The Duck Webcomics

QUACKCAST 412 - Hiatusssss D:

Ozoneocean at 12:00AM, Feb. 5, 2019

tags: Banes, featured comic, featured theme, Gunwallace, Hiatusssss D:, kawaiidaigakusei, Mediocrity Simulator, Ozoneocean, Pitface, podcast, QUACKCAST 412, Space Repair Garage the Comic, Webcomics community

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A huge thank you to the fantastic Amelius, creator of Charby the Vampirate! We mined her great newspost on the topic of the comic hiatus for this Quackcast. When you're reading a comic and it goes on Hiatus it's an awful thing… suddenly all progress stops and you don't know for how long it will be gone for. Some authors are great, they'll reach a point where they can't work anymore for some reason or they'll take a little break, but they will tell you they're going on a hiatus and when their comic will return- and Lo, it comes back exactly when they said it would. Crappy authors will say they're going on a hiatus and never return.

The sad fact is that all webcomics end eventually and most don't have a proper end, they just peter out. Sometimes they return from the dead, but if a comic hasn't updated for 3 years it's generally finished. It's a good courtesy gesture to your readers to give them closure in some way: don't end with an indefinite hiatus, rather you should tell people flat out that you're not doing anymore work on the comic and maybe post a link to any current projects you have instead.

This week our theme from Gunwallace is Mediocrity Simulator: Life in the big city is a slow, dull crawl… the gears of capitalism grind on inevitably regardless, crushing all that falls between their cold, uncaring mechanical teeth. Grow up, go to school, get a job and become a part of the machine. Days stretch to infinity.

Possible topic for next week: Stories that subvert expectations: Good or bad?

Topics and shownotes

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Featured comic:
Space Repair Garage the Comic - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2019/jan/29/featured-comic-space-repair-garage-the-comic/

Links

Amelius's newspost and reader comments - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2019/jan/27/the-dread-hiatus/

Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/banes
kawaiidaigakusei - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/kawaiidaigakusei/
Pitface - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/PIT_FACE/
Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean

Featured music:
Mediocrity Simulator - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Mediocrity_Simulator/, by FunctionCreep, rated A.

Ozoneocean at 5:14PM, Feb. 5, 2019

Again, from the perspective of a reader a hiatus can be daunting. As webcomic creators I don't think many of us really think from a reader perspective. I wonder what else that blinds us to? That's why Amelius's newspost was so good, it was ALL from a reader perspective.

Banes at 1:36PM, Feb. 5, 2019

Hapoppo - that makes a lot of sense! An hour a day is a lot, and will add up HUGE, regardless of how often a page is finished.

Hapoppo at 10:48AM, Feb. 5, 2019

I've learned a lot of weird stuff about myself in these past two podcasts... at this rate I don't think I can live up to the hype of the profile you're building of me :P I've decided to experiment with a different type of schedule starting last week though, basically I'll be drawing an hour a day, no more and no less, and upload when the page is done. So far it's been working out great, it hasn't been smothering my schedule outside of comics and I'm going at it each day in a fresh state of mind.

mks_monsters at 9:26AM, Feb. 5, 2019

I think it's never absolute though in my experience, hiatuses do mark the bitter end of a webcomic's popularity at least with the old crowd. That's why my advice is that it is just as important to plan your comic's end as it is the beginning otherwise you will regret it.

bravo1102 at 9:00AM, Feb. 5, 2019

Regular updates "often" builds and audience, not "always " It's not guaranteed. I faithfully followed update schedules and had the same four regular readers. I've since lost two of them and got two others. But the number remains consistent. And people wonder why I'm so petulant at times. The reader insists, I try, I can't tolerate any more but their needs take precedence over mine? Hiatus means a future promise. It will be back when I'm ready to do it again. That's the choice I ended up having to make. Guess I'm fucked anyway you cut it. I wish I could say it was fun, but in the end it wasn't, which is another reason for a hiatus.

plymayer at 7:21AM, Feb. 5, 2019

If the author/artist says hiatus they at least intend on some level to return.

Froggtreecomics at 5:05AM, Feb. 5, 2019

I disagree with the notion that regular updates always builds an audience.. I updated for 3 years regularly and the same 4 people commented lmao

Ozoneocean at 3:16AM, Feb. 5, 2019

There are a lot of reasons for a hiatus, but I think we as fellow creators are too used to seeing things from the creators point of view rather than that of a reader.

bravo1102 at 1:15AM, Feb. 5, 2019

And if the readers bitch loud enough, the creator will come back! Or maybe she'll get so annoyed that the possibility of ever even considering going back to that work just fades. Artists and writers are prickly people and their relationships with their work can be very fragile. And when they break sometimes it is forever but there is denial so they leave a "maybe one day" by saying hiatus rather than screaming "IT'S OVER!" from the rooftops.

cdmalcolm1 at 12:40AM, Feb. 5, 2019

I think for the most part the creator forgets the comic after taking a break. Sometimes a break is really caused by not enough followers or no followers. This can be enough to keep some creators from being motivated to even continue. What I mean by this is the lack of interactions from the readers. Sometimes if a creator is not getting the love or readership as expected, they too stop updating. OR it simply could be a burn out. I see Many feature comics here on DD start off great with comments and then all of a sudden just stop when no one comments. Hell, the comments can also stop when even the creator don't give feedback to readers that DO leave comments. Yes the word Hiatus is wrong to use when the creator says it, but what about the ones that just stop updating?