Anonymous asked: good afternoon nero! Sorry for hitting you with hard question first thing in the inbox. what’s it like being an adult comic artist in this current era? I’m always intimidated by puritan fans (kimochi yakuza), and at the same time I’m also scared of overzealous horny readers. I’ve been scarred by “both sides” and it had stopped me from publishing any erotic works altogether. Do you have any advice for this? (sorry for going on anon for this arghh)
Sorry it took me so long to get to this one- I’ve been going back and forth internally on how to answer this, honestly, because I have a lot of Opinions about this but also don’t want to write a novel here!
On the subject of お気持ちヤクザ/kimochi yakuza/feelings yakuza/puriteens/whatever we want to call people who get really aggressive about what artists make that they view as morally incorrect… Don’t worry about it. Truly. It’s their problem, not yours. There’s always the possibility of someone getting mad at something you made for reasons you never even thought of, and spending time worrying about that takes time away from making art. Draw what you’re going to draw.
If you know from the beginning that you’re working in subject matter which is often the ire of お気持ちヤクザ (the list is too long to put here, but SFW material isn’t even safe)- take some general precautions. Don’t use your legal name, don’t tell people where you live outside of a general country or the largest city if you absolutely must. Don’t post photos of yourself online (I don’t post selfies publicly for this reason!). Don’t mention your exact date of birth. It may sound a little strict, but I grew up in the mid-2000s where this kind of internet precaution wasn’t unusual and it’s served me well so far! Also, have your own website that you can control if you deal in the kind of material that can get you banned from social media. But that isn’t a hugely new take from me, lmao.
As an aside: maybe it’s cruel to say, but honestly I find that those who’s entire lives revolve around being mad about what others make rarely make art with any kind of thought or meaning. It’s generally very shallow, even if it’s technically impressive. The kind of thought and introspection needed to make purposeful art doesn’t go hand-in-hand with the spittle covered sketchbooks of dense, easily angered jackasses.
On people being Overzealously Horny– I hope this doesn’t come off as rude, but you need to set boundaries early and often.
This is definitely one of those unfortunate cross-cultural internet problems imo. There’s a lot of spaces where being casually horny is fine and encouraged, and there’s spaces where it isn’t- social media brings everyone together in both the best and worst ways. When people comment like that they’re (usually) not trying to freak you out, but sometimes people get a little too comfortable getting explicit in public spaces at those they don’t know. If I had a quarter for everyone who got horny when making “socialist teeth” jokes on twitter I could probably buy a condo.
If it helps, I know of several friends who put a “please don’t be super explicit in your comments/e-rp on my posts” addendum to all art they post. Of course there’s still people who don’t read, and it might intimidate people who would otherwise comment and go about their day, but it could head off some of what spooks you.
All in all, we can really only control our social media spaces so much, even more so when working in erotica which can attract a wide variety of viewers. Hopefully this doesn’t scare you away too much! I could whine for hours about how frustrating being an adult artist can be (even outside of the monetary or social media issues) but it really is my dream career path and I have no plans on stopping anytime soon (or at all, ever).
Originally posted on Cohost. I’m answering questions over there once a day and will be crossposting ’em here as well. You can also send questions in directly via nero[at]itsnero[dot]com.
