Lost interest in making comics. I feel devastated

That's good. I'm glad I could be of some help.

Take a break if you need to. Go outside, watch netflix, cartoons, draw, etc. Just do what you want. See what inspires you. Remember, you are under no pressure to finish. You can just break it off here if you really want to. If you want to find inspiration again, read manga and just take time to think new ideas. Reconsider your story, pull a plot twist, do something for it not to sink. Personally, for that, I recommend this article: http://mandywallace.com/plot-tools/2. Just take time for yourself to feel better and inspiration will follow suite.

You asked if anyone's been in this kinda situation before.
And while I don't know if saying giving up's okay.

I gave up. Quit drawing entirely for what I thought was going to be forever.
I grew up wanting to be an animator my whole life. And I even had an ongoing comic series I stopped too.

I thought I wasn't ever going to come back.

but five years later I did. and I'm glad I did.

On the point of being overwhelmed with your project - if you want to get back into making comics, but don't want to do anything too big, why don't you try making a one-shot?

Just a single chapter story or something - 50 or so pages. Heck, even 10 pages would be pretty cool. It would be generally helpful in getting you into the routine of comic making.

Good luck!

Mm, I think that's how a lot of people feel. We just want drawing comics to be our full time job since regular jobs are pretty boring. At least mine is... I'm 32, but I still have the dream to be a full time comic artist at some point... hopefully before I retire.

As I said, I'm 32, but even a few years ago I have felt this way. There was a time I went to a convention and went to a cosplay meet up there of a then popular series. The younger people were all having fun running around and whatnot and I just kind of stood off to the side. But I realize that used to be me when I was 14-15 years old and my friends would have our anime club at the library or a birthday party or whatever. I think it's somewhat the exhaustion from working all week.

I have had this regret too. I feel like a lot of artists I know started just naturally drawing when they were very young. I started taking art classes about 4th grade, but only started drawing anime/manga-style when I was about 14. Always makes me feel like I was a late starter and it's taken me a long time to get somewhat decent even though I have been drawing almost every day and have sketchbook after sketchbook filled up and a lot of comic pages.

It's strange because I've been drawing for so many years now and even have a BFA in graphic design, but I never have felt like I'm a "true artist". I think the main reason I draw is because I want to get my comics done. I think the most enjoyment isn't necessarily while doing, but in having something done. I love to look at my old work.

I also had a period of a 2 year hiatus from comic making (and it was during the second to last chapter of my comic!) and I felt awful afterwards. Still feel somewhat awful about it, but I've been trying to make up for it with trying to keep as consistent as possible with updates.

Sorry this was mostly rambling about myself. I just mainly want to say that you're not alone in this, it's not uncommon, and you should just do it anyway. I've felt that way where I just don't feel like drawing at all and I kind of have to force myself to get started. Just remember the first step is picking up the pencil! Or stylus if you use a tablet. And getting the piece of paper or starting up a new page in PS/CSP. Absolutely no thinking or any effort involved in what is the very first step to get going.

Don't feel old. I'm way older than probably most anyone on Tapas, and I'm still writing comic scripts. I've had some published. I've had many not. But don't ever let your age stop you from doing anything. There are also plenty of days where I don't feel like writing. But I have no choice: I support my family with my writing. My main job is as a freelance writer and editor for web sites and trade magazines.

I mostly write about personal finance, real estate, credit cards, mortgage loans, that kind of stuff. Not exactly dream stuff -- but by doing it, I can pay the bills and write comic scripts mostly for fun. But because I write all day, I often don't feel like turning on the computer and writing script pages in the evening. Here's the thing, though: When I actually see those pages turned into comics -- whether here on Tapas or in anthologies or on the web sites of other publishers -- it makes the hard work seem worth it.

Anyway, what I'm saying is, writing, drawing, any creative art can be difficult on some days. There are plenty of days when you won't want to draw. But if you force yourself to do it, you'll get better and better. And you'll feel great when you look at what you've done the next day, even if it isn't your best work. It's like any type of work: You have to show up sometimes even when you don't wanna'.

What's the story about? I doesn't really need to be targeted to a young audience, you'll never know if you have a hidden gem or not

I am in the same boat, friendo.

Major depression and anxiety disorder makes it way worse AND I'll be 34 this year. The heartache is real.

I'd implore you not to give up, though. Really. All we can do is keep striving for what we want even though it's frustrating.

I had a similar realization with my character design recently. Since my art style is Anime/Realism my style didn't cater to anyone's project's needs. Its too anime for people looking for realistic work and its too cartoon like and comic like for the anime projects. So my style is somewhat like a goose going to a duck party.

anyways, about your situations I think you may have over planned your work and now it feels there is nothing new your comic can offer. I had a similar situation happen to my last comic but, with my current comic I am being a little more flexible with the story. You have also ran into a creative block maybe reading comics that are similar to the comic you envision may give you some inspiration. Also as far as the anime/manga community, you don't need to worry too much about them. Write the story you want without others judging your work. Besides some people enjoy a more mature story.

try not to think about the audience!! do it for yourself! if you love it, just do it, do it in your own way. do not abandon something you love so much. use it as a therapy, as a escape from the real world.

Never give up - try your best.
But always have a backup plan if your plans don't go your way.
Sometimes...your best is not enough - but hey it is better than you never trying especially if it's something you want so much.
Life's tough - real tough.
But never stop chasing after your dream because when you give up is when your dream is truly dead.

Well I started writing when I was a kid, eventually realized that likely the only reason I was writing was because I wanted to do the thing I was writing about, planned to join the military but then got diagnosed with a genetic disorder called X-Linked Retinitus Pigmentosa that, in short, slowly causes you to go blind. So that destroyed any chance of being part of the military. I stupidly tried to get into a journalism program, figuring that if I can't actually do it I can sort of half do it by being there reporting it. Obviously that didn't work out.

Continued writing, figuring if I can't do it myself I can sort of imagine what it would be like or something. During this time I did genuinely enjoy writing. I took it very seriously and planned on making it my career, had done a lot of industry research and legal research. Found out that it’s a very bad idea to post work online because, depending what it is, you can get blacklisted from publishers for it. So I made sure never to do that. Made custom charts that I printed out to manually record my progress on various projects, something a creative writing teacher was amazed at. The same teacher tried very hard to get me to go professional, she ran her own magazine and said that she would’ve published my work if it had been the genre of her magazine.

Then a bunch of really crazy stuff happened in my life that I won't talk about which made me outright quit and become hostile to the idea of writing as a job.

But my girlfriend constantly urged me to get back into it, pointing out that there’s no way I didn’t enjoy it given how much time I’d spent on it. She got me to help her on a story she had come up with when she was 14 that she wanted to make into a comic, so I did. Helping turned into me more or less writing the entire story for her. I hated that for awhile because I'd given up on writing and hated that I was wasting time on something I figured would never be viable as a career in the current economic state of the world. She didn’t help things very much back then either with her attitude, focus, and work ethic. After awhile I had zero confidence that she was ever going to take it seriously enough to run a business on let alone live off of. So to me at the time it was all about the money, I hated writing and got nothing emotional out of it, so if I was going to spend my time and energy on this it had to make money. But since success was dependent on her as well... there was a lot of tension during that time... a lot.

But I did recognize that back in the day I genuinely enjoyed writing, so I tried forcing myself to get back into it anyways with small success. Got really, really positive feedback on a few things I wrote. But I didn’t have much momentum and still didn’t see writing as viable. Tried to get into a programming bootcamp hoping to finally be rid of writing and to have my own economic independence. During this time my girlfriend dramatically began changing her work for the better. Continuing the trend she’d already been setting for becoming probably the hardest working person I’d ever met, finally dealing with what I saw as her focus issues. Going from spending too much time drawing things not actually related to her comic while complaining about the lack of progress on her comic to drawing nothing but character sheets, environment concepts, architecture concepts, etc. She showed no signs of slowing down. I started having trouble in the bootcamp because of my eyes and interestingly started enjoying writing again. When I had to make the decision to either flunk out and regain some of the money spent on the course or try forcing myself through the end and just hope I pass it became obvious that I was never going to be a programmer. So I went back to working on the story and I haven’t looked back since.

Even though I hated the whole idea of it when she pretty much shanghaied me into it, I’d grown attached to the story that I’d designed and I wasn’t about to let all that time and effort get thrown away. I’d gotten more and more bits of writing passion back from my own efforts elsewhere, coming up with a few other long form projects that I might actually do sometime. And now I just... like writing again. I don’t even know why, I just do. Whether we will have any success with it I have no idea, but that’s not really the point anymore. I decided that, since I’m just going to die anyways, there’s no point doing anything I don’t want to do. So I’m all in on writing once again.

I have no idea if my story helps you in any way, but who knows, maybe it will.

Many of the situations you mentioned are almost the same as mine, so I know how do you feel. Maybe you could start asking why do you draw, or what do you like drawing. Another thing you can do is get distracted with movies, reading books, manga, comics or whatever you like, that might help you to inspire you and feel that little fire inside you that makes you create. Hard situations like the ones related with close people or health can make you feel depressed, but if you really want to do something you have to continue and never give up. If you feel worried about your stories or style not fitting an industry standard, please don´t change things that are true to you, because in any artistical medium the people who broke certain rules were the ones that created new ways to express ideas. Don´t feel discouraged and keep creating not matter if only is one hour, twenty minutes or five minutes a day, the important thing is to keep going.