Honestly don't know if it was intentionally a critique but I had someone tell me they liked one of my illustrations even though 'it was ugly/his face was ugly'. It's been some years so I don't exactly remember which it was. I did not take it well...But we eventually came to a mutual understanding and apology. Very strange encounter... 
The strangest critique I've recieved was when I offered my comic to be shown in a comic book gallery exhibition but they didn't want it, only reason given was that "it's not good enough, there is just something missing". Another one was when last year I tried to pitch my comic, the first full-lenght story to be specific, to publishers in a comic book pitching event, and while they didn't reject my comic outright and will take a year to decide what pitches to choose if any, they still were like "we're not sure can this comic be published outside your hometown since it's story is inspired by local legends and ghost stories". While that is true, I myself don't see how that would be a problem, it's not required to know these legends before hand or be interested in them, I've just wanted to utilize them in my stories and they aren't always the main focus, most of the things (the characters, the story, the setting) I've completely made up myself.
Hmmm I don't think I really got any strange critiques. Webcomic aside, yeah people mistake Danivere for a guy sometimes due to her spiky short hair and her small breasts.
I once had someone jump in and tell me how much they loved my story and thought it was great (there was a free promo opportunity on the line for the person if they read a few episodes of mine). A month later, they gave me "critique" in which they said they refused to take my story seriously and I quote, "didn't give a shit about it" because the description had a note that alerted the reader that it was a manga series and should be read from right to left. I then got a lecture on how manga just means comic book in Japanese and how the language works. I've been speaking Japanese since 2007.
People have told me my comic is very fast paced, but it's usually a good thing. One time, someone said it negatively, but then again they were probably trying too hard to remember every characters' names despite not being important to understanding the story (their first mistake).
Not a critique, but somebody once asked if Baldr was a femboy, which is an excellent (if inaccurate) observation
I've received a lot of feed back on my work, usually from one extreme to the other, but the weird stuff isn't as common I'll admit. Some that stick out are:
"The way you draw hair is unrealistic." He was talking specifically about how I stylize afro texture hair.
"Your men don't look like men. They are too pretty." This was in college, can't remember the specific target, but I did/do like playing around with hair and clothes despite gender norms so aye.
Someone told me a few months ago that my artwork will never really reach people because I don't express enough depression pain and suffering into my fineart.
The upside was I received the critique a week after getting accepted into an up-coming featured cultural art show.
2
Was told that my main character look is very cringe but they liked the dialogue and wanted to see where the story went. Didn't know if should be happy or sad at that review...
one I've gotten before a few times (and this wasn't on Tapas at all) was "it's too cartoony"
and it always baffles me because yes they are cartoons.
So according to this person, because your artwork didnt include characters with depression or suffering, its bad?????? 
Sometimes I'm grateful I never got to experience life as a full-time artist. 
To be fair, they never said it's bad.
"Irrelevant" more or less.
I've posted art WIPs and been told to ... Do exactly what I'd been doing without being told if I'm doing it wrong somehow or what I'm doing wrong. 
(Specially, I was told to treat my light sources as light sources and since there was already a considerable amount of lighting done and the moody lighting was kind of the whole point of the piece it just left me wondering if I was somehow unknowingly doing it so wrong you couldn't tell my lighting was, in fact, lighting.)
That's actually a funny critique. Someone gave me a similar critique on my comic as well cause I did tell readers to read right-left as well. They got pissed at me and said something similar.
I'm not Japanese, I've just always read manga as a kid up until now and because I like Japanese comics I would want to make something I feel comfortable reading. After all that's kind of what everyone's doing, right. Making their comics in scroll format. Like no one is going to pull out a scroll to read your comic, also everyone ain't Korean or Chinese. If it were up to the ethnicity then I think people are a little less open minded than they think they are.
But yeah. Haha!
idk, obviously in both your cases there's no call for the person giving the critique to be rude. But, I think pointing out that a comic's reading direction doesn't make sense for the language it's written in... is a very normal and sensible point to bring up.
You can have an opinion on someone's choice in reading direction. That's not the issue here. The issue is when they go unhinged over it.
I guess I can see where they're coming from.
Thinking about it a lot of comics does seem to be reading left-right even in other languages. That does seem to be the more appropriate direction general readers would preferred.
I guess my comic is a niche? I don't know anymore. I'm already 9 chapters into my comic, would be a hassle to rearrange the panels and dialogues so I'm just going to stick with the direction until I finish the story, I guess. "Consistency is key."
You know, I've been thinking about what I've said and it made me thought about how it's not even wrong for me to make a comic in a scroll format but the readers have to read it horizontally. Like it's so funny to think about but it's also not wrong since that is one of many ways to read a scroll. Haha.
Anyway, most readers uses their phone so it shouldn't hurt to read that.
closed Oct 24, '22
