I do 6 months on working on the comic pretty much exclusively building up the buffer and working on filler art for my series and 6 months off working on whatever else I want to make. Illustration sets, paintings, marker drawing, whatever I want.
This is what works for me, as it allows me to make the comic as I do now, without feeling burned out or super stressed trying to continuously make pages every month nonstop till done, that's to muchhhhhh. When I work on my comic I am entranced and loving it. It's going to be rather long and I don't see the point of rushing it, just continuing on a steady pace. I'd rather be consistent with scheduled breaks over frantic and having to stop frequently because things are just to much.
I totally understand when stories I like go on break and always encourage the creators to take as much time as they need. Sure I wanna know what happens next, but if they are just on break, I have no issue watiitng. Even better if they can add at least a general timetable for when they want to start back up :).