Have you guys been successful with your comics?

[solhawthorne]

Something different: I think I have been successful!

I actually finished a comic! Deerstalker was only 40 pages but this was significant to me. I managed to finish it senior year of high school while balancing all the other things going on at that time.

No, it's not financially successful, I never tried to sell it or ask for donations but that's not really important to me. Instead, it'll always be a reminder that I can actually finish a project from start to end, and that it is possible to manage my time and work a little bit each day.

[Croik]

We just had our first print run funded on Kickstarter, so yes, I'd call that a great success! Not much in the way of net profit, per se, but that wasn't our goal going in.

[dawgofdawgness]

Mmm... Kinda? I'm successful in the sense that my story got a lot more attention than I expected it to receive. I'm not gonna lie, when I posted my comic a year ago I really expected it to go famous overnight (i know, i know.. ). I was looking at all the other comics on the front page, examining what made them so popular.. One shot gags, a clean art style, bright colors, characters in their teens-20s... I made sure I included all of those and didn't really even think twice about a deeper concept before submitting it.
But after thirsting after fame for months and months, and being featured in the daily snack a couple of times, I realized that the sudden burst of happiness when I saw that I had gained subscribers only lasted for a moment. Then it was back to wanting more... I couldn't really get my mind off of numbers and found myself stressing over the feedback each time I posted.

"Ugh! How come this update didn't get as many views as last week's? Is it because Tuesdays don't have much traffic?"
"Man, did I really lose 10 subscribers this week?? Was it the content?? The art? Was it boring? i suck."

I realized that I wasn't ever going to be satisfied if I kept obsessing over numbers like that. So I decided to actually do something with Leftovers and give it a story. I turned my main character into a fame-obsessed artist who worried too much about numbers. That way it became much more personal and motivated me to work on it more. It's like Art Spiegelman said: why bother spending so much time on a story if it's not worth telling? Or something like that.
So yes, in that sense, I feel like I am successful with my comic since in the process of making it, I've taught myself something. The theme of Leftovers is just an important lesson I have to keep reminding myself whenever I post an update.

[OttoGruenwald]

I've been at it since May but I honestly think I'm floundering. Few views, few patrons, few subs.

The Power of Stardust | Tapas

I feel like I'm letting my artist down. We have killer art and yet we lag behind stick figure comics, and not by a little.

[DiegoPalacios]

Personally i see success as "levelling up", so if i`m doing better than before, i am being succesfull.

Actually i consider i am being successfull because i have learned a lot about making comics and because i have met awesome people in the way.

I am really happy with my reader`s engagement with my comic. They seem to really love the story, humor and the characters, so the comic is currently fulfilling its purpose.

I consider levelling up the quality of my comic another part of success. Just gotta be carefull with falling into perfectionism

Also i realized one of the things i want to do with my life is telling stories. I kinda suspected it, but with this experience i confirmed it. And figuring what someone wants is another way of success.

[amortelito]

Otto, your comic is absolutely incredible. I love the art, love the concept. I subbed and commented a week ago. The art is not everything, "stick figure comics" have a different appeal and became famous for different reasons. You could advertise a little more and try to find a niche that likes your type of story and engage a bit with the subs. Your comic is "new" in comparison with others, so that curve of having few subs and views is normal. (there are some comics that get famous overnight but that is rare, the rest of the artists are here at least for a year before getting traction) Don't get discouraged!! Keep up with the good work!

[ble]

This post was flagged by the community and is temporarily hidden.

[Klaustasya]

Umm...nice question xD i wonder myself that a lot (lol)
Usually my main site for comic posting is Webtoon because. In my opinion, it has more traffic.
After one week of daily posting (two pages for chapter) i found myself with 200 subscribers and over 4k views, with a 8.77 rating....
I was shook. In a good way.
But i do knoe that real successful comics have way greater numbers, so i'm not boosting myself ^^
I don't know if i'm successful or not xD

[graytonic]

I reached a point where I never thought I could be.

With 3k on Tapas and 15k on Webtoons, I don't consider myself as "successful", but I'm grateful and happy that I can even make income through my hobby!

One thing that changed my growing pace drastically was crosspromos with other BL creators on Webtoons.
I joined LINE chat groups and we help each other out, give criticism and tips and I saw that my art over all improved way faster as well.

If there's one thing I can recommend with my "success", it's reach out to others!!
The worst thing that can happen is that they say no.

[bear1]

Oh my, thank you

[RudePanda]

yeah your work is great!!! Keep it up!

[Azifri]

Popularity and income? Lol no

But my skills have improved a lot since I started drawing my comic and that was the initial goal: to force myself to keep drawing.

[lynestjules]

Your comic looks great. I'll definitely read it.

[racarter]

I’ve been more successful than I’d ever thought I be, especially considering my first chapter isn’t anything stellar (chapter 2 shows massive improvements).

It’s mostly been my family and some friends online that have been supportive, and I was surprised to see random people I don’t even know enjoying it. Actually, as far as subscribers go, my family and friends haven’t signed up and subscribed much at all (just my mom and maybe one other). And given I have 19 subs, that’s mostly people I don’t know who like my comic.

And I consider that a success!

[orchidesyl]

By those terms, my comics are very unsuccessful! ^ u ^ ; )
I do find personal success through having strong work ethics and portfolios among my peers which inspires them to do better, or to be able to complete a commission which required me to fully illustrate a 10 story comic.
Success should be define within your means and your happiness afterwards.

[AxeWinston]

I only started comics 2 years ago. I started with novels years back.

For success, it depends. My feeling was rather neutral. I had moderate success funding
my comic a few times with kicsktarter. (It was a lot of work) And I did my first con in the summer. The first day was brutal but I didn't do too bad when the weekends picked up.

Some con attendees recommended I give Tapastic a go to expand my audience so here I am now.