@Lguwo1
What is truly horrifying however is how the webcomic in itself has killed the manga, and to a certain extent itself. The webcomic has become a means of mass-producing a goods of consumption. Remember back in the days when manga was the sole format of Asian comic available to readers? The Chinese and the Koreans would more or less successfully copy that format. The point is, the readers had to wait for the artists to produce the work, however long that would take. Then, there was the advent of the internet. Established mangaka were then submitted to this sort of evolutionary pressure where they would be expected to produce weekly chapters for internet publishing (think of weekly Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, etc.)
But the internet also opened the door to a democratization of art. It made it possible for amateur artists to gain exposure and a great following and readership. Now, what was interesting there was that publishing websites realized they could bypass all the costs associated with production: the mangaka's contract, the production and editing team, etc. etc. Amateur artists did everything by themselves for free. These publishing companies then make it possible for the artists to lock their chapters and make a profit, taking their own cut in hosting proceeds (at a predatory percentage). Publishing websites like Webcomic, Naver, Bilibili, KuaiKan, name it, there are millions of them. The problem is, with this influx of amateur artists, there is yet another evolutionary pressure on them. They need to produce weekly (and I have seen Chinese artists produce bi-weekly) chapters to stay relevant. This is the evolutionary pressure they created on mangaka that is now transforming them into workers in a factory producing dollar store goods. Of course, quality of art and of plot needs to be cut. And the artists have 3 choices: 1) say no and do something by their own means against it 2) say no and fade 3) sell out.
Now, I am more interested in the Chinese webcomic scene (yes, there are complete idiots that will swim through the
immense sea of garbage that the Chinese webcomic industry produces to drag out the rare gem - yours sincerely) and there are what I consider the big three of webcomics/manhua targeted towards women: (1) Xia Da, the prodige (2) FaJiTe/Zhang Jing, the whizz kid extraordinaire and (3) TUTU, the all-conquering underdog. Now these three represent the three options listed above.
(1) Xia Da was tortured by her former studio into mass-producing chapters to her globally popular "Chang Ge Xing/Song of the Long March". She ended up in the hospital, thanks to them (for what I know she had some wrist damage that needed surgery because of the strain of drawing - yes, people, drawing is tough on your body). She flushed her contract with that studio,
de facto losing all her rights to "Chang Ge Xing/Song of the Long March", which is now on perpetual hiatus. However, she started her own studio and is producing "Song of the Sky Pacers" right now. One chapter every two weeks, with all the loss in readership that implies (it is an aberration that Chinese readers do not give "Song of the Sky Pacers" the time of the day - everything Xia Da produces is a classic).
(2) Beginning of last month, FaJiTe/Zhang Jing announced what seems to be her retirement, at the age of 37, after 20 years of career. She was the one artist who produced her first best seller at the age of 17. A genius among geniuses. Every panel of her art is so detailed you will feel overwhelmed. What seems to be a 3D effect in her art is actually nothing but a game of shadows. She is potentially the best artist in all 3 Asian webcomic giants (whether Japan, Korea or China - not that China is a giant, more like a dump). She was crushed by the demand of readers to use her art - which according to them is more BL, to produce BL webcomics, by the lack of response of her readership to her webcomic that has been going for 3 years now. She was overworked, tired and desperate. So she dropped that work and retired. It was an overnight decision (and your humble servant is heartbroken).
(3) TUTU is a very young artist who made herself known for her psychological historical romance thrillers. And her absolutely flabbergasting art. She is the most webcomic-y of the 3. If BL lovers were right and male pregnancy was a thing, she would be the offspring of Dostoevsky and Machiavelli. She produced the hugely popular "Yi dai Linghou/The Queen". A first Season that tried to tackle ethnic cleansing, genocide and questioned how far one is willing to go to protect his/her people from annihilation. Readers complained about how tough it all was and how it hurt their little bunny feelings. She sold off, made a second season all about the hypocritical female lead and lost 80% (I actually calculated) of her readership. She didn't realize she was niche and had a cult following. And there goes her career.
What I think is that amateur artists forced a rhythm of production that is not viable and that condemns art to being mediocre in both the visual and literary components. Readers are only offered mediocre works. Thus they read mediocre works. And therefore, support mediocre work because that is the only work to be read. Which further pushes the production towards mediocre works. And in the end, readers only consuming garbage are unable to enjoy quality work. People who only read "Twilight" and "Fifty Shades of Grey" will most definitely have a harder time reading George Eliot, Trollop, Jane Austen, etc.
And now you wonder what you did wrong for me to torture you with this text-wall. Accept my most sincere apologies. Forcing people to interact with me is a sort of bullying, I feel.