I personally understand this plight. I deal with an uphill battle with my webcomic considering it's a traditional comic (markers, pens, etc) that had an awkward start in a website full of well-polished digital comics. It's 200+ pgs in now and the story has quite started rolling already but readers I find has a tendency to not 'like' comics that are traditionally made.
here's the link to give you an idea of what I mean.