Got the idea from: THE ADVANTAGES OF BEING A WOMAN ARTIST by the guerrilla girls
http://www.guerrillagirls.com/posters/advantages.shtml

My goal is to made a list of 100(or more) advantages of being an unknown/not popular webcomic artist.

So far I got...

1. Don't have to worry about stalkers at anime cons.
2. Don't get hate mail.
3. Don't have to bother with making annoying filler art everyday to bribe people into voting for my webcomic at webcomic list sites.
4. Don't feel any urgent need to spend a lot of money on advertising like the top dogs do.


Please only reply with more advantages for the list. Make a new topic if you want to discuss the content within. Please try to come up with some good ideas. Spam stuff like "ur mom" is unacceptable. I might want to put the list on a website.

5. Nobody flames you if you miss an update.

You can have a more personal relationship with your fans.

(its hard to keep track of 1000 fans, but 30 or 40 is just about right for that)

You can claim to be an underground sensation.

Your fans won't hate you if you don't update for a month because your hands hurt from scrubbing toilets all afternoon.

Good topic.

Nobody minds if you decide to do one updated entirely in shades of purple, it'll be purple update. Nobody would blink. People should do more purple updates.

If nobody reads your comic, you can afford to not be upset about it.

If you restart your comic because you suddenly and fattaly ran out of plot nobody will mind, infact they'll probably thank you for it.

12. Don't have to run a domain site.
13. There's no need to concerned over the trolls and spammers at your tiny forum compared to their webcomic's over crowded forum.
14.People won't steal your artwork.

You can experiment all you bloody well like.

Less stress, which usually equals more productivity in the end.

You can put more work into each page because people aren't clamoring for an update every day or so.

You can put your regular everyday email address on your main site and not get spammed by idiots every day.

If you make a spelling mistake on a page, everybody just shrugs and goes 'eh.'

People don't assume you're making bags of money/have 'sold out'.

Critics on comic blogs don't tear your comic to pieces because your comic 'doesn't have enough minorities'/'isn't original'/'isn't as good as it used to be' etc. because they've never heard of it.

You don't have to get stressed over shipping your books and merchandise.

Your comic can never be called 'Overrated', people can't say it's more popular than it deserves to be.

When you get a comment or message, it's really, really special and exciting!

Your comic can be flexible (have humour and angst) without having people tell you that this is not the proper tone for it.

26. You have near-total control over your creation's copyright. (Hey, if nobody's interested...)

27. Maximum practice with minimum ego inflation.

28. If and when you do get famous, being able to say that you "came out of nowhere" sounds all that much cooler.

29. You're at the cutting edge of the avant-garde of an art form still relatively in its infancy. Ten years ago, artists would kill to get that opportunity.

30. When asked why you're attending a comic convention, "I draw a webcomic" is a slightly more respectable response than "I'm just here to pick up loads of free stuff and scope out skimpily-clad cosplayer chicks".

You can update as as much or as little as you want. :P

32. You can write stories that are only appealing to you.

33. Save time by not getting any commissions.

34. Don't feel like you must make comics for the rest of your life.

35. Make more money through a real job.

36. Don't need to become an art major.

no pressure except from yourself

not getting any hate mail isn't a benifit! I want hate mail! I gotta hope that someone out there is so offended by what I'm doing they need to bitch at me about it.

Wow, this list makes me realise that I'm not quite as unknown as I thought I was :P

38. Being able to work on other art projects and not get chewed-out for not working on your comic pages

39. you can completley scrap a project or start a new one on a whim and even if anyone notices they can't do anything about it.

40. If you ever make it big, you'll knows who's lying when they say they were reading your stuff from the beginning.
41. No webcomickers discussing your many faults on other webcomic forums.

Yeah, I'm with Oceanzone. Reading this makes me miss those days back in '03.

42. Along with no one picking on you in forums, you don't feel the need to network/get involved in the industry's drama.

43. Changing popular culture will never force you to make your lead character more "dark and edgy"

44.) It's always more fun to daydream about achievement than to actually achieve
45.) Since there's always room for improvement, you can perfect your craft without people maligning your blossoming talents.
46.) It's still fun just getting a few comments here and there! ^_^

47. Being unknown means you still have a while before you go and spoil your reputation for doing something stupid lol.


Though i must say, i would like to make it. lol.

43. At the conventions, you can use your entrepreneurship to pick up scantily-clad cosplay chicks.
44. You can make fun of your Real Job co-workers and they will never know because they are mature folk who don't read webcomics.
45. You are motivated to keep your fanbase interested. Famous webcomic artists may just use their fame to attract readership.

Though, I would like to say; I am going to be bloody rich and famous.

No one misses you when you commit suicide...
urg I mean....
no really I can't find a good thing besides the whole laziness and update thing
But to me the whole laziness thing trumps any benefits of being a known artist!

Tamerlane
But to me the whole laziness thing trumps any benefits of being a known artist!

Yes... yes, it can. XD

Tamerlane
No one misses you when you commit suicide...

^_^ haha! brought a smile to my face. but then, I've always had a weird sense of humor.

(but ok guys, one of my main goals in life is to be famous... so I think being "unknown" goes against my basic nature, sadly. Oh well, it's an ephemeral state! I SHALL BE FAMOUS!)

48: By being unknown you're cool and underground
49: You'll never be accused of selling out

50. you get to do whatever you want with the story

You can still have a career and pick on the system without the dominant authority trying to get you fired.