/cracks knuckles Okay so... a lot of this I'm going to try and be as constructive as I can, but as many people have said in their own posts, this may not be something you want to hear.
Yes, some of us, if not all of us, get aggravated from time to time when we see other creators doing well ALL THE TIME with what appears to be zero effort. I get it, I do. But we also don't know what time and effort and hard work went into them getting that far. There are some creators who have been making comics for years but didn't get their big break until they started making that one gag strip everyone's so familiar with.
Now, the main issue here that I feel really needs to be touched, because it comes up in my mind every time I see you post about difficulties making it as a comic creator. This is gonna be the one that's toughest to swallow because it does have to do with you as a creator and not so much the roll of the dice on whether or not you get lucky and net views (which is a lot of what making comics ends up being - a complete gamble for attention).
The art for Life of an Aspie.
No offense to the person that posted this reply, but this:
Isn't helpful. No, it wasn't what really was asked, but you do seem to be asking for help for you specifically, @Aspie_Gamer, and that's why it's being touched on. You asked "What am I doing wrong as a comic creator", not "what can people do wrong as comic creators".
There are times I wish I could read your comic, Aspie, because you clearly put a lot of work into it and care about it; you're very well-versed when you talk about comics here and you seem to know what you want to get out of making comics. But I can't read it right now - the way the art is, trying to read it is just too difficult at times, and I know I'm not the only one who thinks that.
"There are famous comics with mediocre art!" is a once-in-a-while excuse that will only go so far. It works for Cyanide and Happiness because Cyanide and Happiness is a relatively dumb comic with dumb jokes, so the art is allowed to be done. XKCD's content is very simple but logical, so it doesn't need great art to hold it up because the artwork just works with the content. Homestuck's entire story revolves around dumb internet chatter and video games, so of course it's going to look like something that was birthed from Newgrounds and 4chan/reddit.
"There are famous comics with mediocre art!" is not an excuse to not improve, and for a comic like yours that is very emotionally-driven, you could really go far with it if you took the time to work on what needs to be worked on.
This goes for art style as well. You can't just slap the "IT'S MY STYLE" stamp onto it and say that it works. Style =/= artistic ability. If your art needs improvement in certain things, you can make those improvements without changing the style. Look at comics like Exercise in Futility or Matter of Life and Death which have both stayed within their styles but still made visual improvements along the way. Hell, even I've done this - I've refined my style a lot more and I've improved my anatomy and backgrounds, but I haven't let the style of Time Gate disappear - it's still recognizable as Time Gate and it still has its own thing, regardless of its flaws or improvements.
The two biggest factors in your art that I feel could benefit the most are:
Your character drawings. Life drawing, drawing from reference, and just observing how humans are constructed in real life will help you with this. Your proportions right now are very distorted and off, and though there are lots of cartoons and comics that get away with "stretching" their character's dimensions and pushing the limits of them, they still follow the general rules of anatomy and proportion.
Your background art. I know this one's tough for a lot of people (myself included; I've just started to see some improvement in my own work regarding this and it's still something I stress a shitload over) but even if it's just in the background, a setting and what's in it can make the difference between a good comic panel and a great one. Take into consideration where your characters are located, what's in the space around them, and how the background may interact with itself. It doesn't need to distract from the main character or what's going on in the foreground, but just having plain white backgrounds or backgrounds with little detail all the time does get boring (namely for the ones that need that background to help establish the scene - the only time you can get away with no background is for things like action scenes that don't require them to progress the scene, or heavy dialogue scenes, or whatever - you just gotta find what works for you and put in the time to construct the background art).
ALSO LITERALLY EVERYTHING @AnnaLandin pointed out is super important and I couldn't stress enough. There's just no "should" when it comes to this sort of thing. Don't confuse "should" for "want". You want to get more subs, you want more people to read your comic, you want to leave an impression on people ... but that doesn't mean anyone's obligated to, and in a digital world that's becoming more and more saturated with comics every single day, if you can't show that you have something that sets you apart from everyone else, then you're just another voice in the crowd, and no one's obligated to listen to you. Sometimes, doing this is within your control - working on your networking, your art, your writing, how you present your comic, where you present it, etc. . . . but sometimes it really isn't in your control and you just have to be patient and wait. Whether that leads to you continuing your comic because you love it or dropping it and working on something new (neither of which are "wrong" choices - it's taken some people 5-10-100 attempts to do a comic that people love. But you also want to focus on doing a comic you want to do, rather than what people will read, especially when you're just a freelancer and not contracted to make comics).
Overall, work on your artwork, please. I'm not saying it to be rude, I'm begging you because I know your comic has the potential to do better, but you're holding it back by thinking it's an issue of what other people owe you simply because you wanted it bad enough. Wanting isn't enough. You mentioned at one point that comic making is only 20% hard work - no. Getting famous with your comics, maybe, but making the comics alone requires your 10000% attention and effort and work, and simply sitting there going "well I want it and this is how it should be going because I want it!" isn't going to get you, or anyone, anywhere they want to be. And whether or not things work out for everybody, even if they do try harder or network to more people, whatever they do, is sometimes just completely up to chance and under no one's control. We like to believe in the story of the underdog rising up to achieve everything, we like to read those stories where someone gets what they want because they yearned for it hard enough and made it their life - but in real life, a lot of the time that's just not how it works. I know it can seem like that's how it works when we look at popular creators who are raking in views every single day, but for every popular artist, you've got 100 more who are in your exact same situation and going, "Why haven't I gotten this yet? I wanted it hard enough!" There's just no "enough" in this kind of situation.
It sucks. It's savage. But that's just how it is. That doesn't mean you should give up. That doesn't mean you should feel inadequate. But it does mean that you, as a creator (this is aimed at anyone who may feel this way, not just OP), may need to reorganize your priorities and take a look at your game plan and ask yourself "Is this enough for me?" And then you can choose where to go from there and figure out how you can either improve, move forward, or work towards what you want another way.
You owe yourself and your work more than that. Stop waiting on other people to give back what you think you deserve. It's not going to happen.
