When to stop

[Dr Legostar]

I already know how my comic will end, so when it comes to the point that it's no longer fun or I've run out of silly stories and bad jokes to tell I'll just kick in the final storyline and bring things to a close. Lots to do before then though, years and years of jokes.

Also

Never give up! Never surrender! </commander taggert>

By Grapthar's Hammer, you shall be avenged! </doctor lazarus>

[JohnLynch]

I don't want to think about any other comic project

I don't know how you stop yourself. I'm constantly thinking up new ideas. On last count I have about 10 ideas that I think could do well other then my current webcomic.

I'm planning on taking advantage of school holidays to do short stories set in the universe. It's not telling the main story I want to, but it's working in the universe which is the next best thing.

That said, at the moment I've probably had the longest break from actively working on it than I have since I first started fiddling a year or so ago. I know what the next story's going to be, I just haven't had the urge to sit down and work it all out and draw it all up. I've got about a week and a half of strips still waiting, so I'm slowly getting my head back into gear to work on it again.

As for when to stop, well I did go on a hiatus (school got in the way), while it's good to stop at a particular point in the story, you have to get your priorities straight. If real life rears it's head, you might have to stop mid-story.

[TheSuburbanLetdown]

Never give up! Never surrender! </commander taggert>

By Grapthar's Hammer, you shall be avenged! </doctor lazarus>

I can do a disturbingly good impression of a Thermian.

[Dutch!]

I don't know how you stop yourself. I'm constantly thinking up new ideas. On last count I have about 10 ideas that I think could do well other then my current webcomic.

I enjoy the company of kids. I enjoy the company of the characters in my strip. I can't think of any other topic I'd want to spend my time working on for a free time hobby. And besides, I've got other things to think about outside of webcomics to share my time with. One comic is more than enough. I want this one to run as long as well as it can. It's not going to do that if I'm working on other ideas at the same time.

[Fadri]

I planned the end of my comic's story and a good amount of "critical points" of the story, even before I started it.
So, reaching those points is a good incentive to finish the whole story (besides of the "complete loser" bonus).

On the other hand, I have some ideas for more comics. In a near future, when I lose my last vestige of sanity, I'll try to start a secondary comic without stopping my current one.

Indeed, I'll do it!

Du du da da duuuu... <---- (Sanity vanishes...)

[Bwerith]

I originally intended for ISOHE to be a self-contained little story, perhaps one or two thousand strips long. ("Little story"? Aheh.) But then I got all kinds of ideas for how to continue it. So the planned end-point got pushed much farther into the future. It still had a definite end-point though.

Then I got ideas for sequels.

If I can overcome my inherent laziness and actually get some drawing done, it seems like I'll be doing this story forever and ever.

Of course I have separate, completely unrelated ideas. One of these days I'll probably get around to drawing them. I might not put them on the web at all, maybe try to sell them as minicomics, at Canzine for example.

[Darzoni]

It is doubtful that Errant Venture will ever end. By my estimates, I have over two years of material gleaned from my excellent players from three hour once-a-week sessions over seven or so months. And that's just one story in that universe.

The first two story comics only covered the first half hour of the first session. So let's do some math... If each comic covers approximately 15 mintues of gametime, then a single session would take 12 weeks. With four weeks a month, that's 28 sessions. 28 sessions times 12 comics per session means 336 comics. Or about six and a half years at my present update rate.

[Noise Monkey]

I suddenly feel a lot better about how long it takes me to finish a story.

[Blackaby]

Actually, considering the format of my comic - short stories with similar characters - it could continue indefinitely without ever getting boring.

No seriously guys, stop laughing.

[Noise Monkey]

isn't laughing the point?

[Blackaby]

isn't laughing the point?

I have no smart-arse answer to this, but should I have had one, I can assure you it would have been cutting, succinct, and yet simultaneously self-mocking and friendly, with just a hint of lemon.

[McDuffies]

How about kicking him in the nuts? The pain is cutting, the intimacy of the contact is friendly, and he makes face like he just ate the lemon.

[Noise Monkey]

I'll be waiting...dressed as a large orange cat.

[Bustertheclown]

I guess that's why I came into Two Dollar Matinee with a vignette oriented mindset. Since it's not based upon one long, ongoing storyline, the endings aren't really a problem. I do a few pages of one thing, then move onto another. Certainly didn't hurt me to do a six-month haitus, because the comics on the page were all complete arcs.

I really believe that the greatest stories are situation based, not character based. It's the reason why I don't read superhero books from Marvel or DC. It's the reason why I don't watch soap operas. It's the reason why I don't watch rasslin' either. I write stories with beginnings, middles, and ends. I learned early on in the creation of my site that if I don't have the whole thing planned out, an most of it scripted and drawn, it ain't gonna be published. That way, if I leave, even for years, I can still come back and pick up where I left off.

While future plans are for longer pagecounts for stories, I doubt I'll ever go beyond 20 pages per piece before moving to something else. It mixes it up for me, and keeps it interesting. Not to mention, just because I end one story doesn't mean I can't bring back the same settings or characters in different arcs later on. The title of the comic is Two Dollar Matinee. You wouldn't expect to pay for a matinee and get a soap opera instead of a ninety-minute campy B movie with lots of sequels, right?

[TBAC]

It seems like everyone is pretty gung ho about continuing their stuff. Just wondering how many are still drawing the same strip they started with?

I only draw because I get headaches otherwise. And sometimes even with that. But you don't want to hear about that. But you read it just now so it's too late.

tbac

[Dutch!]

This is still my first and only comic series...that makes one, at least. And the way I see it...I've still got three and a half decades of teaching in front of me...there's gotta be a shitload of stories waiting to be told over that time, eh?

Dunno if I want the kids to still be eleven in 35 years time...but I suppose the Peanuts kids did it...and Ginger Meggs has been ten for over 80 years...maybe I can do the same...

Mind you, after thirty five years of further teaching I'll probably have terminal cycnicism...

[Col]

Mind you, after thirty five years of further teaching I'll probably have terminal cycnicism...

Not necessarily. My mom's taught kids from the ages of 5 to 10 for thirty-five+ years, and though there are times she gets dragged down by bad apples, she still loves it just as much as she did when she first started. I wouldn't be surprised if you'd be the same thirty-five years from now.

[Cope]

But in thirty-five years' time, the bad apples in Dutch's classes will have started bringing jetpacks and pulsar lasers to school...

[LibertyCabbage]

But in thirty-five years' time, the bad apples in Dutch's classes will have started bringing jetpacks and pulsar lasers to school...

Sounds like we won't have to worry about that whole overpopulation thing after all.

[Cope]

Nah, in 2040 the average child will have committed eight-thousand murders by the time they finish primary school.