Question for people with multiple comics?

[allenthomas]

How do you manage your time if you upload often for two seperate comics at once. Or if you don't upload to both of them often, how do you do it? I'm asking because I've had the script for my current comic and a couple of others done since last summer. I started Shadosassins already but I'm not sure if I should wait until my story finishes or go ahead and try updating the two comics weekly or bi-weekly. I was curious to see how others are handling it.

[joannekwan]

Ehehehe, a perk of being technically unemployed, I have more time than other people.
Each comic I do updates weekly, always one page for Heavy Horns, and usually two pages for Demon House. I have a schedule of how I do them. I'll do the sketches and line-work for DH on Monday, color on Tuesday, post on Wednesday. For HH, I usually do everything in one day, more often than not on Fridays. Saturdays I might touch up a few things. Then I post that on Sundays.
All the time in between I save for doing commission work or personal illustrations/doodles.
I actually like doing multiple series at a time because alternating between them keeps me from getting bored. Which is another reason the two series are fairly different from each other.

[lanceredding]

Haha... "manage your time" that's the trick, I don't. Working a full time job as well as my full time job with my family, I really struggling finding time to work on my comics. And it shows. I have only one comic that updates regularly (Satu Warriors), and my other one just gets updated whenever I can get around to it (MuMeme). I have to force myself to find time to draw and write scripts. It's just my passion for my stories that keeps me going really. I like the saying that whatever you're passionate about, you'll find the time for it, even if that means you have to sacrifice time doing something else for it. For me, that's usually sleep. I tend to stay up way too late working on comics just so I can get them done before my self-set deadlines.

I say just update when you can. Try to do it as regularly as possible so your readers don't feel like you abandoned the story, but even if you do it bi-weekly, that should be enough.

[infectedbloodcomics]

Personally, I write and draw multiple comics at the same time. Currently, I have another two webcomics in the making (one is fairly advanced, the other one is coming along) and two more at the beginning stages. Still, I don't publish them at the same time. One reason is that I'm afraid I may burn out: I have a full-time job, and I need to sleep, sometimes I am also totally disinclined in publishing multiple comics and risking to miss updating. You never know in life, and it's safest to have just a comic. Another reason is that I want to take my time, savor my comics and really enjoy my readers' feedback. I wouldn't be able to do so if I had multiple comics going on at the same time. It would feel very scattered and even shallow.

Still, if you can keep up with all of this, and my motivations are not yours, good luck and have fun with your many comics

[phoenixrenaissance]

I'm currently attempting to get 3 pages done a week, one for Devour, one for Life Less Ordinary, and one as redo page for LLO. I'm not perfect at this just yet. I didn't get any pages done this past weekend but I was feeling a bit burnt out and needed the break.

But my process has been, ketch panels in the evening after work, color panels in the morning before work, and pencil and finish panels while at work (when time allows(harder this week since we've been so busy)).

It's rough but I'm glad to have started the second project. It ensures I always have something to work on so I don't take long breaks and get sloppy and I think it's improved my speed as well.

[Euphorie]

It does take, actually a lot of devotion to keep updating multiple comics every week. There isn't a lot of time to sit around and dribble, especially if you either go to school or have a fulltime job. I work hard to get four comic pages up each week, its a lot of devotion to continue not just one story, but two.

With one of my stories on my joint account, we finished the whole story before we started posting it. I think if you are strap on time, having one that you are publishing and one that you are making but not posting is a solution.(until you have a good buffer or finished it) That way if you don't have the time to draw the second comic every week, it won't be too detramental.

But don't let me stop you if you feel you are up for the challenge!

[AnnaLandin]

I'm not currently uploading more than one comic on Tapastic, but I do have more than one project going - to keep me from getting bored/burned out on Grassblades. Thus far this year, I've managed one 7-page scifi oneshot, one 30-page silly romance oneshot, and am in the middle of colouring/finishing a 12-page scifi oneshot - on top of the 90-odd pages I've drawn of Grassblades itself.

And the answers to how I manage to do that are:

1.) Discipline. I sit down and work on my projects whenever I have the time. I get up early on the weekends (06.30-07.00) and set myself a list of things to do each day, and then I start crossing things off the list. I work early in the morning, I work late at night, I storyboard on lunchbreaks, etc.

2.) Planning. I storyboard an entire chapter of Grassblades in one go, so that I never have to stare at the next blank page and wonder what it's going to look like. This speeds up the process for that comic, and frees up more time for other things. The same goes for my side-projects; I storyboard the whole thing (if it's a one-shot, which it usually is; I don't know if I'd have the energy to keep two on-going comics at the same time), so that I can work on it whenever, without having to worry about making the big decisions mid-process.

3.) Self-imposed deadlines. This one goes together with the first two points; setting myself deadlines helps keep me on track.

4.) My work-life. I am a freelancing illustrator (hi please give me a job) working from home, which means I have a lot of advantages other people don't. My workplace is literally ten feet from my bed. I can switch between work and comics-making at a moment's notice, using the same equipment. And (unfortunately, in fact) it also means down-time between freelancing projects, in which there is little to do other than work on my comic and worry about money - and out of those two options, I'd rather work on my comic.

[SandraMJ]

I just sorta promise myself that I'll follow a schedule. Then fail to. Cry.

So Coyote Bison updates whenever (supposedly twice a month)

And Prozaic updates whenever and a half (supposedly weekly)

So if you're like me you won't want schedules at all.

[UzukiCheverie]

Right now I'm right in the average middle area of Time Gate: Reapers' scripts, but only on chapter 7 of the drawn pages (hoorah . . .). I'll often draw Time Gate in sporadic bursts, spanning anywhere from 6-12 hour days, which can get me quite a few pages done if I keep my mind to it. Once those pages are buffered for a couple weeks (my buffer is STILL going from like 2 weeks ago lol), then it frees me up a lot more time to work on other projects, some on Tapastic, some not.

Once I'm done of school, I'll have a lot more time for art'ing and Time Gate'ing u w u

[aspiderjonny]

I try to have atleast two pages from both of my comics uploaded each week.

Jonny Comic updates on Tuesdays and Fridays

Valve Comic updates on Mondays and Thursdays.

It usually takes me about 1 1/2 to 2 days to finish a page but on really good days I can finish in one. It's mostly the coloring that takes forever. I've missed personal deadlines a lot recently due to messing around with the layout of my new main website.

Another thing I do is that after I finish a Book for ethier series I put it on a month-or-so hiatus to work up the buffer I definitly lost. Valve Book 2 just started and I have an alright buffer for that, though not as good as I would've hoped. Jonny Book 3 is ending very soon so I'll try to work up that buffer.

[allenthomas]

I think if you are strap on time, having one that you are publishing and one that you are making but not posting is a solution.(until you have a good buffer or finished it) That way if you don't have the time to draw the second comic every week, it won't be too detramental.

That is actually some pretty good advice that I cannot believe I didn't think of sooner. It would also be alot less stressful if I'm not updating the comic at the same time and I'm just letting my buffer build on my new comic.