Would you make a seperate account for your bl comics?

[fiddlyturtle]

So, this question suddenly popped into my head. I know that some comic creators draw BL comics besides their main comic. If you were to draw a BL too, would u post it in the same account or would u post it under a different artist identity? If no, then why? Considering that BL genre may have a different audience than the audience on your main comic, what would be your choice?

[DualDragons]

I probably wouldn't, the audience may recognize the art style and still piece two and two together.
Besides, I think it would show your variety of genres as an writer & artist.
There will always be people who don't like a certain genre, and I don't think people will unfollow an artist/writer just because their other comic is of a genre they dislike. They stay for the comic they do like.

[Legendofgenii]

No. Ride or die!

[nauko]

No...I don't see the point in doing that.

If it's due to a fear of losing followers, I'd prefer people that close-minded who have a bias against me for something like that to not be following me tbh.

[jcmraz]

I don't draw BL comics but I would put them all on the same account. People can read what of mine that they like. They don't need to like everything that I do.

[Eiranyx]

No I wouldn't do that because the art style has been recognized by the audience already, and even making a separate account, they will still be able to put the two together. It will still come down on what the people will choose to read among my work anyways.

[darthmongoose]

I suspect the only circumstances in which I'd work with a different pseudonym and keep it totally separate from my public profile would be if whatever I was making, be it a GL, BL or het, was so incredibly explicit, kinky or with such disturbing content, that I was worried it'd permanently taint my reputation, particularly because I've historically done a lot of workshops in schools or libraries with children.
Just having LGBTQIA+ themes, like it has a male/male pairing? That can't really harm my reputation when I'm already openly gay. There are already a bunch of gay characters in my comic, which I'd rate around a PG13. Generally though, since I have no interest in making gorey or explicit content, I seriously doubt this'll ever be a problem. I'll probably just be a family friendly lesbian forever.

[ninjashira]

No way. LGBT+ romance stories are basically half my identity! If someone liked one of my other comics that didn't have any gay characters in them, and doesn't want to read my comics with gay characters, then that's their decision to not read that content, not my job to hide it from them.

When I was younger, I cared about things like that a bit more, mostly because I didn't want my super conservative dad to see what I was doing, but these days I could not care less. It's what I like to do, it's what I'm gonna do, and if anyone doesn't want to see it, then they don't have to read it 🤷🏼‍♀️

[Freemints30]

Eh, no. Unless I'm suddenly making a full blown porn comic and I just want to keep my audience on that separate on that for obvious reasons. But I highly doubt I would ever do that. So really everything would be under one name and I can show off my flexibility. My work already dabbles in LGBTQ things already so what's BL gonna do?

PG-13 comic: I can do that
Adult fantasy novel : I can do that

I'm a fexy person who does flexy things. If you don't like one you can read my other stuff.

[rajillustration]

Nah. Once upon a time I was working on a sci comic where the main character was this kick ass lesbian space commander, but like...I feel no need to make a separate account for that. It was kind of a cool premise, actually, and I'm still bummed that I had to shelve it because of Carpal Tunnel (maybe one day I'll bring it back, but it was a fan-comic of a really old video game, so it's not like I can make money off it, I just don't have the time.) I'm of the opinion that having LGBT+ representation should not change your genre or your audience, although I know we tend to label it that way. I just have characters who are gay sometimes, and that's all.

[fiddlyturtle]

@DualDragons @Eiranyx Yeah, that actually makes sense. When we like a certain art styl, we kind of can recognize it and pick it apart from a crowd of different styles when we see it. I've tend to notice that too.
Also, it's nice to see artists challenging themselves to draw something new that they haven't tries before.

[fiddlyturtle]

@nauko @jcmraz I love the way you guys said it. Loving one's own work is really important.
And I tend to see a comic with LGBTQ+ characters on a whole different light. When I see an artist having LGBTQ+ characters in their comics, it kind of shows that they're very open minded and my respect for them increases by tenfold.

[fiddlyturtle]

@darthmongoose That's actually what I was wondering. Cause I don't see artists who have explicit content in their comics make other genres usually. But I'm pretty sure most of them have drawn other comics too because you don't become THAT good at drawing without practicing for a long time and nsfw comics are actually pretty hard to make. It requires a really good knowledge and understanding of anatomy and it comes with a lot of experience.
So I'm assuming they usually make a second account for those explicit and kinky comics.

[fiddlyturtle]

That's a big mood right there tbh. I love how cool and open-minded you all are.

[fiddlyturtle]

I personally gravitate towards comics with LGBT+ characters a lot. Like when an artist have open-minded and strong characters in their comics, it shows some of the artist's personality too. So, it makes me want to read more of their work when I know that they're good and open-minded people.

[fiddlyturtle]

That's really nice to know. I'm writing the script of my comic right now and I have a whole bunch of LGBT+ characters in it. And it's really fun to write without having to hide things you like. For artists, their art and comics are like a safe place and they shouldn't have to hide anything in their safe place and should be able to just be themselves. That's what I believe, at least.

[darthmongoose]

Well, it could be that they're making the account for explicit content... or it could be that they're not as lucky as me. I can be openly gay with little fear over it thanks to living in the UK, a country with pretty good acceptance for cis gay people like me (really needs to work on trans acceptance though....yikes... definitely room for improvement there) and having very progressive, liberal parents and working in London where I've frequently worked in offices with up to three other lesbians. So I can make a "family friendly!" gay comic under my own name and everyone's like "oh, jolly good!" because openly gay celebrities like Steven Fry or Sue Perkins can be the face of family shows here.

Some people though... maybe they're living in a country (or even just a state or area, since it seems like parts of the US are extremely backwards, far more than rural areas of the UK) where homosexuality is much less widely accepted and their parents don't know they're gay, and if they were discovered making gay content, there'd be terrible consequences.

[fiddlyturtle]

I can pretty much relate to the last part. I live in an asian country and one where most people don't even know about the LGBT+ concept. The new generation is more knowledgeable and open to their sexuality but not everyone tho. Unfortunately, the number is really small compared to the whole population.

And the older generation is a lost case tbh. Which is why, everyone just keeps their sexuality a secret from their family. We have it really bad in here. Like, you could check out another girl and the guy beside her will think, you're checking him out. Because like I said, most people don't even know that liking someone from the same gender is normal.