Let’s face it: we wanna do everything lamoooooooo. But it’s physically impossible. So what about you? How many comics can you run fully on schedules as an independent creator?
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Sep '23last reply
Sep '23- 22
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That answer would be 1. The amount of work you need to invest in a project is way more than most realize. Those that start more than one usually have multiple unfinished projects. There are professionals doing this for decades that can't do it, why put yourself through that. Finish a project and move on to another.
I'm doing a webcomic and a webnovel. I thought I could do another webcomic but HAAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAH. NO. JUST NO (unless a story I want to make gets picked up by this cool artist).
Right now One is manageable, but have been working on pre-production for a smaller spin off comic on the side that recycles assets from the current and has a light plot (based on a side character from the current series). Will launch the 2nd once other things in my life calm down.
I have 4 main ideas, but won't tackle those anytime soon, prefer to finish the current series 1st
Projects I'd like to do on a consistent, forward-moving, scheduled basis:
- My primary comic, Renegade Legends
- Return to/revisit my City of Heroes fan comic, Homecoming
- Produce my Exalted fan comic
- Write a novel, possibly illustrated
- Draw all the PCs, NPCs, weapons, locations, and other fun details from my current Exalted game
- Paint more in the series of wine and food pairings I've been doing for work
7-1000. About a million other small project ideas, ranging from extra content for Renegade Legends, to cosplay ideas, to gardening, to baking experiments, to getting back into my many underused traditional media supplies.
Projects I'm actually doing on a consistent, forward-moving, scheduled basis:
- Weekly pages of my main comic, Renegade Legends
Doing my weekly page is a minimum of 10 hours a week. Anything else creative I want to has to fit around page creation and also all the non-art daily life obligations. Anything else I do make will be done in small bursts as I have the time and resources, and will not be produced on any kind of a schedule. Making a comic is a LOT of work, and I only have the resources to focus on one right now.
I myself have done full-length simultaneous projects by myself and again with assistants (full-length meaning each episode is 50-ish panels, due every week).
I definitely will not be doing it again 
I found out the hard way why artists can only take on one full-length comic series at a time.
It demands waaay too much time and energy, more than you'd expect. Especially if you have contracts, editors, and hard deadlines involved. I wasn't able to do my best in any of the series and not only did my art/writing suffer, but so did my physical and mental health.
That said I AM currently doing two comic series at the same time (one main series, one short spin-off series), but I've staggered my updates and workload to suit my own needs so it's much more enjoyable + less stressful.
For drawing, just one. I want to be able to have time for personal growth/fun art to avoid burnout, so I just draw one comic.
That being said, I’m always writing other projects while I draw, since it’s so much faster. I like to have a couple of projects in the works because I can only focus on writing on one for 1-2 hours a day before my ideas and concentration dries up, but sometimes I want to write more afterwards. I usually have one “serious” writing project while I draw a project, and then one or two other “fun ones” that I don’t have deadlines/commitments to, it’s just something I do when I feel like it, after the commitments are done.
So far, I am managing just one comic but I am planning a second comic based on Sci-Fi and planning to publish it on Early 2025.
I may sound like a robot because right now, while I'm doing pages of my first comic, I am making an extra of info for my upcoming Sci-fi comic; Abbasia, while learning Unreal Engine, and also doing projects on 3D animations with Blender.
I can only focus on one comic/story at a time.
I finished a 16 page comic for a contest and
I was doing nothing else and now I´m writing
the story for a longer comic story and I´m doing
the character designs. It will be a big project and
I will not start any other comics.
But I´m doing a lot of other creative work simultaneously.
I write songs, play in 4 bands, perform, record, mix, produce music.
I do illustration jobs
I have three other stories in my backlog i'd love to start, but echoing the words of an earlier poster any comic is so much of a real undertaking that for now I can only handle one... this is even speaking as someone who has the freedom to take on as much work as they want. Plus i'm a believer in not spreading myself thin I think.
I currently have two long running comics most of time on schedule. I also did a short comic recently and I have this series I update when i feel like it. So yeah, pretty sure two projects on schedule is the most I can handle without losing my mind. xD
About 9. Crazy I know, but not all of them are comics or novel based. My projects will continue to expand until 2029 with a reboot of my first tapas comic series. Right now, I have 8 projects; 1 of those projects ended just last year. So right now I’m juggling 7 series. It’s honestly not so bad. In fact, I’ve gained so many followers due to the fact that I’ve set up so many projects. My aim is to make plenty of stories that anyone can choose to read.
1 atm however I would like to make 2 series at once sometime. Rn I'm making my first webcomic and am working on just consistently uploading tho
On schedules? At most one, but preferably zero XD
There's no upper bound on the number of comics I simply work on (without schedules) though; I tend not too have too many since I'm a lumper who likes to incorporate new ideas into existing projects whenever possible, but if I feel like working on something I'll never stop myself because it's 'working on too many things at once' 
I'll work on one comic at a time. More than that would be overkill... however, I would still work on writing a script for a new story.
If this was my job then probably 3. There would have to be a lot of stylistic variation and only one of them could be a long project. But i think I could manage it. With a job/school? One, maybe two.
3 comics each with 19 panel minimums so i'd be doing 57- 65 panels per week.
Just recently I did a special Episode of Hawk and Flo Adventures presenting the DD Award for most supportive reader. It was nearly 40 panels, This weeks chapter of Thirley peak was 27 panels and This week's Hawk and Flo Adventures chapter will be 19 panels at least.
So this week i'm on track to have done more than 80 panels I started on Saturday, it's now Wednesday. The Awards presentation took a lot of time, i'm happy with how it turned out though i'm a tiny bit behind with Hawk and Flo Adventures right now x'D.
One at a time is the best in my opinion. I always end up coming up with lots of ideas for series, one shots... But one must always be careful not to bite more than you can chew. It's always better to focus on one story and develop it as best as possible than making 3 half-baked stories.
Me, for example, have 3-4 projects for Light novel series (one of them being various trilogies/seasons). However, I focused on writing Haku Chi (the one I'm currently publishing) and translating it in order to publish it in English in the future. I feel very proud for the end product, and I'm 100% sure it would have resulted in a much worse novel if I tried to tackle them all at the same time
