User blog comment:IamJakuhoRaikoben/Chapter 459 & 460: Weakness & The Alighted Pegasus, Review./@comment-3075024-20151101000743/@comment-1839664-20151103033525

Some food for thought regarding most Manga Artists and Mashima:
 * Most manga artist start working on the chapter that will be released in about two weeks, and finish one week before publish. If they don't feel well that week or have some difficulties, then expect no chapter that week.
 * Mashima generally starts working on his chapters at least a month before publish, and often finish additional chapters for various reasons. He had once stated on his twitter that he could easily go on a month of vacation and still wouldn't miss an issue of publication.
 * Most generally don't draw additional side stories for other magazines, and even if they do, it'd be either a couple of pages long, or only for the volumes.
 * Mashima has drawn full length side stories, some even longer than the usual serialized chapters.
 * Most manga artist are dedicated to one serialization at a time. Mashima had serialized two different manga series at the same time (Fairy Tail and either Monster Hunter/FTZer0).  He had also commissioned arts for others, such for CD/Book cover, card games, TV shows, etc., all while posting "scribbles" on twitter for free.
 * His story can be lackluster some of the time, but let's be honest, all manga has their lackluster moment. It's just how much we want to nitpick on them.