How do you feel when you see a comic that has 1/4 your art skills have more subscribers than yours?

Aspie_Gamer 2017-02-26 22:13:31 UTC #35

I've seen it go both ways before. Gorgeous looking comics usually get the attention they deserve. Even comics with an aesthetically pleasing, but not necessarily "good" art style still get a fair amount of attention. In any case though, just because somebody has more subs than you doesn't mean their comic as a whole is better than yours. Case in point, I've seen comics that had a ton of subscribers, but as somebody who loves his writing and will argue that good writing can salvage lackluster art, I can tell you that pretty much fuck all happened in some of these comics with huge sub counts regardless of how they looked.

SpavVy 2017-02-27 00:15:39 UTC #36

I feel nothing, I just keep working on my own comic.
Why spend time thinking about the success of someone else's work when you could be working on your own?

digitalvalium1 2017-02-27 00:30:04 UTC #37

I'm still dealing with actually wanting people to see my work so..... no, it really doesn't bother me.

cleo_san 2017-02-27 11:19:17 UTC #38

@Savannah words to live by! <3

My main problem is: I don't think of the success of other people's comics, but I get entangled in reading so much of those gorgeous stories that I sometimes forget to draw XD

Lindsette 2017-02-27 11:35:29 UTC #39

It's all marketing. Really you need to find your niche of people who want to see your content. And that might not be on tapastic, you could have a better chance of it on tumblr or deviantart or webtoons. But you need to give them incentive to come to tap(I post mostly here for the ad cent haha) And you can do that through posting here first and have your other sites a week behind, or however you wanna do it.
Posting on the forums is good too, because everyone here presumably already has a tap account. Just be friendly and talk to people, share it whenever. I don't have a big following but I have been using these tricks and I've gotten a few more followers from it.
I don't think it has much to do with art skill as much as personality

Overlord_Thundersnow 2017-02-27 13:55:53 UTC #40

I have a zombie in my comic and I was considering making him my comic's avatar and slapping "ZL" for Zombie Love on the icon in order to generate the views necessary to live the lush and luxurious lifestyle I so richly deserve.

Herofeeder 2017-02-27 14:19:35 UTC #41

my comic has a character that has a butt for a head ....i have exactly the right amount of subs i deserve

BlackMantaStudios 2017-02-27 14:24:15 UTC #42

I'm indifferent to it; they may have deserved it, they may not. None of my business.

I really hate the entitledness implicitly attached to this "why do they have more subs than me?" mindset. Like, you're implying that people owe you something just because you have "better" art, or you think you have a "better" comic. They don't.

Waterdrain 2017-02-27 16:14:17 UTC #43

It really doesn't bother me that much because I know there will always be a bigger fish in the pond when it comes to things. I try to stay positive and keep working hard on what I'm making because, as pretentious as it sounds, I know that I'm my own greatest fan. So I'd would feel a little bad for a bit but then my next thought would be "Yeah, You go man! Make that awesome comic!" they probably have the same anxious feelings as everyone else when they see some one who has more followers than them, so yeah I guess I feel pretty indifferent to it also.

DMBrigman 2017-02-27 18:53:42 UTC #44

It doesn't bother me. Different people have different preferences when it comes to what they want to invest their time in.

Honestly, you can't just judge a series on its art, you also have to look at what value it brings to a reader. Some readers value in-depth stories and don't care much about the art. Comics like Dinosaur comics, XKCD, OwlTurd, etc may not be artistic masterpieces but they entertain and that is what their audience is looking for.

I have subscribed to series that have gorgeous art but poor storytelling, and after awhile stopped reading them. As an artist I do understand the effort and skill that goes into what they create, but as a reader pretty art was not enough to keep me engaged. Art may get people to give your series a view, as that is an indication that time has been invested, but if there aren't interesting characters and an engaging story then people won't stick around.

Ultimately, it doesn't do anyone any good to be bitter about why another series gets more views when you don't think it should. A comic's popularity has more to do with the audience's tastes than the creator itself. Just do what you enjoy and if your work is good you too may gain subscribers.

Gatsumann 2017-02-28 03:09:31 UTC #45

I noticed this trend recently having studied hundreds if not thousands of patreons, webcomics, you name it, in preparation for launching our latest comic later this year (we've done previous comics in years past). It's been illuminating. I've accrued some data, and yes there is something to this whole BL thing...sorry, there just is. I say this having looked at thousands of different comics over the years.

My friend and I have been around the comic and convention scene a long long time. We have watched how comics evolved along with the internet from the 90's to now. One thing that has utterly flabbergasted us, and made us feel immensely disheartened, is the insane amount of money this newfound level of obsession with yaoi/boys love has become. You can also add in anything that remotely gives off a social justice vibe to that list too. I truly don't get it, not completely anyway.

I see people producing incredible, varied, beautiful work, leagues above this stuff, and they make pennies compared to these folks making BL comics and generating HUGE sums of money that my friend working at an insurance company doesn't even make and he's got one hell of a cushy high paid day job. It's. Insane.

I also found this a bit off putting "Setting a goal of making $50,000 a year doing a webcomic is probably not achievable either because only a tiny fraction of webcomics achieve Homestuck or One Punch popularity."

Quite a few people are now starting to make incomes in the $25,000 - $50,000 range. Wanna guess what genre is getting a lot of it? BL, SJW comics, and of course, Hentai/porn. (heck that's part of what drives BL too). NSFW stuff dominates patreon (but BL and LGBT stuff tend to do quite well even amongst that content).

It's already hard enough to sell original work, but clearly if you want to make money BL is the way to go. And considering some of us are actually trying to make a decent living at this, this stuff can be deeply depressing. I could, if I chose to, give you examples of objectively and technically beautiful art from a variety of comics, and then give you a list of comics that either take the SJW or BL angle and are often way less technically sound (though some are perfectly well done to be fair) and the difference is pretty stark. Just post your BL comics on tumblr and you have yourself an income it seems. Unreal.

joannekwan 2017-02-28 03:59:38 UTC #46

But porn's always made a lot of money. If there's a demand for it, those people will pay good money to see it, especially if it's a niche. I mean, just look at all the successful artists on Fur Affinity (not to say FA's all porn, but a lot of it is).

Gatsumann 2017-02-28 04:02:55 UTC #47

I agree, NSFW/porn etc is popular across the board. I feel like if you want to really make big $, you better be awesome at anatomy and love doing adult stuff.

The LGBT niche and BL in particular is a real thing though. It's a niche and overall interest that has been bubbling up and up and up in fandom in general as the years have gone by. Fur Affinity is def. a valid example of adult niche stuff being popular for sure, but BL really seems to outdo even that on the profitability spectrum.

GoldenPlume 2017-02-28 09:54:12 UTC #48

A 2015 SKTCHD survey reported that 48.2% of cartoonists who responded earned under $12,000 annually.

JKNNKL 2017-02-28 12:44:31 UTC #49

ubbuhuhbbhu ybuuhbhubnhu iokkiokkoko ededed

Louistrations 2017-02-28 12:57:38 UTC #50

I just want to say; I saw more new traffic when Carlos mentioned me in a comic description than the day my comic got stuck in the popular section on the homepage. XD

Devika 2017-02-28 13:20:57 UTC #51

For the most part it's a quite simple equation: The more you have to think (for any form of entertainment), the fewer people you'll attract. Speak to basic, universal gut-feelings like lust or injustice, and you'll appeal to a broader audience due to the lower barriers of entry and quicker satisfaction.

Hollywood has been doing it for years. B-movies. Stupid comedies. Mandatory sex scene in every blockbuster. Simple storylines. And it works! They keep raking in the money, while only a few of us sigh and wonder why the scripts can't get smarter. For truly thoughtful movies, you need to look elsewhere - and they have smaller audiences. The game industry feels the pull towards simplicity too: The explosion of quick-fix mobile games vs. the "classic" type of games you need to invest time and emotions into.

BUT.

One. They won't last long most of the time. Not everyone cares about this aspect, but nobody will remember porn flick xyz 20 years later. A deeper movie with a message? If it strikes a chord with a large enough audience, it'll last much longer.

Two. A deeper, more thoughtful kind of movie or comic can get popular. But it's much harder, because you need to present thoughtful content while being clear and simple in its delivery.

However, there's another aspect to the insane popularity of BL and "Social Justice"-comics: They're niche, and this is the only place the readers find what is shunned in the rest of society. So of course they're going to throw their money at something that really speaks to them! It's a kind of revolt against the mainstream.

Edit: As for the OP - art is not everything. So no, I'm not feeling it's unfair if that's what's implied here.

Gatsumann 2017-02-28 20:22:15 UTC #52

Your point? I said quite a few, not a majority, (about a 1/3 are apparently doing pretty well according to that data btw).Half of the working population of the U.S. makes less than 30k and lives in poverty or marginally above. 38 percent of all American workers made less than $20,000. I never suggested comics was an area in which you can expect to be rich. But plenty more make a real living through this medium via patreon then they used to. BL, LGBT, and SJW flavored comics comprise a large portion of that, as does adult content overall. Original work has always been a tough sell.

digitalvalium1 2017-02-28 20:34:52 UTC #53

This is true. Though the average income is much higher, the average doesn't tell anything close to the entire story. The mode, (statistically speaking, the mode is the most common response) is significantly lower than the average and is not published. Extremely high incomes in the top 1% of the distribution skew the results so severely that the arithmetical mean (the average) is useless in discussing income. The median wage (the center point in the data set) is much more useful, but still skewed towards larger than what most people can ever expect to make.

In short, if your net profit is $20,000 after all business expenses are paid, you're doing fairly well. Kind of like the mouse, safe and warm in a pile of poo. You can either enjoy it, or complain about the smell and get eaten by the cat who simply hasn't found you yet.

Gatsumann 2017-02-28 20:38:35 UTC #54

Listen, you aren't educating me on anything I don't know. The statistics I gave are the median, not the average. Your point only elucidates my own, in that people are likely even poorer than the BLS statistics suggest, which I would concur with. Again, the fact that people make anything off their art is in and of itself, quite an accomplishment, and it appears due to things like patreon, more people are starting to at the very least, produce solid additional income streams, and some can even pull off a modest living with it. Apparently, a smaller but no less real subset of those folks are doing incredibly well. We also know a great deal of said content is BL, LGBT, SJW or related content. Adult stuff always does well, so that's a given.