Hi.
I'm an online comic artist for a few years now and an artist for over a decade. I'm at a point where I can and should share some of my experiences and advice. If you too have some worthy advice/s and experience/s please feel free to share here.
Starting a comic to share with the online world?
- Have a solid story with good characters: You can draw the best art in the world but without a good foundation it's going to be a chaotic mess
- Don't expect your comic to get popular and don't expect to get rich off of it: Do it because you enjoy it and do it because it's part of your dream/goal because that will become your fuel and motivation during the darker days
-Do be mentally prepare for some negative comments: Mostly it will be positive BUT there are some HATERS and extremely JEALOUS people all over the web
+++Webtoon vs. Tapas+++
Webtoon? (discover section)
-If your comic is mostly story driven with readable art then it will do decent here
-The general layout of this website creates a competitive environment for artists which is not always healthy and at times can be toxic (eg. rating system and etc.)
-Readers want long update as in they want 30~50+ panels per update or you will hear complaints from your readers
-Must have an update schedule or you will hear more complaints, readers here are extremely impatience
-If you hit a certain level of popularity, readers will compete to leave the first and top comments...always
-Some readers will leave negative comments because they're either haters, very jealous, mentally in a bad place or just really young kids who act entitled so remember do not to take these comments to heart, stay strong my friend
-If someone left you a critique comment, keep an open mind because these gold nugget/s will help you improve, learn and grow as a writer and artist
Tapas?
-If your art skill is pretty good and clean with okay story you will do well here
-If you're a new artist then IT WILL take a while for you to gain some readers mainly due to the fact that the page for new updates is very hidden unless they catapult you to the front page for a day
-People who leave comments here are more polite and respectful mainly because most of audiences here are also creators (comic & writers & all)
-AND also they are held more accountable for their actions because each user have their own social media page as where in webtoon you can't even click on the user's name to see their info
-You can upload one page of comic per update and no one would complain as a matter of fact readers prefer more frequent updates over longer updates here, that can also help you gain more readers too
-Tapas also have a feature where you can upload your comic and preset the time and date you would like that to be post to the public
-AGAIN, If someone left you a critique comment, keep an open mind because these gold nugget/s will help you improve, learn and grow as a writer and artist
-You may post your comic on both webtoon and tapas but the views + followers will be different depending on the interest of the readers
-From my experience I gained way more readers on Webtoon than Tapas because Webtoon is more reader base and they do some aggressive advertisements once in a while
My Conclusion
My advice for artists who want to start their own comic on one of these social media platform, regardless of which platform you pick or both, is that you will be spending most of your days working on it. It's extremely time consuming unless you're making a 2 panel comedy comic. Make sure you take care of your health because you know carpal tunnel, back pain, hip pain, eye strain is right around the corner. Also support other artists and make friends and connections...even if you don't want to PLEASE DON'T HATE or BECOME BITTER and/or JEALOUS. Everyone has their own struggles and everyone's comic is unique and different and they all grow at different rates. Honestly some comics might not even grow at all. I scrapped more than a dozen comic series up till now where I have one that is semi-working. Always push forward if you really love something don't waste your time hating, use that time to stay motivated and keep working to improve. Stay strong and stay positive!
That's it for now, I will add more later if I remember anything important.
PEACE