We often talk about breaks in comics when referencing hiatuses. Sometimes they are planned, most often they aren’t. However, as I have been catching up on the backlog of webcomics I had saved up, it occurred to me that many of the long running series I enjoyed reading had season breaks.
This was something that my comic partner and I also utilise. In one comic we referred to the breaks as issues, as the comic is originally created in a print format. The other was digital only, so we had seasons. These planned breaks gave us opportunities to take a step back and evaluate our progress. We would use them to go over the current events in the plot and consider what we might want to change, refine or include going further. For instance, we have a master outline for one series, which we use as a guide. Each issue allows us to pace out the plot points we want to cover or move things around if need be.
Season breaks also present an opportunity to use a timeskip if you want to move events along. Given the audience will have experienced a passage of time you could match the length of the timeskip with that of the audience. This invokes a sense of immersion in the reader whilst allowing you the flexibility to have events progress organically, preventing a potential drag in action.
Even non-serialised comics benefit from the concept of seasons. It can allow the author time to build up a buffer. It also presents a chance to make any pivots in the approach, or try something new. By segmenting it in this way, it can help the audience find particular gags or strips they really enjoyed.
Does your comic utilise some form of “season”? Let us know in the comment section below! And join us on Sunday evening for our Quackchat at 5:30PM(EST)!
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A change in seasons
Emma_Clare at 12:00AM, Aug. 5, 2023
6 likes!
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J_Scarbrough at 1:08PM, Aug. 10, 2023
I always broke up my comic works into "seasons" like this as well, but that was mainly because I always took a TV show approach to my comics. As a kid, shows on channels like Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network were hugely influential to me, and as such, when I would make cartoons of my own (which were essentially comic book/picture book hybrids, where instead of each page having multiple panels, each panel was its own page, as I found it easier to draw a scene that way), I would also make a full "episode" with an A and a B segment like most animated shows, and also do 13 of them a "season" over the course of four "seasons". Even when I began dabbling in more traditional comic strips, I also would break those up into "seasons" over the years as well.
Banes at 3:55PM, Aug. 5, 2023
The two comics I started with have used an "issue" approach - Typical Strange has been more standalone adventures (with continuity but not demanding the reader to remember too much). The newer series I'm taking a more relaxed approach. There will be story arcs/chapters, but not too rigid with the length. We'll see how it goes!
UnderTheBlackHat at 3:46PM, Aug. 5, 2023
We use an Issue type format, complete with covers and even alternate covers to separate our 'seasons' or sections or whatever you want to call it. We have also been extremely diligent when it comes to our release schedule. Yes, it can be stressful and there are times when we've been in a panic, but part of having these divisions is so we have start and stop points for our working time and by (hopefully) planning correctly we can take some breaks (short and sweet yes) while keeping a more professional work style going and hopefully, a consistent release schedule and happy readers. So far none of our team are aware of readers that like long and/or irregular breaks in the stories we read. To borrow the phrase; A change of seasons is great, just try not to be a burden to your readers. They are, after all, why we're here and why we're creating, is it not?