Why do comic creators seem to do less well on Patreon than other content creators?

[AdrenalineShots]

Even really popular ones don't seem to earn that much by comparison?

[YangKoete]

That's the thing...As a comic artist, you cannot just rely on one thing for income.

Patreon's great, but not the best. It's a good idea to slowly climb up the ladder with obtaining income, getting a fanbase and then getting higher.

I don't think it has to do with popularity either; Some people just don't have a fanbase that wants to pay a lot.

[mariusthered]

thats a bit like asking why some kids are popular are school, some have money others just have the gift of the gab.
the rest of us get..... old!

[LoboSong_Hitaka5Ever]

I think people are more prone to use Patreon if the benefits of being a patreon gives them art that THEY ask for. So unless someone is really invested in a comic (I believe Mars' Long Exposure's patreon gets quite a bit of funds?) people will wait for the comic pages to become public (which is what most webcomic artists do) These are just my thoughts on the matter. I haven't used Patreon yet so I don't have experience on what people want and don't want on there

[anitacomics]

Might have something to do with rewards? I mean, drawing comics take a hella lot of time. If you also have a dayjob, or a side job, it leave very little time to work on surplus stuff to compensate the Patrons. Illustrators, for example, seem to be able to get more out of a single image (you can either have the psd file, the brushes, tips, work in progress, various merch that you can make from the picture itself, and the like). I understand some of this can be extracted by a comic page, but it's not as interesting, being the comic focused on telling a story more than on drawing excellence

[sarrowsmith10]

people will wait for the comic pages to become public (which is what most webcomic artists do

I actually saw a webcomic artist have her series completely on Patreon. She had a pretty big following on her other stories here and she drops previews here and there to get people excited. I think she does pretty well. But she's probably the exception to the rule.

Allison Shaw is creating Adventures and fairy tales in webcomic form | Patreon

[joannekwan]

I think it's because it takes time and effort to actually get invested in a comic. Consumers are more apt to support creators like youtubers because they can put on one of their videos and do something else, or if it's a general artist, it takes like what, 5 seconds or less to look a the pretty picture.

[phen]

Independent illustrators and animators seem to garner wonderful patreon supporters and so the idea of time invested in projects stands for questioning. There are a handful of comic creators that come to mind that have fairly sustainable patreon bases but yeah, there's a lot more to "sell" with webcomics than simply... comics.

Everyone has their own taste, their own draw to certain styles and webcomics are a mad meshing of styles: Narrative, art, design, genre, and presentation. You've gotta hit all of those with green check marks before a potential reader considers pledging monthly. It's a big investment for an individual to make, there's more a question of trust in credibility and long-term dedication (which is remarkably low with webcomics since it's such a complicated medium to tackle). Illustrations, video/audio content, and the like, those are more flexible services that quickly, easily appeal and can vary greatly in context, ie, more bang for your buck.

[modrawmanga]

Hmm... I think it depends... cos lackdaisy seems to be doing quite well in patreon, I think it also have something to do with the level of quality of her highly detailed art and the loyal following accumulated over many years
Ghostblade also doing really well, but it also mixed with the income from the fanart

But I see what you mean, compared to youtuber, it seems to be less, but if you think about it, the difference in numbers of youtube viewers vs tapas/webtoon readers are quite enormous
Videos usually have more impact as a media compared to still images, or books that you have to read

[scythe]

Well, a lot of creators are actually doing amazingly well on Patreon, but I do get your general point.

I'd say it's because comics have always been and will always be niche media. People may know the famous characters, but only a tiny percentage of those people have ever actually picked up a comic. And a minuscule number have ever paid for one.

With Patreon, you're asking someone to pay for something that most of the time they can read for free, so that's another hurdle to overcome, but really, I know with my Patreon habits, I tend to support people who I think are doing important cultural work, and I suspect a lot of people are doing the same. Comics are great, but they're mostly just entertainment. It's not as if I think, "okay, if I don't support this comic creator, he might stop, and society would be worse off because of that."