I read some really scary stories about Sensorship in America concerning comic artist creating questionable content, and even going to jail for it and being prohibited to ever do art again.

By agreeing to the legislations required to create an account here I am accountable by Los Angeles Law for anything I post on this site and that is terrifying. (unless I misunderstood? Correct me if I'm wrong!) I don't want to get sent to jail in America for drawing a comic book that pushes the envelope…

Let's say I want to draw a shota comic or create a fictional story about pedophilia, will I be comitting a crime if I do so? Will be rated Adult of course, but I rather be safe than sorry before doing anything that can get me in trouble.

Our standards are pretty open here on the site, we don't punish people for having nudity or sex in their comics as long as they rate them properly- just like in the real world. While most comics websites infantalise their creators and viewers by treating them as children, we don't.

However we're not immune for the laws of the normal world here, so things that are illegal there are not allowed here. So I'm sorry but it's a bit NO to that style of work.

This isn't the dark web.

The legality of this largely depends on whether or not the people looking at what you do can tell the difference between reality and fiction. Currently, in the United States, comics and art that are not photorealistic or photographic in nature are not held to the same restrictions that photography and obvious art from life can be. It's very uneven all over the world.

Censorship cannot be imposed upon people without their cooperation, frankly, but it is being strong-armed here in the US, especially lately. We can probably blame the rising tide of stupid, ignorant people feeling empowered by stupid, ignorant people in prominent positions of power. It's a vicious fight, but it's the same shit, different decade that's been going on since the 1950s at the least. Imprisoning people over art is extremely uncommon, and the “obscenity” that would be required to accomplish this is highly arguable because of its subjective nature.

Speaking plainly, however, there's no realistic way that even Los Angeles could or likely would have the power or inclination to deport someone from their country of origin outside the United States for creating a comic they didn't like or don't think is legal (which would also disagree with existing legal precedent in the country.) It's nothing to do with the “dark web”.

In any case, I advise you to look for a place where a story like that would be more well-received and isn't dealing with specifically California law, because even here in the US, a lot of things are different with California's laws and opinions, for better or for worse. Take a look at Pixiv, for example, though being based in Japan, they are subject to Japanese censorship laws.