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Why I Started MangaMakerLab: Notes from My Manga Artist Struggle
For a long time, I drew in silence. My tablet and sketchbooks piled up with pages, but as part of my manga artist struggle, the income they generated was almost nonexistent. I worked late into the night, believing that if I just improved my art, if I just uploaded one more piece, something would change. But for years, nothing did. There were months when I didn’t earn a single dollar, even though I was producing more artwork than ever.
I watched friends and fellow artists take on commissions, open online shops, or release their own doujinshi. Some of them succeeded quickly, others gave up quietly. I kept drawing, stubbornly, even as I wondered whether this manga artist struggle would ever become sustainable. To outsiders, drawing comics might have looked like a hobby, but for me it was always more than that: it was the center of my daily life, a discipline I couldn’t walk away from.
The Small Spark of Income in My Manga Artist Struggle
Recently, something shifted. I managed to publish a small manga and sell a handful of copies at an event. The money wasn’t much, barely enough to cover the cost of printing, but it was proof that people were willing to pay for my work. Around the same time, I started experimenting with posting more consistently online—sharing not just finished illustrations but also rough sketches, behind-the-scenes notes, and even half-finished pages. Surprisingly, those posts got attention. A few commissions trickled in.
For the first time, I felt that my art was no longer invisible. It wasn’t yet enough to support my living expenses—I still struggle each month to balance time, money, and energy—but it was a sign that persistence in this manga artist struggle could eventually lead somewhere. That small income became a signal: if I could expand, organize, and refine how I shared my work, maybe I could build something sustainable.
Why This Blog Exists
That’s where this blog comes in. I didn’t create it because I have all the answers. I created it because I don’t. This blog is my experiment—a way to track what works, what fails, and what feels honest in the messy process of making comics while trying to survive the ongoing manga artist struggle.
I know there are countless “how-to” guides out there, but most of them are written from the perspective of success. I wanted to document the reality of someone who is still in the middle of the struggle: drawing late at night, debating whether to spend money on printing or groceries, wondering if the next book will sell or collect dust in a closet.
MangaMakerLab is less about presenting polished results and more about exploring the laboratory of trial and error. It’s about asking: What tools actually help? Which platforms are worth the effort? How do you balance art with the relentless pressure to monetize it? And what does it mean to keep creating even when the numbers say “quit”?
Notes from the Ongoing Struggle
Even as I write this, I don’t know where this path will lead. The income from my manga is still fragile, the commissions sporadic. Sometimes I feel like I’m running on hope more than reality. But I also know that every panel I draw, every page I finish, and every post I make adds up, even in the middle of my manga artist struggle.
This blog is not a solution, but a record. It’s a place to share both the failures and the experiments that might someday turn into successes. If you’ve ever faced a similar struggle, I hope these notes remind you that you’re not alone. We’re all trying to figure this out, one drawing, one page, one experiment at a time.
Lab Note — Written on a late evening, with half-finished sketches scattered across my desk and the quiet hope that maybe, just maybe, this manga artist struggle will matter someday.