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How do artists and writers juggle all of the projects they are doing? Based on the Image Expo announcements it seems like all the big names will be involved in more than one, if not several, books at one time. How do they do it without affecting release schedules and/or quality?
*shrugs.
They have a schedule i guess? Most writers tend to have at least two titles on the go. They just dedicate their time to each appropriately.
I think the more writers tend to have on the go then in general the more the quality dips, but some writers are better than others at juggling multiple titles.
Pretty much. Charles Soule did an interesting blog post some time ago about his process of doing several books at one time and at the same time, in his case, also run a law practice that was very interesting to read. Take a look:
[url]https://charlessoule.wordpress.com/2013/12/30/how-i-do-it/[/url]
[QUOTE=HellsRider;838126]Pretty much. Charles Soule did an interesting blog post some time ago about his process of doing several books at one time and at the same time, in his case, also run a law practice that was very interesting to read. Take a look:
[url]https://charlessoule.wordpress.com/2013/12/30/how-i-do-it/[/url][/QUOTE]
Seems like he's got a nice liitle system down. Cool article, thanks for sharing.
Kelly Sue DeConnick said that part of the reason for the long gaps between arcs in [I]Pretty Deadly[/I] was so she and Emma Rios could pursue other projects.
Scheduling is important, but knowing how much one can handle is also important.
For writers it appears easier, since you can plot ahead for a while and send that off to an artist. Sure there will be some back-and-forth, but it's the drawing that tends to take up the lion's share of time. See for example Matt Fraction, he finished the Hawkeye scripts months ago but we're still waiting on David Aja to finish the art. Also with comics it's important to take the lead-in time into account. Many series tend to have more than 1 issue fully done already before launching.
There's an interview with Joe Quesada (of Marvel) on Kevin Smith's podcast where Quesada mentions artists who work for Marvel need to be dependable. Most can finish pencils for an issue in 6 to 8 weeks pretty reliably, which is fine because they can schedule fill-in issues ahead of time to keep the books on a monthly schedule.
Personally I like Saga's solution: keep 1 artist (in this case she also inks and colours), but schedule long breaks, then release arcs on a monthly schedule. Keeps your artist from burning out because they get breaks (hence why Staples was able to take on 3 issues for Archie) and also enough time to ensure you don't miss deadline when releasing an arc. The long waits do suck but if your comic is good people are willing to wait.
Good time management enables a writer to take on multiple projects at once.
for writers it is somewhat a faster job once the idea is developed and planned out
srtists with multiple books are a bit more on the rare side but not all that unusual
just a matter of managing your time and balancing the speed and quality.
I guess they prioritize creator owned in hopes of getting some of that Millar film option rights money. As a rule, I don't read anything by a writer who has more than 1 creator owned series. I dropped Hawkeye right after Sex Criminals came out, and sure enough, that book encountered mass delays starting with the next issue, and then was cancelled. Most of these writers use their mainstream gigs just to raise their name value, in hopes of hooking option rights payouts for their creator owned. It's fine, and I love creator owned, but the rise of that format, and the "Millar System" has really impacted mainstream tights books BIGTIME.