How much time do you spend on your comic?

[crowstories]

I'm starting to rethink my weekly update schedule, since it takes literally all of my free time to complete a strip each week, and the daily neck/headaches are probably not sustainable. My other thought is just trying to do less in each update... but for now I'm just collecting data to get a sense of what's normal.

So, a series of questions:
How many hours a day do you generally spend on your comic?
How many days per week?
How often do you update?
How much content is each update (a standard comic book page, or 1 full plot point, etc.)

[carloswebcomic]

I work on my comic 5 to 6 days a week.
Normally about 4 hours each working week day and around 12-16 hours on Saturday.
Then I have to work on my second comic for 1 or 2 days, about 8 to 12 hours
That leaves me with about 1 hour of free time per week before I rinse and repeat.

I run 2 comics. One weekly and the other bi-weekly.

[Rhonder]

My processes/work schedule for my first comic and the one I'm currently working on are pretty different, so I'll talk about each.

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My first comic was a "page a week" type, where I was drawing and uploading it in the classic comic book page format, which resulted in me posting ~4-6 panels per week most of the time. Sometimes if a page was particularly uneventful or a single, large panel I would then instead bundle it with 1 or 2 other pages for a "longer" update.

It's been a while now, but I'd estimate that I spent ~5-8 hours per page? I started out doing batches of 2-3 pages at a time. I was like you describe where all of my spare time outside of work basically went into the comic: I would pencil as many pages as possible Mon-Wed after work, Ink as much as possible Thurs & Fri after work, and color as much as possible Sat & Sun (while also doing some other things, like hanging out with friends and what not). At my peak I could, as I said above, get about 2-3 pages done this way, often with a few penciled pages already being done that I didn't have time to ink during those days.

Toward the back end of the comic's run my speed improved down towards 4-6 hours per page, but I no longer felt like spending quite so much time working on it. My buffer ran out at some point so I would just do 1 page per week and upload it when finished, and no longer work on it every single day after work. The bulk of the page would get done on the weekend, but I would start the sketch and maybe inking at my leisure mid-week.

---

I'm still preparing my new comic for launch (next month hopefully!) but it's a different format- I'm aiming to do once a month episodes which will be in vertical scroll format and average around 20-30 panels. The overall amount of panels will still be similar to if I were doing a page a week, but I think they read better in 1 big update so I'm doing larger, less frequent updates.

I picked the "once a month" schedule because that's about as long as the episodes have been taking, so I'll have several months of buffer even at that pace. I stream Art for ~4 hours per week (2 stream days at 2 hours each) where I work on the comic most of the time, and then I'll typically work on it a little bit outside of that time as well. 4 hrs x 4 weeks/month = 16 hours + say... 6 additional hours of outside work, I'd say these have been taking about 22 hours to complete? Notably though the time that I work while streaming isn't suuuuper focused or efficient, because a lot of it is spent chatting or getting side-tracked xD I'll often finish a 2hr stream and be like "darn, I only flatted like 3 characters" lmao

For this project I know that uploading only once a month will hurt my discoverability but I'm willing to take that downside for the sake of longer, more complete-feeling episodes I am trying very much to increase my speed though. I would love to be able to someday complete episodes in 2 weeks instead of 4.

[IndigoShirtProd]

I have to work around a school schedule and my motivation to work on it fluctuates from day to day so these number are more of an average rather than being based on a tight schedule.
I try to spend at least 2 to 4 hours a day doing something for my comic, whether that be pages creation or script writing.
I work on it 6-7 days a week. If I'm unmotivated one day, I won't work on it.
I update weekly but I have regular breaks/hiatuses where I'm not putting out new content for weeks at a time.
Two pages per update.

[GGY]

It depends on the month or how I'm doing mentally and physically but on average it takes me a week or two to finish just one comic page so I mainly push 2 comic pages a month.

Lately I've been doing a lot of re-draws though and have gotten faster w/ my new art style. So hopefully when I actually do finish a comic next month I'll have 3-4 done in a month instead of two XD

EDIT**
Most of my panels are 5-8 panels long and in full colour btw. (Sorry I didn't add this earlier...)

[BreakingChalk]

Let's say I use 16 hours (distributed) to make the draft for 32 or so pages.
Then I spent from 4 to 5 full hours on two pages.
Then like 2 hours on corrections and stuff
My new work model is to make updates from 3-6 pages weekly.

So, "worst" case scenario, I spent 18+ hours weekly on my comic.
But it depends on my mood and what I've eaten.

If I made myself some really good breakfast and feel happy, I'm pretty effective and could do less; otherwise, I could spend twice as much time or more.

[rosenw_ltz]

Coming from someone with a simple art style and short episodes:
- 4+ hours/day during breaks, 30 min during school (sometimes I go many days without drawing).
- Updates once a week.
- For each episode, I try to include at least one event (new character, new information, new conflict, etc) even if it's small, as long as the plot is moving forward and the reader learns something new. Mine are anywhere from 6-10 panels.

I knew I wouldn't be able to keep up with drawing every week, so I made a HUGE buffer before publishing my first episode. I had to wait way longer than I wanted but I'm very relieved I did. Good luck and take care of yourself!

[Bokyongyo]

It varies

For the canon episodes probably 2 days of scripting, maybe an additional day of thumb-nailing, then actually sketching on bristol and finally inking. So just that process alone i'd say maybe a week and half of work (if i'm consistent lmao) but in terms of also including digitally editing and cleaning up stuff? That's maybe an additional 2 days depending on the length of the episode.

But for some of the shorts I do that is fairly fast, maybe a 3 day process from concept to finished just due to how quick they are to make and it lacking any in depth planning.

[Utamee]

I do it after 9pm, like more less 3/4 hours/day. but, not everyday drawing. one day only finding reference, one day only make plot for episodes, one day only draft & sketch. one day only coloring. Basically, the time I really drawing is 3 days in a week. My comic is short one too, since its the first time. Anyway, most of the time I just let it flow, Since I still learn everything.

[Arterrex]

I usually go for about four or five hours every day which is typically enough to get one page done for my webcomic. Though, I work slow and get distracted easily so if I had more focus and discipline I could probably get more done. I work on my project everyday in some aspect or another (not always strictly webcomic stuff). Weekends I'll usually draw up quick rough drafts of how I want the pages to look and on the weekdays I'll go over them digitally and make them look presentable. This workflow lets me get out about five pages a week which, usually is a solid chunk of story progress, and is my current update schedule..

[rajillustration]

About 4 hours a week. My comic hasn't gone up yet so I can take my time, (it's long format and full color) but I'm pretty sure I can keep this pace in the future, since I've made about 7 updates so far and timing how long each takes...it takes more or less about 4 hours a week to line, color, and compile it.

[cortezlord96]

How many hours a day do you generally spend on your comic? I write between 2-4 hours a day during script writing sessions. But outside of that I spend 7 hours a day with my team, getting references, answering questions, giving feedback. I have to be available for them 7 days a week.
How many days per week? 5 days a week me and my team dedicate to page production
How often do you update? Weekly
How much content is each update (a standard comic book page, or 1 full plot point, etc.) 3 Comic pages, or 15ish panels worth

I recommend keeping a steady schedule and GET A GOOD BACKLOG. We have 3-6 months of backlog at all times in case something happens.

[crowstories]

I have a backlog of 7 episodes/weeks, and plan on giving myself an extra week or two off every 10 episodes or so, but the weekly schedule still requires me to produce an episode each week if I want to maintain a buffer. The extra week I gave myself after the first 10 ended up being absorbed by making promotional materials and learning better techniques, so I didn't actually get ahead.

[UrMom]

• Between 4-8 hours, depending on how much free time I have that day.
• About 4-6 days a week, depending on complexity.
• Currently only every other week or so due to me putting new pages on the backburner for printing prep.
• I post a single standard comic page, which can range between 1-7 panels a page.

I can say the time I take on pages is nonstandard. I work totally traditional, so it takes longer for me to finish a page than most webcomic creators.

[a.g.meade]

I have two comics, and I find that the process/time for each of them is wildly different.

How many hours a day do you generally spend on your comic?
My Ink comic takes 4 - 6 hours per page. My Marker comic takes 4 - 5 days per episode, usually 2 - 3 hours a day.

How many days per week?
I update my Ink comic twice per week and my Marker comic once every other week.

How often do you update?
Ink - weekly. Marker - biweekly.

How much content is each update (a standard comic book page, or 1 full plot point, etc.)
Ink - 1 standard comic page, usually around 4 - 6 panels. Marker - I'm aiming for natural scene breaks where possible. This seems to be averaging 20 - 30 panels per episode.

[SauLuoi0101]

I spend more than 8 hours to draw my comic 6 days per week and update twice a week. every update is about 15-20 frames

[Mallory]

I've talked about it before, but I have a series of unknown health issues (there's a possible etiology but it's... not confirmed and no doctor seems to be that interested in confirming it, so I've been kind of on my own in regards to sorting it out) that manifest as pain or head problems (brain fog, vertigo, nausea and light sensitivity). That limits my ability to draw or write quite significantly.

How many hours a day do you generally spend on your comic?
2-3 hours on days that I can work on. On REALLY good days it might be 4 hours, but that's rare.

How many days per week?
I work part-time and cannot physically draw on days I work, so, I draw about 3-4 days a week when I'm off. Also I'm trying to be kind to myself, so if I don't feel like working on the comic on a certain day, I let myself have the day off (usually it's because I want to work on some other project, and I'm okay with that).

How often do you update?
1-2 times a month. My ideal is 2x month, but as long as I can get at least 18 pages out a year, I'm ok. My goal is to try and put out 24 pages a year, which would mean I would finish my story in 5-6 years. For now while my health issues are going on, I'm trying to stick to what I can do comfortably without adding any extra stress on myself.

How much content is each update (a standard comic book page, or 1 full plot point, etc.)
Just one standard page, though when I'm editing my script/thumbs I try to make it so that every page is worthwhile.

[crowstories]

I'm definitely not a doctor, and I hope I'm not overstepping, but those things all sound like they could be migraine related. I too have had some weird problems (including all of those) that I didn't realize were migraine things, since they often didn't come with a headache. Medication has made me a lot more functional. Might be something to ask about? Again, sorry if the unsolicited advice isn't welcome... At any rate, I hope you get some answers -- it's rough not knowing what's going on.

[SpavVy]

It depends but most pages take me about 10 hours or more.

[Zino]

i usually work on my comic 5-6 days per week for 2-4 hours per day. Sometimes more, sometimes less, depending how tired im after work. I could update once a week, but im trying to create buffer for future so now i update once every 7-10 days about 4-5 pages at once. I also edit a webtoon version out of my comic and work on another chapter at the same time, so those slow me down a bit lol.