Whether the inspiration comes from a new favorite manga or a nostalgic childhood cartoon, these influences can be seen in everything from the art style to the tone of the story. Our hosts discuss their various inspirations and how they use their comics to give respectful nods to these works while keeping their stories fresh and new.

As your new ideas and influences blend together to form your original story, the plot comes to the forefront. And what makes an excellent plot that an audience will stick around for? Conflict. Conflict can range from a welder being forced to work in a bake shop to a super powered hero fighting a mega villain. Giving characters a challenge that they have to defeat will aid in creating meaningful content.

Once you have your ideas, influences and plot, how do you use your influences in your work without overdoing it and entering the realm of fanfiction. For some of our hosts, using a larger variety of influences obscures the exact references your comic is pulling from, while for other hosts, the solution is to dig into the nitty gritty details of what exactly you like about the reference and apply the broader theme to your work. A useful website for this is https://tvtropes.org. In a future episode we’ll discuss tropes in more detail and learn more about using them to keep your comic relevant and interesting so be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss it.

Themes are an excellent way to tip your hat to a work without copying or being too blatant. Understanding the depth of a source material rather than staying at face value will allow you to better insert references into your own work while making it your own.

Regardless of your influences and inspiration, the important thing to remember is that your story will be your own because you are the one creating it. Acknowledging and understanding where your influences come from will allow you to share the references you love in your own work in a way that will draw a like minded audience to you.

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Episode Release Date: September 29, 2021

Episode Credits:

Kristen Lee (@feathernotes) - she/they, ghostjunksickness.com lunarblight.com

Renie Jesanis (@renieplayerone) - she/they, kateblast.com

Christina Major (@delphina2k) - she/her, sombulus.com

Ally Rom Colthoff (@varethane) - she/they, chirault.sevensmith.net wychwoodcomic.com

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The Intro "DO IT (feat. Shia LaBeouf)", and the Outro "It's Good To See You Again!!", both by Adrianwave, have been used and modified in good faith under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Licensed. Edits include: Fade IN/OUT, and a repeat added to the beginning of "It's Good To See You Again!!". For more information on this creative commons use, please reference https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.