How serious are you?

[Blackhole]

Do you feel like this community is creatively liberating? Or do you feel pressured to make your comics fit into category A, B, or C just to get any readers or respect?

Are you happy just to have an opportunity to share your creativity with people,.. or do you have a battleplan for webcomic domination? (nothing wrong with either of those, by the way.)

C'mon, lets sit in a circle and pass around the bongos and talk about it. Lay it all out on the table. Make some smores.

[TheSuburbanLetdown]

I draw the type of story I want in the style I want with no strong inclination to make it fit into a specific category. It's the public that will group me into whatever category they feel my work belongs to. If if had to categorize it myself, I'd call it a slice-of-life comic. If you like things like King of the Hill, Mission Hill and Ghost World, you may like mine. I'd say King of the Hill is my biggest influence.

I listen to suggestions from readers and have one of my friends that's an illustrator tell me everything I'm doing wrong so I can fix it to the best of my current ability. In the end though, I'm the one that makes the final call on whether I listen to their advice or not. I don't let people pressure me into fitting into they they feel the work should be. If I listened to everything I was told, I'd have a pornographic comic that looked like Kim Possible. I don't want that.

I do this for fun as a serious hobbyist. It's mainly a way to channel my creativity and take a brain dump of sorts. I will submit this comic or perhaps a different version of it to a publisher at some point, but will not do this for a living. I'm mainly one of those people that has one story they want to tell. But who knows, perhaps I'll be compelled to work on another project as I get older and gain more life experience. I imagine I'll have other things to say before I die.

[GeorgeComics]

I'm not ready to quit my day job for my comic, but at the same time, my comic is currently my life's obsession. Just under a year ago, I decided that, for better or for worse, my life's calling is to be a cartoonist. That doesn't mean I should quit my job, pack everything into a van and travel cross-country until I find someone willing to pay me to do it, but it does mean that I'm dedicating myself to the craft and, with a lot of luck, will one day have lots of fans and people who generally enjoy my work!

[Warren]

I enjoy the people here, and at the other places I frequent. The notion that I do comics is nice, but ultimately uinimportant in who I see me as being.

I'd like people to read my stuff, of course. But I have enough real problems to not lose any sleep over what boils down to a few silly drawings and if somebody doesn't like the way I produce them.

[Dutch!]

I'm serious enough to be determined to continue School Spirit for several more years still yet, and do it regularly and without following the trends of what is deemed popular and cutting edge and losing the soul of the strip, but the title 'cartoonist' or even 'web cartoonist' is quite some way down the list of things I would describe myself as.

[Prettysenshi]

I'm not too serious. I do my comic for fun and when it gets boring at all, I give it a break. Before, I used to really care about comicking, but now, eh, it's just not as big a deal for me. I don't care to make money off of this some day. Now, I just do it mostly to improve my art skills.

[Warofwinds]

I'm pretty serious myself. To me, as with any work of art that I do, it's an extension of myself. I want it to be able to represent me, so obviously, I must be able to be proud of it. I do not however, have any aspirations to print my art. My comic is made for digital viewing only.

I like the CG community a lot. There are a lot of experienced people here who will give advice without pushing anyone around. I think people here realize there are a lot of webcomics that won't amicably fit into a certain category, so they don't try to push it. They're just good at what they do, period.

I have no battleplan per se, except to continue doing this until I reach my goal. If I stop at that goal, hurrah for me. If I continue past the goal, well, I won't complain. This is fun.

Also, I've found the best way to gain and keep readers (at least with my comic) is to not classify myself. I recently put up a small note about how when I look at some other people's comic/art, I realize deep inside that I will simply NEVER be as good as them. I was amazed at the responses I got about how people liked my comic because it was very different. It couldn't be compared to other comics' art/story/characters or something. I decided I could be happy with that.

I also made a pledge not to mope again, 'cause I should feel lucky I've got an audience the size of the one I have.

I can has smorze now?

[Geekblather]

I co-write my strip. And really- the characters run the strip. So, I don't bother classifying it. They do whatever they're gonna do, and I'm just along for the ride.

I'm not 'super serial' about it, but I do believe in updating consistently, because it keeps up readership, and then the characters don't eat my brain. Really, I would do it anyway though, if there were no one reading. I started the comic because i was drawing these characters every day anyway, so- I figured I might as well put something concrete out there.

[Ataraxia]

I'm serious enough to get a tattoo, but not quite serious enough to meet the parents of my comic.

[Jim North]

I'm totally serious.

Here, look, this is my serious face.



See?

Serious.

[Dutch!]

I also made a pledge not to mope again

Lots of people should make this pledge, actually. And stick to it.

[Bustertheclown]

I'm serious enough to keep my stuff off the internet until I'm ready for it to be displayed. I hope that makes sense to others, because it makes sense to me.

[Birdie]

I want to rant about how serious I am, but I don't want to sound like a twat. So yeah, I'm very serious. 2008 is going to be the year of SFF

[Cope]

Serious enough to put it on the Internet.

[Redtech]

Warning, long ramble and too many words:
Yes. Really.

I believe that out of the many communities that exist and that I've been privvy to, the comic/art scene isn't too bad at all, it depends as always on the nuances of people, but because of the nature of the art, it's not always as much "talking" about it, but "show me what you've got". Whether people think that I'm the living embodiment of the plague or not is another issue.

In general webcomicing, I do feel that there are some genres that are "too easy" to get fans with, and others that are very niched. Just using other people as examples, but I'm surprised that Last Resort can so easily be described as furry and be dumped with at least a hundred Doug Winger inspired perversions when it has a strong Sci-fi-style Running Man appeal, while Bi-Pass looks for all intentions like a gamers comic but is semi-autobiographical which adds a certain depth of appeal that another joke about Nintendo Wee wee lacks.

Readers vote with their mice which is a neat appeal compared to conventional media, but it also means that flashier is often easier to grab attention with while those with poorer art and better storytelling easily get pushed aside except for the hard-core readers.

For the sake of an argument, I wont comment on Meiosis. The crux of the issue, is for other people to comment on it for me.

How many gamers' comics or college roomate comics exist out there anyway? I can understand that people do tend to draw from their own lifestyles and experiences (the number of workplace comics is testamount to that), but there's a pretty huge line between the cliche' and the skillful and I think one of the skills that one has to learn is that ultimately you're in it for the love, not the fans. A bit like my bio really.

At the same time, I do feel that some people aren't doing comics because of the love of the art, but mainly as a plug point (donation boxes for small comics annoy me greatly). Hell, I've plugged my comic on my resume' (!) but for me it's a nice diversion from real life.

Because I have very few lasting achivements or achivements that I care about as I tend to burn bridges very readily, one thing that I certainly lack is a tether to something that I created that I call my own and I feel Meiosis adds a sense of permanence and something that I can point to and say, I created this, you don't have to read it, or like it, BUT IT'S THERE! I would lie if I could call myself an artist, or even by job-class, a merc scientist, but there is something inherently satisfying about the creation of something. Probably explains why I have a knack for growing "bugs" in petri dishes.

As for what I want to do in the future, well I feel ultimately that if past performance is an example of future performance that I can do better at whatever it is that I do and be as damned ubiquitous as Lightbringer! To be fair to the man of light, the author's attitude to his work and his characters is so desirable, I find it personally motivating, which ultimately is what the best people do: reach out and touch someone.

[Phact0rri]

I think that CG forums are a great way to learn lots of stuff. i don't know what you mean by having comics to fit in. I really don't see a majority of comics in the community really falling into a mold. everyone has thier own way of doing things, and that in itself is what so awesome about being here.

my comic is mainly a way for me to practice and tell a story. Its fun, and thats about it.

[Eve Z.]

I don't know if I'm serious, but I think I do when I'm in the right mood. I'm trying to fit in a certain number of strips per week. Also, I do my comics because I love it and it's fun. I like it when my style improves.

I think I'm moreso ambitious, if I have something stuck in my head - a goal - I usually reach it. This summer I've tried to fit into the 3 updates per week cathegory, but I missed alot of updates, due to lack of time, mood, or going here and there.

yeah, I'm generally serious, if not for other people, I am for me. After all, I'm doing the comic mainly for ...me. And then, for others.

[Legion]

Not particularly. It's why I quit: I realised I wasn't taking it seriously enough to focus on improvement, and was instead just pottering along and improving slowly and unevenly as I went. I was putting in enough time for it to make a noticeable impact on my week, but not enough to get a suitable return in terms of artistic improvement. Also I didn't want to chain myself to drawing what were effectively a bunch of Mario recolours for the next few years. Plus university.

I might start again sometime. I have an idea for a new project. But I'm not going to even consider starting it unless I know I want to put the time in.

[Yeahduff]

I also made a pledge not to mope again

Lots of people should make this pledge, actually. And stick to it.

Moping is way awesome.

[Ti-Phil]

I draw because I enjoy it, not to fit in any mold, just because it's fun.



Oh.. and also because I'm inspired by the story so far.