Parents/Family Members Reading Your Comic

[Mr-Gretto]

My parents are the only ones who basically follow my two comics at the moment, one of which I don't even post anywhere and don't translate into English, now it exists only for them and for me. When I was a teenager, they didn't consider creativity to be something important and weren't interested in it (or sometimes even angry that I spend too much time on it xd), but now they even like what I do and it seems to me that without their support lately I would have given up and not even tried to start something create it now :>

[SamAndFriends]

My bro reads my comic to check if the bro of my maincharacter is very much alike him
Yeah, it affects me in that I want the comic-bro to be super likeable
And for my parents... pff they wont read it.
I plan some critical episodes about not-so-well-gone-parenting but I don't have to show them, have I?

[Iris-Grimoire]

Thankfully my parents have a hard time catching up with fantasy stories that aren't novels so any attempts at reading my comic were met with confusion at best. I've shown it to my other relatives too, but something that was true even before I got into comics is that no one really cares about my art if I'm not doing something for them, unfortunately.

My best irl reader other than my friends is my therapist. She's always super thrilled to be reading my comic or the newest draft of my novel while I'm doing an ADHD behavior task and can't talk, haha

[Azifri]

Everyone around me, and this includes family, friends, coworkers, neighbors, and random people who make the mistake of talking to me for too long, know that I write and draw comics. Some read them regularly, but the majority isn't interested in fiction and/or comics, which is fine. I have some stories that I don't post online, but even those I have no issues in sharing privately. I mean, what dark or controversial stuff could I possibly write that they haven't already watched or read.

[powerplantanimations]

Oh damn this is getting a lot of replies. I wanna add to the conversation... you guys afraid of potential children/grandchildren getting a hold of some of your stuff? I think that's another factor why I lean off of some stuff I mentioned. Especially after meeting my little niece after so many years. I sorta wanna make my stories time capsules so they can see how I developed over the years and learn lessons I learned? Stuff like that. As a result, all my stories are full of characters that have a little bit of my personality in them, but not to the point where it's intrusive.

[Spectorium_1]

Heck, no. They're too serious/career oriented, so yeah.... Nope.

[NickRowler]

My parents are super judgmental. They are the type of people who are supportive by the idea that I make comics but I don't think they would enjoy my work. I think they think I write comics like Mutts. So I never really sent a link to them, because I don't want to deal with them judging me.

I did tell my brother about my comics but I don't think he ever read them. I did post a picture of my OCs on Facebook and my cousin gave it a like, so I guess I have one somewhat supportive person.

you guys afraid of potential children/grandchildren getting a hold of some of your stuff?

I am not worried about this because my series tend to be PG13 and never get too suggestive or gory.

[darthmongoose]

you guys afraid of potential children/grandchildren getting a hold of some of your stuff?

Not really. I gave a copy of the print version of my webcomic to my seven-year-old niece today. There's nothing in there really much worse than like... an episode of Adventure Time or the Lord of the Rings movies (which she's a big fan of). I know she's seen me drawing pages before and simply said things like "Oh! She cut the monster's arm off! Why is his blood blue?"
I tend to put the "this isn't suitable for kids" line at "is it worse for violence than Star Wars?", "Does it have more sexual stuff, drinking, smoking etc. than an episode of Friends or The Simpsons?" and my comics are generally pretty tame!

[Zugaikotsu]

I love their reaction because it's always like this:

[VibrantFox]

haha...no

i love em and theyre supportive of me as an artist but i know theres thing they wouldnt approve of whether in my comics or elsewhere and i just do not want to deal with it. theres some stuff that already been seen or found and even if nothing is said outright the faces are a dead giveaway so i do what im able to hide stuff and try to avoid any drama

ideally itd be easier to manage once im moved out but like as its stands i just dont want them seeing anything else...

"future kids/grandkids" are of no concern coz its not happening lol

[Iris-Grimoire]

Oh yeah for sure, though it's mostly unfounded. My younger relatives all watch way harsher stuff than my comic but I know a parent is gonna look at me weird because I'm in the family daring to draw a little bit of scary stuff.

But for that case, that's why I'm trying to make other smaller comics/zines, that I can share with anyone!

[sams_cartoon_shack]

My 8-year-old sis often peeks while I'm drawing, and when she spots something racy or dark, I'll be straightforward about what it is with some proper context. She'll have to deal with reality sooner or later, so it just seems better for her to be aware of it now.

[Kelheor]

you guys afraid of potential children/grandchildren getting a hold of some of your stuff?

I actually think that's not a great thing to be afraid of it so much it will hold one off creating something in a particular way. Imagine... I dunno, Stephen King never writing some of his books because of this. It's completely normal for the characters to have bits and pieces of the creator's personality, and if you are not you creating something that may be straight up harmful (at least from your point of view), it's just limiting yourself.
Unless of course, as you said, you literally want your stories to encapsulate the story of your life and you think it's important for people around to see you in better light. I personally prefer considering art pieces being their own entities.

[sushy00]

Well I won't be afraid my children will be reading my comic because I don't plan on having any. Unfortunately my parents and sister sometimes do read my comic so I keep that in mind. I sometimes make a comic and get some reactions from them haha

[KennethLopezJr921]

I dont have the luxury of them not knowing about my series, though its not like my series isnt something I'd feel uncomfortable showing them. I cant say too much about all of them but my little brother seems to be into mine. At least I guess

[angie_draws_things]

I am LC with my parents, so I didn't tell them when I started my comic. However, about a year in, they blew my phone up one morning because my dad saw some of the comics on Bored Panda and recognized the characters as me and my two dogs, so they wanted to verify that it was me.

...then they didn't say anything until the next time they saw more comics in Bored Panda, several months later.

Them knowing does not change how I create my comic. Also, the bloodline will likely end with me, so I have zero concerns about kids/grandkids.

[GuroH]

My mom probably wouldn’t even want to read my novel. Firstly cause it’s in English, secondly cause she doesn’t like supernatural stuff. I’m thinking about letting my mother in law read it tho. My husband reads it first before anyone else, and he’s very into it.
I don’t really mind if family members read tho, my family are just not that fluent in English.
I would love for my kids to read it one day when they are a bit older, they already know all about my talking skull character and find him really funny My 6 year old has requested many drawings of the skull lol

[bulgariansumo]

Oh absolutely not. My mom wouldn't be interested in something as cartoony as what I write. My dad would, but I think he would hate it once, uh, certain things are revealed about the characters. Not to mention the personal questions I'd probably get if anyone I knew were to read that far in. Not worth it.

I've been reading this for the past few days, and I'm really surprised how many people's family reads their work. It's kinda cool.

[allenT]

Only my little brother is interested enough to read my comic & being supportive, he seems to like it but I haven't got any comments from him.

[elci]

Oh my god this bothers me so much. My family follows me on instagram so I always feel weird posting my characters being all sexy and stuff which is what I like to draw x_x (pinups, romance, nsfw etc) Now I've started my comic and I'm too scared of letting people know on my instagram. I already feel weird about having people I know (and strangers too) reading it, because it's my first one and I just feel like people are looking into my soul or something. I can't deny some of it is based on my experiences of course but ugh. I haven't posted on IG for many months, I don't know what to do, but I can't show them. I already asked my brother not to follow me on twitter, where I post most things (and I haven't even came out properly as bi to family).

It's good to read about other people's experiences with this though so thanks for the thread!