Could something serious be popular?

Honestly, you should stick to the genre you want to do. If you try to do something just to appeal to "what is popular" you may end up hating what you do or it might not come out as polished due to not being passionate about the genre.

I tried to do something similar where I drew a comic in an "anime" style just because it was popular. And in the end, it just looked awful, I hated it, and I did not get as popular as I hoped to be.

My advice is: Do what you love.

Popularity is a fickle friend. Though, it is really amazing to be liked by many but in the end it won't matter if you don't like what you do. Create content that you would read and you will attract readers with similars interests. It may not be as popular as something mainstream but it could still gather a noticable audience. Of course, there's always the possibility that it does become popular and then it will feel more rewarding than if you had chosen to do something that was designed to become popular.

It really is a matter of you priortising what you think is worth your time, what you'll gain from investing your energy in the project you work on. Is your goal to reach a wide audience, to appeal to as many people as possible? It certainly wouldn't hurt to take this research you've done reading popular webcomics and try to write your own story in an attempt to run your hypothesis. Or maybe fold some of these romance/comedy ingredients into your serious plot.

HOWEVER, as the others have said, it's not going to be as rewarding in the longrun if you're working on a story you have no heart for. If your art, your writing, your comic becomes just a popularity contest with others, it'll feel hollow and could hurt your work on other projects. You have a unique voice all your own, if you can create something you care for with it, it's a success you can always feel proud of.

There's no "should" to this sort of thing, but my advice would be -- make the thing you want to make! For one thing, what's the point of making something you don't want to make? What's great about being known for something that's not the thing you REALLY want to be making? It's like pretending to be someone you're not -- if people love that person, you still feel like they don't really love you.
For another thing, if your heart's not in it, audiences can tell. People connect with genuineness, and it's going to be harder to do well with a comic you aren't passionate about. I like the way Gigi D.G. worded it: "Make your comic fun for you, or it won't be fun for anyone else."

THAT SAID, if you ALSO like the idea of doing a funny or romantic stories, or want to try it as a fun personal challenge, I don't think that's bad! My first webcomic was an autobio comic -- wayyyyy outside my normal comfort zone -- but it turned out that I really enjoyed making it, which is why I kept it going for years! But... if you do end up trying something more mainstream because it might be fun, you have to be okay with the fact that this audience might not carry over to future stories you make, and you can't let that get you down.

My current comic is super weird, and that probably makes gaining an audience a little slower for me. But I honestly wouldn't change the things that make it weird, because those are things I love about it. The people who love my comic are invested and supportive and generous -- if you make the thing you love, you'll be able to find the other people who love those things just as much!

P.S. - it might be worth noting that the huge leaning towards comedy and romance is kinda specific to Tapastic. Tapas' format encourages those sorts of comics, so they tend to succeed here. I don't know that the same bias exists as strongly on the wider web.

Comics are so time consuming and difficult that working on a project you don't love is like shooting yourself in the foot. Multiple times. With a cannon.

I'll just say that if you don't like what you're working on, then chances are neither will the readers because they might sense your disinterest through what you've made.

That said, if you'd LIKE to make a comedy or romance, then by all means!

1. While it is true that comedic or romantic comics have an easier time becoming popular - those are popular genres! - than a more serious, darker, or dramatic story, popularity isn't impossible to achieve with a serious drama story. My comic is serious and dramatic, and contains (as of right now) no romance, and not much in the way of comedy - it's still managed to find a readership. That growth in readership is just a bit slower, and requires more work from you, than a comedy comic would.

2. Your readers can tell when you're telling a story because you love to tell it, and when you're doing something just because you think it will be popular. Sincerity matters, and will carry a story even when it's got flaws, or isn't the most audience-pleasing piece of storytelling.

3. Popularity isn't guaranteed just because you pick a particular genre. To be popular, a comedy comic has to be genuinely funny and/or relatable. To be popular, a romance has to have something in it worth reading. Don't pick a genre just to please an audience; you're going to have a bad time, because you aren't going to like it - and if you can't like the thing you're making, how are your readers supposed to?

TL; DR: Draw the comic you want to draw. Make it as good as you can possibly make it. Worrying about popularity comes later, if it's something you want to concern yourself with at all.

Often times, romance comics are popular because of how the characters are written and/or the chemistry of their relationships - who's to say you can't have nicely written characters in any other genre?

If you enjoy your comic then popularity will soon follow, there's no set equation or formula on how to get a popular webcomic. As for the worry of it getting lost among thousands of similar stories, what'll make you stand out is that it's your method of telling the story. Even if it's a 'cliched' story, the way YOU go about telling it is going to be yours alone.

It's absolutely normal to want your work to be popular and it certainly isn't childish. What you should consider is which project is the one you honestly feel you are willing to commit to because realistically most comics aren't popular. Ask most creators on this site, they always find an audience eventually but some wait much longer than others and most are not 'popular'.

I personally don't think that hoping for popularity will take you very far when it comes to any creative endeavour , again there is nothing wrong with wanting it just don't let the desire for your comic to be popular distract you.

Choose the comic that feels the clearest in your head, the one that makes the most sense, whichever project you feel most connected to.

Well you could make a generic slice of life comedic yaoi that'll get a lot fans but has no substance or do your own original work that might not become popular but is unique and probably better in content. The choice is yours.

Choose wisely.

I'm of the opinion you should only ever write the kind of story you yourself would want to read. Popularity or obscurity will not be up to you. These things take up so much of your time and effort, if you intend on seeing it through, you may as well enjoy it.

there have been serious, dramatic, and dark comics get popular - both in the sense of large followings and tapastic staff recognition. i think however, they tend to have their short place in the spotlight, and then carry on quietly successful while quality slice of life and a handful of annoying BL comics persist. its also a lot harder to get through 100 pages of drama than it is to vaguely wander through a buncha joke-a-day comics or squirm our way through a feeeeelsy romance in a few minutes.

(honestly, im being a bit harsh on the romance, its not all undeserving BL, and some popular romantic comics are pretty awesome)

dont bend your story to fit peoples whims and fancies - worst case scenario, you hate your comic and you hate your fanbase, because neither of them are things with you in them. best case, youre massively successful, at the expense of the idea youre way more passionate about.

on the other hand, i imagine a successful slice of life / gag a day comic on here is a great promotional project...

It's not that comedy and romance succeeds over sci-fi or darker stories. It's that all things online is catered more towards brevity than lengthy build-up. It just so happens that comedy and romance require less build-up since it's short fun moments, or short cute/flirty moments, as opposed to darker sci-fi stories which often require many pages of story and world-building.

In this era of instant-entertainment, that can get boring if the writing and art isn't 8/10 at least. Youtube is a great example of this. Shorter videos, with streamlined and fast-paced content, to make sure people watch till the end.

If you want something popular, create bite-sized comics, like short stripes. That's also where Tapastic's name comes from. Tapas, as in small bites. You can create a dark story, and make it popular, if you can follow a few guidelines.

1. Keep it brief. No more than 4 panels per episode preferrably.
2. Not too much locked-in continuity. You'd want people to be able to read just the newest episodes without having to understand the old.

I wouldn't consider my own comic either a Romance or a Comedy (though it has some comedic moments,) but it's doing pretty well. As an example of a darker story in this format: https://tapastic.com/episode/4714415

anybody would want their works to be popular, but aiming to be popular just for the sake of popularity is quite toxic for you especially if you're doing something you're not really passionate about. If you want to write dark/dramatic/dystopian/angst stories then do so. If you think your story is not doing well you can rest for a bit and think what you may lack/what went wrong--remember as you write stories and get frustrated you also learn and improve!

IDK but I've seen something got popular because it's DIFFERENT... and somehow started a trend of its own.
I don't thing anything before Matrix have that slow motion effect but many movies after it, starts adopting that effect.

Who knows, maybe you'll be able to start a trend

Doesnt matter if the series is serious or not- it just has to resonate or pique interest with the reader(s). There is no formula to what makes a series popular; for every 3 to 5 series that falls in a "so-called" popular category, there's a story so far left field of those that still gets the numbers...i.e., Demon Hunter Kain isnt a romance or a comedy- but still pulls a lot of readers.

Do comics that you like doing and enjoy doing. My series, Ray Thunder isnt knocking down doors any time soon, but I do this story & comic coz I like it.

Actually, don't do it because it's popular, it will come back and bite you later on.

With that said, I was in the same boat. I actually wanted to do a Romance story as my second story on the site because it seems to be popular. But as I think about it, seriously romance isn't my strongest suit. (Evidently enough in my current comic :Rebirth, I doubt it would deal that much with romance either) Part of the reason I think romance is popular on Webtoon is because most of the readers are in the teenager range of age, where you are usually the most curious about romance. Some do extremely well, some just fall flat on its face.

Final word: Do what you want to do and do what you are sure you would enjoy in a long run. If you do it for popular demand, you will grow tired of your own story sooner or later.

I think serious stories are definitely a harder sell, but if you focus on your craft you can achieve success. I have a serious webcomic (currenly on hiatus due to illness etc) and its a very serious story. A lot of the pages are hard to look at. I expected maybe to have 30 readers, but without much effort it's garnered a few hundred. I think this is because I care about it and take care with my craft.

Do I think more people would read it if it were a light hearted adventure? Hell yeah. Do I want to change it? Hell no.

If you make what you care about, the numbers just won't matter as much

The popular can be only a momentaneous breeze. Get a lot of readers now, but can't last for a long time. The serious one can took years to build a fanbase, but I think it will last for a long time.

I write "serious" stories too. No teenagers in school with demons friends, no slice of life. Only the old but gold space operas, like the ones was inspiration for Lucas and other people to create they work. I know that my stories will not be popular. No only because this, but because I'll use 3D to make them (and a lot of people don't like this type of work). But, I'll make them, no matter if they will have only 2 or 3 readers. I tried to make the popular type ones, but my neurons almost died

(in fact I started them some years ago, but stopped because I,m very bad at traditional drawing. Hope I can get back to them)