Graduating from YA Fiction

YA fiction features child protagonists because it is intended to be consumed by children
https://fairy-anon-godmother.tumblr.com/post/659446115962322945/ok-heres-the-thing-ya-fiction-features-child

Don’t get me wrong, sticking with YA fiction as an adult is fine! The genre is easy, fun, features delightful adventures, and can offer a very relaxing and comforting escape. But when you find yourself recognizing that ‘kids’ handling large adventures means the adults around them have failed, take that as a sign that you’ve matured. The YA protagonists won’t, they’re going to stay young.

Good points all around.

Although I personally find YA fiction difficult to read, I don't have anything against it. Rather, I get frustrated when I see people attempting to apply an analytical tone to YA media that's more appropriate to adult media. It's equally frustrating when people treat adult media like YA fiction.

Despite its faults, I think the Harry Potter series holds up well to varying types of analysis, but the whole "taking YA fiction seriously" business got a little out of hand when people starting treating the Twilight books as something other than the YA power fantasies they are. I'm not saying that YA fiction shouldn't be analyzed, but I think it's important for these stories to be analyzed in an appropriate context.

The Gentrification of Webcomics

Makes a video essay about the gentrification of webcomics
https://niuniente.tumblr.com/post/663668059162247168/i-wanted-to-add-here-whats-also-different-between

It’s very good that webcomics are being taken more seriously as an art form now, but it feels like it’s becoming harder and harder for small-time artists to find places and projects to express themselves. Everything nowadays is an industry, and if you’re a single teenager who wants to write a webcomic, nothing is more intimidating than seeing the professional full colour long-form stories on these sites, the artists of which usually have assistants and full creative teams helping.

Where is the lie. Where is it even.

I have two points of contention about the (excellent) replies to the original post, which are:

(a) Fanzines have always been super cliquey and competitive. This is not new. Still, what's been going on with a lot of fanzines during the past few years has been next-level unreal.

(b) It's not like there's some American Psycho business executive putting on his tie and going into his corner office to run the social media accounts of a webcomic. A lot (if not the majority) of people on professional comic publishing teams are horribly overworked and underpaid. The industry is devouring itself, and I hate it.

Still, I think everything in this chain of posts is very real and very concerning. For me personally, it's also frustrating that older people who got into zines and webcomics ten years ago are out of touch with how insanely competitive the scene is now. "Anyone can do it," they say, not realizing that to be "anyone" you have to take on the work of at least half a dozen people these days. Good luck to all of us, I guess.

Forever Ceres

I'm working on a different original novel at the moment, but I have not forgotten about The Demon King. I wish I could quit these characters, but it appears I am addicted to garbage.