me maybe 5 months to think of a comic but i wasn’t planning for it to have a beginning and end - I’ve only figured out the plot and character arcs around last November and now I have to fix the earlier pages that don’t line up with the story O_O

[storytimebiondi]

I took a little longer than most, I think, because I wanted an exceptionally large buffer. I started writing in June of 2017, and art shortly after. Didn't release a thing until... I wanna say, January of 2018.

[feuersichel]

Heh, a day or two? my comic was made as a joke and I never planed to do more than one page. Now there are over 80 xD
But I have a pretty long way to work and that means a lot of time to change the story and build up the world (well the world itself already existed but not that detailed). And yes, I needed to change the plot alot because I didn't plan it out as I should have maybe.

Well beside of the bad art, this might be a reason why I didn't start off well. Two years I rarely got views but I kept on drawing for the sake of improvement anyways.

I had another story planed for over 8 years and abandoned it after 20 Pages...

[droidmonkey1]

First of all you need to find a way fit for you, to do the comic you want.
My comic is long in the making. I tried once to lunch it but I had only two strip ready.
I left it a side fore a few years. Then I decide to try again, but wait until I'll have at least 30 stories written.
I redesign the character and started uploading not long ago. I wanted to do the comic old style all by hand.
Because of a few reasons I cant do it, so I use copy and paste system.
I copy the outline and colors adapt it and redrew the hands and clothes and ta da!.
It takes about a day but I can do two or even three depends on the story.. .

[TheThoughtfulBoxful]

How long did it take to publish your comic?

[dawgofdawgness]

any day now, boxful.......

[TheThoughtfulBoxful]

Honestly anyone who still cares by the time i finally launch my comic is a SAINT.

[BlackRoses_RedRavens]

My first comic I got the idea for about early-mid last year but it went down before it even got published lol. Still like the idea though so I might pick it up again.

I've had the idea behind one of my comics (Black Roses, Red Ravens. Yes basically the same as my name) for ages seeing as its a slice of life about me lol. I've sketched about three pages but I'm having trouble with my drawing tablet at the moment but I will be posting it as soon.

For Prince of Thieves and Hearts I've had the idea since mid-late last year after watching "Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagliostro" for the first time. It has changed almost completely since then but that was when the first idea came. I started drawing it in December last year i think. I've only got a few pages though and they aren't posted.

so in other words I haven't got anything done in at least 6 months really.

[ilustrariane]

i'm a slow worker, so since the idea, probably years...but for the actual planning, only a few months of sketches, storyboarding, and stuff

the buffer....i started with only a 7 page buffer...i update the comic only once a week. But the small buffer is keeping me motivated to keep drawing, i don't know why

[Rhonder]

I'm only halfway there so far, but it was like 2 months between the conception of the idea and when I started drawing the story boards. In that tune I worked on character designs, writing the story, and doing some environmental studies. Story boarding all of the pages took 2 weeks (65 pages).

And now just last week I've started on the actual pages. I'm wanting to build up a decent sized buffer though, so publishing probably won't happen until late May. When all is said and done it will have been like 4 months between having the idea and starting to upload.

[spooktacularprize]

It depends on what the story is, really. My first comic on here took me aboutttt 4-6 months I think? I didn't plan it completely, but I had enough of an outline that I wanted to jump in. If you don't start before it's "100%" ready, you may never start at all (at least , from my experience).