Preserving continuity is difficult with any writing project of length - with the weeks, months or more it might take to write a single novel or screenplay, it can be easy to forget things. So the problem is compounded if writing an extended series comic, TV or web series, movies or books.
“Wait - was Janet a painter or a realtor?”
“Did Henry have green eyes, or did he not have eyes at all?”
When I began my series I spent a lot of time building a somewhat involved series of relationships and connections. I knew which characters knew each other before the series started and how some of them met, how connected the several businesses were where the characters worked, and some basics about side characters that would become more important later. I knew some characters were out of the picture at the moment, but would come “back” into the series soon.
After a few years, I've gotten to realize some of these plans, and it's mostly gone well because I had the continuity in mind. Most of the actual stories were not planned ahead at all, but the connections between everybody were pretty well worked out.
As things have gone along, I may have made some continuity blunders here and there, but no big ones are coming to mind.
Having not posted a page in about six months means no new errors have creeped in! Hey, there's a bright side to the hiatus! But that's another story.
One or two of these preplanned side characters are going to be coming into play in the next story, and I was very happy to have planned ahead for the appearance of these folks; it's gonna be fun!
Have you ever made a big continuity blunder in your comic? Did your readers notice?
How do you maintain continuity?
Happy Thursday!
-Banes
Continuity
Banes at 12:00AM, May 24, 2018
6 likes!
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Abt_Nihil at 6:13AM, May 28, 2018
What the heck is that photo!? :D
Gunwallace at 2:45AM, May 25, 2018
When I did a page-a-day comic for four and a half years the continuity was broken every few months. So hard to keep track of things at that pace. But it was a comedy comic, so what the hey!?! I think I even forgot about a character for six months (or 150 or so pages).
AmeliaP at 3:13PM, May 24, 2018
Awesome article, Banes! "Have you ever made a big continuity blunder in your comic? Did your readers notice?"YEAH... as my GN was planned to be only printed, the online pace hurts the continuity somehow. It's frustrating because simple information the readers should access easily in the printed version, it's broken in the online version, creating a lack of continuity, or a impression of it, at least. I'm same as @IronHorseComics , I look at my diagram plot to keep consistency.
Tantz_Aerine at 1:20PM, May 24, 2018
Diomedes' head wound moved from one side of his forehead to the other. I'm not proud of that. But at least everyone else's stuff has basically been consistent. Also readers didn't notice because at the time I updated once in a blue moon.
fallopiancrusader at 6:57AM, May 24, 2018
My stories are simplistic enough that I don't need to worry to much about continuity there. Most of my story arcs fit on one page. I have concept sketches worked out for my major characters, but I still get small details wrong now and then. Architectural structures are pretty consistent, because I have built 3D models for most of those, and I use them as under lays for my drawings. My biggest lack of continuity is in my drawing style . I just like to draw in a lot of different styles, so if I always drew the same way, I would probably get bored eventually.
mks_monsters at 6:51AM, May 24, 2018
Continuity is the number one reason I have bailed out of stories. I saw they got just too long which is why I stick to shorter stories now. No more than four books. Better to keep it short and sweet than long and lost for me.
KimLuster at 6:22AM, May 24, 2018
I try to stay tight with this, and I don't think I've made any major plot continuity errors!! I almost made one a couple years ago but I was able to weave it into the existing plot so no one noticed (I think... :)). But like Ozone I make art continuity errors all the time - sometimes in the same page haha!
usedbooks at 4:01AM, May 24, 2018
I probably have in the past. But with my own hosting, I can tag characters and locations. It makes it easy to reference. I usually pull up a character's tagged pages if they haven't been around in a while.
IronHorseComics at 3:48AM, May 24, 2018
I tend to look back in my scripts to try to avoid continuity flaws, it helps a lot
bravo1102 at 2:45AM, May 24, 2018
All my comics take place in one loooooong continuity and I make notes and changes as necessary. There's a costume flub last page of Sword of Kings because Glorianna's bracer shifts arms in one panel. That's something as natural as it falling off while changing hands and my putting it back on the wrong arm. I pay close attention to see if I can flip a picture so readers can't tell I did. I also did a page mentioning how I changed characters in the continuity and actually went back and reedited scenes to put the cast changes in previous panels.
Ozoneocean at 2:05AM, May 24, 2018
I try and maintain continuity from page to page with my artwork by LOOKING at the previous page's artwork. Unfortunately that doesn't seem to help at all because I have no brain... I can't even keep artwork consistent from one panel to another! http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Pinky_TA/5462133/ which part of their hats are brown and which are red on that page? I don't seem to know... It doesn't help that part of my day job actually involves designing the colours of uniform apparel!!!!