When I started posting artwork on the internet, I was 20, stupid, and thought I could remain anonymous and have control over whatever I posted. Well, it's ten years later, and I've had time to think about things.
I've been thinking about altering my responsibilities next fall, giving up the big site, and reducing down to only the comics I can do continuously (meaning 1-2), possibly moving to keenspace or something. The thing is, if either were something new, it would most likely be PG, and be something more mainstream. If it were PG, then a normal person would have no reason not to use their real name, or allow their family or friends to know about it, right?
That's the thing I worry about, I've created this mass of possibly unacceptable stuff. I know I can't be alone in this feeling. I mean I haven't literally created porn, but it's more complicated than just some topless pictures.
I've been told before I have a unique style, and I honestly worry that no one could see my artwork elsewhere and not be able to identify it. If I wasn't an artists I wouldn't worry about it at all. Does anyone else consider this? Or do you not care who knows what you do online? Or am I over-reacting? I know that I can go just about anywhere on the internet and wouldn't be able to find anyone who knows "Lightfoot", but the internet is more about finding something you're looking for, not passively bumping into something.
I just don't think most people think about these things enough when they start posting things on the internet. My options are:
- To accept it's too late, and continue secretly making comics anonymously, no matter which comics, or what they are about.
- Continue using "Lightfoot" but tell people I know about, accidently creating an easy path back to any old stuff that still exists.
- Use my real name and tell people I know about it, decreasing the link back to the old stuff, but having no anonymity if the full connection was made between me and "Lightfoot".
- Use another alias, knowing someone could still identify my artwork even if not my name.
- Try to change my style enough I couldn't be recognized.
I'm really not sure yet what I want to do. I had once considered doing a new PG comic, and then also Pulse, assuming I could keep Pulse secret. I mean, could an author have a PG comic and a comic like Pulse, both in completely separate places, and not have anyone notice the connection, even with different names given as the author?
Another thought was to restart Pulse, possibly making it PG (and lowering the boob scale on all). Or just giving up and continuing to do the current Pulse secretly. I mean I'd like to do Pulse for many reasons, but it has many flaws, I may have gone overboard with it, and it would be easily traced back to the original version unless I made massive changes.
I think the thing is that I'm tired of doing something I wouldn't want anyone I know to know about. My brother knows nothing about what I post online, and he's been emailing me about people on craigslist looking for comic artists. They're all people who seem more like they're really wanting a friend, or aren't at all serious, but I think he thinks that I've given up on the idea. I actually started doing comics on the internet because I thought I needed practice, but maybe I didn't make the best choice. I've gotten offers before to draw pornographic comics from websites or small press companies, but I declined. I think that in many situations, there's either porn, or there's something PG. If you do something more than PG, it's put together with porn. It limits what people think of you, and it limits who will link to you, who will talk to you, and most people won't be happy. Some will want you to move up to porn, others will want the amount of story usually only found in a PG item.