I might quit my comic

[aqua03]

So recently, I've been thinking of quitting working on my comic DRAGOONS: Days & Knights and possibly just my webcomics as a whole for one reason or another.

Putting aside the burnout and other things I've been struggling with, I was recently involved in some major drama with another creator regarding our creative works that ended up with our friendship getting irreparably damaged to the point they won't even acknowledge my existence or acknowledge anyone who asks about what happened to cause us to break our friendship. The drama mostly involved the world and characters of DRAGOONS/DRGN and now I'm having trouble separating DRAGOONS from the drama because it just feels like a painful reminder of the friendship I lost over seemingly stupid reasons. (The drama was namely all caused by something completely unintentional on their part and I just got really touchy and mad about it due to some problems I was struggling with IRL at that time.)

I don't know what I'll do. Part of me wants to at least stick it out until the buffer is done in a few weeks to see what I think, but I also feel like i should just delete it an move on with my life. Especially since I haven't really been satisfied with it in regards to art or story direction (I can't think of any meaningful way to continue the story past Chapter 1.) My friendships are far more important than any dumb comic book or fantasy characters I could come up with. I clearly built my friendship with them off of the wrong things and now I'm paying the price for that mistake.

SO I guess that's that. I think I might just quit working on DRAGOONS or possibly just webcomics/Tapastic in general. It's not like I have anything better to do, anyways. (EGT and Alpha Alpaca have both wrapped up, so I don't really think I have any other commitments here if I do quit DRAGOONS.)

I guess you can check out my comic here if you want to do so...

DRAGOONS: Days & Knights | Tapas

[BobbyjoeX]

I was once friends with someone that i ended up breaking the friendship with cause well, they were an asshole, this had involved my characters at the time since we were doing a group effort.

with the Release of Royal, a lot of those old characters are starting to seep into it and it makes me feel better that i can look at them again without getting angry. it took 9 years.

i guess what i'm saying is if you need to take some time, do so.... but dont fully quit if you enjoy doing comics

as for being on Tapas, i made a lot of enemies on Tapas :D, ones used to be good friends and it was just from me being myself and having mental problems, you'll never satisfy everyone, the only thing you can do is exist and linger around to drive em mad XDD

[vothnthorvaldson]

Quitting is a bit drastic.
What about focusing on your other comics for now?
You'll see what happen with time (weeks/months), when you think of Dragoons: either you'll remember the fighting and may take the decision to actually stop the comic; or you may mostly remember the comic itself and get renewed interest.

[yansusu]

To be honest, I understand your sentiment really well. I was in roughly the same situation two years back just that it wasn't a single person but the whole writing community I was in. That and some issues that cropped up in my real life led me to putting down the novel series I was working on and I plunged into writer's block for a solid one and a half year where I wasn't able to finish anything.

I didn't delete anything but knowing that the first half of the series was out there and the second half didn't come made me feel even worse. I still didn't delete it because ... well, I had worked on that for a long time. And I still had the faint hope that someday, I'd be able to finish things.

Now, after two years have gone by, I've started over. I never finished that series and I likely never will - at the very least, I won't in the way I started it because I've moved on and the style just doesn't fit me anymore. That's a bit sad but thinking about it doesn't hurt me anymore. I was also able to start something new and I'm proud af when I look back at what I did in the past year and realize that I've almost achieved more in this one year than the several years I spent in my old writing community.

I think what I really want to say: I was in that situation once and it nearly made me give up on creating altogether. It's just something that can hit you really hard. I took some time off (alright, that was forced to a certain degree but well), involved myself in new things and when I was finally over things, I was able to make a comeback.
And I think that I wouldn't have been able to make that comeback if I hadn't let go of my old community and hadn't walked away from everything, just doing my own thing again. Some friends and some acquaintances have to be let go, some projects need to be let go too. But at the very least, the work is something that you did so maybe let it stay around. You're probably still very hurt right now (which is understandable) but you shouldn't do anything rash. Just take some time off (really off - don't look at that person, don't look at that project), do something else and then ask yourself how you are feeling. Maybe it won't be as bad anymore at that time and you can pick the project up again or maybe you still don't want to look at it but might want to start something new. Just give yourself time to figure it out and I think the figuring out comes on its own, not by constantly thinking about it.

[aqua03]

I've also have just been thinking of handing the keys for DRAGOONS over to one of my friends, just so that my idea won't die even if I've moved on. That, and they could probably do it a lot better than I ever could as well.

[TAMAnnoying]

I’ve had to quit some of my comics for similar reasons. My last comic Morgan and Dragons was actually somewhat of a collaboration with my group of friends (I did most of the writing and editing along with the art but it was all their characters from a game we played). I’ve long since broken up with the group due to a lot of social problems we all have with each other. Since the break up I tired to continue the comic without them but ultimately it was unhealthy.

For me, I was holding onto an aspect of my life I didn’t actually want to keep as it was a love child of the group of friends. Trying to keep the work alive was more damaging to my mental health then it was actually helping me.

It sounds like you still like your ideas and comics, since your thinking of handing them to someone else. I’d say that maybe before you make a drastic choice like quiting the comic world cold turkey or giving your idea to someone else, you should just take a break and do a few things for yourself. Find new friends, go on a vacation to a new place, basically allow yourself to step away from the situation completely and enjoy yourself. Then maybe come back to the question again if you want to quit this comic and start a new one, collaborate with someone new, or maybe stop making comics all together.

Ultimately just do what makes you happy rather then doing what you think you -should- do

[aqua03]

I just wish there was a way to let the person I had a falling out with know that I value their friendship more than any stupid comic book or crossover RPG or anything so that even if we never restore our relationship to what it was before everything happened, we could at least part ways with some form of mutual understanding and respect. Because they were a really good friend and we did have a good time chatting about stuff like video games and movies we liked among other things before it all went to pot and they stopped talking to me.

[AceRagz]

buddy sometimes you don't always get closure and that is something you have to accept at some point if it happens. just don't let it wreck everything else in your life.

[Jenny-Toons]

@AceRagz basically laid it all down.

Even more so, sometimes the person you had a fallen out with has moved on. They just probably don't care anymore, probably will have forgotten about the argument and/or you, and you lingering around or continuing to try and get in touch just won't affect them. As harsh as that is, and not saying that person has done this completely, it's true sometimes. And it's not even in bad intentions -- some people are just firm in their decisions and move on.

It's one of those things that happens in life. We can try to ask ourselves and say "well, what if I said something different", but we just can't do that. We can't control the past, but we can control our present.

Disregarding the quarrel -- do you still want to work on it at all? Does a part of you still like the content? If so, I feel it would help to take a break from it but not outright quit. There's no shame in putting the work on the backburner, especially if the argument is still fresh in your mind. But don't let it take away something that you really do enjoy doing.

Sometimes, you can't get the closure you desire, and while that's not always ok, it is something we have to acknowledge while still knowing the things we can control. This could be a part of your own closure, of taking a break and assessing your feelings. After all, self-care is important.

[Maps]

Wait so were you in a collab and that's why your comic was involved in the drama?

I think if it's yours and yours alone, you should definitely continue to make it. Just don't get it involved in any group-type stuff, and just quietly push your chapters out while only focusing on your subscribers.

I'm sure this comic means a lot to you, so it'd be a shame for your idea to get passed on to someone else when it's clear you want it to continue on.

[aqua03]

Thanks.

No, it wasn't a collab comic in the traditional sense. But my characters were a heavy part of a sprawling text-based character RPG on this forum with a few others and I was kinda sorta co-leading the main overarching plot with the friend and our clashing writing styles just seemed to be nearly completely irreconcilable and we ended up having a lot of clashes over minor stuff because of our conflicting writing styles, especially because their comedy could get kind of dark at times and it seemed that because I was kind of the "second on command" at times, most, if not all of eventually, of the dark comedy ended up being aimed at my characters. Specifically the ones from DRAGOONS given that those were the characters I was using the most in the RPG and it really started to weigh me down as a creator. Especially since it seemed that the others involved weren't getting the same harsh treatment my characters were for their characters. By the time they said that they weren't targeting my guys on purpose, we were both at our breaking points and I just ended up quitting the whole thing out of spite. Which led to them saying that when I tried to return after cooling off and getting into a better state of mind than I had been, they wouldn't even acknowledge anything I said and had already scrapped all of my characters' important bits in the big climax of the arc we all had been building up to.

[Maps]

Aww man that’s such a shame! I can see how you felt targeted as well. But despite all that, I still think you should continue your comic for your subscribers, but mainly for yourself. It’s YOUR story and YOUR characters and you shouldn’t hold back just because of that one person.
Maybe staying out of that group is going to be healthy for you and your comic.

[aqua03]

Thanks. Yeah, I'm not sure. Especially since I realized that I really don't know where to take my story after Chapter 1 and in my depression, i think I've forgotten how to draw my characters well as well. I guess I'll take a break and see how I feel towards it in the coming weeks.

[aqua03]

Honestly, the thing is is that every time I decide to fully quit DRAGOONS, I feel a tremendous weight being lifted off of my shoulders, but when my friends encourage me to not quit and i have second thoughts on the subject, I just feel miserable again. I feel I'm between a rock and a hard place i regards to my work.

[joannekwan]

In that case, I would leave it.
Put it on an indefinite hiatus.
Then maybe months or even years in the future you can revisit it again.

[aqua03]

Yeah, I was thinking that as well.

I just hate how much my moods fluctuate regarding it and my creative projects as a whole.

[joannekwan]

my moods fluctuate regarding it and my creative projects as a whole.

Relatable.

Like I had a hard time with my health in the past year and a half. I thought my ennui with one of my projects was just a result of not feeling great physically. But now that I've gotten better, I'm quite certain I'm just ready for that project to come to a close.

People grow and change and age. Sometimes a project just can't keep up with you personally.

[Reign]

I didn’t think of an indefinite hiatus. That’s a good idea. I still think you should keep DRAGOONS stored in a safe place, but a hiatus like what has been mentioned is a marvelous idea.

[aqua03]

Yeah, I'm beginning to feel that with DRAGOONS. (I had been working on it in one form or another since I was 14 and I realized that I think my attempts at trying to make all of its buffet table of elements work together well is just probably making me more miserable in regards to working on it.)

@Reign

Yeah, I think I'll make that announcement to the rest of my followers soon on TAPAS.

[BobbyjoeX]

i was kinda referiing to a hiatus in my post, just forgot to mention it =w=, but yeah, that is the best thing sop that years down the road wqhen you finally feel up to it, you're not going "damn, i deleted everything, damn you past me!"