7 / 31
May 2020

LOL if all it takes for you to cry or be demotivated is one bad comment, you have a hard road ahead....

I mean, it was from a close friend. That has to hurt.

@Mari But anyway, don't get too down on yourself about this. We all have our preferences. Look on the bright side, at least you have a friend that %100 honest with you. :sweat_02:

You have some 10,700 subscribers who do like it though! Although I know close friend's opinions can matter a lot more than stranger's.

I've showed my work to close friends/family and sometimes get similar reactions. When someone I love doesn't like what I write, I comfort myself that 69 other people in the world are at least interested lmao. Your friend may just have different interests.

huggle awwww, that sucks! Well, thats only one person (and if they were a close friend then i know that they prob. didn't mean to be offensive, talk it out?) and there are a ton of people who would love your comic! the Tapas community is a super-supportive one, and I'm sure that they can help look at ur comic and get your hopes back up!

Edit: it's already up! Well then I'm sure that there are people who've read it and love it! (I'm gonna check it out rn!)

LOL it may not seem but I was trying to be supportive. There is no lack of testimonies in this forum of artists which were not supported by their family and they just bit the bullet and strive.

@Mari will get bad comments every once in a while. It comes with the 'job description'... you can cry all as you want or you can take the critics, evaluate if they make sense and move on.

I feel ya. I have a friend who told me about the same thing (not necessarily the same genres but still)

Maybe they just aren't interested in the subject matter, but think others might like it? Did they critique your art or is it just the premise that's a problem? I mean lesbian dark fantasy story sounds very exciting, and it means your friend is eager to read at least one of your stories :smiley:

@AdamBraveOfficial I think there's a difference between a total stranger and a close friend speaking their mind. At least for me the former means nothing and can be ignored while the latter can hurt a lot.

@Enigma_the_Slimy_Boi
he is my closest friend. And he just brushed something I have worked on for more than 10 years like it was nothing

@AdamBraveOfficial

It's almost as if there's some correlation in me being upset and him being my closest friend. I have had strangers tell me they outright hate my comic. It's not an issue.

@IndigoShirtProd
Yeah, that's true I guess :slight_smile:

@Kaylim
Yeah, I guess so. I just wanted to hear like something from a person who isn't inside the whole romance-bl genre since I don't trust the opinions of my readers, even though that sounds horrible. I hardly ever get comments other than "awww" or a variation of that, so I was just looking for someone to tell me what works and what doesn't.

@Mira_Astralis
Thank you. I'll talk with him later when I'm not so upset.

@DualDragons
That sucks :frowning: I feel your pain.

@gempompadour
They told me my main character cries too much (I kinda agree) and then critiqued my artwork some, which was all fine. It was just that comment that really hurt.

Have you tried speaking to him?
It's not uncommon for people to say something without thinking.
If he's as close a friend as you say, I'm sure he didn't mean to offend you.

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

I just notice, after this thread, that you have >10k subs. You are much more used to this 'Tango' than me, so... I just feel silly now and I take back LOL :sweat_smile:

I have to agree with Roxy, they said they're just not personally interested in this one particular project, which is...fine? Especially since they are not into this genre at all. But hey, they like your other stories :slight_smile: It doesn't feel like they wanted to offend you in any way, but maybe just tell them that it hurts and you really wanted to share with them.

@Mari

If it makes you feel better, I had a similar experience last year when I launched the first version of DRGN. A friend of mine her who had been supportive of me since day one flat out told me that she didn't like how DRGN looked, saying it was too color saturated for her tastes and looked more like a rough draft than an actual finished product. She then unsubcribed to all my stuff afterwards. She clearly was only trying to give good feedback, but it unfortunately cut pretty deeply given how bluntly it was stated. So I can get that sort of feeling and how badly a thoughtless comment, even if not ill intentioned, could come off as.

Ah you see, now that's the problem, your friend is a dude so of course he would be more interested in the lesbian comic than your gay one!

Stereotypes aside, unfortunately the only thing you can do in a situation like this is move on, keep on truckin'. Your friends and family, no matter how close you are, aren't always going to be supportive of the things you put years of work into. I have one friend whom I've known since I was 14, we're close but whenever I bring up my comic she is extremely disinterested. She checked the comic out the first time I mentioned it, but it was clearly not her thing, and that's alright.
It sucks, but in a way it's nice your friend was honest with you? Mine always said it was good whenever I asked for feedback or what she didn't like about it, didn't want to hurt my feelings I guess.

My husband hasn't a read a thing I wrote. He started one book and didn't even finish a chapter. I can't do anything to make him like fantasy when he's not into it.

I think that people who are closest to you are the worst to give you opinion. It could go either way, they might be too nice or plain harsh. And we expose ourselves the most when we let them read our stuff. So it's better to not do it. Strangers are your audience.

Don't let this get to you and don't take out your frustrations on your friend. Take the high road, say that you appreciate their opinion. Nothing else. Leave it at that, take a long breath, and take comfort in all the strangers that DO like your work. You don't need your friend's validation.

I know how insecurite can be really bad, i can imagine what you are feeling,but i think what your friend said is only a question of taste, dosen´t mean your work is bad. try to focus in what you like about your story,why you decided to do it in the first place,i'm sure other people like your story, i hope you feel better about yourself, trust in your potential. you don't have less value than anyone.

You have every right to be offended tbh. Showing someone you know your work is a thing of trust. Stranger are one thing, you don't know them, don't have to deal with them every day and speak to them casually. But with someone you know and are close with it's very different. And this was a really dismissive comment.

I've had friends look at my work, especially when I was publishing short stories ect back in the day I'd ask my mum to proof read them, and that was a massive step in trust because they were not her thing at all (in fact they were probably things most people would be embarrassed to show their mums) and she at least had the decency to say "it's not my thing but I'll tell you what I think as objectively as possible" with the understanding she wasn't the target audience. On the other extremeend I asked a friend to look at some designs for a project, I showed them one character design with just a name and got "oh not another story about a cishet white dude" and yeah that really offended me and I never asked them for advice ever again.

Unfortunately, when it comes to people you're close with those are your options. Talk to them and tell them that was a pretty insensitive if not down right rude thing to say and hope they understand, get mad and never ask them for advice again, or ignore it and just try to carry on. Now I'm older, I'd say at least try to talk to them and explain why it hurt you, or they'll just end up doing it again. There's a difference between "it's not really my thing" and "get to the thing I want you to do", after all, especially if you're just asking advice, not for them to like it. Comics and similar projects tend to be like their creator's baby after all and I doubt many people would go "I'm not interested in this child, have one I'm interested in".

In my experience, ignoring it and carrying on when you're hurt, even if they didn't mean to hurt you, can lead to festering and getting worse.

This comment doesnt say anything about the quality of your story. Just that it`s their least favourite.

Different stories appeal to people differently, so dont take it personally.