You know, I feel like a lot of people feel this way and often get responses like "well, you should do it cause you like it and not to be popular." I never really got why it's gotta be one or the other. Anyone who puts their stuff on the internet to be read by others wants readers. I just don't get why there's this trade off.
I can completely understand why someone who loves making comics feels like stopping because no one else reads it. People who write and draw make content for others to enjoy, that's the point. They enjoy making stuff for other people to enjoy, so if no one enjoys it then they feel like they've only completed 50% of the process.
That's why the advice of love what you're doing always feels a bit half-off to me, even though it's always well-intentioned. There's usually a few things that could be wrong.
1) Niche demographic. Aka: It's not playing to the trends. Let's face it. People like a few things in mass. They like romance, the like drama, they like BL, whatever it is. If you're not in those categories you're already fighting an uphill battle. Now sometimes being niche can be cool. You have your small army of dedicated fans, you can probably run a successful albeit humble patreon that way, but if you want those mainstream numbers, trends is really the only way to go. And being trendy isn't always bad. Genre subversion stories are technically trendy if you're subverting a popular genre, and then there's just, you know, just telling plain old good story in a popular genre.
If your comic isn't playing to trends, yet you still don't have a niche collection of readers, then there might be another problem...
2) Art? This one is hard to quantify. Because if you're trendy but your art isn't all there yet you might be able to get get away with it. But being niche and having art that's even slightly lacking in something, then that's even more to fight. But i don't feel like i should judge anyone's art. Cause who knows how my own art looks to other people >_>
3) Story/Character/Comedy. If your story is plot-driven is the plot, you know, good? If it's more slice of life are the characters actually interesting enough to warrant a look into their life? If the comic is comedy based are the jokes actually good? If no, that might be the reason why there are few fans.
4) Exposure. Someone else is probably better to say something about that cause I currently suck at promoting myself to any fruitful results. Just being on social media and forums doesn't seem to be enough, though. -__-
In conclusion. It's not wrong to feel upset that your comic isn't be engaged with, because that's what you made it for. To be read and enjoyed because that's what YOU enjoy doing, entertaining others with stories that you like making. As someone who's also struggling to get subs I can relate in feeling like crap and seeing everyone else get 100-1000 subs a day, get recommended on the Discover page, get featured, while I'm sitting here almost 6 months in and still not at 1000 subs.
I don't know where I'm going with this...Hang in there, I guess? I feel like success in these things is 10% talent and 90% luck. Your luck might come along any day now. That's just kind of how I look t it. I keep thinking "well, if I quit then what am I gonna do if an opportunity comes along and I totally missed it cause I gave up too early?" That and I'm pretty sure i'd die if I didn't draw and write stuff cause that's all I'm good at and I'm a depressed sack of yogurt who is only happy when I'm working on my projects. If you're a fellow depressed sack of yogurt then I'm sure you can relate.
Also I apologize if this was completely incoherent. I tried...