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

[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.

[LT1986]

I've told a lot of people that I know about my web comic and have given them the information to find my web comic. Non of the people follow my web comic. Now if they or other people start following my web comic, I wouldn't mind. I don't put anything online that would make me ashamed of them seeing.

[kissatr]

There are so many teens saying that they wouldn't show it to adults. If you want to be a professional, you HAVE to show it, but if you're doing comics just for fun, then hide it and keep it to yourself. Adults won't judge you, they won't psycho analyse you, because we all been there. But I get it, I also had that insecurities 10 years ago.
I'm not ashamed of my work, and I show my comics to my friends, family and people who have more experience than me, because I want to make a living out of my art. Not my mom, never my mom, LOL. She knows I work in comics, and she know I have published some comicbooks, but I won't show them to her, because she is not the target audience.

[lucika]

I do the same thing too. Firstly, I feel embarrassed if they do read it. They would be like "Why are you making this?","what is the moral of the story?" etc, and I will be frustrated since I just want to create my own comic. Secondly, there's nothing much so far with my comic. If I do want them to read it, I prefer to present my work when the story is getting somewhere.

Some of my friends irl probably already read it since I had the link of my comic on Instagram, but they never mention anything to me so I'm just keep doing what I do.

[zammap]

Gosh I wish I could get people to read them. If things aren't posted directly to facebook I doubt anyone tries to read anything I do.

[mappypaint]

People I know IRL knows I draw comics, they just don't care about it. That's the reason I posted it online, and that's how I found my reader base.

[unknown_user]

There are so many teens saying that they wouldn't show it to adults. ... Adults won't judge you, they won't psycho analyse you, because we all been there.

Are you kidding? In the environment where I have grown up, most of adults - parents, relatives, teachers - openly despise and humiliate teens and don't even notice it, because everybody have accustomed to it. They judge and "psycho analyse" in the most humiliating ways at first opportunity.
As one of my relatives said, when I've asked them stop to insulting me (when I was a teen)... "Insult you? How one may insult a kid? Adults don't insult kids, they just educate them". When I've asked another relative to stop beat me up, they said "Beat you up?! Why do you say it, like I am a monster?! I'm not beating you, I'm teaching you!".
They don't give a shit about young people feeling ("feelings? It is just hormones/caprice/simulation"). They percept them as not-quite-human, and often pretend that kids can't have an opinion or feel pain, because it all is "not serious" anyway. Also some of them have inexplicable convintion, that kids and teens will forget all abuse, when they will grow up, which give them even more strong sense of impunity.

I still remember the most disgusting and humiliating "reviews" about my creative work. These things were told me by adults, when I was a teen or kid... 10, 15, 20 years ago, but I still remember the humiliation, so strong it was.

Some people say that if one still remembers all of that in their 28, this person is petty, spiteful and immature (I suppose, they are the same people who believe that you should forget everything bad from your childhood and youth to NOT being "spiteful"). Yes, you can say that, if you want. In that case, I'd better be spiteful than pretend that such a things don't happen, because it would be an ignorance.

In my opinion, when young people hesitate to show their work to older ones, they have all grounds for it.

If you want to be a professional, you HAVE to show it

Yes, it can be useful. But only with some conditions. Particularly, if you'll show it to people, who:
1. Are versed in art, at least, a bit;
2. Have enough consciousness to be respectful to younger (which is again, rare case).
Then yes, you can get the useful critique. But if you'll show your work to ignorant and arrogant adult (which is much more likely), you'll just being mocked and feel like a piece of shit, but will not extract any useful info from it.

[unknown_user]

I'm sorry to bring up all these ugly things, I just think that it is important to stay realistic. If adults don't insult younger ones at this forum or in your family, or in your art class, it means that these concrete adults are conscious, but it doesn't mean that all adults are so conscious as well. Just the opposite, it is still more likely exception, than the rule.