Im making this because its my dream to be a comic artist and because of my love of manga and comics. Ive been working on this for about 9 years since i was in 10th grade but only in the last few years has my art been good enough for me to actually make pages. Still have a long way to go art wise but still want to put my work out there and make a story that atleast some people like.
My little series started out when I was feeling depressed and I wanted to do something productive. After watching animation videos on YouTube and reading webcomics I decided to make an fb page. At first I just uploaded drawings but then I came up with my first webcomic which... wasn't all that good...
Eventually I made up a plot (which I am still currently refining) and filled the series with more characters.
Generally I just make comics about my life and what I find funny. But my message would be to share my experience with others.
If... that's counted as a message :T
I am very religious and it was on my mind and laid on my heart for about 2 years and I have been trying to develop the story and world for about 2 years. With all the signs about armor put in front of me, I decided to go ahead and pull a Hayao Miyazaki by making up the story and retweak it as I go along. I think a lot has to do with the theme of knowledge is power and being strong when it is hard to be strong. I want to encourage myself and others to strengthen their faith in the midst of pain and fear. https://tapas.io/series/A-Call-to-Bear-Arms6
It took me a while to realize this but I created my stories to cope with some of the trauma in my life, specifically, about not having a dad there for me. I found my self trying to build a relationship with him in my stories.
Not much has changed since I was a kid. I use my art to cope with my current struggles, to understand my emotions, and to share my joys as well.
My story is a culmination of experiences and I want to sort of convey that it's okay to think outside of the ordinary.
I deal in cosmic motifs and these beings are vast and endless, but we can be, too especially as it pertains to our imaginations and I think that's cool.
Even more, each part of my story encompasses some theme separate from each other: First part is about Friendship/Family and the importance of trust
Second part is about love and challenging what is considered normal.
Third part is about freedom and that fighting for justice and freedom for everyone should be a priority, not just for oneself.
A lot of how I see the world and the universe has made its way into this project...I hope people can take something from it.
I usually make stories to make people feel. I want to say some important sh*t in them too, but mostly to see people get happy over a character, sad if something happens to them, angry-- everything, mostly because I do that when I read stories, and wont forget how do you truly feel things, emotions. I enjoy it and I have seen other people enjoy it too :3
Also I need to bleed all the ideas and stuff from my own head before it explodes XD
I mostly do the stories for me and I publish then to see if I can get some profit out of it, is nice to see if someone likes what you do, but honestly I make things for me. I dunno I like to make things and tell tales.
i actually dreamt of my comic idea
its been two years and its still in my head everyday so if not for my readers... then for me i would really like to develop the world and the characters because i do love them a lot. There's no 'definite' message like 'be kind to others, friendship saves all, love conquers all ie though
Well for me, it's really a way to indirectly deal with feelings and thoughts I don't like to confront but I have to as part of treatment (my comic revolves around mental illness, focusing more on depression). I also wrote this as a way to maybe hopefully help others by showing them that they are not alone in their struggles and that recovery is possible. I also wrote this to help give some insight to people who don't understand mental illness that well of what it is like to be in a such a place and why its so difficult to get help. I also wrote this story to honor a friend of mine who has another very stigmatized physical illness (HIV/AIDs). So its really a comic to show overcoming of struggles, destigmatizing and fostering understanding for certain illnesses, showing that people are not fully defined by their illness and that there is someone out there who cares for you and is willing to support you.
Please put a link to your comic on your profile, I'd love to read it with such a description! Also good luck with your fight, you're not alone, wish you well 
It's mainly because I've had these characters and world in my head for a while and I wanted to put it down on paper as a study. Also, I love stories and making them 
For me it's just very fun and I want to share them to others to see how they think of it.
Whew, I started this thread, so I may as well participate:
Long story short, Project SHaDe2 first started roughly 6 years ago as a comedy comic featuring my friends as the characters - as life progressed, some came and left, as my own interests also shifted. Now it's deviated quite far from its origins and has become quite spooky in nature.
I'm still unsure of the outcome of this project, but what I do know is that, in essence, I'm pouring my heart and soul into this story. Upon further contemplation, I realise that there are 2 very important facets of Project SHaDe:
A case study on loneliness:
I wanted to portray a character/characters that were completely alone in their journeys. One thing I had noticed in the manga and media I consumed is that many of them have so much support for their adventures - thus, I wondered how a person would fare when facing impossible odds. A part of me may also be driving me to explore this part of the human condition - maybe to reconcile with little parts of myself.
Guilt and human perseverance:
A common notion I've found has developed within the characters is a focus on the concept of guilt. I'm not sure how this will turn out, but I want to hit home the message that you must not be crushed by your guilt - if you are to move forward, you have to carry your suffering and continue trudging forward.
Honestly, as long as one person finds meaning in this comic upon its completion, I'll be happy when I eventually go and die. I think in essence, that's why I'm working on this - it's kind of like an emergency 'last words before I die' letter, just in case I get isekai'd.
I've been working on my comic universe for YEARS now. I began working on the first part of my story 5 years ago and I just finished it off this past December. Unfortunately a lot of folks didnt like the comic because the art in the beginning pages weren't as good as the art in the final pages. But I'm still trucking along with its sequel because unlike some folks, I really believe in the content that I'm creating. I just want more folks to pay attention.
Renisha + Cjay is a sequel to the comic I talked about above. And if things go well with it in the future then I will release the other comic on here.
I was actually considering this question a couple days ago so I'm glad to see it being asked. The belief I used to hold deepest was that the written word is a powerful tool that can entertain and educate, and that it's the duty of a writer to convey a message to the reader.
I was much younger then. It was a pretentious viewpoint. Now I create because I need to. Some people might be fine going their wholes lives by simply existing, maybe creating children to continue their lineage, but that's not what I want. I have this overpowering drive to create new worlds and characters that I find compelling.
Anyway, here's my main series if anyone's interested. It might be new to you but I've spent the last ten years developing the characters and world.
Because I'd be doing 11-year old me a disservance if I ever stopped. Lemme backtrack with a story, grandchildren.
It's the 6th-grade, and I took on the job of creating an entire fancomic Saga with Pucca, Yin Yang Yo, Hello Kitty, my own OCs and The PowerPuff Girls. It was four arcs long, each with more than 10 chapters, and all drawn on notebook paper -- which was then stuffed into a bunky, flimsy binder with envelope tabs, like so:
I was proud of it. I carried it with me everywhere. Even showed all of the story, and I mean ALL of it, to my best friend (who had the patience of a Saint, I tell you). I wrote that Saga for one year and never once thought about how hard it was or how much work it was going to be. I just wanted to write that story.
So if 11-year old me could write and draw a story she adored, and keep writing and drawing it despite how unbelievable long it got, I can too. She is my inspiration to keep going with my stories and see that I finish them.
Initially it was because I was unemployed and depressed and I made it a goal to just shittly draw comics just to get something done and have a reason to get up every day, however arbitrary.
I still use it as an outlet to focus on producing something instead of lying around and thinking about death in my spare time.
My secret hidden agenda within the comic was also to just have trans and queer characters in there where their trans and/or queerness wasn't the whole focus so that I could help sneakily normalize it in our overall culture. Shh.
To stretch my creative muscles
To put my ideas to good use instead of keeping them trapped in my mind
To inspire others to have confidence and start creating their own stories
And, (might get flack for this) I really don't like the direction a lot of mainstream comics like Marvel and DC are going (nor am I a fan of these past convoluted reboots/rebirths/crisis/ etc that make these comics pretty hard to get in to and just really just adds to the exclusivity of the comic industry) and I want to contribute to the indie webcomic scene to, hopefully, do better.
