I'm gay and make comics but I don't want my comics to be about gay people exclusively. Yet I feel like it's incredibly easy to jump on the queer train and get attention regardless of the quality of the work itself. I also don't like how being "out" means you also subscribe to a lot of lunacy about broader LGBT issues.
What do I do?
cont.
I also don't want to list my pronouns or participate in LGBT comics anthologies.
>I'm gay and
Stopped reading right there
>What do I do?
Just make your comics the way you want them and don't engage with all the bullshit
Nice try conservabot
But if I don't engage with it then I won't be an ally and I won't be able to network.
Just don't talk about your sexuality when people interview you. Private lives should be private, not a media circus, being out to friends and family doesn't mean you have to be out to CBR, and if interviewers don't know you have an opinion on queer shit, they won't ask and it won't become a talking point when people discuss your work.
Just make the villain of your comic gay, that really trips them up
What said basically. Best you can do is ignore/avoid it. You'll probably get hubbub for a bit before the media finds something else to get excited over and whoever stays are the ones actually interested in your comic.
haha op is gay
If it's your IP do what you want; if you're working for the big two, you're a slave of the company, stop complaining and write the shitty fanfiction that the company want
There's no such thing as a private life anymore when it's advantageous to be "out and proud". But I'm not a fan of rainbows and I dress like a regular guy.
My opinions and my private life should be less important than the quality of my work. I want to write good stories for everybody. Not just LGBT people.
That's what I want, actual fans. Not just people who like a character because they are gay.
I don't ever want to write for DC or Marvel because I think their IP is stale and that the vision of the company has been compromised in lieu of promoting movies.
Comics should stand on their own and not just be low quality shitposts on paper that get optioned for movies, whereupon they become "real" art. I hate what movies have done to comic books.
>I'm totally gay guys but the though of any character in any medium being vaguely implied to be homosexual triggers me to the point where I need to make constant threads crying about like every other /pol/tard
I'm not incensed by LGBT characters. I think that there are valuable narratives to be told through comics and LGBT subject matter. I just don't feel like doing that because I find it boring and pedantic most of the time.
A lot of really shit looking art and stories get funded on Kickstarter because either A) that’s what people want or B) it’s woke people giving a few bucks for virtue signaling
So if you want to make some cash and get out there why not make some shallow gay stuff? On the other hand I think there is some cooler stories you could do and include gay themes.
Like gay man gets transported into medieval Europe and wacky hijinks ensure. Not only does he have to deal with being gay there he also has to not say to much about science or calculus to avoid being burned at the stake
Then do what you want, if your story is good they will consume it.
>My opinions and my private life should be less important than the quality of my work. I want to write good stories for everybody. Not just LGBT people.
Which is why you need to keep quiet about your private life in interviews. It doesn't matter how "normal" you are or how advantageous it would be: the instant you mention yourself as gay, that's what the media will run with.
>That's what I want, actual fans. Not just people who like a character because they are gay.
In that case, once more, just write what you want. Ensure that your characters are actual characters. As long as the gayness isn't a major focus (like having dating arcs or whatnot) then you should be fine.
If it is, then unfortunately it's likely inevitable, so make a character that appeals to more than just those types of people.
I'm not going to ask for money for shitty woke comics because I am better than that.
I want to make timeless comics that people will want to read beyond their ability to show people online that they are reading them.
Marketing and networking is hard if you want to do it the long way and not the easy way. But I'm willing to do it the long way.
>the instant you mention yourself as gay, that's what the media will run with
It's like I'm being put back in the closet by my own tribe. I hate it. I don't want to be a puppet for some idiot outlets.
I either write stories devoid of sexuality or make it so minor and unimportant to the plot as to imply that it's normal in the setting.
I prefer gay male characters who are on the author appeal side instead of them being an emblem for The Struggle.
If you don't bring it up it won't matter.
It's a business. Network through the quality of your material.
Daniel Warren Johnson has gone from a webcomic to a printed/published webcomic to several comic series including one that was Eisner nominated, and I have zero clue what his sexual orientation is so it probably didn't matter.
So you can get there by doing it like him, or you can be Gabby Rivera. Your choice.
>I either write stories devoid of sexuality or make it so minor and unimportant to the plot as to imply that it's normal in the setting.
>I prefer gay male characters who are on the author appeal side instead of them being an emblem for The Struggle.
Then yeah, you'll probably be fine.
Don't be surprised if anons on Yea Forums "reee" about it and read too deeply, though.
I may not bring it up but someone else may and then BOOM I'm the gay Uncle Tom who doesn't follow the party line. I'll be ostracized and cancelled before I even got started.
Gabby used the cheat codes and went from making shitty YA to making shitty comics. No respect for her.
I don't respect anyone who views comics as another springboard or soapbox instead of respecting the medium for its innate qualities.
That happens to every comic and cartoon on here. Not worried about the reaction here. It's the Twitter and Reddit idiots who are the potential problem.
1. Don't make your comics about gay people exclusively.
2. This is true, but it also means its an easy and effective avenue to promote your work. Exploit it, but remember that it exists to help you, not for you to cater to it.
3. Then don't subscribe to the lunacy.
Why are you okay with being called queer? Queer means wrong.
Stop making up problems as an excuse to hold yourself back you lazy shit.
Now you're assuming there's some gay Union in the comics industry.
Even if someone called you a gay uncle Tom online and it got screencapped in some clickbait I doubt it'll make a real noticeable dent in your comics sales numbers (mostly cause comics sales are low in general so it'll be like going from 8.7k to 8.5k).
1.) I never want to make comics about only gay or LGBT characters. That's not appealing to me.
2.) It exists so that
3.) I can't escape the lunacy. I go to city comic events and it's nearly half the tables.
If mainstream comics are all about capeshit, then indies are all about identity shit.
I thought that the original goal of LGBT equality was to be normal, not to be a tribalistic victim. I'm better than that.
I'm not queer at all, user.
It's not a made up problem. It's obvious to everyone.
There's definitely a lot of rainbow power at the top.
>advantageous to be "out and proud"
If you can't get your work published on the strength of the work then you don't deserve to.
Every single one of the people in comics today who get sales by being active on twitter are all doing that because their books are BAD and they NEED the crutch.
Queer means strange/odd, dumbass.
There's a ton of great comics out there that get zero publicity because there's an ocean of crap out there that's drowning it out. Strength isn't enough.
I still want to be self published for as long as I can because heaven forbid I'm beholden to some power tripping editor who wants to censor me.
Fuck Twitter. I wish I didn't have to deal with it.
Just because the lunacy exists doesn't mean you have to espouse it. Just show up to the events, pitch your shit, and don't get drawn into petty drama.
Also a lot of those people are straight white girls applying tags to themselves to look unique.
Self-promotion is a vital aspect of business.
That's my goal. I think I've done a decent job so far. Things just got really pronounced after 2015.
Fucking bigot
>I'm gay
HI GAY I'M DAD
I sure am.
Considering that at this point the extreme ends of the LGBT movement is seeing the trans fighting the lesbians, and the gays being pushed out, I'd say not to worry about it too much in the long run.
I sure feel pushed out.
Exactly, either it won't matter - because you're no longer allowed to be a part of it - or an alternate to the current paradigm will have arisen. What most people don't realize is that a lot of LGBT spaces are simply gone. Lesbian bars are dying, LGBT bookstores are getting rarer and rarer, and the online movement is increasingly being astroturfed.
>I may not bring it up but someone else may and then BOOM I'm the gay Uncle Tom who doesn't follow the party line
If someone else does that, either ignore it or say "I would prefer not to analyze my personal life choices in public" or "I don't like to get into public discussion about politics". If you get asked why you don't talk about these two topics in public, tell them that sex life is something deeply intimate and it's okay to keep it private, whereas talking about politics is messy and gets people riled up. But don't get into it any more than that, and don't publicly take sides on any political issues.
The spaces disappearing means that we've finally won. Those who remain are crazy people fighting over silly shit like bathrooms.
That's what I want to do.
Did they make Hawkman gay or some bullshit?
Nah I just think he's hot.
Stephen King doesn't need social media.
JK Rowling would likely be slightly MORE successful if she could keep off twitter and stop alienating parts of her fanbase by revealing random facts about her characters nobody asked for.
Stephen King also got famous in the 1970s and sustains that to this day through licensing and reprints.
Rowling just wants attention since no one cares about her adult detective books.
Do both
Create a gay comic to lure in idiots and fags and get them to pay for your patreon and shit
Create what you truly want to make and release it off the money you make from pandering to other fags
Stephen King has more than one series of books
I'm not making "gay comics". If I wanted to do that then I'd just make porn.
He also has decades of back catalog when the publishing market was much smaller.
Dan Brown managed to be a successful author after the turn of the century without me having ever heard of something he tweeted.
"Social media is necessary for promotion" is an excuse. Just write a work that fucking sells itself. It doesn't even have to be good, Brown's aren't, just figure out a subject matter that's engaging.
what do you do to make character 'gay', other than explicit images or just pointing to him and saying "he's gay" ? Like those two in Rogue One, Abrams was asked and he just said yes they are, but nothing in the film came out screaming 'we are fags in space'
Da Vinci Code was released in 2003, it predates Facebook.
I, too, want to fuck Hawkman
nobody's going to read it if it's about fags user. the queer train doesn't actually consume the media they virtue signal about.
>don't want to list my pronouns
stop. you have a dick or you don't.
>it's advantageous to be "out and proud"
it's not though, not unless your material is garbage. if it's any good being an "out and proud" fag is only going to detract from that.
>That's what I want, actual fans.
then keep fags out of it. the vast majority of people aren't fags.
The real problem is that unless you have crossover appeal you'll never rise of niche interest.
Don't listen to this user, OP
Put in gay characters if it fits your vision but don't make a big deal out of it and don't give it special attention
Me three
>I am gay
Opinion discarded.
No opinion was given, dumbass.
>I'm gay
Opinions from faggots doesn't count. An Hero yourself and improve the race removing your genes.
Can you link your work? Or at least the genre or what's it's about?
T.Tumblrtard