Have you ever felt a bit insecure about your comic?

I lost two subscribers the past two days, and when your 'Tapas goal' is to reach 25, this can be heartbreaking.

The worst part is that the people who unsubscribe don't even bother to make a comment on an issue and say what was it that made them stop following the comic. Was it the story? The art? The characters? All together?

The most precious feedback is from the people who left, and it's usually the one a creator never receives.

I look at some comics who get hundreds of subscriptions with two-three issues, each being two pages (!!) and I see mine which is currently on issue 8 (about a hundred pages total counting all issues) and I have nine subscribers. And I can't help but wonder: "Is my series so incredibly niche that no one wishes to give it a chance? / Is the art so uncompelling it makes people close the tab the second they watch a panel? / Is the writing so incredibly boring?"

So yeah, I currently can't say I feel secure about my series at all.

Yes, to the point where I almost quit. It's quite a long story actually.

You see, there was this youtube review thread a year ago where the OP would review comics. Excepr that they refused to review some of them, they made a video about why they wouldn't review certain comics because in their opinion the writing was really bad or that the characters were really bland and superficial. To make a long story short I just assumed everything bad that was said applied to my comic without question. But it also badly hurt my self-esteem.

And then there were a few fanart contests this year I participated into and failed, they lowered my self-esteem for my art as well.

I'm still very insecure about it and I avoid critique/review threads like the plague even though I probably should do so. I don't know if I'll ever get over it.

(post withdrawn by author, will be automatically deleted in 24 hours unless flagged)

Simply put, if you look at your old art and think that it's bad, it's because you've learned since then. You've gained new perspectives and valuable skills and you've improved. That's a good thing. If you have never once looked at your art and thought that there was room for improvement, (this'll sound blunt but it's just the realities of art) you're lying to yourself and you probably having Dunning-Kruger.

If it makes you feel better, then redraw it. It's what I'm doing. Just don't get stuck in an endless loop. Know that you're constantly improving so you'll always have art that's not up to your current standards and that's okay. Again, it just means you're developing a better eye as an artist and that's gonna help you achieve your aspirations.

Yep, I've been super insecure to the point I couldn't create anything even though I wanted to, because I thought my skills weren't good enough.

For me the tricky thing is, how can you look at your art critically in order to improve, without getting negative and not wanting to create?

I think it's good to see the flaws and learn from your "mistakes", but still be proud of what you created. And not only look at the flaws, but try to find the strengths in your art as well, so you can keep repeating what works. A little bit of insecurity is good in order to improve.

Btw, I love when you can compare the first and last pages of a comic and see the improvements! Maybe it's good to redo old pages to gain new readers, but I often find the first pages super charming.

I am in the same boat. I doubt myself and then reread it, and depends on my mood, I will think it is great or sucks lol

I think it is normal. At least for me knowing all the cool stuff that I have planned later.

Something people don't tell you is that this feeling doesn't really go away. Ever.
I've been published, worked for some pretty big companies, placed in national competitions, I have a decent-sized, growing following and I still regularly feel like "...what if I suck though?". I look at friends I have with thousands or tens of thousands of followers on their comics who tell me my comic is good, and I can't get rid of that little voice in my mind that says things like, "they're just being nice to you, you're not really on their level. Their comics aren't more popular than yours because they've been running longer or because they're in more popular genres, those are just excuses you tell yourself, your comic just isn't that good. The people who hired you picked you because you're cheap, not because you're good."

But then... those people with popular comics, they're dealing with the exact same thing, they're thinking, "my comic isn't good, people are only reading because it has hot boys and tropes in it, oh god, what if my readership is declining? I've put years of work into this, what if people realise it sucks and get bored of it!?" or "What if this is the only good/popular thing I ever make and actually people only liked it for the tropes and won't follow me into my next project because they're not here for my skill at all?"

It's natural to feel that way. I've known people who have done huge work in comics and sustained a career for years who feel terrible imposter syndrome that they're actually a bad artist and some day somebody will have the guts to point it out and everyone will suddenly go "wait, they ARE a bad artist! chuck them out!"

There's no easy solution. Just remember, you're not alone in feeling this way. With art commodified as a "career", it's easy to conflate worthiness and profitability, and Tapas' UI does encourage this with that rather unpleasant little bar that makes people feel like they haven't "made it" until they get to 100 and then 250 subs, but the print industry has a similar thing with "breaking in", where to be a "proper comics artist" you need to have been published, but not just self-published, it has to be a recognised print publisher. It's all pretty toxic. In the end, the main thing is that you can reflect on your progress and feel proud of the improvement, and you can read through your comic and feel like you made an enjoyable read.

I feel the same way a lot of the time too! I tend to go through about a month where I'll think, why do I even bother with this anymore? But something usually happens that boosts me back into it. Even one like is motivation for me because I think well, at least someone likes it!

All the time. It’s mostly self doubt and feeling like I should be better and faster than I currently am.

I’m trying to look at that as more of a drive to keep improving though. I suppose if we were completely happy and confident in our craft then we would never improve or try out new things.

oh, all the time
but as you said, I too love working on my comic, but I'm always scared how other will perceive it, how will they interpret this, am I showing this thing in an understandable way, am I making any sense in this dialogue, am I the only one that think this character is fun, will I be able to tie it all together in the end etc etc

but still I keep going, I enjoy drawing the characters and being able to show their story, so as long as I enjoy it I'm just gonna keep on drawing it, and just have to think to myself that I will learn and get better in the progress and this feeling of insecurity might not always go away but maybe we can just find ways to learn to cope with it

Hollyyyyyy shit I'm always insecure about my comic haha. XD I'm very hard on myself in general and I'm very critical of my own work. However at the end of the day I like making it so that's all that matters.

I'm awfully insecure about my comic. I feel like my pages are lacking something and my art is just bad...
I don't want to come off as edgy and tryhard, too, so I'm super afraid sharing it with anyone.

Still, I enjoy working on it and the few fans it has.
That's what matters!

I'm always insecure about...most things I do. Including the comic.

Recently I had to look at my first pages, and wow, I don't even know how to do it that way anymore ( I honestly don't remember how I painted a certain way, etc) and the style of the characters seems like they were made by someone else.

The story part, well, I started writing romance/girls love comics because it was the only genre people care about my stuff lol, but because it's a genre I have not much experience with, either in personal life or in the things i consume, I guess I always think of myself as an intruder/outsider or something.

Some days I wonder if my comic is badly drawn, or if the plot is confusing, or if the characters are bland, and I think that other people are doing better.

When I was a kid I was secure about everything I drew. My brother and me would draw page after page and I had no problem drawing in front of other people and I drew comics for girls and gave it to them.
That changed when I started relearning to draw at the age of 40 and when I started to learn the theory, now everything looked wrong and it became impossible for me to finish anything because I always thought that I have to work on the fundamentals more and my mistakes were more obvious for me.
Now after learning and training over 5 years I´m trying to get back to creating without overthinking every little step, I don´t know if I call that being insecure, I know when it´s shit and want it to look better

I feel like this all the time! You're not alone!

I also get insecure when I see low readership.

I do see previous pages and see how I could have done better. But it is what it is.

I feel insecure about my comic 150% of the time.
I think it's because I'm very limited in skill and I literally have no idea what I'm doing.
Everything from the art and writing, I feel like I'm never good enough and that I'll lose all my readers in the blink of an eye.

I would strongly advise you to find a way out of thinking this way as it can eat you alive and make your life a living hell, specially if you have a mental illness like myself.