It's the opposite for me.
My partner told me not to be surprised for not getting any monies from doing this 
And it was true 
Also funny thing about that bit, my Mom is the one that constantly pushes me like that. I don't think I explained it before, but I remember us getting into an argument where she didn't quite understand why artists weren't picking up my work. If I remember correctly, I think THAT was when I was like "Okay, I SERIOUSLY need to pitch that stick figure comic" lol.
I experience the opposite a lot. People don’t usually believe that I draw comics for a living. When I answer the question “What do you do?” with “I write and draw comics” i usually get questions like “but, like, what do you do for money?” or “well, what’s your day job?”
It really took a long time for my family to not worry about what I was doing and they’ve only in the last five years stopped asking me if I needed some cash or if I needed to get hooked up with a job.
I don't think they do, but the other older people around me either expect me to materialize sales out of thin air, or they view it as being irresponsible with time or money, or an illegitimate pursuit. It's as if people are completely blind to the scope of my focus even if I put the physical pages in front of them I think, because they would just assume it was easy to do. I get that maybe it's surprising that I could put so much attention to a single task each and every day, but every time i've tried to stress I can't meet my goals balancing a soul draining dead end job and the time and energy needed to meet my goals, I just get scoffed at. To me, a chapter and a half a year is unacceptable for a comic expected to drive into the hundreds, but that's all I managed to accomplish for a near decade. Somehow I still seem to get that strange attitude even from other artists even when I bring it up. I don't know why.
In the end I can't really blame them despite the fact that it gets tiresome. To a point it's useless trying to force the issue even though i'm stuck explaining the same old thing every time it seems to get brought up. Quarreling with the need to feel a sense of worth via monetary value has been one of the most soul crushing things, because I know in my heart of hearts that's all people look at even if I myself don't honestly believe that's the only way value should be derived.
Do I wish I could make money of any kind? Of course. It's natural that when someone puts in enough work they expect some return and i'm no exception. It's silly to think you should be given something for anything you do, but naturally seeing the ridiculous levels of time and energy dumped into one thing people are confused thinking i'm sitting on a hill of gold that I am pissing away, and not the hunk of lead I believe it to be.
Sorry this one's a sore spot!
I do make money off my series and the looks I've gotten have been more of shock that I'm essentially running a small business than anything else. Out of all my IRL writer friends I can only think of three, aside from my brother, who has published anything. The writer friends look at me shocked that I've published and regular people look at me confused/shocked because they've never even heard of what I do.
That is sooo true. It is more like a business. And all money you make you have to reinvest like any other business... 
Oh yeah. My business would be doing much better if I invested more money into it, but I need the savings more. It's a really tough spot to be in.
yea, I try not to tell people I make comics at a loss. I actually tend to lie and tell them I make some cash off it otherwise I'll get the "if you're not making money you're wasting your time" from my family lmao i dont have the patience to deal with that anymore
My mom recently found out what I do, I'm writing a BL novel and working on a commission to draw characters with horns and wings xD and the same thing happened to me as most of the comments. But this isn't what I do for a living, because I know it won't be easy - at least my chances are minuscule - I don't see it as likely.
Once the commission is over, I'll go back to where I started. I do this for motivation, because I love to write and draw. But at least, I am gaining experience and I will try in different ways. There will be another client somewhere who wants my services... I hope so....
About the commission, my mom even gives me feedback. She didn't know that I drew attractive people with abs. 
🤣🤣
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"You're a really good artist, why aren't you doing that instead?"
"No one wanted to give me any money for the art they liked."
While i've gone over whether I should change my publishing schedule, I said "No!!" Because it's not that easy. It changes the experience for readers, it takes away the time I need to do editing if something is wrong or something can be done better, and I can't get an understanding of how pages flow together when they are posted (essentially) as they are done week to week. Does it sacrifice viewership? Sure does, but I'll get there when I get there. At this point there's no mulligans for things that look bad or sound awkward though, so getting it done the best I can is more important.
Anyway I really appreciate it!
I'd say that people who have no insight into this matter then how would they know? Some would only do this and that if they'd get some financial gain from everything. I mean, I can understand where they're coming from. I mean for people who don't decide to write a novel/draw a comic they cannot imagine the amount of work and there would be many who wouldn't move their finger in their free time to devote themselves to a project like that. Many people do dream about getting into drawing comics and imagine how we drop now all work, just do our thing and we get paid for that So the imagination versus reality is completely different.
Not personally, though I'm not surprised people think this way (though it didn't really occur to me either until you pointed it out XD) When I was talking to an IRL friend about my comic being public domain, he said I could make money from it via crowdfunding platforms like Patreon instead, in a way that sounded to me like he thought it was simple (though I can't prove this is how it actually sounded since it's been too long for me to remember the exact phrasing :P)
It does make me wonder about my perception of other fields though ... my assumption of how easy it is to get into fields I've never tried getting into is probably off base as well XD
I've gotten to a point where I hate to show my art to people because I'll get a million suggestions on what I should be doing with my art to make money, all of which are just nonsense.
Right? It's like, buddy, trust me, I'm aware of the existence of Patreon. I know it's possible to sell prints, t-shirts, and the like. I know there's this thing called Kickstarter. Do you know what you need to make any of that viable for more than pocket change?
A lot more followers. Like, a LOT more. Oh, and it helps if they're enthusiastic, die-hard followers, too.
... I wonder how many followers my coworker thought I had, now that I think about it. I wonder if she saw what she considers really impressive art, and just immediately assumed I was wildly popular. That wouldn't shock me.
For me it's kind of strange because I do get paid for my art generally, I do comissions, a lot of conventions in artist alleys, I have a couple of people on patreon, an online store with a friend and I hope to eventually make print versions of my comic and sell them online and at conventions, but I don't get paid for my comic yet, which is very difficult to explain to anyone who hasn't really grasped how crowdfunding self publishing works.
My parents are supportive but aren't quite sure why I'm making my comic available online for free if I eventually intend to sell it, and why I don't pitch it to traditionnal publishing (I've yet to explain the dire publishing situation for comics in my country plus the fact that my native language is english so any pitch would inevitably be a translated to french version) because though it's not a slam dunk, the people I've talked to in the industry say it would be possible with the right pitch. Other than that people who aren't in the art world tend to assume I'm not getting paid for my art at all because I'm not employed by any studio, I'm not really popping off on the socials and I don't sell my oil paintings because I make them as presents to friends,, so when I tell them I can make rent in 1 weekend at a convention they sort of look at me shocked.
So I'm in episodic novels and on Tapas I didn't make money. On Dreame I didn't make money. One webtoons I didn't make money. But on Mythrill I'm the second most viewed and one of the highest grossing authors with my two stories. It's about finding the right platform and fan base. At the start I had people assume I was making money already (surprise surprise I wasn't). It was a similar reaction, they were shocked. Now I do make money. Some it's what they expect, some it's less, some it's more. It depends on who you ask, what their thoughts are.
Something I had to learn early on as a freelance illustrator is that people will deliberately try to give the appearance of being more successful than they are, because looking like you're highly successful is a good way to get more work, as clients will have more faith in you if it looks like lots of other clients have faith in you.
...So it took me a really long time to realise that I wasn't horribly under-performing compared to my peers by only making a modest income. I was actually doing unusually well, and a lot of them just simply didn't let on how much they lean on having a wealthy partner or family, or how much debt they were in.
A lot of the high profile jobs for big name publishers don't pay well at all, because they know illustrators will take them for the prestige of being published by a big name publisher; it makes you look successful. So there's always this funny disconnect, where when I started doing jobs for clients they'd heard of, people stopped asking how much money I was making, and started to believe me when I said I was making a comfortable income off my work.... even though doing those big jobs was sometimes when I was at my most broke in actual finances! 
I think people are aware that my work at my day job working on edutainment pays most of my bills, and that my original comics and D&D content and stuff is a decent side-hustle. Sometimes I'm surprised by how much that side hustle makes... but also I know it's nowhere near enough that it'd pay my rent, and I don't think anyone thinks it is! Admittedly, I have a Northern accent, so I always sound like I have no money! 