What do you consider as a short, medium, or long comic series?

ar-ninetysix 2018-07-05 04:11:20 UTC #1

Hey, I'm new to writing comics and new to the forums here too. I'm not sure if it was discussed before, but is there a general consensus on the length of a comic series? If I had to be direct, I wanna know what people consider to be a short story or a long series Like, where do people draw the line to say "oh, there's not enough material to call it a long story" or "it's too long to be called a short story".For example, if I had a series that was only 50 chapters, 10 pages each.. would that be considered medium-length compared to a series of 10 chapters, 50 pages each? Edit: Yes, it's literally the same amount of pages, but the feel of reading those would be different for me if I went chapter by chapter.

What do you guys consider short, medium, or long in terms of counting chapters and pages? That's my main question, I guess. I'm really interested to know what you guys think.

SleepingPoppy 2018-07-05 04:37:44 UTC #2

Comparatively, they'd be considered the same length, as they are the same length! 500 pages is 500 pages, regardless of how they're divided into chapters.

As far as if that length qualifies as short, medium, long, I don't know how one would define those. Generally I just think of it as short comics and long form (or "on going") comics. A short comic is probably more like 10-30 pages. But I don't really have specific lengths in mind. If someone made a 100 page comic and called it short, I wouldn't argue with them.

ar-ninetysix 2018-07-05 04:53:15 UTC #3

I know it's the same length! I was also thinking of including the amount of workload on a schedule into this.. defining the length business, but then I was like "ehhhh, I dunno.. does that really matter though? It's the same either way." On the other hand though, maybe some might argue that it's not the same length just BECAUSE of the amount of chapters.

This goes back into me not really asking HOW you define the length, but more of WHAT do you think the specific lengths would be?

SleepingPoppy 2018-07-05 05:09:09 UTC #4

They could? But I mean, it is literally the same length. It might cause variation in the story to divide it into a different number of chapters, but length wise it hasn't changed. I don't know if you mean to suggest that more chapters = more story? I think that depends on the writer. At the end of the day you have the same number of pages to express the story, regardless of how you divide the chapters. One could have many chapters in which very little happens, and few chapters in which LOTS happens as easily as the opposite. All in 500 pages.

Why don't you tell me what you consider the deference between HOW and WHAT here. XD

ar-ninetysix 2018-07-05 05:31:23 UTC #5

FINE, I gave a poor example lol my bad!

Okokok, uhhhh.. 10 chapters, that's short to me. Is that short to you? 50 chapters hits a medium range, I guess. Anything past 100 chapters is long, in my opinion.

But then it changes somewhat once the amount of pages in a chapter get involved. 10 long chapters instead of 100 short ones would feel somewhat shorter to me, even if they were literally the same length. I don't know how else to explain it, but I can't be the only one that feels that way!

SleepingPoppy 2018-07-05 05:47:59 UTC #6

So here's probably part of the problem. I don't pay any attention to the number of chapters in a comic. They are typically uploaded a page at a time, so I always think of them in pages. I rarely have any knowledge of the total number of chapters, since it's usually an on going story (for me).

I generally don't consider chaptered comics short. Short comics are more of an "issue" to me, which is more like 30 pages. Ten chapters of a comic might be comparable to a novella? So "short" by comparison to many long form comics, but I'd probably qualify it as medium if I had to.

Yeah, I just don't relate to this at all. 90% of the time I'm reading an on going comic a page at a time on a weekly schedule, so I'm fairly immune to chapter length. The pacing of the actual comic is going to have a way bigger affect on whether I feel things are short or long. Largely because chapter length has such variance, I find it a poor way to predict the length of the story. I'm sure there are people that share your feelings, but I'm afraid it's not me! Sorry.

If I HAD to pick something I'd say 10 long chapters would feel longer to me than 100 short ones. But I'm sort of guessing at my own feelings as I literally do not notice this when reading.

I pay more attention to chapters when reading a web novel, as they're more likely to be uploaded by chapter. Currently I'm used to page-a-week format for comics, so thats how I see length. Though I'm sure that will change with the increase in vertical scroll comics.

ar-ninetysix 2018-07-05 06:04:16 UTC #7

Alright, so you mostly read pages as they come out, where I usually binge on finished comics chapter by chapter. See, I'm not a fan of being updated in such tiny doses (yeah, I mean, I could binge those types of comics too, but idk it's not the same), plus I'd prefer reading something already completed. No wonder you couldn't see this the same way I did!

sarrowsmith10 2018-07-05 17:30:12 UTC #8

If we look at standard comics publishing via Marvel or DC, a single serial runs about 30 pages. Typically these serials turn into chapters when combined together to be made into a trade paperback, which typically runs from 75 to 150 pages (although some are much larger). So how ever many serials end up fitting into that.. then some series (like the DC New 52) will have several volumes of trades, so the total could hypothetically be up to 1000 pages for a full story. I think I would consider a run of this length "long form."

Webcomics seem to be a different beast however. I've seen the following terms used:
5-15 pages: "mini comic"
30+ pages: short story
50-100 pages: medium length story
100+ pages: long form

My comic VSEPR has 34 pages, and was printed as a single serial, I feel like both in the printed and webcomic world, most folks would call it a short story.

My comic Goblins of Razard, has 100+ pages at the moment, 7 serials printed, and 1 trade (a second trade will complete the story). It's a little mushy, because online most folks feel it's a long form webcomic, but in the publishing world, only have 2 72-page trades is rather short, so it's probably more of a short/medium length printed comic. Also, I divide up my chapters in sections of 16-20 pages, because our printer requires pages to come in multiples of 4 to avoid blank pages being inserted during print. So my chapters are totally arbitrary on printing, where some webcomics chapter length is totally up to the discretion of the writer.

Interesting question though!

LordVincent 2018-07-05 18:29:16 UTC #9

My definition would probably be as follows:

Mini comic: anything not long enough to be a short story
Short story: Around 180 pages (1 volume)
Medium length: Around 800-1000 pages (5 volumes)
Long story: Around 1800 pages (10 volumes and beyond)

hjfsdh2222 2018-07-05 19:23:34 UTC #10

Short: 1 - 4 chapters
Medium: 4-9 chapters
Long: 9+ chapters