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May 2020

My story:

Summary

I did.

Last page i did was in October or November of last year.

Several reseasons:

1) I was working a lot (as many people here, i was the one making everything: story, art, ink, color, text, advertising) you know, the thing that people usually get paid to do in a publishing company, and i just felt i was working at a regular job without the payment or profit.

I know most people here make comics just for hobby, but, the profesional creators you like, they would have quit their series if they weren't making a living from it (like Mangakas or western comics creators).

2) I often felt depressed at my low numbers (views, subs, patreons) kept wondering what my series were lacking compared to X or Y series. None of my 5 comics were ever available for ads, wich can tell you, the low numbers i get, and only the last one, make me some patreons for some months, but that was over too.

3) Similar, i was also comparing my art with others, wich always came inferior to them in my mind.

"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.", that's kinda what was happening to me in making comics.

So, i do feel better or at least "less presured" now that i quit comics (sure i'm now failing at others things, like youtube channels with no views or audience), but, because i'm not doing art anymore, i don't feel bad at my own stuff? xd

I did like the process, but was frustrated at the results. I feel i can't put the energy or work into a new series, knowing it most likely will lead to nothing.

Share below if you have a similar story or reasons.

  • created

    May '20
  • last reply

    Sep '24
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You're like the second person with considerably higher numbers than me to start a thread like this, so yeah, I'm starting to think about it alright.

well I wanted to do it for fun, to get rid of that fixed idea. I don't need money from it cause I have my dream day job. I just want to say that if you reallu want to make money of pretty anuthing, you should probably start working on some other popular comic publisher and when you get professional enough and build yourself a name you can start your own comic with the help of all experience you've gained and people you've met. Some mangakas and western artist become known after the've worked as assistants to famous artist who retierd or something like that.

I studied a manga lessons by japanese mangaka Yuri Takagi and she said that working as mangaka in japan barely pays her bills, compared to the expences on media she used to make it ( traditional way) . She was published but still.. Nowadays making comic may be cheper cause you have pc and dont need to by tonns of paper and ink and pens. However being popular artist doesn't mean being rich I think. Unless you draw smut and sell it on patreon like some-chan

Hey there,

You have 1.1k followers on webtoons, with almost 100k views and a rating of 8.00. I think that is incredible. You know that is incredible. More than 1000 people read or see what you create. Sure, that means something for you.

If you feel frustrated because you aren't getting any money from your comics in webtoon (or other) maybe its time to try another door. Try send them to local papers, print them and sell them on conventions. Work for indie magazines. The possibilities are there. Maybe you will not hit jackpot right away but if you want you can try. It depends only of what you want to do and what makes you happy.

Your art will never be good if you compare to other people. There will always be another person that draws better than you. If you accept that you will not care and you will only try to improve for you. No one else.

If you want to become a professional comic book artist, you need to get better. You need to put on the work. Build a portfolio, pay for reviews and work in what needs to be worked. Send your works to every company. Start with the basics.

Well, I wish you all the best and I hope you find your path.

Best regards,

Yo, this feeling has been so pervasive that I'm like writing a comic right now just about this same feeling because it's been everywhere I've gone lately, comics or not. I think it helps me that comics aren't my endgame, but just a thing that I do--I actually would rather end up in doing covers or concept art, and the medium I tell my stories is relatively unimportant to me, so long as I can keep telling stories.

But, that doesn't mean I'm in any way immune to that feeling of loss and rejection when it inevitably comes. I think it's OK to grieve if a story's expectation's aren't met, and that it's OK to walk away and do something else for a while. In fact, I think that time is really helpful for putting things in perspective. We have a lot of life to live and a lot of stories to tell.

These websites come and go in an instant, followers come and go, but your art is forever and in the end no one will know or care how many notes it got. Like, for instance, all my old art I put on my old LJ was hosted through an image site that died, so all art I posted before 2005 is a broken link. I also had like 3 blogs on blogger--and blogger died in the mid 10's so now I can't easily access any of them: none of those posts, none of that art. So, what I own from that era is what is on my own computer and I honestly don't remember anymore which was popular or not. It doesn't matter anymore. But, I'm glad I made the art.

Oh definitely.

Especially the latter half of 2019, when I had health issues coupled with a big burnout. It really made me reevaluate exactly what I want to do with my creative work. During that period I barely had the energy to draw or put out any pages consistently, but I did have the energy to type and write. And that's when I found I enjoy novel-writing and began my debut webnovel.

I also felt a great weight lift off of me once I finished my first long-running webcomic, Demon House earlier this year. That thing took 5 years to complete!

I think now that I'm relatively healthy again I have a better grasp of my plans. For now I'll focus on finishing my two on-going comics. I'll also shift my focus to novels. Since I can finish a whole novel faster than I can a webcomic, I think prose will become my main avenue of storytelling. I may still work on a single comic at a time after my current ones are done (and after a good break), since I don't think I could ever fully divorce from the medium. But I've come to accept that if I want to get all my stories out of my head for the world to see, novels are a quicker way of accomplishing that.

I did quit for a while, mainly because I got busy with school and life and wanted to spend my free time drawing to improve rather than drawing comics. Not that comics won't help you improve your art, but I wanted to drawing exercises and gesture and studies and stuff that's kinda harder to translate to comics. Sometimes I get so busy with my courses that I have little to no time for drawing at all whatsoever.

I know if I definitely tried to make a more professional comic, it would be alot easier to get frusturated and burn out especially at the beginning. I think it's because I put low effort in my comics that Ive always felt more relaxed about how much engagement I get.

Honestly I make my comics mainly for myself, because I love my ocs so much that I want to see more content about them lol. It just so happens that I post them online in case other people enjoy them too. I think it's because I'm more motivated by myself (?) than by the attention of others that I feel less discouraged if I don't get as much attention as the next comic in line.

I quit writing after my boyfriend died in 2015 and didn't start again until after I got married in 2018.

In that case, yes; I did think about not making comics anymore (and I just started!).
I always [try to] experiment with different mediums in media such as making an animated web series, or an indie game, though not from the start, to my work across. There are times where I don't really understand webcomic culture...

Sometimes, I have trouble deciding if my comic's premise will work, or I just become sluggish and lose faith in the premise. But that's why I post comics without a set schedule, though I post every 1-2 months; it will determine whether I should keep going with my story/joke ideas in the air or just say "Aw, forget it! How the heck will that work?".

It just comes down to the pace I'm going for, while being honest [and still] friendly to other readers and/or comic creators.

Yeah. Even just now I was reading a manga that has fantastic artwork and I'm thinking... why is it I can work so hard but can't even be half as good as this? It also doesn't help I did the Sailor Moon redraw meme and I hate how it came out. :upside_down: Like I have been trying so hard and studying for so many years and there are 15 year olds who draw way way better than me.

It's also frustrating because creating art for me feels fake. I never had this ability or drive to draw from 3 years old like I hear so many stories from. I started because I loved anime and manga, not because I loved drawing. It's just... kind of a natural thing I do now.

I just finished up a panel yesterday and I wanted to make it cool and it just sucks.

I just really want to be at a better level already. And I have made great strides in it recently but it's just never enough.

Like I'm 34 years old. I should be ten times better than I am right now.

I do have a dream to work as a professional comic artist someday but I'm afraid it will just always be a dream because I always make such stupid mistakes and can never make it look FANTASTIC. I do think about giving up on that dream, but I am stubborn at the same time.

I did quit for a bit (2 years), but it wasn't really related to being frustrated with drawing or wanting to give up.

Not really quitting, more like me wanting to take a break. Last year I was dealing with a lot of personal issues that it was hard to focus on being creative, so I didn't really post much. Once I was able to get to a point where I felt better, I was able to come back with a more positive attitude.

I have also had series I have ended quickly or put in a forever hiatus because I wanted work on something else.

You shouldn't dedicate your time to something you don't like, and if you lost motivation for your series you could try taking a break or finding something else to work on.

I've had thoughts like that in the past. but I stopped when I realized how much fun and sense of achievement I feel when I do create. and tbh I stopped caring for the amount of likes. As long as I know that people read the story, I'm happy. them reading it is enough to satisfy me.

@oksoup I made it to that point as well. I have 5 pages left to complete my story but I'll probably take a break before drawing something new. So much competition and it's hard to be visible.

About the money, I've been posting my work on Hive.blog for the last few years and at least you get some crypto currency back for your work. That really kept me going.

I now launched an interface for Hive specifically for comics and novels. I'd be happy to host the work you accomplish so far, see how you do on a more decentralized platform.

The site is https://inkito.io2
Let me know what you think.

Have a nice day,

Jrej

I'm notorious for quitting almost everything I do. Stories I make, books I read, video games I play, sports, workout routines, etc. My current comic has gone through 6 different iterations before this version that I post now! (2 versions of an animated series, a comic, an animated movie, a different comic, and now this version) I quit all the previous versions for different reasons, but I am hoping I stick with this one! I almost feel pressured to quit at some point because I feel like I expect it of myself. haha

Readership is falling. It falls often this time of year. Experience says readership will grow again around September. Wait until a couple of months past then to decide.

I quit last summer after finally wrapping up the first part of the story, and thought I would just stop right there and quit while I was ahead (after some 7 years of work). Then after some time I had this feeling of unquiet that was growing in me, until I did this thing called "focusing" and realized the story just won't let me go, so I continued and felt better! My unquiet diminished a lot.

I think a big reason I was (and often still am) so discouraged is that, like many people, I tend to think that hard work should pay off. But that's just not how the world works, and there is absolutely no guarantee of success. Accepting that helped me be a bit less discouraged and I started looking at other things I can do to improve and advertise my work.

No way. At least, not any time soon.
And here is the reason: some 9 years ago, when I barely drew anything, I made a Deviantart account, and I thought I wasn't half bad. I thought people would find me and they will like my works. Should I say that my works were really bad and I didn't get any following? Some time later (i.e. like 5 years ago) I understood, that my art looks like sh*t and I don't draw anything interesting for people to watch at. That I am nowhere close at all to the artists I look up at.
I was not (and probably still) very productive with my time, and I am also not so young to compete with high-school students who are already way better than me, but drawing is still the thing I do better than anything else. So maybe I should just make some effort and become a bit closer to the awesome artists, and then people will notice my art and recognize my work.

Hmm like actually quit? Not really, no.

I've been at this for ~3 1/2 years now and despite this being a difficult path to take, it's mostly felt like I'm consistently moving forward towards my goals, even if those goals are very very far away. There was one point where i thought maybe I should put comics on the side while I focus more on illustration, but even then I didn't totally stop working on comics.

I've also been rejected or failed many many times, and though there were some bitter pills to swallow along the way, it never made me want to quit. Actually, sometimes the rejection motivates me even more. Which is good cause I got a lot of room for improvement haha.

When it comes to that sense of some insurmountable wall of talent, the kind of talent people associate with these super amazing teenagers, or a feeling of stagnation in your own work, I refuse to quit comics for these sort of reasons. The former is just an unproven narrative that doesn't really apply to art imo, and the latter is more due to a lack of resources/knowledge/will rather than someone just being born deficient. Maybe I'm wrong, but this is the approach I decided on.