Comics theory question: how do you feel long-latency, high-quality comics like yours fit in the current online self-publishing landscape for comics? One relevant but limited case in point: obviously, you’re making it work for you, since you have a sufficiently large archive and developed story to catch and hold attention at this point. But would that work for newer entries, or would a more rapid pace be required to build readership, lest people get bored and then forget about you? Did you have to start off differently?

Comics theory question: how do you feel long-latency, high-quality comics like yours fit in the current online self-publishing landscape for comics? One relevant but limited case in point: obviously, you're making it work for you, since you have a sufficiently large archive and developed story to catch and hold attention at this point. But would that work for newer entries, or would a more rapid pace be required to build readership, lest people get bored and then forget about you? Did you have to start off differently?

You’ll never have a steady stream of readers without an archive, regardless of what kind of comic you’re doing. When you get started, no one will read your stuff, and they’ll continue to not read it for months, sometimes years. That’s just part of how it works. You have to have a body of work that people enjoy, and that’s universal and independent of whether you update quickly or slowly.

What isn’t universal is how you keep that traffic going once you have that archive. In the case of my comic, I have large, substantial updates with a lot of content, so people who enjoy it have a reason to return. Updating more often is always a goal, but never at the expense of bringing readers what they expect from my work. Bringing readers what they expect (and frequently exceeding those expectations) is at the core of having a growing, vibrant audience. Daily strips achieve this partially through their regularity, which is essential for the format, though I personally think a some people who go this route become complacent and forget that a regular schedule doesn’t excuse you from challenging yourself and your readership.