Is a total revamp worth it?

[KidJake]

Due to budget issues, my wife/artist has decided to switch from traditional artwork to digital; which means that the comic has evolved quite a bit from the way we used to do things. We had the brilliant idea of doing a complete rework of the comic from page one onwards, partially to spruce it up and partially to fix things that we considered glaring errors looking back, but we didn't expect the new way of doing stuff to take so much longer than the old way. She's dropped from putting out a page a day, to one a week and we are RAPIDLY eating up our backlog of pages.

In the board's opinion, is it worth it to take a small hiatus to update old pages (so that you can hopefully attract new readers) or would we be better off just continuing the story with the new style, updating the rest if we ever get a chance?

For reference, here's the first page before and after the update.

[faeriesandents]

In my opinion... No. You're just taking away the time you once used for the new pages to revamp the old, and by the time you'll end up near the 'new' pages, you'll want to revamp those again too because of mistakes you missed back then.
Finishing first, then going back to revamp or move on to something new, is a much better feeling for yourself. It'll turn into a drag to endlessly go over the same thing.
Maybe by then you'll be done with the story as a whole, which is fine! I really suggest finishing a story before going back, or not worry about going back.

You're always going to be better tomorrow than you are now. Keep the past as a memory to see how much better you've gotten.

[sarrowsmith10]

I agree.

Don't get stuck in the re-do loop. It's okay to make small edits (like making the dialogue bigger/easier to read) in your old pages, but don't stop your current uploads and pause the story. Personally if an artist I follows decides to do a reboot, I unsubscribe because I don't want to read the whole thing over again or wait months/years to get back to where they left off.

[byelacey]

if not re-vamping the comic sucks the joy out of the project, then go ahead. it's your project, you can do what you want!

my policy has always been "get it done and more forward" and i look back on old pages and cringe pretty hard, but it doesn't keep me from brushing it off making new ones!

[JRHoch]

I use the double rule; if your original art is a 4 and by revamping it you can make it an 8, go ahead and do it. Of course, if you art is a 1, then doubling doesn't help much, and, to be honest, you probably shouldn't be posting yet.

[KidJake]

The old art doesn't really bother us that much, outside of a couple of touch-ups she wants to do, but we were thinking that just updating my crappy speech bubbles and adding color might make a better first impression on new readers and cause more to stick around.

I just obviously don't want to leave our existing readers hanging in the meantime.

If we could get back to our old pace, I'd love to post two new pages a week and update one old one; but that's overly ambitious at the moment...

I'm considering alternating between a new page and a revamped page up until we catch up, or at least until we finish revamping the first issue. BUT if full-color isn't that big of a deal, I could just let her work in peace on new stuff and do a soft-revamp of the speech and lettering myself.

[Rhonder]

There are several factors to consider but I think the most important are:

How long is your story overall/how far through it are you so far?

If this is a relatively short story, or you're nearing the end (like 1-2 years to completion) I would say probably just power through. You can always go back and fix things afterwards if needbe (such as if you want to go to print, or perhaps make a continuation) but you have a lot more freedom and flexibility when working with a completed project or draft than when you're still in flux and have people awaiting your updates.

how many total pages would the revamp need to cover?

By extension, based on the page(s) that you've already done as a test, how long will the revamp take to do?

The fewer the pages, the more likely I would be to go for it if I felt compelled to do a revamp. If you're fixing up like, 10-15 pages at 1 a week, that's still a sizeable hiatus but not too bad. Get to a good stopping point first (end of chapter or arc) and then go for it. If it's much more than that, it'll likely have a negative impact on your current readers and you'll have to weigh out the risk/reward for the new pages drawing more in.

Just an anecdote from my experience as a reader- there was a series that I was really invested in when I first started out on Tapas that decided to stop suddenly like 5 story arcs and many many updates in and do a full reboot from the beginning. I never ended up getting reinvested post-reboot because it took foreverrrrrrrr to catch back up to where the previous version left off, like over a year iirc. I still check in now and then but I've become kind of distanced and interested in other comics now tbh.

A mini consideration: consider where you stop the revamp and whether or not it will give readers whiplash.

part of the problem with revamping, for example, "chapter 1" to be new like "Chapter 3", and then leaving "ch 2" alone, is like... it's not that weird to see the art of a comic evolve over time and improve, but it is strange seeing it suddenly revert to an older/"less good" version after getting used to one style, and then go back again. Not a huge deal, but something to consider when looking at how many pages you want to revamp.

[KidJake]

Good points everyone.

We've got a little over 70 pages posted so far, so it would take forever to get caught up at our current rate. We'd definitely lose the audience we have and the lack of forward progress would probably kill our enthusiasm overall... We'll put coloring off until she speeds up considerably; but I'll probably redo the black and white pages to have more polished speech in the meantime.

Thanks for the input!

[IndigoShirtProd]

Unless you're rewriting story elements or making major art changes, I think you both are fine as is. Keep going with the story and don't lose that enthusiasm!

For me it's a different story. After some critiques, I felt the need to rework the first chapter. I did a style change, I want to reintroduce the characters. That doesn't seem to be the case for you and your wife so it might be best for you guys to keep chugging along. Keep up the good work!

[BlueWorldComics]

I feel like new readers would be attracted to your new pages first and foremost. Most webcomic art changes over time. Most readers understand this, and even the ones that don't can just start reading from the point the art-style they prefer appears.

If you really want to do it, especially if you're worried about fixing mistakes, you should do it as a SIDE PROJECT. Focus on your new stuff now, and use whatever extra time and energy you have to fix the old stuff. Replace all old pages over a period of time. There's no rush... (or at least there shouldn't be).