Would tagging my comic as a BL be innapropriate

[NanettesClouds]

Yo hey, so the comic I've been working on for awhile now is a horror/drama sort of thing. The main two characters are a gay couple. There are some romance elements. (Oh hey, yeah this isn't a comic that I've posted yet btw)

Do I tag it as a BL? It's not really a mushy romance story, I think people who read BL would maybe be dissapointed by that. However, I could, and I feel like it would maybe be a missed marketing oppritunity not to.

That said, I think the people who would enjoy my comic the most are the people who would usually steer away from BL, and that's to say, people who like good comics.

[KoreanTacos]

I don't really know, it's a question of what you want your focus to be. Do you want it to be on the story or the fact that your characters are a gay couple? Anytime I see a BL tag all I really see it gimmick. I prefer just reading a series and being introduced to the characters romance. It feels more authentic and more real to see the relationship build. when it's announced as a BL it just turns into a gimmick and people are just waiting for that gimmick to be shown.

[tomatobird]

BL refers to a specific kind of romance genre in which the romance (afaik) is central and is (usually) more focused on the mushy/relationship stuff, as well as a lot of other tropes that are specific to the genre. Just because the main characters of a story are gay doesn't mean it's necessarily BL, in the same way in which any other genre comics that happen to have a m/f couple or romance subplot aren't necessarily "romance" stories. My comic has a couple of main characters who are romantically involved guys but their relationship kind of takes a backseat to the rest of the plot and so it would be inappropriate for me to label my comic BL.

Marketing is good, but its good to also know your audience. labeling it BL could be misleading, turning a lot of people who might potentially be interested in your comic off, and disappointing other people who were expecting a played-straight romance. I read a comic once that was labeled BL because i thought it would end up being a more sweet romance story in the end only for it to kind of have a... rather devastating and violent ending that was rather distressing and while I don't think it necessarily made it a "bad" story, i did think that the labeling of it was very misleading (i think later they changed it, so that's avoided now) and i think i would have entered the story w/ different expectations/mindset without the label.

[ThatMangoka]

In the end I think you should listen to your gut, but an alternative could be to to say it includes lgbt theme or romance when posting descriptions of your comic. That's sort of what I've been doing for some of the reasons listed above. I feel like there's a certain niche genre that gets associated with the label 'bl'. There's definitely an audience but I also worry about getting pigeon-holed.

Posting pictures of your couple together in forums could be another way of advertising without attaching a label, but again, it's all about what you feel most comfortable with.

I definitely wanna see your comic when you start posting! I DEFINITELY want to see more comics out there with lgbt relationships outside of the romance genre, and outside of the bl ghettos. :3

[joannekwan]

Leave it off, attract the unwary. There's nothing more satisfying than having a reader that says they're not normally into reading same-sex romance but really like your story anyway.

And you don't necessarily want to dupe BL lovers either. Usually (to me, anyway) BL falls into 3 tones: high drama, diabetes-inducingly sweet, or middle-ground young adults discovering themselves and each other.
If your story doesn't fall into any of those, yeah leave it.

[NanettesClouds]

it's a question of what you want your focus to be. Do you want it to be on the story or the fact that your characters are a gay couple?

when it's announced as a BL it just turns into a gimmick and people are just waiting for that gimmick to be shown.

I think you're completely right about this.

labeling it BL could be misleading, turning a lot of people who might potentially be interested in your comic off, and disappointing other people who were expecting a played-straight romance. I read a comic once that was labeled BL because i thought it would end up being a more sweet romance story in the end only for it to kind of have a... rather devastating and violent ending

It was really great to hear about a similar sittuation happening from a readers perspective.

There's definitely an audience but I also worry about getting pigeon-holed.

Really good point, I think if I labled it as a BL I would feel inclined to add in more romantic scenes, which in the grand scheme of the story would be suuuupppeer innapropriate, on top of that fan service is always garbage.

There's nothing more satisfying than having a reader that says they're not normally into reading same-sex romance but really like your story anyway.

Helll yeah, one of the reasons I started this project is because I wanted to help normalize gay characters in media (I started this almost 4 years ago now >_> normalization was a bigger deal then), and part of the way I think that needs to be done is by not drawing attention to it.

All of you guys were super helpful, thank you for talking me out of a bad decision!

[NanettesClouds]

I definitely wanna see your comic when you start posting! I DEFINITELY want to see more comics out there with lgbt relationships outside of the romance genre, and outside of the bl ghettos. :3

Keep an eye out this summer

[dojo]

Mostly commenting cuz I wanna say I've been dying to read this since that google hangouts that it was just us two cuz I was REALLY jazzed about the style you were working with, SO WHEN IT'S UP I'd love to know! (You were how I found out tapastic doesn't let you follow creators without series up yet and was like, man, how am I supposed to know it's up now??)

Also to keep it relevant and on topic, yeah I'd just leave the BL off. I personally don't have an issue with BL but it is a very particular kind of same-sex romance comic.

[NanettesClouds]

Oh hey well I have a series up now you can follow me it's just a little minicomic tho. FYI I'd love to hang out more you're a cool dude and I love Paisley Brickstone. Maybe ill try and set up hang-out events again in the future, especially since I'm a little bit more established in the community now.

[dojo]

OH you do?? Heck yeah, sub'd BD

AND SURE I'd love to hang out again too! =D I've been pretty busy lately, but hit me up and I'll try and show up!

[SpavVy]

Unless romance is the main element then I don't really see a point in putting the BL tag on it.
Long Exposure has two gay main characters without the BL tag and it's doing pretty well.
Whenever I see the BL tag I think of cheesy shit, Yaoi stereotype, meant to attract teenage girls and so on.

[mikemacdee]

It would guarantee an audience, anyway, at least for a couple pages. Seems like all the Smackjeeves comic authors are moving their boyrape fantasies to Tapastic.

[infectedbloodcomics]

If you want to get featured, just slap BL on top of your comic, even if it's got just a passing smooch between two fake gay characters.

[ThatMangoka]

Yayyyy! ^^ I also try to make comics that normalize lgbt relationships, so lets do it!!