Would you want people that know you irl to find your comic online?

[JeanGuillet]

some my friends & family pretended for a long time that they had no interest...but then one by one they cracked and admitted they were reading things every single week and had been for years. smh. thanks to the irl guys who supported me from the beginning though, it took bravery.

[Eveeka]

Nope nope nope and ...nope

[Zushi]

No. Never.
While I wish I can share my comic in real life as it does discuss a lot of very common important issues in mental health especially in regards how it effects me as a student, I simply cannot risk the chance of tarnishing my image. I can try to attempt to say it's based off the experience of a friend/someone I know but the way I write the emotions are what my readers describe as "being raw and honest that only be from a person who has experienced such a thing " could write.

Yes unfortunately mental illness is still seen as a huge No-No where I live despite the increase in awareness (but it's only skin deep which is why it kinda never felt meaningful to me) and it's a huge taboo in academia, especially in the professional medical world to be seen with a mental illness. It can literally affect your acceptance and standing to a school or future job application since any indication of mental illness usually equates to an automatic rejection due to liability reasons as well as other outdated views. Hell, I even had some teachers and professors who said until I won't get anywhere in life with a mental illness since it's just slacking off/being crazy and even my psychiatrist says unfortunately I have to keep it a secret unless I want to be discriminated with this. It sucks since my mental illness like any chronic illness has taken a huge toll on my life being hospitalized multiple times and going through various different treatments but I can't use it to explain why I'm struggling more than usual because it's seen as sorry excuse for "a lack of self discipline and character".
Only my 2 closest friends in real life know my comic the rest are just strangers though I do notice some do go to my university

[Azifri]

I'm very open about my comic and other art stuff, and usually have links and images posted around on social media. It's hilarious when people I don't associate with art sometimes make comments about it out of the blue, like when my academic advisor asked if I had submitted more paintings to the campus art magazine (I didn't even know he looked at that magazine), or when a former coworker asked if the main character of my comic was me (yes, she kinda is).
So yeah, I think many people I know in real life know about my comic and other artsy stuff, but only few read it

[punkarsenic]

im generally atrocious at promoting my comic in any sphere, but irl i feel like theres a level of trust &/ respect before i show ppl my comic. like, my teachers all know it exists bc I Want Approval and my friends vaguely know it exists, but i never wanna push it on friends at all bc i dont want them to sub just to be nice. when i show ppl my comic its like when i ask ppl to watch my favourite tv show or listen to my favourite album - its sharing an important part of myself, and is kind of a way i show respect and trust.

i have a few closer / older friends who do read my comic on-and-off, and my girlfriend sends me memes about it now and then, which is really great lol

[Shanny8]

It wouldnt bother me- but it would bother if they ran up on me asking me questions about stuff that I'm not ready to reveal yet...

[Strontium]

In college I was more hesitant to tell people because there were people in college I didn't like and didn't want them to have a way to follow me past graduation XC but now I share it with potential jobs and with my peers. It's a good place to demonstrate my work ethic and dedication!

[Wumbl]

It hasn't happened yet with comics, but I've had people recognise me in real life based on my writing and artwork before...
I have a reputation in one particular fandom for writing a lot of intense, dramatic fan-fiction and I have been under the spotlight a lot for how I write - my fanworks are really unique and get loads of attention for standing out... and when I was in college I was dating an underclassman who actually met a girl that knew me by my screen name. Apparently what she said was "I heard he writes really violent and scary stories. I was told to watch out for him because of how scary he is."
I dunno, I'm certainly not scary in real life but I have learned that people get an intimidating vibe from my work bc it's full of violence and horror!!! I'm actually nice I swear.

[Buurd]

Nobody really cared or knew about my first one, but now that my current one has actually picked up most of my family has read or reads it eventually. I feel embarrassed just because I know where I'm lacking and its a romance/drama and I just don't think it's their type of reading material ^^; But I just kinda bite my tongue cause I know they're just curious and wanna support me. My friend will show it to anyone and everyone, and we're from a small town - so I keep finding out new people she's gotten to read it haha

[simplykit]

sure, i told a buddy of mine

then he spread the word

[lil-sea-salt]

I do novels, but I suppose it's the same.

I call it the stephan king effect -- just because you write or draw about a subject doesn't necessarily point to childhood trauma or other underlying issues.

I like to explore concepts in my work that probably would be interesting situations to be in. That doesn't mean I wish for these topics to become reality, it's just that's the nature of fantasy and writing. I don't want a 8 year old to be raised by shrouds who run a library of the dead IRL, but it's an interesting concept to explore. It's a story . . . people get really riled up, "you did this in your pretend world to pretend people that's horrible . . . poor made up people (this is from a donald glover stand up special.)"

but the point is, people care too much

[mrtoontastic]

Guerilla Advertising. Spread posters all over the place. Show and share links to your works. Text them using the share option. Scream it all over your local campus/park/etc. Tell your neighbors. Tell your friends. Just tell anyone!

[vfinnigan]

Absolutely not. Some of my biggest fans are in my family.

[Chita]

Not really...?
I mean, I'm okay if anyone knows that I'm working on a comic, but I wouldn't feel confortable knowing that they read it. Sometimes I shove it to friends around my age, but to adults? Never
Idk why, but I've got the feeling that they would judge me through my comic, specially since it is a personal thing for me.

[aqua03]

Actually, most everybody I know knows about at least my webcomic Edible Green Tea in some way, shape, or form. (Having a mom who's basically friends with approximately 1/8th of the general population of Minnesota and then some makes your art projects becoming known among the circle you're in basically an inevitability. )

Everyone I know who has checked out my work really seems to enjoy it, so I don't really mind it when people come up to me in like say, my church, and tell me how much they liked reading the latest strip of my comic or something like that. That, and I really like it when people acknowledge my art and story writing skills because that's what I want to do as a career.

@BobbyjoeXforgotensb

How did that come up in your conversation with them?

[demthorshie]

Most of my family and friends have read at least a little bit of my comic, it doesn't bother me. I think it's an awesome idea to tell the people you know about your comic so they can hopefully spread the word.

[Rootbeer_Jewels]

I'll mention it to my relatives but I'd rather not have them actually see it. I want to have the freedom of doing whatever I want without having to worry about what my grandma is going to think if I have a gay couple since she's one of those kinds of religious people. Still love her though in it or kill a character in a brutal fashion, know what I mean? For a while when I was dating my boyfriend without my parents knowing since I wasn't ready to tell them about it at the time I wanted to draw stuff for him on Deviant Art but was worried about my dad finding out about through a post about his cat and felt like I had to censor myself since my family was watching.
Now I don't mind if my friends see what I'm drawing since they won't really care. My boyfriend even keeps up with my comic and will remind me to post on days I forget.

[BobbyjoeX]

young person, was talking about cartoons we grew up with and i mentioned how those cartoons inspired me to be a comic artist

[aqua03]

Ah, that's pretty cool then.

[phen]

Tiny, tiny rural mountain spirit here where everyone knows everyone's bizzle. But when I was younger, I transferred schools a lot 'cause my family had to move for jobs. I was actively drawing all through my school years. So people knew I created comics. I even got to create comics for both of my high school's newspaper. Lofty much, yeah? X]

My knee-jerk reaction to this is, "Yeah, no prob" since it's been a blast sharing so far.