We've all got parents and odds are most of them didn't grow up reading web comics. So my question is. How do your parents treat your web comic?

My parents actually find my web comic amusing, but they work on computers all day so they really don't enjoy doing ANYTHING on the computer and thus never read my comics. I don't think they really get some of the motifs of my comics and they in general have treated it as an excentric hobby until recently.

I think it is far to say they want to support me but don't really know how. To the rest of my relatives my comics are non-existent. My girlfriend's parents by contrast are all about web comics. They read them every morning before going to work and are extreamly supportive. They jive with the humor and will often toss a one liner I wrote back at me when I least expect it. Needless to say this is treatment I am not used to be always wanted.

... well needless to say that my parents have never seen mine, and i never want them to. (Due to reasons i will not get into) but seeing as how i am being so damn slow to update.. i kind of glad.

I just don't show them.

If I told my mom about it, she would say "that's nice, dear", and never go around to reading it. If I was desperately trying to show her, I would have to sit down with her, persuade her to stop what she was doing, and read it with her, which I'm never going to do.

If I told my dad about it, he would actually take time reading it, but I'm not sure if he will like my comic. He (probably) wouldn't get any of the jokes (since it makes fun of high school life). Also, the inappropriate language might get to him, and he'll tell me to change it.

Actually, my comic wasn't meant to be a webcomic (it was in a 3-ring binder to share with my friends). I uploaded it primarily so I could show it to my dad. He really likes it because it has elements of the mystery shows and movies we used to watch together, and he discusses character development with me.

I don't think my mom "gets it" but she likes to see how my drawing skills are improving. I don't think she looks at the words or situations. She shares my comic with her friends, including our pastor. (Yeah, now he knows of the violent things my mind produces. o.O )

My parents don't read any other webcomics or comics at all. Dad is a computer guy, but not really a comic guy. I think I could convince him to look at in-depth graphic novels (especially manga), though. He enjoys a good story in most any form.

I have never told them I make comics. Hell, I pressured my father to buy a scanner simply to copy pages for my academics, which I have never done by the way, heh.

Although my mother has asked me what do I do with all of these drawings. I told her, I sell them to buy crack with. We all had a good laugh.

But I plan on taking my comics to the grave with me.

I hide my drawings and webcomic pages from everyone like a little dirty secret.

My dad loves my comic. I'm not sure if he truly digs the story or just the art but he's always doing under the table promoting to his friends at his summer vacation spot (yay retired!) and talking about it with them. Sometimes he'll go to conventions with me but I think that's not so much for the comic but more to make sure I don't die from dehydration or something. XD

So I think he gets it completely. The rest?

My mom I don't think ever reads it but I know she reads my rants. Same with my in-laws, though my ma-in-law did catch a typo for me a couple chapters back. But I don't think they get my story or what it is I truly do. Hence sometimes comes the lack of respect. :/

junoblairb
:/

:D

Terminal
I hide my drawings and webcomic pages from everyone like a little dirty secret.

Terminal
:D

Ha. Haha. Hahaha. Hahahaha.

OH, INTERNET.

Mine love my comics as much as they love me!

Terminal

junoblairb
:/

:D

HA! XD

Marine... do your parents know you draw a comic with a title shared with male genitalia?

junoblairb
Marine... do your parents know you draw a comic with a title shared with male genitalia?

I was kidding, note the sarcastic exclamation point.

lol I know. I'm just curious if they actually knew. ;)

My therapist loves them!

My parent don't understand the jokes though. Which is fine.

I know that my mom has at least read most of it. And she's been passing it around her freinds. There will be some days where my mom will walk up to me and say "I just sent a link to your comic to my freind! He loves it!" or " Allen found your comic and is sending it around" or "Chris read LDCE and wants to know if you've heard of..." One time my dad told me his friend Robert wanted me to hurry up with the next page. lol They've been really supportive of it too. They helped me pay for my tablet, even though i told them not too. Its really funny.

And my aunt too! She said she printed off one of the pages at work, and everyone who saw it as she printed it started goggling....

my family is a little crazy....

My parents know I draw one but I don't think they've read it. Neither of them really like comics and my mom doesn't really like fantasy/sci-fi stuff.
My dad might like it though, he has low standards for sci-fi movies at least.

Neither of them really took much notice of it until I showed them my lulu book, but I still don't think they consider it much more than an odd hobby.

They don't even know i have one, nothing to worry about.

My mum has read some off it and shout at me for swearing but sayslittle eles. My dad dosen't do the reading thing but has looked at some off the pages at gave the usally 'that nice'

My brothers both read it, the twin always rights comments and say i can draw but not wirte. I then kick him.

There's no way my aunt would understand it.

"She's... she's dead?"

Yes.

"And not... in heaven?"

Yes.

My parents know I draw and I'm good at it, since I've been doing it all my life. But they've never known what I draw.

I hid my stuff when my dad tried to peek.

Both my parents know about my webcomics. It's funny, because my mom certainly doesn't read it, but she's happy to hear that I'm doing it, and has always supported my drawing it- probably because she knew I enjoyed it.

My Dad recently read through the archives of both my comics during some downtime at work. He told me, "I really liked them. I read every page, and all of the comments on every page, and I'm just so proud of you for making this work." I dunno how much he liked the comics, but he did indicate that he found them interesting enough, and the story compelling enough.

My stepmother, whom is close enough for me to consider a second mother, is glad to listen to my story, and help me refine it- she is, after all, a writer- and offer suggestions. She likes the artwork, but her focus is definitely on me telling a good story. She "gets" the comic.

I wonder if famous comic artists had parents who tilted their comics left and right, and said, "I don't get it, but good job!"?

...I can so picture that. XD

My parents knew that I drew and that I once drew comics but they've never really been interested enough to actually read it. I think my mother was more interested in whether or not it was "going somewhere" than what it was about. At the time it suited me quite well...after all, I was drawing comics about them. :D

Nowadays, my father is more interested in me being an administrator than me drawing. Interested in that he actually asked me what exactly I'm suppose to be doing for this website.

Generally my parents have never really been too interested in what I do though. ^^;;

Trying to get my parents to understand politics is alot like trying to understand the math of time travel.

So no.

I think my parents always thought of me as their "weird child", they know i draw but they dont get the whole idea of it. If i try to show them the webcomic well, i might get promoted to "crazy kid". They would never get it.

Ah generation gap.

My parent's already consider me weird in my tastes and what I do, so my comics don't come as a surprise to them. Actually all in all my family is weird itself...

My parents are mostly supportive of my art over just my comics. They like that I draw online comics and have only read one actual strip but they (especially my mother) are usually interested in seeing orignal art over actually reading through my comics. I'm ok with that, especially since I like to choose carefully what certain people actually look at.

I don't show my art to my parents but if they happen to find me working on something and they ask to see it, I show em.

My parents are very supportive, think my comic is wonderful, but never actually READ it. My mum once printed framed the first three pages to put on the wall....ughhhh, trying to explain that I really don't want my terrible old pages on the wall...That was bad. I think my Mum's skim read it. Her favourite character is 'that girl with the overbite, like your friend Kathryn' (She means Juliet). Mostly though, she's more interested in pointing out my spelling errors on early pages, and I don't think she's ever read the whole thing in order. Generally though, they're pretty cool about it.

My mum knows I do it but has precisely no interest in it (that I know of). What I DO know is that she doesn't get that I actually, y'know, care about it. Her attitude is, "Why do you care about getting that page up on time? You're not being paid for it." Annoying... XD

Well, since I started my comics (not due East specifically) back in 1980, they took an interest but never really read them. The one time my mom did take an active interest -- by coloring one of my covers to surprise me (oh she surprised me!) without knowing what colors everyone's hair and eyes and (superhero) costume was supposed to be, was a disaster!

Being WAY too much of an overprotective, moody teen artist to understand that she was actually doing something very supportive and loving, I was enraged (the eye daggers were in full effect and I said some really stupid things). I also destroyed the cover and re-drew it from scratch. Ironically, she was very close on the colors and I think I inherited her coloring talent.

My father passed away just over 10 years ago but I know he was proud of my artistic ability. I just recently bookmarked Due East for my mother on her computer (with her permission). I don't know if she'll read it or not but I suspect she will eventually. I've had a long time, and a family of my own, to get over myself. I even shared the Due East link with my sister a couple of weeks ago (I'd let her and her husband read some of my superhero comics in the past).

I can't say whether any of my family "gets" my webcomic because even if they have read any of it, there's 75 pages of archives to go through to really "get" it. Time will tell...

My parents don't get webcomics in general. :) They're both aware that I have one, but they tend to concentrate more on my little brother as the "artist" in the family.

They have, our entire lives, been trying to convince us to work together on something, me as the writer and him as the artist. Unfortunately, we've tried that a bunch of times and it always seemed to end in tears. ^_^

Edit: My brother, however, is just about my biggest fan, as people who read Grog can probably tell by the amount of awesome fanart he's done. :)

stabbyfairy
My mum knows I do it but has precisely no interest in it (that I know of). What I DO know is that she doesn't get that I actually, y'know, care about it. Her attitude is, "Why do you care about getting that page up on time? You're not being paid for it." Annoying... XD

Yeah, my mom's like that. She doesn't understand the concept of doing art for free and how that might benefit me in the long run. When I called and told her that I was going to be in a printed anthology for Drunk Duck, she actually started getting really persistant that I demand money.

I mean, how many books have I been printed in up to now? Zero. It was a grand opportunity to even get accepted. For a little mainstream exposure, I don't mind not getting money the first time out.

I'm glad I didn't mention the fact that I was also in a Comic Genesis book that required me to actually pay for the pages I was going to be in. That would have really gone over.

And it's not like she doesn't get the concept of internships. I just finished a class a few months ago, and she's bugging me to go out and work for free somewhere while I take a certification test. So what the hell? It's alright if I bust my ass for free at some crummy job internship, but doing eleven pages free pages for a book is unacceptable?

But I digress. No, parents don't really understand webcomics, especially if you have ones like mine that came out of the babyboom era. They don't see the cartoon industry (among other industries) as being anything particularly noteworthy. Nevermind the fact that there are no fewer than five dedicated cartoon channels on extended cable packages these days, and that comics have long moved out of the magazine rack at the local grocery store.

I mean, she's completely oblivious to the fact that DC just started their own webcomic site. And she apparently hasn't stepped into a Walden Books any time in the last ten years or so, even though the one closest to us has a rather large comics section.

And beyond that, her biggest oversight, as with most parents who "just don't get it," is that she fails to see that writing comics (obviously, I'm much pokier at illustrating) can be a fun and stimulating activity. I mean, when did self-amusement become such an absurd concept?