It means you pushed yourself to your limits, and have learned about yourself in the process. You gained valuable knowledge that will help you see a path forward. Seriously giving up is treated as a really shameful thing to do and that's why we never hear about it, but everybody does it at some point in their life. Just don't give up on yourself and try to stay optimistic.
Unfortunately, I could write a book about depression. Creative people tend toward it. I bet if you took a poll of how many depressed and anxious people published on Tapas the number would be statistically much higher than the general population.
Therapy has tought me that what helps me, even though it sounds counterintuitive, is to go into a situation like publishing a new work asking these 3 questions:
If I answer all 3 of those in my head, AND if I emotionally walk through all my answers, I've already defined and experienced the worst form of failure before I even do a thing. (And honestly, what helps most is defining failure.) Doing this I cut short the catastrophizing, and I get to see that what happens most is not the worst possible thing.
And when I do fail, I think about all the times I didn't. Like, I literally make it a point to notice every time the other side of the freeway is stuck and not moving, but mine is moving fine. So when I get stuck I don't go "This always happens to me." That lying bastard in your head will steal every drop of your joy if you let him.
Don't let him.
People define success and failure differently. But if your goal is to create a very popular webcomic, sometimes, instead of toiling alone, you need to find someone to collaborate with. If you're an artist with good skills, which you have, you can find someone who is stronger with writing and marketing.
Or you choose to work on a passion project, where the amount of views and subs really don't matter to you.
Artists are types of entrepreneurs, and while entrepreneurs in the business world fail all the time, and expect a lot, if not most, of their ventures to fail (aka cybertruck), for some reason, in art we assume the fiscal failure of a project is the end of our career completely. That this is it. This project failed. It's all over. Nail on the coffin, time to throw out my 10+ years of art study.
But, we should be treating ourselves more like business people, distancing ourselves from the project enough to say "well, it didn't make money, although I liked it, but that one isn't worth my time anymore so I feel like doing something else." Truth is, most art projects don't really propel themselves out of the water. Some work out, some don't. Almost all of us have felt like we've made the art version of that cybertruck presentation at one time or another.
There's just a weird romance about how art "should" be when like...the whole "you have to succeed when you're young if you really have passion for a project and if you're really devoted" is pressure that can only be defined by how you personally define success. Financial success in business terms is only one type of success.
But I think even starting a project is a form of success. You have already done more than most people who say "I want to make a comic." Most people just talk about it and never do it. If it didn't work out into a big enough following...ok. That's pretty normal. No need to punish yourself. You did all you could do at the time.
And if you don't feel like doing art for a while to recover from the stress, that's fine, too. You're gonna live a long time. There's no shame in taking a break (after getting carpal tunnel I took a break from art for a full year because I associated so much pain with the process of drawing). You'll feel like going back to art again one day, when the inspiration hits.
This is definitely a daily struggle for me. Here are some things I have learned. Take whatever lines up with your experiences.
1.) Failure is normal, regular, and okay. The ones who make it the furthest have also failed the most. There's absolutely no shame in hitting your limits and I think it would be easier on everyone if we could all be honest about how often we fail.
2.) Depression will lie to you. It is the schoolyard bully that tells you you aren't enough, but it wears your face. Do not trust it to be correct. Especially about your success and/or failure.
3.) It's okay to take a break. And by that I mean a REAL break. Not just time off where you feel guilty the entire time because you're not making. Give yourself permission to rest.
4.) Sometimes the act of making is hard, frustrating, uninspired, and the final product feels so much less than what you wanted. That's okay. You still did it, and that matters.
5.) It's okay to take some steps backwards to adjust your direction. There's a feeling that going backwards is bad, because it's ground lost. But if you were heading in the wrong direction, the sooner you step back and find the correct path, the better. Sometimes old goals are unreachable, and new goals must be set. That is 100% okay.
6.) If you're in a position to ask for help, do it. If you're in a position to offer help, do it.
7.) Go small. Go very small. Smaller than that. Be un-ambitious (unbitious?). Don't plan a ten-year epic. Plan a single panel comic. Finish it. Then plan an entirely new single page comic. Finish it. Do another one. Maybe try two pages eventually. These will be building blocks to build you up to the bigger stuff, if you should ever want to. But you absolutely don't have to.
8.) Nothing is permanent. Even failure. Especially failure.
I wish I had the option of teamwork. Unfortunately, I'm all alone in this. I have no one that could help me.
I've been doing that since 2003 when I first started doing comics. It feels like I got worse over time. I'm so tired and exhausted of killing myself to make something that's not particularly good.
I've given up so many times over the years. Unfortunately, the only lesson I've picked up is that I'm just not very good 
Well, I've been doing this for over 15 years and no matter how much work I put into it, I'm still not particularly good. My aim is do something that readers can enjoy.
I'm not doing very well in that regard.
That bastard is my copilot. I need to kick him out.
I wish I had a choice on the matter but I'm flying solo here, whether I like it or not.
If I had a co-writer, it would take a massive load off my shoulders.
I rely on my Patreon to supplement my income so I can't really stop doing work.
I do feel like I'm on limited time. My health isn't the best as I have developed a heart condition and depression has been brutal lately.
I guess that's where my sense of urgency comes from.
This! You're so right! But why do I keep believing it? It's like I can't help but to believe what it tells me.
@carloswebcomic
Ah the sounds rough! Have your readers told you they don't enjoy your work, or have their engagement changed?
Yeah, the number visitors have dropped by roughly 60-70%.
Not only on Tapas, but also Webtoons.
Strangely, while the number of likes have dropped on Tapas, it seems to be increasing on Webtoons.
It also depends...you sometimes have to ask if you're putting unrealistic expectations upon yourself. You may need to sit back and assess your limits; your strengths- and your weaknesses...try to improve what you can, and realize/accept that you may not be able to do everything that you want to achieve or accomplish.
You may need to change your strategy, your train of thought, or the type of stories/works that you do. You may need to take some time away and figure out what it is that you want to accomplish- allow your body/mind to rest and heal. There are times when you may have to settle with the fact that you can't push/press to make things happen and that you may need to sit back and allow things to happen or develop.
I've tried changing quite a few times and it just made things worse.
The comic I'm doing at the moment is the best comic I can possibly make. My position is that if I fail with it, there's just no hope and I should just give up.
Perhaps it's a bit overdramatic, but I can't see how I could do better.
Because it's very minimal compared to the drop on Tapas, so basically it's still a downward trend.
I guess getting pulled out of the iOS app didn't do me any favours either.
Good enough to me means that you're doing work that keeps readers engaged enough that they don't leave.
Maybe I'm being unrealistic. My skill level is limited and I truly have no idea what I'm doing.
Perhaps, under the circumstances, I'm doing better than what I should realistically expect of myself.
Well the good thing about skills is that they can always be learned. The fact that you are performing beyond realistic expectations in certain areas sounds like you are doing things right.
Do you practice or study art in ways that you don't apply to your comics? (Different medium, study art history, write poetry)
I have no time to do anything other than work on my comic. It takes me 6 days to do a page for my main comic and the 7th day is to make my Patreon exclusive page.
My life is literally work, chores and making comics. I have no time for anything else. I haven't watched TV in about 10 years, and at most, I get to see a movie once a year.
You sound exhausted! I hate to suggest this, (again, just a suggestion) maybe take a break? Take a break and find something you enjoy doing that's not making a comic for a little while. Watch ALL the movies and TV shows, read ALL the books. Go to art galleries, spend time in parks, go for hikes. Maybe even paint instead of draw. It'll help get your passion and creativity flowing again, or maybe you'll find something new that you like. I don't know, I just know that taking a break helps me when I feel like I want to give up on something, specifically my comic.
Yeah. I am exhausted and what you suggest is exactly what I need.
Oh, how I wish I could afford to take a bloody good break If only I wasn't so dependent on my Patreon money..
My biggest problem, however, is that making comics is one of the few things that keep me going mentally. It gives me a sense of purpose.
You seriously may want to find a way to shorten production time. Even with me producing a page a week, I found time to take a day or 2 away from constantly working on my comic when I got home from my RL job...I found time to watch TV or Netflix or go to a movie...consistently working in a vacuum with no other type of outlet is a sure way to burnout.
It doesnt sound like constantly cranking out this comic is giving you a sense of purpose; it sounds like it is driving you- and possibly nowhere good. You need to find something else outside of comic production to decompress- and devote some time to it. The impression I'm getting through this writing is stress, exhaustion, and like you stated earlier- maybe some depression(or anxiety)...you need to relax(mentally as well as physically) & rearrange that schedule.
There is nothing wrong with failing. You can still learn valuable lessons through failure- what to do different, what NOT to do, what to do; set limits, take breaks, make a schedule, try to enjoy the whole experience instead letting it overtake all of your time.
