What actually am I doing wrong!?

Let me give you some advice. Don't bother with sub for sub. I personally am against sub for sub because it's shallow and yeah people generally aren't going to stay so why waste your time there? You want people who are going to stick around and be interested in your story, and that will only happen if they themselves make the determination of being interested.

There are millions of people on earth and only a very small portion are probably even seeing your comic. This is of course the problem that all artists/writers/creatives face. We shout into the void and hope that someone will see, but in reality the chance of that is small. But that doesn't mean that it's not a possibility at all. You have to be persistent and when something isn't working, try different methods. If you have a budget you can try some paid advertising. There are people out there that will read and be interested in your comic, they just haven't seen it yet.

@Kaydreamer said it best: the art is fantastic and the story has potential despite being in an over saturated genre, but the grammar is definitely going to send a lot of readers away. I personally have stopped reading webcomics where the grammar wasn't good because it's hard to follow and it breaks my immersion. So I agree that having some way to fix the grammar would be a good start.

We're both italians and I also went through the frustration of english speakers telling me to check my grammar but I couldn't do more on my own. At the time, I was working on a game, a visual novel, and went on the Renpy lemmasoft forum searching for help. There, I found many native english speakers willing to help me for free with the editing. You could try something like that. They mainly check videogames but you can see if you're able to find a volunteer for your comic. I'll leave you the link:

https://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewforum.php?f=581

(Than again, to be honest I've seen a lot of garbage - with way worse english than yours - getting success just because it was extremely angsty and kawaii)

(by the way, maybe it was because I was half asleep but I didn't saw any mistakes in your comic, hahahah)

A final suggestion: have you tried publishing your comic on other platforms? Like webtoon, smackjeeves and the like? Try all of them maybe you'll find your ideal audience elsewhere. Your comic looks nice and promising!

I second trying to publish on a different platform! I've mentioned this a few times already, but my comic stats are actually a lot higher on both ComicFury (where I got double the views) and Webtoon (where I got more readers) than they ever were on Tapas, so trying out different platforms might definitely help!

Also, as for finding people who can help you with the grammar... have you considered LangCorrect1? Mind you, I don't use the site (always meant to, never got around to it... I'm Italian too, btw! XD) so I'm not sure how it works exactly/what the community is like on there, but from what I can understand, you write a post in the language you want to learn on there and native speakers can correct you. In exchange, you can correct other people's writings in Italian

Yeah, I perfectly understand your point, I'm on the same boat as you. Unfortunately it's very hard to get people to notice your series and get interested in it. Sometimes I sit down and ask myself: "what am I doing this for?" and then realize that, in the end, I'm just doing it for myself and I might as well give up on it.

The only thing that keeps me going is the fact that creating a series makes me happy and I always try to be confident that it'll attract more people one day.
My main problem is...I really suck at promoting and keeping the series engaging. I don't have much time to work on it and I don't have the right means to push the series either.

In any case, I'm sure it might take some time for you, but your comic will eventually pick up the pace and attract more viewers. The artstyle is really good and the story also has an interesting premise. People should wait a bit longer and let the events unravel a bit further .

A couple of my subs didn't even know what my main protagonist's name was (even though its in the f***ing description and first panel of ep1). Go figure.
Do it for yourself not anyone else.
A single complete stranger reading you and your artists work is an achievement in itself (Webcomics are oversaturated and beyond competitive) just because people unsub or you don't get as many as other works isn't really a reflection on what you are doing.
Try to distance yourself from the stats (biggest mistake is obsessing on the stats)..and focus on what you enjoy.
Its your baby.
Simple as.

I really honestly don't think the grammar is the main issue with this series. I've seen plenty of comics and even novels on Tapas with absolutely awful grammar, some of them even premium series, with big followings. Yes, fixing it would certainly give the comic a boost in professionalism and aid readability, but I'm not sure that alone is the cause of the low subs.

The thing I immediately identified when trying to read this comic as the biggest issue was there's too much telling and not enough showing, which is a really common issue when the writer is the lead on a project and the artist is working off the writer's script.
The comic's scenes go like: Storybook telling the reader a story about something that may or may not have happened (or might be just a metaphor), then it transitions into a mother and child telling the audience that the child can't go into the city, then it goes into a kitchen scene telling the reader there's some kind of deeper plot going on, and then we go to this scene where the military guy monologues, telling the audience a huge infodump.
There's an obvious issue here: Nobody has really done anything on-panel, it's all been people talking about things that have been done. Because of that, the story isn't engaging, in spite of the great art and worldbuilding. Jumping to another character when we've barely just met the character who is probably meant to be the protagonist (the kid) before really getting a handle on what the story is makes it really hard to be emotionally invested.
The comic badly needs a focal point; a character whose emotional journey we can follow, and it needs to have that character do stuff.

You also got to take into account that, like writers who pay artists, your expectations for a series could be far greater due to what you are shelling out to get it made in the first place.

While other creators write and draw so they aren’t really losing out on anything financially being a writer that pays a artist can put you in a place mentally that you aren’t doing good enough work to attract the user base you think you should have and not being thankful for those whom you do have which again is understandable if you’re shelling out money

I’ll say this and make it quick; while I said to you in a prior post that the art is great and love how you thread world building in your story I do think the tale needs a central character that we as a audience follows

There’s a comic I follow on here that in comparison to your comic’s art can be classified as “amateur” but it’s story is so great that becomes second to me while reading it; you can tell their comic has a solid foundation of a world to stand on but that very world doesn’t detract from the characters nor the main story (rarely any lore dumps)

There’s a way to spill lore and you did it right with the son and the mother scene which I loved but when it switched and got to the man talking about the “perfect specimen they lost 11 years ago” it’s little stuff like that that I could see some potential readers not caring about too much as of the start of the story

And like I said with your world building in a prior thread, I can see a vision that’s solid which is great but you have to make sure your world building isn’t taking time away from character

As a reader, I’m going to be honest, no one cares about the world of a story at first, that’s just fact. What the audience needs to care about before any love for the world comes is character. How they act, what they do, their lives, their relationships; all of those little details that make people love a protagonist and other characters; it’s only after that will they feel the need to pay attention to details of the world but that comes after not before. No one cared about the world politics of Star Wars before they cared about Luke Skywalker

So be mindful how much lore you drop in your series and how much of it actually needs to be told for this story to work. Little lore drops is cool, I do that for my series at the end of every episode; but at its focus, especially at the start of the series, should be character

And yeah....
Avoid sub 4 sub threads.

You’re better off with 5 real subs that love your work
over 20 fake subs who are just subbing because
it’s sub 4 sub.

Understand that the lore is important, but what needs to be stated is some readers don’t care about that especially at first when actually reading a story.

Yeah it’s important, yes it needs to be said, and again I agree that it’s essential to the story but most readers don’t care about that in comparison to being attached to a actual character first.

And yes, I understand the comic is meant as a anthology for the Real story that comes after but even that aside; you have to write a story for this comic first and that involves character. Readers just don’t care, sadly enough, that the story your writing isn’t really the main story; they sign up for a story first and that involves having a character the audience can follow especially in fantasy stories like this that involves a lot of different fundamentals that aren’t based in our reality.

While I understand as a creator it’s hard to think like a reader when viewing our own work, the way readers think and view works are vastly different than what we want them to think. A struggle I deal with and try to learn and improve on a daily basis

Again the art is great and for me I love how you world built with the scene with child and his mother; but just take into account those certain reader hiccups that could possibly be a issue being depicted in the comic so far

Never said it was lore dump garbage and see you’re getting upset over it, which wasn’t the intention; was just giving feedback that a reader could possibly have issues with when first reading and picking up the series at a passerby glance.

And no need for the caps lock

This thread is just people giving feedback that could be issues and problems, everyone is just trying to help in some way. I’ll end that there though, good luck with your series Fedriz

Hi, mind if I step in for a minute? I've read the posts, your story, and your responses, so I hope I got a good idea of the situation.

Before I came on tapas a creator, I have been a reader for a way longer time. I've read novels and comics and not just on tapas. Also, read on Webtoon and even Wattpad (which I do not recommend). I have read my fair share of works and here is my opinion:

I understand that you need your time to explain the story, introduce the main characters and all, but here's the thing: readers won't give you that time. Myself included. No matter if it's part of the prologue or not, if it is lengthy and doesn't "hook" the readers, they will drop it. I trust you know what you're doing, it's quite interesting (your story) but I look at it from a writer's point of view. Not the reader's view.

What I see (as a reader) are pictures and a bunch of letters and words. When I (as a reader) read a story, I want to know what it is about. Immediately. Maybe if I'm in the correct mood I will give you two or three more chapters, but if I don't know it by then, I will drop it. Simple as that. Stupid, frustrating but there is nothing you can do about it. No one can, unfortunately...

Now, here's my idea on how to help you.
Of course, I don't know what kind of story it will be, but if I'm correct, the further you get into the story, the better readers will understand, because more information will be given. So, maybe (hopefully) it gets better you upload more chapters. You can even take a break to build up a buffer if you need it.

Second, you can also ask the readers in the description of your comic something like: Yo, I know this seems lengthy at first, but I promise it's a good story. Or something similar. Whatever you like.

I have done this in my novel where I break the 4th wall. People were often confused and were like what's going on, so I said in my description: Disclaimer: High levels of sassiness and 4th wall breaking. Read at your own risk! Make it part of your story. By doing this, you prepare the readers already for what is to come.

So, to summarize:
1. Add more chapters. Take a break if needed!
2. Add a sentence to your description, informing and preparing the readers for what's to come.

I hope this helps! And good luck on here!