"I make comics!" "Oh..."

[awesomefeelsman]

I don't tell people what I do, they'll just suddenly come to me and say "wow, you make comics?" and I'd just respond with "maybe."

I love what I'm doing, I just don't feel like telling people that I make them. From experience, the more you push people to do something like read your comics or subcribe because it's awesome makes them feel bad. So I just let my comic sit around for everyone to see and share if they want to. Not everyone's gonna like it but I'm thankful to those who do.

[fuyudust]

I have a day job so I normally don't get that, I don't really want people I know in real life know about my artist life. But the other day I was having lunch with my artist friend. An old classmate of his from highschool saw us from another table, then decided to come by to say hi, my friend is working at home as a freelance artist and not really take good care of himself, so he kind of has a jobless appearence, and since we are both artist, there are papers with our drawing all over the table.

Seeing those, that guy smirk and ask what do my friend do, you all know how hard it is to explain all these anime/manga/cartoon/comic related works to those normies, so my friend just pointed at the drawings and said "I just stay home and draw these"

I swear I saw the disregard slided through that guy's eyes "oh you're still into these kind of things", then started talking about life and money and family responsibility and then about him, his job, his hardship in life etc... I could not stand it anymore so I asked "what's your salary ?"

He gave us a number and I was suprised how low it is compare to all that confident talk, then I asked my friend "How much money do you make a month, by doing art commission ?", I already knew the number is x3 times higher than that guy, but I still asked. I wanted that guy to realize he picked the wrong guy to teach life lesson. But my friend picked a number that is a little lower than that guy's to answer my question

That still shut him up but I was not satisfied at all, why even lying ? My friend later told me that he got this kind of situation a lot, normies don't believe him if he tells them the true, they even doubt he can really make any money with anime arts, unless he brings his tax return document with him everywhere he goes, and that is totally lame... there's no need to go all the way to explain those things to people who didn't even care about you and your works.

[xanedis]

That is rather saddening to hear. It's an unjust world out there.

[craicin]

I think sometimes, its about how you say it. Like I've only got impressed gasps, that i can draw lmao.

but it can be kind of a strange direction when its my partners family line-up of Mathematician, Engineer, Scientist, Surgeon and then "does cartoons".

[Shanny8]

At some people are lucky that they can blurt out "I do comics". I can't- coz then people wanna start turnin the wheels in their heads and the next thing I hear is, "Can you draw me?"

[LordVincent]

I think the key here is to be confident in your brand and professionality. I've noticed that the more confident I've acted, the more people have trusted in the value of my content before even seeing it.

Do not give in to their prejudice, don't waver, don't lose your faith in your work.

Comics and art are valuable things and require a lot of skill, effort, practice and money for YEARS UPON YEARS in order to do in a successful manner. Have pride in what you've acheived because it's way more than what most people can even get close to making.

Don't be shy about the things you've made. It may feel like bragging, but if you've finished a certain amount of stories or chapters, don't be afraid to make that clear if they start doubting you. If they start the "it doesn't make money" or "noone cares about comics anymore" bullcrap, just refer to the comic artists that make $9k a month on patreon.

The main reason artists and comic creators aren't respected more is out of cultural ignorance.

[Wezboy]

I once was asked to draw one of my characters, on a napkin... with a blue ink pen... on one of my job interviews... could it be any worse than that? It's like, the whole room's eyes staring at me, probably judging me. I never felt so much like a sheep surrounded by a group of lions in all my life lol.

[joe_galindez]

Did you do it? Was it a reasonable request, or a good time to draw a giant middle finger?

[Wezboy]

I wish I could have drawn a middle finger, because I got so nervous because he got me by surprise hahaha, and if came out SO BAD I'm not used to draw with pens on napkins lmao

[Wezboy]

like... why the napkin bruh

[LCT_m_a_d]

Usually I get completely dominated or dismissed

Me "I'm working on a webcomic..."
Other person "oh i did a comic a few years ago!!! Here let me show you my first series that won xyz " talks for hours about their own art life story.

I kinda want to interupt them and say "wait didnt you at least want to know what my series is about?".

[Kura]

For me my family is very well aware that I work and make money off my comics and novels.

Though for relatives I don't often see much, it's more of a "You're still doing that? When are you going to grow out of that and do some real art?" while for people I don't know it's usually a "Oh so you work for MARVEL then????"

For the most part I just tell people I don't know that I work in sequential art, and they rarely pry further than that. While estranged family members, well nothing I can really do about that.

A lot of the time though it'll be on my end, I'll say I work on comics and the other party they will be really interested and ask me all kinds of questions about it... but I really don't want to go into it as it's not impressive since it's mostly just indi work unless I happen to land a contract, with even contracts all being indi work, and indi is something anyone can jump in on... so it's just not impressive at all. I got nothing to brag about.

[joe_galindez]

"Let me draw it in the air for you."

traces outline of gigantic humdinger

[xanedis]

"Yes, but I won't."
"I've got no time for lesser beings."

...The things that cross our heads, but we never say. Maybe that's for the better. XD

[NanettesClouds]

Heads up in case ya'll want to continue the artists VS writers discussion I've made a new thread here:

The title is a bit of a joke, and I certainly don't want this conversation to turn into a fight. My other thread sorta derailed into the ol' "artists vs writers" argument, and I think the discussion that was happening there was interesting, and that there's more to be said, but talking about it in the other thread would be inappropriate. Here's how I wan't to frame this discussion though. The question isn't "Who's job is harder, Artists or Writers?" It's "What are the specific challenges…

I'm glad that this thread has gotten back on topic at this point :V But I feel like there's def more to be said on the other topic.

[panda3291]

Other Artists: You need to pick a specialization to get into one of the bigger jobs and focus on that.

Family: Pfft. That's not a real job. You're a waste of talent.

Other people: THATS AMAZING. WHY ARE YOU WORKING HERE? WHY ARENT YOU WORKING ON MOVIES?!

[themecraftmail]

I once saw my friend had webtoon, and I produced to ask if he new any comics about squared faces, and said no.
I never talked to him again,(that part was fake).

[Rhombik]

I don't tell many people but the ones I do are usually quite supportive and nice.

But I do present it as a learning aid, not as a comic.

I tend not to bring it up unless it comes up in conversation. I'm not against a bit of self-promo but I like to choose my moments. It seems to pay off.

[Kimmicomics]

Usually when I tell people that I make comics, They are surprised and they always ask if i also make the Donald Duck comics.
Then My face usually goes to squidward mode, and I show them my horror manga. Usually after that they tent to say thing like oh woah that is different or looks good. Or I didn't expect this.

SO the horror is kinda breaking the ice,...

[Kimmicomics]

Usually I just start doing other stuff or pretend that I get a text message XD
I have bumped into some of those. It can be really annoying. Usually I give them a minute or two to wrap it up, and if not I'll lead the conversation somewhere else.