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Why I Got Out of Webcomics
Jan. 8th, 2022 12:57 pm(posted this on tumblr originally; archiving for long term here with some minor additions for clarity).
Some of you already know, but I used to be a published webcomic creator (making Iron Crown, still available on my personal site, though I stopped updating mid 2020). Was with one of the more popular indie webcomic publishing agencies, we were in talks towards the end to make it into a softcover book published internationally, the whole nine yards. The below points are not about them directly, but I think actively choosing to get out of webcomic publishing / the mini cottage industry is one of those mildly controversial topics that's hard to talk about.
Everyone has their dream story, for one, and few people want to close doors on slim possibilities or hopes of making it happen. Likewise, I'm gonna go as far to say that the webcomic relationships and circles in general are pretty incestuous; this is not a judgement call as much a reality that flavors a lot of the reasons down below. Some people are compatible with it, others are not. Webcomics, too, I feel like tend to be created by folks with less resources (and more interesting stories) that are gatekept out of the traditional publishing industries, and so there's a few systematic patterns that pop up there. Along with the good stuff (worlds and characters that don't get de-fanged), sadly, the scrappiness means there's lot of desperation and need with resources, and a lot more unneeded viciousness over what shouldn't be scarce.
Something else to note is there's a whole spectrum of dedication. I think a lot of folks are working towards making webcomics their full-time career or have made a patreon to fund regular page updates, and this is who this post is mostly for. Webcomics as a "you get a page when you get a page" tertiary-priority hobby with no funding expected is less common, but curiously I think it's a lot healthier and more sustainable for creators.
Anyway, can't imagine a lot of webcomickers would say this outright, but it might be useful for some of y'all. My main reasons for quitting webcomics:
1) i couldn't hack it. this isn't an appeal for sympathy as much as it is being honest with endurance. there's very few people that have the luck, time, money, and focus(!) to make comics for a living and it is *okay* to gracefully bow out. Last time I did back-of-the-napkin math I was spending 40-50hrs/week drawing on top of a 40hrs/w dayjob. every week.
90hrs/w is not sustainable and I'm frankly surprised I lasted two years. on that note:
2) webcomic creation pays like *shit* (when you're the long tail). I had more support behind me than a lot of starting-from-scratch comic creators, which made me jaded faster, if anything.
dollar by dollar, hour by hour, even back when I was just a designer, I just couldn't justify something that took as much time and paid ~300x less (yep you're reading that right) than a corporate job per month.
3) "content as a service" really, really bothered me ethically
the brain and my Muse simply Do Not Work as a tidy content-machine-on-demand schedule-wise as sometimes I go "dormant" for months. there's also the other matter that I want to make controversial art eventually, and being hung on a noose of fickle 'accountability' from an audience financially was not an option.(I don't mean y'all as much as digital infrastructure being fragile. one skittish PR person receiving bad faith emails could mean you're booted off of patreon/your livelihood, for instance, and I've seen it happen to friends.)
There are other reasons in addition, but they're pretty minor in comparison.
Now, I don't write this to be a downer. there's incredible stories out there, both fictional and success stories, full stop. but. I also want to spotlight that there's more realistic options especially from a background of somebody who's *lived* both. choose freely.
