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What's Happening With Webtoon?? - Art Commentary
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- Опубликовано: 14 авг 2024
- Open letter to Webtoon from the Webtoon Originals community: t.co/AoqnQFmn9A
Artists responses google doc: docs.google.co...
Please check out everyone’s comics & socials!
Pilot Obvious:
Future Agents Webtoon: www.webtoons.c...
Future Agents Tapas: m.tapas.io/ser...
Twitter: Pi...
Instagram: ...
Tiktok: www.tiktok.com...
Leaf:
The Last Dimension: www.webtoons.c...
Twitter: Le...
Instagram: ...
TJay Marshall:
Codename: COLORS: www.webtoons.c...
Twitter: Tj...
Instagram: ...
Tiktok: www.tiktok.com...
Indiigo:
Misguided Ghosts: www.webtoons.c...
Twitter: in...
Instagram: ...
Tiktok: www.tiktok.com...
SparkleArts:
Celestis: globalcomix.co...
Twitter: Sp...
Instagram: ...
Tiktok: www.tiktok.com...
Other comics to check out:
Crossroads by Jam: m.tapas.io/ser...
It’s Warmer Over Here by Jam: m.tapas.io/ser...
Core by Camish:m.tapas.io/ser...
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TIMESTAMPS:
Intro - 0:00
1. Old Vs New - 2:43
2. Struggles & Gripes - 13:02
3. Do We Still Like It? - 23:42
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Software:
Clip Studio Paint EX (illustration)
OBS (speedpaint recording)
Audacity (Audio)
Adobe After Effects (Editing)
Adobe Media Encoder (Rendering)
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My Links:
Twitter: It...
Tiktok: / fionapollo
Instagram: / fionapollo.yt
Webcomic (Webtoon): www.webtoons.c...
Webcomic (Tapas): tapas.io/serie...
![Chuckyy - Devil Hours [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/f3wZGj0VnZU/mqdefault.jpg)
Shortly after scheduling this video to upload, I saw that an open letter from the webtoon originals community had been made public that laid bare a lot of the frustrations held by many over Webtoon’s practices (or lack thereof), particularly in regards to finance and performance. The timing between the letter and my video was sheer coincidence; this video is intended to be more geared towards just expectations towards casual creators as both I & the majority of artists I spoke to do not receive regular income from our stories, but in hindsight I wish I had enquired to more webtoon originals artists in order to better advocate for their fair treatment.
Please give this letter a read and support webcomic artists in their endeavours to be heard by the very platform they rely on. The letter is linked in the description.
I'd love to listen but the audio is sooo quite even with my headphones I have to turn them all the way up which drains them heavily. (loved the video tho)
Can you post a link? I would appreciate it!
@@RWAsur Hi! The link to the letter is right at the top of the video description ^^
@@Fionapollo Thank you!!
we are the "polo's"
One comic that has it's own website and makes the most of it is Ava's demon by (?)Michelle Fus. I mean...the layout (like it's a book), the texts to decode yourself, animation, gifs...incredible. The author really makes the most of it.
Homestuck did it first though
@@Friendstoyourend Homer's Odyssey did it first.
@@Friendstoyourend Doesn’t matter who did it first. Homestuck and Ava’s Demon still have their own individual styles and merits when it comes to how it presents itself.
@@Friendstoyourend why you bringing up Homestuck lmao
@@Friendstoyourend ?? you be acting like the commenter said that Ava's demon did it first when they didn't xD
One thing I hate about Webtoons was when they started having the "daily pass" thing for the completed webtoons. I used to enjoy waiting for when the webtoon would be completed so I can binge the episodes and to be prevented from cliffhangers- another thing I liked about not having the pass is finding a webtoon that was finished and discovering it and binge reading it. it feels so good. Like the webtoon Flow for example.
I started reading it when I was scrolling for a new comic to read and it was completed. I loved downloading it and reading it on my ride to my martial arts dojo. it was fun, because I knew I wasn't going to be left with a cliffhanger. I managed to binge it in 3 days. it felt nice. especially if the next year or even month, you decided to reread a finished webtoon to be able to refresh your brain or even find some clues you didn't notice when it was still ongoing
When they added the "1 episode a day" for completed webtoons, my soul was crushed. because I wasn't able to reread some webtoons again after the year passes. I got sad. and sure, one episode a day is nice but....it just....doesn't feel nice,,,,its frustrating sometimes.
It’s also really frustrating when a completed webtoon had shorter posts, but often posted a couple times a week. It probably would have worked while it was being created, but going through the completed series looking for something you’ve missed and want to read, then seeing more than 100 posts is really daunting and makes you want to ignore the completed series.
It's not just the completed Webtoons anymore either. I have a few on my list that have barely started with 11 chapters and it already has Daily Pass on it. This one also had a weird situation where the daily pass was also locked behind coins for several days, and you couldn't just use your daily pass on it. I think what happened was that they combined the daily pass system and the normal system where you can read ahead by paying coins all into one Webtoon.
I'd get notifications saying that it updated, but when I checked, the chapter that was updated was one you had to pay coins for. Maybe it's a thing for all Webtoons now, but I got frustrated when I'd get notifications for a new episode, but it was a paid one.
@@starryrose6168
Yeah I honestly hate that so much. Like, I would like to enjoy a comic but if I read something in this chapter today that was hinted at an earlier chapter, I would have to potentially skip out on a chapter to go back to it and read it. It’s really frustrating, especially when I’m the type of person who also likes to binge. I don’t mind waiting, but daily pass is way too much of a hassle for me.
There’s also WEBTOON adding 7 coin chapters which is fine sure if you want to support the creator but it’s frustrating when you realise that the creator doesn’t even get to decide how many coins it is, WEBTOON does.
I also hate it cause sometimes I don’t read a webtoon for a while and then when I go back to it I wanna just quickly scroll trough the chapters to jog my memory and continue reading where I left off but w/ daily pass I can’t do that anymore cause I need to wait a day for each episode. It’s really frustrating…
@@starryrose6168 wait wtf??? whats the title of this webtoon again??
I recently posted the 1st chapter of my webcomic and i'm already seeing the difference between Webtoon, Tapas and Mangaplus. Btw Mangaplus had the best performace so far, rewarding the quality of my work and giving visibility to all new works meanwhile Tapas was really good to post the comic on the original language (portuguese) but webtoon makes is kind of hard to give translations even when i have them already and honestly i couldn't even find my work myself on the search.
I hope webtoons begins to take better care of the creators because i read a lot of awesome works on there and they dont have enough recognition of their work, specially speaking of money.
Oooh, I haven't heard of mangaplus 👀 sounds like it's worth checking out!
Btw what's the name of your comic?
I’d love to check out your comic what’s the name?
MangaPlus been slowly on the rise with being great with their system, so I'm glad your work is doing well on that platform.
I would love to read your story. What's the name of it?
@@haremfucker3492 Purpose! there's currently 1 chapter
Webtoon seems to have a similar attitude to Michael Isner, former CEO of the Disney company who said: “We have no obligation to make history. We have no obligation to make art. We have no obligation to make a statement, but to make money.” Which is pretty much why I hate that art has to be an ‘industry’. Industry is the antithesis of art and nothing good happens when you mix them
So basically artist shouldn't want to live of it's own art/work and make money thanks to that? That's how I understand your comment, sorry if I misunderstood something english is not my first language
@@Nvm3r0s More like art is being taken advantage of solely for the money (and no real care for the artist or the users who consume the art). Artists can and should use their art to make money if they want, but the fact that all these big companies focusing on money alone make it hard for either the artist to continue with the current work demands or user to consume the work of the artists is the current issue
Late stage capitalism in a nutshell.
@@Nvm3r0sBusiness people are telling artists how to make their art and to pump out as much as they can. Disney CEO isn’t an artist.
The sad truth is once a company's gets popular. All they care about is money and not the people who run It. The only thing we can do is pray that they learned their ways and make things better
It's happening to Comicfury now.
@@Topdoggie7 so comicfury turned moneyhungry/doesn't care about the creators? Did something happen:)? I was thinking about posting there, since another channel recommended it. Do you maybe recommend another page?
@@Dragona456 Comicfury turned out to be anti criticism and now strikes users who are honest in a negative way. They're also going to remove the rating system and any dislike feature so only positive responses can happen.
@@Topdoggie7 thanks for the information :) sad they go such a route
@@Dragona456 No problem. They'll also wipe all your ratings, good and bad and told me "negativity has no place in art" and "downvoting doesn't help artists" when I inquired why. Which means that terrible art theft, homophobia, etc are allowed to run unchecked now.
I've really got out of webtoon, been an og user and I must say I miss the old webtoon, was fully of lovely comics, insightful commentary and easy maneuvering. Its a different landscape now lol, very different that I've moved away from webtoon. Now I'm more on tapas lehezin (can't spell it lol) and ahem tachioyomi.
Nowadays its just romance, romance, and romance.
@@9ightdreamer omg this too. I’m so sick of all the romance stories
@@9ightdreamer 90% is just gay romance stories, (I'm not saying gay romance is bad, I'm just saying that its 90% of all the content there)
@@user-gp7wy1ud2q tbh, It's more on "gay fetish romance" which is eh....not so good. As a gay person I personally don't like how it's supposed to be "representation" but the plot isn't that interesting when the whole arc is about them being gay and sexual. Not all ofc but that's what I read when I tried reading other series. Instead of "the so called" gay representation by fetishizing, they could've put gay people on stories without shoving it on ur face
Either romance or recycled level up beat em up
As far as ratings go, my webtoon/comic stayed around 9.7 range for quite awhile. The biggest drop was when I announced a hiatus and it hasn't been something I've been able to recover from since. It was really hard on me because I felt like my audience was punishing me for saying I needed (very badly needed) a break, especially on something I don't get paid for. I wouldn't go so far as saying I'd been completely rate bombed... but to have my rating go down, not because of what's in the work itself, is something I'm not okay with.
That is abusive use of power. The ratings on webtoons has always been a big problem and it frustrates me that they have yet to find a way to fix it
@@uwumarii Big agree! I really feel like it'd be better if they got rid of it altogether until they find a better alternative. As a creator it's extremely nerve wracking especially when you're doing week to week posting...
Honestly, my only main issue with webtoon is their daily pass. While it's not a bad idea since it helps create interest and a desire to read more while limiting it to a single day to maximize your enjoyment, it should only be for completed series and not weekly series.
I hate it even more for complete series, it ruins the reading experience when you just want to binge read a good comic, and it's worse for the ones I've already read and even fast passed for as it was releasing that I now can't reread properly without the daily pass thing
@@SapphireRavenmoon Well, I think the creators themselves put the daily pass. Even if they didn't, I think it's a bit of a gray area because having a daily pass allows the creators to still get money from their completed stories (because if someone wants to binge read it again now they have to pay), but I do agree it's frustrating to not be able to back track when needed
@@painbowx7986 I understand the reasoning behind that but I do think that if someone has already fast passed for a series before it should stay unlocked for their account
@@SapphireRavenmoon Yeah, I actually think that's fair, since it should've been a one time payment anyway.
Webtoon for me has been a real roller coaster ride. Of course it hurts to see people just seeing your content and consume it without interacting, leave once they get bored or just straight up ghost your comic once subscribing. But I’ve made so many friends through the community, both in my native language and people all over the world that I’m able to communicate with through english. Though I would wish more interaction for my comic, I know how exhausting it can get always trying to think of a clever or fun way to comment something since I do read a lot on webtoon canvas myself. So I want to express my thanks, this video really sums up everything really well.
Ooh, sorry. I get distracted, so I'll subscribe and then not remember to go back. What's your webcomic? I'll try to read several episodes asap.
@@Book_Thoughts that’s really kind 😭😭❤️❤️ You’re so sweet, my webtoons are A Tale of broken Bonds and Twilights Moon, but you don’t have too ❤️❤️
@@skyegl6603 It's ok. I really love reading and I have to wait three years on one of my favorite webtoons So I figure, that'll probably free up some time that I'll want to use on Webcomics, but I don't know what to read and am a little wary of blindly searching the platform for a few reasons.
I’ve always found WEBTOON to be really shit for comments and interaction. Like how am I supposed to bitch about a trash ML when I can’t shake the screen grab I took and drew doodle on? Or my massive folder of reaction faces. Does the average WEBTOON commenter even know of the sacred “Sauce”?
...I very rarely comment on videos, but this is the first time I listen to a comic field discussion and feel... Understood. That this burnout and dissatisfaction, that I'm not alone in it and others are struggling just as much. That there's a whole chunk of problems. Thank you for making this video, Fio. I hope you are enjoying making your series regardless of the climate that is being present around comics and webtoons these days. Sincerelly, Mioko-san.
Wait, Mioko-san as in the creator of Castle of Glass?? I adore your work!! I'm really sorry to hear you've been experiencing these feelings too, but am also happy that my video struck a chord, I hope it helps knowing that there are others going through this too. I still enjoy my series and hope you still enjoy yours too, just sometimes we need a short break ^^ thank you so much for commenting 💚
@@Fionapollo hehe, yeah, that one Mioko-san.
My situation was rather specific - because of... things happening in politics, I lost 2/3 income and ad revenue program. So, obviously, following my drop out of revenue program, algorythms suck even more in my case. Silly of me to expect overall situation + this stuff wouldn't hit me as hard as it did, but yep.
Posting on Webtoon felt... very wrong for the last half a year the least. I just never could exactly point my finger on it.
@@polinagaranina4304 Oh, I see. That's awful to hear, I'm really sorry that it affected you in such a way. You're a marvellous artist and I hope things move closer to a resolution for you soon, and that things start to feel less wrong following it. That's all we can really hope for in such a situation huh?
I have Webtoons as a secondary place to post my webcomic since a lot of people are not fond of DeviantArt and the formatting of it [DA] has really gone downhill. I love WT's scrolling aspect and overall layout but wish it did more for creators who haven't quite gotten off the ground.
While I love attention and am an aspiring writer working towards her first book, I'm not in a huge rush to gain an audience knowing if I keep working hard and putting myself out there, it will eventually arrive!
Worth noting that there are still plenty of webcomics out there that do still have their own domains, like the entire Hiveworks collective!
I was on Tapas for a little while, but the fact that so many more of the comics are locked behind paywalls put me off from getting really into it. Of course, now that webtoon is copying that model with the whole daily pass bs for completed series (in addition to raising the price of fast pass so that it doesn't line up with the number of coins you can buy), I might be interested in giving it another shot.
check out Ava's demon by Michelle Fus then btw
Oh gosh hiveworks- been a hot minute since I've heard of that site lol, along with smakjeeves. Todd Allison and the Petunia Violet was my favourite webcomic from that era
I started uploading right before Webtoon boomed (on Tapas, too, but my main focus was WT). The thing that killed my comic was when they announced a contest for newer people to get into comics around 2018, so I decided to enter while keeping my current comic going... I didn't last long due to the demand of it, and I didn't even have anything going on at the time! The huge boom between when I started and then increased demand and I had to stop. I'd love to get back in, but I physically can't because it triggers a depressive episode every time I try to keep going. It gave me such an awful burnout, I don't know how to jump in again. I had been inspired by manga and previous webcomics, but I'm heartbroken that I wasn't able to keep up with the current climate. Maybe I'll pick it up again sometime....
For clarity, I started the comic in high school, and I graduated college in 2020. My comic never did very well (consistent upload, but a HS level of effort at the beginning), but I had consistent readers that kept me going. I have never stopped thinking about it, but I don't know how to get the ball rolling again, or if I even want to given the current state of how comics are treated/seen today. I've grown, and so has my art, but after the severe burnout with college and the contest it's hard to even do art for myself. :(
As a WEBTOON consumer, I never really thought about the creators. Most of my problems with this app was about the absolute dogshit daily pass system and the sudden change in how the coins work. Not to mention the lack of filtering and lack of genres or diversity, just romance romance romance. Comics that are in the top 5 ( lore Olympus, true beauty) are the only ones that get consistent and decent promotions despite not being particularly good comics. Webtoon’s marketing team is pretty trash in general. Not to mention how horrible the translations have gotten recently, misgendering characters that have already been established as the other gender in earlier chapters, completely changing character personality and dialogue style and overall inconsistency of the translations is very annoying. I do agree that the search system is bad, outside of the trending comics you can’t find anything.
Outside of this I’ve noticed that some featured artists sometimes apologise on social media and say stuff like “I’m so sorry for the inconvenience I wasn’t informed that my comic’s fast pass was will cost 7 coins instead of the usual 5”
Or when the account behind love advice from the great duke of hell posted a short joke comic where they were surprised when WEBTOON suddenly posted that their comic is coming back and they themselves didn’t even know that it was supposed to come back until it was posted without letting them know first.
PLEASE FIX YOUR SHIT, WEBTOON.
bruh. i feel that misgendering translations. especially the comic i read has some historical element in it, men have long hair and a character purposefully mislead his gender in the plot. but then seeing everyone's pronoun get swapped, it's so upsetting :/ not to mention the dialogues don't make sense
@@aun7106 “how to become a dragon” is that the one you’re referring to? That’s where I saw most misgendering
I'm working on my webcomic but won't release it until a year later when the majority is done. I feel like making comics will be treated like making a tv show, where all of it is done and will release weekly.
I also feel like this is the better option.
I’m waiting until I’m done planning and with a rough draft of the entire season one before I release it! Hopefully by then WEBTOON still let amateurs publish their WEBTOON there since it’s going to be a few years at least 😅
Yep, one of the biggest problems about Webcomic hosting platforms in general now is that they mostly only support and reward creators and series who post frequently, at least 1 episode a week, regardless of the quality. Such expectations and the burden it put on the creator are insane and often result in burnout with differing quality in the episodes. One week is simply not enough to write and draw a chapter if you are a solo creator. It can often lead to the series dragging or lacking content in episodes.
However, completing a limited series prior to release allows the creator to maintain a consistent quality throughout, both in writing and artwork since there's no rush to pump out content for the algorithm. It allows you to have an ending planned and ready since a lot of series now seem to be kinda directionless or lose sight of the story it was telling.
That's highly recommended. Build a buffer so you can have consistent uploads
I'm so glad Global Comix is slowly getting the recognition it deserves. I heard from another creator who uses the platform and even found a job they have in the job postings there, so you know it's suited for people who either want to make comics as a hobby, and those who want to do it professionally whether as someone's writer, artist, management, etc.
I've been looking on the site myself since I want to post webcomics as a hobby, and it's pretty good so far!
So glad I missed the Webtoon bullet and never ended up posting there. three years or so ago I had big dreams and ambitions of making and distributing a popular webcomic someday and was planning on using Webtoon. Hearing all this hubub I'm glad that fell through.
Now I just create pages of comics for myself and plan to post on tumblr only, just as a fun side project.
(best thing I've learnt is that popularity is stupid and art should be fun, and if it aint fun its not worth it)
Words to live by. I'd be happy if I have like 20 loyal readers who actually care about my comics than thousands who doesn't. I had an fb page before where I post comic skits with 30k followers and growing then I started attracting trash people. That's when I dipped lol
I like webtoons, but it is a bit difficult to get a break for top creators, some of them can get breaks were they just stop posting for a week or two, and no episodes come out, I don't know how hard it was for them, but then others work ungodly hours and rot away as they are told they need more episodes ready to be put out to get a break. it affects the mental health of one of my friends and I'm worried she'll get burnt out, she works so hard, but it's like pulling teeth for her to get a break, she's even scared to ask for one, but yet they promised her some breaks this year. and this is not to completely throw shade at webtoons either, they have a good thing going, but they need to give creators a break every so often, that or specify what you need to really do for a break.
I've had my comics on webtoon since April this year and it only has 14 subscribers and half of them are my friends and family. And since I was posting every week and am still in high school I've felt really burned out resently, and no one ever comments on my chapters so it just makes me feel worse and like there's no point in continuing if nobody likes it or is gonna read it. I've noticed this with a lot of other canvas comics. Sometimes I go through the canvas comics and find some that have little subscribers, and if I enjoy them I give them some love and comment on their comic. Not because I want them to do the same, but because I know what it's like. I've taken a break from my comic and I hope to return in October, and this made me feel better and made me want to try using other platforms to post my work. It inspired me to work on my comic.
You should also post your comic on social media as well, sometimes that helps it gain audience instead of relying on WEBTOON altogether. Though with instagram valuing reels now days and photos barley getting traction….. AUGH why is everyone screwing artists over.
@@marsmia4869 I'm not really allowed to have social till I'm sixteen so I'm kinda screwed until June next year, sadly
Build a backlog! It makes it so much easier to keep a consistent upload schedule if you have enough weekly updates for a month or two to give you a buffer for emergencies/burnout. The larger the buffer, the better.
I remember this being a problem with writing fanfiction. The lack of views, interactions, hoping every day someone would notice it and say how it made their day better or brightened it. Being confirmed I was actually maybe good at writing. Never getting that validation, not even after 120,000 words from writing in highschool I stopped and revamped the entire thing from page one throughout college. The lack of myself, not being able to keep a schedule or constant updates.
Eventually I just stopped. Worked on two chapters in the span of three years of broken Hiatus after college. Felt to embrassed to post after that long. Felt like my friends who had once liked it moved on.
One day I uploaded anyways. Checked for comments, checked for views. Got like, still none. But eight years total after posting, it didn't bother me anymore, not like it used to. I think I checked stats once since then and still nothing had changed, and neither did not bad I felt about it. It was weirdly not discouraging and still have so much fun doing it.
As many people have mentioned before. My main problem with Webtoon is the Daily Pass system. It's honestly frustrating to deal with at times. Cause, not only does it limit your enjoyment when reading a completed webcomic, but actively pushes people away from those comics!! Especially if those comics are more than 100 episodes!
Sometimes I wish Webtoon would just remove it, or change how it works, because I want to read the comics that I once loved.
Well, anyways, that's all I have to say.
Hope all of you have a great day!
It was so cool seeing you guys collaborate! This is such a nice cause for webcomics! We all need to support one another! Here's to us!
I left my comic 6 months ago, because there was too many new comics made by a complete team while mine was just a hobby! I don't really care about it, but readers wanted us "indie" creators to keep up the update rhythm and quality as the big elaborated webtoons do. It burned me out ://
You got a new subscriber I didn't know about Global Comix as for Webtoons gone big the worst part is some "fans" can be so demanding they do not see creators as folks and art as work! Some of the readers can entitle lil $hits get to read for free, and making this stuff is hard . Anyway thanx for giving me new titles and more perspective
I started a webcomic in 2018 and it's been a trip. I didn't really succeed, but I did learn so much and I grew a lot as an artist.
I've avoided using webtoons 2 years ago because of the ads, I saw them over and over again and that's a bit of a red flag for me.
Wait webtoon have ads?
@@Юзнаре nope
@@Юзнаре they have NOT only just "romance" ads, unless webtoon doesn't have to do any promote artist's work during lacking everything (little a bit) like brunko said nope ^
I swear, those ads always wildin
@@Юзнаре I used to get a bunch of ads from webtoon while on RUclips, but that was like 4(?) years ago for me.
Thank you for this! I relate a lot to many topics mentioned. I'd get stressed and sad multiple times when someone complains and insults the chapter for being too short. Thankfully though, there are way way more kind and understanding people. Also, I've been burnt out so much and got health complications: difficulty breathing probably due to overwork when I try to push finishing a chapter even though my body is already so tired, my body (specially my hands) would also shake uncontrollably. So now I'm working on moving my story from Webtoons to visual novels games. This would help in many areas: speed of getting chapters out and maintaining a desired quality in a way that's less time consuming compared to making many Webtoon chapters. Also with the rate bomb. IT HURTS!! (At first. I'm kinda used to it now and just ignores it). I'd also get accused of being evil/discriminatory because of a villain: few associates the villain's action as a reflection of me, which I don't understand whyyy
I also think Webtoon needs to create some different methods of discovery for readers to find new Webtoons that might interest them. They should make it easier for comics to be discovered, instead of making it harder.
I’ve been a webtoon reader for a pretty long time and it’s kinda sad to see even how much I’ve personally stopped interacting with comics. I used to be able to read my comics and it’d be relaxing and fun id leave a comment on what I liked abt the chapter and interact, but now bc of how many are being released it’s become like a chore to read this stuff that I used to enjoy so much bc there are so many and I wanna give em all a chance and see how great they are but it’s hard when nearly every day there’s a new webtoon coming out. At some point I wanted to make a comic with a friend of mine and we posted, tried to keep it consistent but it got tiring really quickly and I honestly feel so guilty for not being able to support all these creators that I love bc if the oversaturation with comics and the fact I can’t spend my time reading and interacting with comics& creators 24/7
I’m in The process of making my webcomic but I’m hesitant bc if I have to post weekly. It would be a burnout for me for sure as I do have full-time time. I remember the old day when the physical comic would come out monthly. This video provides a lot of insight. Thank you.
kinda ironic that i see webtoon as the "webcomic site" but the comics ive read have all been on tapas
I'm so thankful for the opportunity to share my thoughts about the webcomic landscape! Thanks for giving me a voice in this video! I really appreciate how thoughtful your content is, and this video turned out great! So glad to see some familiar friends who also got to participate.
If anyone is interested in starting a webcomic, I 100% recommend it! It's a lot of fun and you build a lot of skills doing so! The community is very welcoming and we would love to have you!
Thanks again for taking the time to make this video! You are fantastic!
This was really informative!! Thank you Apollo for your work, and all the artists for your time and answers. (I have so many things to read now O_o) As someone who has been reading webtoons for only a few years, it was interesting to get to know how things were and evolved.
Some very good points regarding the searching system in canvas. I am not as familiar with tapas, turns out I had never opened the "community" tab where independent comics are... definitely going to check that out.
It's funny to me because I happened to find Synthesis when I was browsing throw ALL the new canvas releases on Webtoon, which is super unlikely, good timing.
It sucks to hear how you struggled with webtoons releases and audience. Weather you want to pause or stop it to focus on other projects + mental health. Or pick it up later, we'll be here to see what's next.
I'm still waiting for something to come *close* to Homestuck upd8 culture. Absolutely nothing beats frantically texting friends and checking tumblr or gathering around the family desktop to watch the latest flash.
(S: Game Over came out on the day of my 16th birthday party--the vibes of that party were absolutely impeccable. Unhinged but impeccable)
Don't doubt yourself you're great at art and presentation especially your speaking, you are very clear and concise. Keep up the good work and I hope your motivation returns!
I don't see Webtoons updating their search system. If they make it too easy to find content, then creators will be less likely to cross promote their comics on other platforms. Comic creators do all the major lifting to advertise, drive traffic to, and ultimately market the Webtoons platform, at no personal cost to website itself. I don't see Webtoons' business model changing any time soon, as how that marketing is what they depend on for new viewership and the expansion of their potential money pool.
Also, thanks for the video and all your hard work!
My comic, Smallest Fighter, is one I choose to do in black and white with gray shading. I can't use colour correctly and barely can see it.
One thing I see with most webcomic sites are that they push only coloured comics. Not to say either is better or worse, but it's disheartening to see how much the website will ignore your work if it's not what they're selling.
I think the best promotion toll is animation. Promote your comic by making an animated trailer for it. It's very time consuming, so few do it so it's less competition.
From experience, Tapas got my works more exposure organically. (Update: Might check out Global Comics.)
Ooo super interesting video! And it's great to hear how people still enjoy comic creation despite the hardships
dang, this really opened my eyes to the sad reality of webtoon and I was considering uploading a (potential) passion comic there thank you fionapollo
It's still the biggest platform to grow an audience so i wouldn't count it out! Quite a few people upload their comics on more than one platform, so if one doesn't work out then you still have the others
So I'm from the old school days of webcomics in the early 2000's, my first ever time hearing about them was via my high school friend group talking about Megatokyo while we were reading manga in Borders. It was like "The creator of this manga posted it online, and it got big enough to be published as a book!", bringing this up makes me feel SO OLD! My first ever platforms as a reader were Smackjeeves, Comicfury and DrunkDuck Webcomics (Now The Duck Webcomics.), even since the mid 2010's the webcomic landscape has changed a ton! I was unfortunate enough to really start a webcomic around when the big change happened, and it really affected my type of work especially. Starting mine in early 2016 I posted, am still posting, a non-sexual story meant for adults on Tapas. At the time I was doing well because webcomics were still kind of the wild west, almost anything was allowed, so my work was fully accepted. Then Smackjeeves got taken over, corporations started cracking down on adult/mature content, mobile was bigger than ever and I got in this weird spot where my comic didn't really fit in anywhere anymore. It wasn't adult enough to be in the dwindling adult spaces, but too adult for the growing corporate landscape of of webcomics.
Today I'm in a more secure place, with a private collective called Spider Forest, with Comicfury to fall back on if Tapas ever does a full ban on mature stories. Personally I don't feel the same about the community as I did before, especially with the rising push for wholesome, child-friendly content. You can still have your stand-alone sites, and do link exchanges like before, but everything is so fast now and if you don't fit into a certain box you get shunned of just buried under it all. I used to advertise like crazy to find people like me who enjoy the type of story I create, but anymore I almost feel ashamed to share it. I'll never stop working on it, and I'm about halfway finished chapter wise, but I don't feel as enthusiastic with talking about it and my characters as much as I used to.
I share a lot of the same concerns as you and the folks you interviewed. Webcomics used to be something so personal, but now it's becoming so mainstream due to the rising demand and popularity. While I agree it's nice to see, I feel the negatives have only gotten worse with the exposure. Such high expectations with little payoff, so may more demands, needing to fit in to stay afloat in a sea of creators trying to get their work seen, more discouragement for artistic passion. Sometimes I wish the community was still a niche, underground thing. Also I hate scroll format since hardly anyone knows how to utilize it properly, and I read comics on a desktop so they're a slog to get through.
This comment really resonated with me. I haven’t posted my comic yet, but I’ve made the outline of its story and I feel EXACTLY the way you do when you say yours is not 18+ enough for the extremely obscure places that DO allow mature stories, but too 18+ for the general audiences. It’s the same deal with me.
I feel like I’m just gonna keep continuing as is, and if the platforms I choose to host it on don’t want it, imma just move on to other platforms.
I also agree on how people don’t have the attention spans they used to back in the early days like you’re saying. I unfortunately wasn’t there for the early days, I came in like the “mid days/mid 2010s,” but yeah it’s clear that back then the competition wasn’t as saturated.
I say that the best way to deal with it is to just keep on keepin on lol. If it’s a story the creator believes in with all their heart, all that other jazz and success will come later. Or? Maybe it won’t. Doesn’t matter. We love the process of making it, and that’s what creators will continue to do.
@@Schwa_ For real, man! Keep on keeping on! My comic is super niche, and very few like it aside from myself, but that's the part that matters. Once it's finished I want all the volumes printed, not just for my few readers, but having those books that will probably take at least two decades to finish in my hands will be my greatest accomplishment in life.
It's nice to see another person who struggles with the "Not 18+ enough, but still too mature" dilemma. It's a weird spot to be in since not many people, at least in the webcomic/indie comic sphere. (Not that I want you to have a hard time, it's just nice not being the only one.) I hope you find a nice place to post once you start working on your comic.
Gosh, we have so much information thrown at us all at once nowadays! You got TikTok, RUclips shorts, Instagram, Twitter throwing stuff at us. And it's all designed to grab out specific attention by learning our interests and personal info. It's all rather unsettling, and definitely encourages an unhealthy addiction and lack of focus.
This is the drama happens in every single area of work and career on different ways, the same point.....no just webtoon artists, the thing is life is always changing, faster and faster. And there are more and more people working on the same jobs.
I am pretty new in the Webcomic scene. But I have decided to approach a more traditional method of Publishing it. Not just is it in the traditional Page format instead of the scrolling format, I also made my own Website that I will post it on, since It doesn't have as many limitations, competition and pressure as Webtoon. To bring people to it I will start out in private smaller circles of people I know, telling them that they should share the comic with people they know and also take advertising into my own hands at some point.
It's really interesting seeing this kind of discussion happening in 2022 as someone who was big into reading webcomics in the late 90s/early 2000s when comics like Megatokyo, Penny Arcade, Mac Hall, etc. were a large part of the driving force behind the rise and popularity of webcomics. A time when DeviantArt was the main artist platform, web rings and link banners were your main forms of advertising, forums were where the fandoms lived and the prevalence of dial up meant that modern forms of content would never have been feasible.
It seems that it's still a case of "different time, same problems".
the culture of the time period made monetization very difficult too. This was before patreon and tip jars were discouraged, the only acceptable way to make money was merchandise which was often a full time job in and of itself.
Thanks so much for speaking with me about this and making this wonderful video 💖 so many important topics were covered, and so well!!
Thank you too for agreeing to be a part of it!! 💖 I'm rly glad so many ppl seem to like it!
This video was well made and informative. You covered a lot of info. I appreciated the commentary from all of these canvas creators I'm familiar with too. That's pretty fun. It is really hard feeling like your comic is lost in a sea of comics on Webtoon though it sucks that some readers don't understand there is a differencw between canvas and Originals.
webtoons had some really nice content, I haven't really checked Tapas. smackjeeves had some funny amateur webcomics ranging from sprites to actual drawings. It's a shame they closed down.
Ah smackjeeves, I used to read lots of comics on there. I wish I could remember what the comics names were so I could search for them again
@@jax99888 I liked this one where everyone's a magician except the main character. One of the magicians had invisible limbs. There was another one where the main character was a green mouthless alien working in a space pub.
@@lawrencelopez9839 ohh sounds so cool!
Sadly I think most sites once they get big enough stop caring about their creators aka the ppl that make them money and only care about getting more money even if it's at the expense of everyone involved that isn't the company/site holder. It's sad to see these ppl throw away what they built for money, much like the downfall of tumblr.
( Feel free to ignore the rant below )
Sadly a app I use to read stories has been adding more and more micro transaction type things to the app. Like early access to stories and even having to wait a week to even get to read the stories if you don't pay for the EA also adding a wait timer to how much you can read in one go ( " you must wait 2hrs to read the next 3 chapters or pay x amount of app currency"), to an extent I get it b/c ppl do have the opportunity to get payed by the app but they've also changed the algorithm of the site to promo the stories that get the most in game currency. When before it was based on number of readers and the only way to get your story in the suggested list is to ask for ppl to give you the in game currency as support or have "premium " in game choices that make the story the best version of the story and the non premium choice is the blandest version of the story. It sucks when greed is suddenly what the site/app/game is built around instead of running it for the betterment of is community and users.
( If any of you know the app I'm talking about shhh )
I finally got around to watching this - and I was so happy you mentioned Core oohhh my heart 😭❤ Thank you! And thank you for making this video, it's such an important topic to discuss! And you presented it really well!
AAAA I'm glad you like it!!! Thank you! 😭 I'm loving Core SO much, everything about the art & storey is really well done that I had to mention it somehow hahaha! 💖
As a smaller comic creator, unfortunately webtoons still peforms best for me out of the platforms I upload, even if I'm still under 500 readers there. (Thanks for bringing globalcomics to my attention, might just add it to the list)
Honestly one of my regrets is not looking at the market before creating, but my focus was always that I just wanted to tell these stories first and foremost so I just... started, and now I'm stuck with the traditional page format instead of scrolling, but I think the few readers I have have gotten used to that now, and it lets me utilize other art platforms more easily. I'm struggling with burnout and proper marketing as well, but currently aiming to end my hiatus by the start of next year and finally continue uploading. No matter how bad a platform or market, at the end of the day I still want to create and share my stories with the world, so I know that will never stop and I will always find a way to continue publishing somewhere.
I've learned so much while making it and improved so much more as an artist than I could have with regular art, because I had to push out of my comfort zone and learn new things, so that's an aspect I value the most.
For anyone interested, my comic's name is "Daynaga's Witch" and can be found on both Webtoon and Tapas (also Deviantart, tumblr and my patreon).
Wow, thanks for putting together this video! I want to start a comic based on an ongoing roleplay I've had with my girlfriend since 2012, so I've been preparing. This was a great deep dive, and I hope you find whatever you are passionate about, be it comics or anything else!
the “we’re the story before it streams” campaign was unbelievable
20:48 To solve the "downrating to sabotage" thing, some platforms such as Deviant Art, Tumblr and others don't let viewers downrate.
On these two platforms, you can only be hateful with comments wich can be deleted by the artist.
This is something I find very good, especially for art platforms!
So much truth in this video. Even though webtoons is still a great platform and it's great to have a regular audience for your stories, it's clear that it also has problems maintaining the readers engaged and most of the time it's not the creator's fault, but the platform failing to provide more visibility to small creators.
I want to publish my comic someday on Webtoon but currently Im starting to wonder if Webtoon is the right place.
I recommend Tapas more, personally. The community feels more welcoming towards independent artists.
yea i've feel the same as well. i want to publish on webtoon but i really don't think it's a good option ..
Me Also I wanted to publish my comic. Now am having second thoughts
@@TuesdaysArt Do you know if it is possible or is it good to publish your work on several platforms? I'm a bit confused in that regard, perhaps it's not the best practice to split audience like that. Or platforms have their own terms of service regarding that? Like I would give at try for all three: tapas, webtoon, global comix, I'm just confused at this point
@@ForbiddenWitchcraft As long as you don't sign a contract to be exclusive with any particular service, you should be in the clear to post on multiple platforms. LavenderTowne's comic is on both Tapas and Webtoons since it's being uploaded as Webtoons Canvas instead of Webtoons Original.
Posting on multiple platforms gets more eyes on it. Though some people use both Tapas and Webtoon, some people only use one or the other and you're limiting your potential audience if you only upload on one platform.
I really appreciate you sharing your experience and the comments of the other artists. I have been working on my own comic for a few years but haven't posted to webtoons because I knew I wouldn't be able to post consistently. Perhaps it's time I tried one of the other sites.
I'm glad I saw this before I began uploading to Webtoons. Thanks for the video, I learned a LOT!
I got advice to start posting my comic on Webtoon and Tapas from an old acquaintance (Jason Brubaker) and have been posting it there ever since. I've always had a day job while working on my comic so the troubles more dedicated authors can face sometimes feel miles away, so it's good to have folks talk about it. Give's me a perspective I might have missed otherwise.
your avatar is so cute and full of character! Plus you’re well spoken and have alot of information about your topics. I love seeing your avatar emote as you say words. You’ve earned yourself a subscriber! (I like the nickname, “Fruity Toots” 😉)
Really thorough and informative discussion. As a side note ur avatar is super adorable 🥺
It was very interesting to hear your experience with the platform. I've had a different one, but it's good to know what kind of bad things to expect.
I personally think that the discovery option for webtoon is really good and I love that there are more and more comics being launched in originals each time. I disliked the old times when there were very few comics I liked to read there. Now I'm happy with my more than a 100 subscriptions XD
As for the publishing, I've only ever published a single chapter and I think it was quite successful (let me check the views, I never do it bc it gives me anxiety TwT) Ah 2k views for a single chapter and a notice saying I'd continue the series (never did). Let's have into account that the chapter was uploaded in the spanish version of webtoon, which might differ a little, but if it does I can't seem to notice it. I even saw the comic being in recomended in the canvas homepage and I wanted the earth to swallow me :D
I wondered why is that single chapter so popular. The only conclusion I can find is that the artstyle is symmilar to what is popular today and one of the main characters, the one that's on the cover of the comic, is a hot dude.
Ah yes, and about the drawing for free thing, I've got mixed feelings. I think reading for free is a necessity for most minors or people with a low income. I myself am from a country where dollars are very expensive. Reading the ammount of comics I ussually do paying for every chapter would be a miss use of my money. But at the same time, as an artist, I'd love to have people pay for my comic even if it's not an original. I'd love if there was an option in webtoon for donations or fast pass chapters for canvas comics
i loved hearing everyone's thoughts!
Personally, I've always loved making comics, and I had a similar feeling of thinking of assimilating into making my comic in a scroll format during the height of webtoon's popularity! I fell under the weight of expectations and got severely burnt out due to some of the ideals webtoon promoted at the time and still promotes. it really made me feel like quantity > quality and content > art, which isn't true in the slightest.
but i think overall, its given me a sense of what i really want as an artist and pushed me to make it for fun again for myself, over pushing and wading through the sea of other comics. i eventually ended up going back to THE ROOTS and making my own decorated site like webcomic artists have done in the past :D
Webtoon got a lot larger. It was a lot of (largely) western writers with unique comics. Now a lot of it is translations, copy paste, and there's a load of carbon-copy cliche stories mixed around the quality. A lot of people like those, but it's not for me :(
Hey Fionapollo,
I'm a webtoon original artist. Your work is amazing! keep at it and don't give up!!
Not about what you talked about but I really like the way you did the highlighting/shades for your character the way their hair lights up like an inferno and it gives that glow that reflects off the clothes and skin just add to this... I wanna say phoenix vibe for the character. great job on the design and I hope you someday find the drive to continue creating your comic (although admittedly I haven't read it) I'm working on my own web comic that I have been working on for ~5 years and I still haven't made a single episode and I've restarted multiple times because I was unsatisfied with my writing and art style, however I've greatly improved over the years leading to me writing and drawing almost any chance I get in order to make up for the lost time that I spent making half-baked pages and stories. I've been looking for a reasonable platform to post what I have and I've tried Tapas in the past and didnt get much traction on it so I decided to use Webtoon. although that may change based on what I've heard in this video I'll do further research of my own and decide based on what comes up through that but thank you for opening my eyes to the wrongdoings of webtoon
as a brand new viewer of this video and immediately being called a pickle and fruite tootie i feel appalled, degraded, violated, disturbed, physically and mentally harmed and
lmaooooo I was, too, very confused
Recently I've been seeing a good handful of your videos in my recommendations! I hope this is a sign that you'll get some good traction soon 👀
I really like this! it was well expained and clear. i really feel like i understand the gripes with webtoon and canvas people now.
I started posting my comic on webtoon two years ago and at the time I was doing it for the sake of forcing myself to practice drawing. As a result, my art style at the beginning is pretty rough and I haven't had the time to go back and fix it (Plus some of the early chapters accidentally had their layers merged so I'd have to redo a lot more than I normally would have). Because my art was so rough in the beginning, only really dedicated people have stuck with it and quite a few people have just taken a look at the early art and dropped it which is a bit annoying but I thankfully haven't had any rude comments. Unfortunately a small streamer brought the comic up on his stream once and his gamerboy fanbase (Who are very pretentious about manga and very outside my intended audience) flocked to it and around the same time my ratings plummeted from 9 to 7 and I had to gather my minuscule following and encourage them to give it a good rating so I could get my score back. I really wish we could get analytics for ratings so we know where they come from and hopefully do something about review bombs. I also think I would prefer to get more detailed reviews than just a star rating because numbers mean nothing to me but "I did/didn't like this because ___" does. If it's something I can fix, then I want to know about it and when people want to see more of something, I want to know so I can squeeze more of it in.
And another thing that drives me absolutely nutty about webtoon that i NEVER see anybody talk about is that we don't get notifications for comments. When I first started my comic I had a bunch of friends telling me they were reading it and enjoying it but I never got any comment notifications so I assumed they were lying (I've had other friends do this to me many times in the past so I'm very quick to come to that conclusion). Then, a few months into the comic, I'm drained and feeling like I'm doing it all for nothing, thinking everybody is just giving me pity likes, only to open one of the chapters and notice that it has a ton of really nice comments. If you want to read your comments, you need to go into every individual chapter and read them. Webcomicsapp is the same in my experience and possibly tapas though I only managed to drop a few chapters there before I got disinterested in it and stopped. Maybe it's because I have a bad relationship with object permanence, or perhaps because I got my public storytelling start with Wattpad fanfic, but I really like at least getting an email or something. If I hadn't noticed those comments when I did, I probably would have burnt out and blown up at my friends over nothing the next time they did something that swicked me. I can understand bigger creators not wanting access to comments once they get too large because that can take up a lot of time and energy, but at least give me the option to get notified every few months when somebody leaves one.
As someone who's kind of grown up with webcomics (the peak of Homestuck was right when I was in early middle school) it's been quite a trip. Originally it was, like you mentioned, a niche thing, me and my girlfriends would sit around the lunch table talking about whatever latest chapter while our neighbors looked on in confusion. Now I'm in college and I went into the library to see the print version of Always Human on the recommended shelf.
It's nice to see the community grow, but it does feel like some of that closeness was lost. No longer do you check the footer of a page to be led through a web of If You Liked This, Maybe You'll Enjoy, or the complete personalization of unique pages for each work.
There actually were a couple of major hubs for finding new comics out there before Webtoon. Not to mention the various web-rings that littered the landscape throughout the 90s with literally dozens devoted to helping connect readers to related webcomics.
As someone who has literally just jumped into webcomics, it is INCREDIBLY overwhelming. I started by reading a recommendation by a friend, and you get excited from that, want to find more content and before you know it you’re subscribed to 70 different comics and you don’t go back because it’s too much to keep up with. So if it feel like that as a consumer I have the upmost empathy for the artists who have to play the game and navigate the shifting tides of this particular platform.
I really liked your video! I've always wanted to get into webcomics so it's nice to hear an insider's perspective
I've never looked into Tapas or heard of global comics, so I'll check them out.
my sister has been encouraging me to try posting my comics for a while now. I've been rather hesitant for a long time, and lets just say this didn't really help that hesitation, share I've started posting stuff on my own social medias but I don't think im making the jump to another platform any time soon.
though all this information was supper helpful so thank you for the video
There's a lot happening at the moment sure, but pls don't let that discourage you! There will always be people who are happy to read what you put out there, and the circumstances can be different for everyone; you might not even encounter any of the issues I mentioned. Putting your stuff on these platforms can be intimidating, but a lot of good can come from it too; I've met a lot of really kind people from doing so 💚
Yea. I downloaded webtoon a few years(time is an illusion lol, I think that’s right) and deleted it just before the controversy, and I found so many small amazing comics, but I started noticing a lot of this so I stopped reading. Not intentionally, but still. *and the adds* they drove me insane/j
I miss reading them, but tbh I probably won’t redownload, I can’t support them monetarily either :/
My first webcomic was “The Boy Who Fell” by Starfleetrambo and god it was a slippery slope from there😅
For me creating my own comics has been something on my mind for a while now (probably quite a few years away from starting any of them since there's still a lot of story and design planning that first needs to be completed), but watching this video was very inciteful and answered a lot of questions I had and made me aware of some issues I wasn't even aware of. Thank you for such a great video!
I'm just here to tell you, the thumbnail you made for this is such a mood.
Yooo thanks for the rock and riot shoutout 🥰
Just gonna add some thoughts!! Tapas was my biggest host next to tumblr (I didn’t upload to WT), and it was when Tapas primarily had daily comics and page format comics being the largest on the site. Tapas then made an initiative to translate a LOT of scroll comics, as well as pay some creators to create new scroll comics, so that they could compete with Webtoon. At this time, their front page only featured Paid/translated comics, and it felt like anyone who made an original comic was getting pushed out as it was impossible to get on the trending/ popular pages (which were clearly staged with paid comics.) I don’t know how much has changed since, but it was very disappointing to me and my friends who all had page format comics.
Omg hi!!!! I LOVE your comic!!! 💖
That's really interesting to hear, tbh now that you say it, Tapas's front page felt a bit too well curated towards certain kinds of similar sounding titles, i guess that may have been why 😮 it's a pretty big shame bc Tapas's print style comic selection is so so good and they all deserve way more attention
@@Fionapollo yep it was definitely being curated to the comics that were paid! It felt like a major letdown. On another note, I actually find a lot of comics these days straight from my twitter feed! Artists will just post every page to a comics specific twitter they've made, which seems really beneficial considering how hard it is to get people to leave social media apps to read stuff. So if I were to ever make a webcomic again, that's probably how I'd do it! I really enjoyed your video, I loved hearing discussions about how the community has changed! I would love to contribute in the future if you ever need more comic artists opinions on webcomics /published comics! ❤❤
@@ChelseyFuredi that's a really good point, twitter and tiktok seem like the best places to scope for comics now, though personally i think that can depend on how much spare energy you have to put into promoting ^^"
That would be amazing, thank you!! I'm not sure just yet when another video will be in the works but when the time comes, I'd love to have your perspective in there 😊
I wrote off webtoon as a platform the moment they started doing deal with fucking DC. You cannot convince me any place where you are directly competting with fucking Batman is a good place to grow your creation.
tapas has been so unkind to me sometimes i feel like getting my own website
I've been on a bit of a kick watching videos discussing WEBTOON and webcomics in general. I'm a creator who first started posting on there and Tapas before eventually getting picked up by a different platform (just in case, I won't mention it or my series--contracts and all that, I'm sure any contracted webcomic artist can tell you it can be a bit funky to figure what you can and cannot say-). I just wanted to say first of all that hearing the perspective of those who also work on their own comics, not necessarily as a job, but just out of passion has also been quite nice so I wanted to thank you for the insightful video! I think being in the industry has definitely changed how I view webcomics, especially as a reader and fan myself. I can only give my very specific experience and thoughts, but I hope it's insightful as well!
There's a lot of factors that make the webcomic industry a bit,,, draining as an artist to say the least. I think a big factor is also how the industry functions in Korea, where many of the most prominent platforms originate. Having obscene, exploitative work hours (I mean at least 70+ hours a week, very little time off, etc) and even full studios/teams making high quality, long, weekly uploads has been normalized and it makes it even harder for those who don't have those resources (read: me, send help, I am drowning in the weekly work haha). I've personally felt this weird sensation of having expectations placed on me to work to an industry standard I never even knew about, from knowing spacing guidelines for panels, all the 3d asset resources, common fonts used, etc. when I was only a hobbyist before. It was as if the moment I became a contracted webcomic artist, I was supposed to just... know how to do everything? And I feel like it's partially because there IS a standard, but not really globally outside of the east. However, a lot of the big platforms sort of nudge you to create works that fit the mold that's present in many east Asian webcomics. It makes it exceedingly hard for those who don't fit that mold, or, hell, don't create anything in the romance, fantasy, or action genre. Even having an art style atypical to the norm makes it hard to get any help or attention from the platform! I don't have much in ways of answers, but I do think that it's important to acknowledge it's a global issue and changes will most effectively be made including all of us in that regard. I won't even touch on pay, work conditions, burn out, pressure to remain relevant so you can even finish your series, etc etc.
Also a note, on Tapas, at least from what I recall when I was on there, editors/workers for Tapas were the ones that chose which things to feature on the staff pick/featured pages. Often times, I feel they scope out who has the most potential for them to work with to create official series, resulting in perhaps a bit of a bias towards featuring works that already have a more "professional"/polished look or, at the very least, consistent upload. So even there, it can be hard to grow if you're just a casual uploader :,( I just had the good fortune to have grown a following before uploading my comics and fitting into a popular genre. I doubt I'd be where I am without those factors.
Anyways, I apologize for writing a whole wall of text here! Once again, great video, I enjoyed hearing the multiple perspectives as well as the nice summary of how things were like with WEBTOON before it exploded in popularity!
wow I'm truly happy to find you on youtube I've been with webtoon for 6/7 years but when i did a series I tried so hard that I got burned out and stopped publishing
Right now I'm just doing it for hobby and don't really care if it gets popular or not, I even change my art style if i feel inclined too.
My goal is just to finish a series not explode not being super famous or get money out of it, just.....finish one give my creation a happy ending
It's so interesting to me how the comics and illustration fields (I'm hesitant to call them industries for my own comfort but tbf they are industries) have changed since I decided to go into them. When I first started developing my own webcomic, it was still in the homestuck days where the majority of comics were on their own sites (or under publishers like hiveworks) and webtoon was still just getting its footing here.
It sometimes feels like the webcomics field is completely collapsing in on itself--and the illustration field as well, with plummeting rates and AI shoving its way into the limelight. Feels bad sometimes.
Hey Fiona! Thanks for sharing your experience, I'm about to launch my own webcomic for the first time and channels like yours have helped me to understand the current state of things in the webcomic comunity. It does sound kinda scary, but publishing my webcomic It's something I have to do no matter what, I didn't know about global comics, so thanks for letting me know about another platform which seems a bit more gentle and less corporate.
Great video .yes most comic sites don't have a way to discover new comics. Poor canvas. As a canvas comic creator they need to have a way to promote canvas. Good point yes I respect comics now. Ever since i started my webtoon. You put so much work into it and someone looks at it for like a second 😆😭
Don't forget people, Comicfury exists. The mod is removing the negative rating feature and adding only a like feature(no dislike allowed) but it's better than some of the sites normally used. Use at your own risk, though.
After 1 year of work, I got to publish my 11'th episode (I publish only once per month, longer episodes) and I barely scratched the surface. 3000+ Views and 176 subscribers. I'm lucky to do this as a hobby and for my own pleasure and friends, however, I can't even imagine how hard this must be for people who do this as a job :(
At one point I posted on webtoon. But I was fustrated with the strict size requirements and how hard it was to get noticed on the platform. Now I'm hoping to pitch to the manga company Saturday AM. They are always highlighting new and undiscovered comic artists :)
im reading so many right now that every evening i have atleast 3 or 4 that uploads and i have a few that are on brake between seasons as well sometimes i forget to read for a few days then it is alot of reading to catch up when i get behind
I’ll have to check out Global Comics! I have a regular 9-5 so I upload really slowly, but comics are my passion and I think it really shows in my work. While I do it for me and the love of storytelling, it’s discouraging when there’s crickets on the other side : /
Wow you covered a lot of points I agree with. As a reader and working on a webtoon I can only pay for a few comics.
I was making comic on webtoon sińce 2017 and community started getting worst and worst since the end of 2018 . I quitted at begining of 2019 cause i was getting paid but never had any vacation cause it was like fighting with time just to add any quality chapter on deadline . I loved making webcomics but stopped cause webtoon system was so bad ( no promotion from webtoon but you had to get more and more views and subs just to gest paid- and Yes my only income at that moment was my cmoics ). I hope other sites than webtoon will get more well known :)
For me the saturation problem is more of, if I want action series, there is a lot, a bloody lot, of solo leveling clones, tales of demons and gods clones or some mix of the two, sure I would love to read something like it in theory, but once I'm reading feels like something is missing, like they are afraid to go slow like thoses series did and jump straight into the main character achieve op part
I posted a short comic on webtoons and got a 1 star rating which is my only rating so I feel like after I posted more chapters, I get less views because of it
how is it called?
@@quackquack2436 1 star
As someone who's been reading webcomics for 20 years...I've never heard of those platforms before your videos xD
NICE VIDEO , SOME REALLY IMPORTANT POINTS
I started seeing precursors to this a while ago.
Everything you've mentioned is what sent me into crippling depression and extensive burnout back in 2020... Trying to balance that along with my full time job is not something I would recommend for anyone. My case was so bad that I haven't done any comic work in years and I feel terrible about it.
I'm trying to spin things back up but this time I'm going to try to ignore hyper output and extensive social media activity and opt for just trying to see my story to the end.
It's been tough getting back into the swing but it's a lot less stressful I feel.