Discussion about the Forthcoming Issues list

[Daphne]

Thanks for the list! Always cool to know whats in the pipeline!

Out of curiosity what are the average lead times for a comic (not trying to ask when these will be released! Just curious reading the production!)
As i see some comics have a artist only and others have  someone else doing the lettering. No need to be specific just ballpark: writing/story + art + lettering + proof reading? = ?I

The average is… probably not that meaningful, because the range is huge. We have artists that can do a 12-page issue in three weeks, and some that take a year.

The stages in a comic are:

* Me havijng time to write the script.
* Writing the script.
* Pencils/layouts.
* Inks
* Colors
* Lettering

While nearly all of the artists we have do both pencils and layouts, some do coloring and some don't. It generally takes a bit longer if there is a separate colorist, but there are exceptions to that, too: Octavia Moon just bangs them out. :-)

Of these, the one that is usually the longest is the first one. Once I actually sit down and write the script, it's usually less than a day. The part of the art creation that takes the longest is getting to the inks, the colors, and Mr Zipp gets the letttering done in record time.

Our target is 90 days from when the artist (or first artist if there are multiple ones) gets the script until the colors are done. However, the range is huge. Some of it is just how fast they work, some of it is whether they have a full- or part-time job besides art (most do), and some of it is just things coming up in their lives.

[Vidor]

Sad to see that "The In-Law Unit" is not on the list.  Happy to see that "Belief System" and "The Ring Cycle" are.

[wannabe]

The stages in a comic are:

* Me havijng time to write the script.
* Writing the script.
* Pencils/layouts.
* Inks
* Colors
* Lettering

While nearly all of the artists we have do both pencils and layouts, some do coloring and some don't. It generally takes a bit longer if there is a separate colorist, but there are exceptions to that, too: Octavia Moon just bangs them out. :-)

Of these, the one that is usually the longest is the first one. Once I actually sit down and write the script, it's usually less than a day. The part of the art creation that takes the longest is getting to the inks, the colors, and Mr Zipp gets the letttering done in record time.

Our target is 90 days from when the artist (or first artist if there are multiple ones) gets the script until the colors are done. However, the range is huge. Some of it is just how fast they work, some of it is whether they have a full- or part-time job besides art (most do), and some of it is just things coming up in their lives.

So this is something I've been meaning to ask.

There are clearly books where you know the entire story arc before you started: Alchemist, ConFused, Checkered Past, Enchanted Summer. But there are others -- Bigger, Inheritance, Ring Cycle, An Education, Friend Zone, the impenetrable SJI -- where the plot can be more or less infinitely extended within that world?

Before you start a book/series, do you always have the entire story plotted out, even if it takes years and years to tell the whole story? Is the writing down the detail of dialog and blocking, or do things sometimes get out of control and the charagers take over as the story's getting told?