Is making comics even worth it?

Hi

I have a story about why I make comics. When I was a freshman, I used to draw comics in my notebook, and one of my classmates would always read them and borrow my notebook. He was my first and only reader.

I was able to finish an entire season using the same method. I realized it's not about how many people read your comics, how much money you can make from them, or how famous you will become.

It's all about how you bring your own story to life. Remember, you have great stories in your head that no one else can tell.

You improve as you write. You write again, and you get better. The same can be said for my first and current webcomic. I started with terrible drawings, but I was determined to tell this story. While telling the story, I can learn as well.

Hope this inspires you.

Here's my comic if you really want to see how terrible I have drawn first then improved along the way:

Short answer: If you're making a comic for anything other than your own pleasure, no, it's not worth it.

It's not worth it for the money (even successful comic artists in traditional publication need second jobs to survive, never mind online folks), it's not worth it for the recognition because the only guarantee is that people will look at your drawing for about 2 seconds when it took you hours to draw, it's not worth it for the fame because that takes a huge amount of luck as well as your effort and no one is guaranteed luck...

Not only that, it's one of the most time consuming forms of art after 2D animation, the average person and even artist rarely recognises how time consuming it is (hence why you're so surprised at the time it takes to produce a short chapter, it really does take that long for most people with similar styles). It has to be worth it to you to be able to tell your story and reread it back and strive to improve your art and storytelling before it's worth anything to anyone else.

The feeling you're describing does seem a little like the start of a burnout, if you're also:
- feeling exhausted to the extreme with little to no reason for that feeling
- having difficulty focusing on tasks
- irritable, or with frequent mood swings
- thinking/worrying about a task when you're not doing it, but once you get the opportunity to do it you can't
- want to do a lot of things but have no energy to do them
- feeling worthless, or like you are failing because you are resting while everyone else is productive

It might be burnout or a symptom of a wider problem.

Unfortunately for burnout the only real solution is to force yourself to rest and also force yourself to not feel guilty for resting. If you don't have other hobbies than art, you can try doing different type of art that has nothing to do with any project and never will. Like if you're a mainly digital artist, get a notebook, go outside and draw some of the flowers or vegetation you can see there. If it's ugly, good, that's what it's there for. Just take your mental foot off the gas pedal for a bit

You need to be kind to yourself.

We've all been there, with launching a comic, hoping everyone's going to love it, feeling like this is the one, this one's gonna go places, and then seeing the numbers and going "...Oh... Oh no... is... is my comic actually bad? Am I just wasting my time?"
I had to get over the fact that Errant, while it's a side earner, isn't a massive hit of a comic. It's got a small, dedicated readership, but it's probably never going to have the sort of mass appeal where making it is my job... and that can suck to think about, because ah man... I love making Errant, I really do think it's my best work. I still remember the time I asked some people with a big Tapas following about it, and somebody was like "Ah, no, yeah that type of thing isn't fashionable, it's probably not going to get a big audience Tapas" my vision blurred for a second and I felt like I was going to faint or throw up. It was that hard a thing to hear after all the work I put in.
...But I chose to continue anyway and to see what I could do with a comic like this. It's made me some money, it gets me a bit on the side on Patreon, and the kickstarter went okay so... even if it's not going to get a Netflix series any time soon, or pay my rent... you know, it's okay!

No comic is ever a waste of time. Every comic you make will teach you something, and every comic, as part of your portfolio, has the potential to lead to bigger things.

You have a pretty good looking comic, and you've gained over a hundred subs and a thousand likes. That's a solid start.

Consider doing a review of your progress so far. Sit down and write on some notes or paper, or in a document a list of things that you really like about your comic and feel proud of, things that went down well with the audience or that people commented on, and then things you feel like you could improve on.
If you're feeling up for it, you could ask for reviews on the forums or discord (but I know this can be scary, so no pressure!).
Then you'll have a better overview of where to go from here, and what might be involved in making a comic to build a bigger audience and making money, so you can decide if that's what you want to aim at, or if you want to just do comics for fun, or try something else for a while.

It might be that all you really need is a little holiday for personal development. Just some time to read some art and comics books, try some different drawing techniques and to brainstorm fresh stories or approaches to promotion.

I'm a punk rocker and this mindset stands for everything I'm against

Forgot to mention this. But sometimes when we lose our spark/inspiration it is good to go back to our origins. Go back to what made you want to start your comic. What did innocent XiuLyn want by starting their series?

Don't forget, if you feel like it is time to finish your project and start a new one then go ahead and do it. Nothing ties us to continue working on a single series for life. But be sure to do it on your own terms. Not just because your brain starts doubting itself (scumbag brains at 3 am amiright?).

And hey you have a fan in me of your art style. Can't judge your stories as I haven't given myself the time to read them. But your art is one of the things I like seeing. Even if the world one day hates it, I will still like it. Keep in touch love I may one day need your art.

Hey dont worry friend, making comics its a great journey that take time, in my case I cant even do a chapter per week cause now Im working fully on my translations on an English version, what ypu need to do its promote your comic in everyplace that you can! Create a Twitter, Instagram or even a Tiktok account and start from that! You will see how people will come eventually! Trust the process and make contacts here, do some collabs when you want and, this will helps a lot!! Trust in yourself! and take breaks if you need too!

I also feel this a lot of the time. I basically gave up my gamedev hobby completely for comics, and although I still feel the urge to make a game every once and a while I recognize that I'm WAY worse at gamedev, and I like the real version of making comics, as opposed to the idealized version of gamedev. Anyways, this isn't about that.

I made my first comic a few months ago, and it took me about a year to finish the whole thing. My friends and one or two people enjoyed it, which I cherish, and then it completely dropped off the face of the earth. That's expected.

The moral of the story isn't that I should've just made something popular, divested most of my time into marketing, or that I shouldn't have made a comic if it was going to take that long. The moral of the story is, even knowing this, I would never want to have that time back. I had made something that was mine, something that I wanted to make for a very long time, and I finally got to going and made it, and now the story is out in the world and isn't just thoughts inside my head. My art improved, my writing improved, and I had fun making it.

So maybe making comics is a waste of time, and maybe people don't like your genre/story, but so what? You made something, and you're bringing your ideas to something physical. That's a lot better than a lot of people can say. I believe that comics are a really fast way to improve, because you're making tons of little drawings of unique situations and figures. When I started, I had no idea how to draw pigs and other animals. ..I still kind of don't, but I'm way better than when I started, and if it wasn't for this comic I would've never even attempted to draw anything other than humans. No matter how bad you think your story is, or how your art looks to your eyes, you're trying something, which means it's fruitful.

I have some advice for the feeling you're currently having, and I think your burnout hunch may be correct. Taking breaks is really good for dealing with that, and even big authors take breaks sometimes. I wish you all the best on your comic journey

I hope everyone who feels the symptoms I've listed can take time to rest and demystify the idea of productivity as a requirement to do... anything, really. You're still a fine human being even if you don't churn out stuff.

I also mentionned that they may be symptoms of a wider problem because a couple of them are also found in ADHD and depression. I was also listing the symptoms from memory from what I had while I was in burnout, but I was specifically in what's called autistic burnout, so some symptoms may not apply (or be less noticeable) to neurotypical people. It means that if you only have some of the symptoms on the list and other symptoms that are not, it might be a good idea to do some research or even contact a psychiatric healthcare provider to talk about it if that's an option for you. Everyone deserves peace of mind.

Basically my solution was to rest and get a bunny so that I can always remember that real life and my and my rabbit's wellbeing is way more important than any productivity quota.

I just write the outline then sketch for a couple months whenever I can and release the episodes in digital. I don’t know if this is healthy is this healthy?

I mean I’m not really worried about building an audience yet I’m just wanting to just finish my stuff and get it done, have it be ready. It’s a slow process for me but writing comics and drawing is such a joy to me!