Whoa, okay, so there's a lot to deconstruct here. I know your work, I know your presence here in this community, so I think it would only be fair to respond as reasonably as possible.
While Korean-style webtoons are popular over there, there are LOTS of comics they have as paid content that isn't a part of that Korean webtoon demographic. Here's a small list of just the ones I happen to know off the top of my head:
- Bluechair (Shen)
- Big Jo
- Miss Abott and the Doctor
- The Awkward Yeti
- Lunarbaboon (pretty sure this guy's contracted with LINE now)
- The Gentleman's Armchair
- Behind the GIF's
- Doodle for Food
- Safely Endangered
And that's just including the stuff that I know either FROM Webtoons OR became a PART of LINE (a lot of these comics actually moved from Tapas to LINE after getting contracted there). The list of series on
Besides, Korean webtoons are pretty much a dominant demographic across the Internet. Even Tapas has Korean webtoons that they actively promote and pay for (ex. "They Say I Was Born a King's Daughter") so you can't just single out Webtoons for that, especially when they actually have a lot of diversity in their comics in terms of style and storytelling. Korean or not, Webtoons does love longform stuff with lots of content per update, vs. Tapas' more "bite-sized" business model. Some people find more success on Webtoons, some people find more success on Tapas, and sometimes it just boils down to what kind of content they have and in what frequency and amount its uploaded in.
I'm not gonna try to make this personal in any way, because I have no personal issues with you anyway lol But the fact of the matter is is that your comic is kind of part of a more niche subject - autism. Obviously not as many people can relate to that sort of topic, and it can be really hard to get it done right to make it succeed. Even in popular media, we don't see a lot of movies with autistic/mentally disabled people as the main focus, simply because it's so hard to make work. There are only a few examples out there that have worked, ex. Mary and Max, and even then that movie has more of a cult following akin to those who've watched the original Slender Man ARG's - not a lot of people are aware of the film, but those that are are aware of how groundbreaking and symbolic and impacting it was.
TL ; DR if you're going to write/draw about something with a niche topic, you're going to see niche results. That's why we see comics with high schoolers fighting monsters and romantic love triangles dominate most genres - because it's something that typically everyone can find a way to relate to and enjoy, and don't need to be part of a small community to be able to grasp and understand.
This is coming from someone who falls on the low spectrum for autism and the mid spectrum for ADD. Just so you don't think I'm talking out of my ass
I'm sorry, @Aspie_Gamer, but no one, in any shape or form or capacity, owes you anything. I know it sounds unfair and cruel, but no matter how hard you work on what you love and what you have passion for, nobody owes you what you expect to get in return. Sometimes you get what you want, sometimes you get more than you expected, but when you don't, you have no right to turn around and blame other people who have literally nothing to do with your shortcomings, at all. Whether or not these other "soulless" comics or creators existed, it wouldn't make much of a difference in the results you achieve, good or bad.
And I'm not really getting how Tapas somehow "dwarfs" your Webtoons experience, because your sub count on both aren't really that far apart from one another.
If I can give some tough love without any intentions of trying to be a dick . . . your comic is better than others I've seen on Webtoons and on here, but still has a slew of issues that you need to tackle before you can expect to get the readers you're expecting to get. Those comics that you're slandering are undoubtedly comics that, even with half-baked romance plots or whatever you're upset about, have better artwork, better writing, and have had the years of work put into obtaining better artwork and better writing.
Your artwork isn't clean or strong enough yet - the coloring is uninspired, the proportions are bad, it's just not visually appealing.
Your characters are clearly set in an English environment but they all use terms like "chan" in a rather juvenile, "weaboo" way, and maybe this was what you were going for because they're kids in high school, but when even the teachers use that language, it shows to me more that this is just what you're going for and I'm sorry, but setting a comic as right-to-left and using Japanese names is pretty much the furthest any English-writer can push into the anime/manga-inspired world before it becomes too weaboo to tolerate (even my own comics are right-to-left with Japanese names, and yeah, I totally understand if people would be turned off by this and didn't hit "subscribe" because of this lol I can't change the names now though because I've had these names like Uzuki Kasahara and Mitsuhiro Minamimoto for so long that changing the names now would destroy the integrity of the story for me on a personal level).
So tack on the "niche" plot of it being tough to market a comic to people who only a fraction know how to relate to autism onto the the weak presentation, and... there you go. You just need to find your own way to improve your work. People know what they want, and know what they like, and if you're getting poor results on Tapas and Webtoons, you have to start wondering what the common denominator here is - and it's the fact your comic just needs to be improved before people can actually start enjoying it. I'm sorry, but hard work just doesn't cut it if people don't like what they're reading. As my animation instructor would say to me when I was feeling down about my work, "Do better".
Either way, you're expecting the outcome of comics that have better art and writing and plot than yours does, in more broadly-covered topics, and getting upset at those other comics for "stealing what you deserve" when you just haven't gotten to their level of skill yet to be able to do that. Note that I said yet. At the end of the day, you're putting yourself into an unfair battle royale. That's like pitting a first year animation students' work against Glen Keane from Disney. But then the first year animation students yells "WELL I'D BE GETTING WHAT I DESERVE IF IT WEREN'T FOR THESE ANIMATORS THAT HAVE BEEN DOING IT LONGER THAN ME AND ARE BETTER AT DRAWING THAN ME".
TL ; DR It sounds more like you have a lot more pent up aggression from your own personal problems in your work that, I'm sorry, can't be thrown completely onto Webtoons. I think you're misdirecting your anger and not realizing that at the end of the day, you control your destiny, not anybody else. Stop trying to blame your problems on other people. Focus on what you can change - work harder, make mistakes, learn new things, and stop focusing on everyone else around you. This is valid advice I am giving you and I'm genuinely not trying to be an asshole. I've seen you post about your problems in your work all the time and I can tell it's really starting to negatively affect your own work and how you view it, so I'm only saying this to try and help you, even if it sounds like I'm trying to tear you down.
Either way, that's the end of my response to that. This is a discussion about Webtoons though, so let's not let this deter the discussion. Aspie, if you want to respond to me, please feel free to PM me so we don't derail the thread too much :') .... unless your response is actually Webtoons related in the broad term of this topic, then by all means post back here with your thoughts