Are there any things you're tired of seeing in comics?

ErithEl 2015-05-06 06:59:47 UTC #21

Ha ha yeah Bleach was exactly the one I was thinking of while writing that Oh, your body was just cut in half? No problem! Time to activate your special powers and save the day!

ErithEl 2015-05-06 07:04:11 UTC #22

I think there was another thread just about this

I completely agree on that, and honestly if I start reading a comic and this lasts for more than two pages, that is as far as I will go. It's unfortunate, since I'm sure the rest of the comic could be amazing, but it's not the best choice for comic format: If I wanted to read a wall of text, I would just read a book.

yvettegustafsson 2015-05-06 07:11:55 UTC #23

Unnatural over explaining please go away from the face of the earth and stay there. Much like in the Harry Potter books where Harry and his friends do adventure and danger and afterwards Dumbledore comes in to explain it all. It's starting to irritate me more and more.

Sure, sometimes it could be a thing, like in Wayne's World, but most of the time it's only used for making sure the reader gets it and often they also use language and phrases no one would use. All of this is in the same category as Anna's issue with the prologues.

Show me the good stuff, don't tell me.

SpavVy 2015-05-06 07:23:55 UTC #24

Characters that are way too hot headed especially if its a female lead or when the girls beat the crap out of the guys all the times for stupid crap. I understand that the author is trying to make it funny but this is really old and I never found it amusing to begin with, it's middle school humor in my opinion, if you need to make a tiny girl beat the crap out of some guy for accidentally walking in on her while changing then you need to seriously watch more comedy cuz this is just not funny at all.
I also hate female characters that are so numb that you wonder how they even function, I simply cannot stand stupid women in general.

I also cannot stand characters that are only there for fan service when the story is supposed to be serious. Yes, I do have a succubus character and she is vary voluptuous but she does play a vary important role in my story and there is a story on why she is like this. I don't mind sexy characters but dammit give them a better role than just being eye candy!

Generic male protagonists also make me cringe as well especially when every girl in the whole goddamn school is after his d**k! -_- makes me want to puke.

Anything with a high school setting also makes me want to to puke.

Huge dialogue is boring especially in the beginning.

When the plot is starting to go somewhere or get serious then all of the sudden the comic relief character ruins it! Grell from Black Butler is a perfect example, GAWD I HATE GRELL! And the rest of Ceil's servants that always screw up I despise them as well (not including Sebastian he's okay I guess.) Yeah I didn't have fun watching that series...

Raven_C 2015-05-06 08:37:54 UTC #25

Hmm i hate the trope that's especially prevalent in manga/anime where the main protag is a loser/weak guy/incompetent, yet manages to have this harem of sexy girls. Like, who the heck wants a weak-ass guy? Not just physically, but when he's such an unremarkable character (ie. he's boring; a pervert, etc) then I can't really bring myself to like him. I don't like harems in general anyway. Lol

zelkats 2015-05-06 08:53:13 UTC #26

I can't stand romance stories that have female protagonists pairing up with male protagonists who are big jerks and sometimes also abusive. It's common in shoujo manga and it has leaked its way into English language webcomics. It's even evident in popular novels (50 shades of Twilight fanfic) and movies, for heavens sake. I know it's all fantasy and it doesn't necessarily influences young girls but, I can't help but question it when fan girls drool over those male characters. A jerk is a jerk, whether or not their douchebaggery was caused by some sad past. Stop seeing them as sexy bad boys who are misunderstood souls, please lol

getsuart 2015-05-06 10:38:44 UTC #27

I'm lucky that the prologue/story exposition of my comic didn't last more than two page then
Joke aside, it's true that very long exposition is tiring. It works better in video game, I suppose... (or not, it has the same problem but nor at the same scale)

I don't like love triangle. It's forced a lot of time, and you can easily guess who the character the girl will choose. And it's usually the one she was at the beginning.
But I must say it's a pleasure when you need to laugh, because "oh my god it's so forced man it's fantastic, love this".

@jackieuy127 Does the school play also works ? I've read some mangas where the main characters have to do the... main characters of the story they play and have to kiss.

One thing I don't like is mostly in mangas : the girl trophy. The girl who has the role of the girl. Which is being cute, being a little bit naive, everyone is attracted by her, sometimes she gets captured, but she's kawai in the end so you forgive her. And she's a good reward for the main character too. God I hate this. Actually, I read a lot of webcomics from young people who have this trope.
Also, the total opposite is the woman with big breasts who is a sort of eye candy (or/and dominatrix) because it's pleasing to have one. Again, it's something I see in comics from young people and mangas. This kind of character has no other purpose.
I have a general problem with women trophies. When I read stories/mangas from young creators (approximatelly 18 years old), they have those clichés, and just say "naaah, it's just the GIRL, she's not the important element of the story". Only a motivator for the main character to save her. And they react like this because they read a lot of manga which have this trope.

purrlpankras 2015-05-06 10:56:04 UTC #28

Repetitive shounen trash

sundanceann 2015-05-06 11:19:19 UTC #29

If you can make it work, go for it. If you're comic is serious then a happy character would look out of place anyhow. Hmm now since you mention it, Sasuke from Naruto was a supper brooding character and yet he was a fan - girl favorite, so I guess it's all about execution.

Jelw 2015-05-06 11:49:27 UTC #30

If you're talking about JAPANESE manga I don't think it's quite fair to include sports festival/culture festival/ school trip in the mix because they're a big part of school life here. I'll give you all the other ones though, haha. (One trope that pisses me off a little is the eating on the roof one- the roof is closed off at all schools I know of, geeze!)

winglesscomic 2015-05-06 13:59:37 UTC #31

Man I wrote an angry rant about this on my blog yesterday and I didn't even see this topic. It was directed at shit tropes in anime but this was my list (I still see these in manga/comics so they count ok)

– Harems
– Fanservice
– Moeshit
– Tittays for no reason other than lolbigtittays, flat chested character so jealous ha ha so funny not overused as a joke at all
– Archetypes (Tsunderes, kuuderes, yanderes)
– Falling on top of the love interest by coincidence
– Blushing when the love interest walks by
– Childhood friends being love interests
– Cat ears on anything

Comic-specific:
- Longass expositions that serve no purpose
- Telling and not showing (I'M A GUILTY HYPOCRITE)
- Nosebleeds, or any stock anime face
- Did I mention moeshit?
- Probably more but my hate canister is expended right now.

Amymone 2015-05-06 14:18:28 UTC #32

-One person in couple is class rep

YES!!! WHY?!!! WHY ARE CLASS REPS SO SPECIAL? I'm so tired of it!!!!! I hate them even more when they act like they have dibs on the lead character!

The only thing I like about Harem series is, if you don't like the personality of one character, you have 10+ extra to pick from. I have a habit of falling for minor characters, so this benefit is a huge plus for me.

On the other end of the stick, I'm also extremely tired of the character that feels entitled to throw themselves all over the main character. No matter what title you're reading, there's always this one person seducing the lead while everyone else just stands there staring at them like it's so perfectly normal to see this in the middle of the campus!

On the note of love triangles, I much rather prefer seeing three individuals working towards a bigger cause, leaving the unaddressed potential romance lingering in the minds of the audience, rather than the triangle-war be the core of the entire storyline- that's just boring- and they tend to do the stupidest things to get attention like throw themselves all over each other in the middle of the campus!

bmacbride 2015-05-06 14:29:33 UTC #33

What's commonly referred to a s a "love triangle" is actually usually a "love V." In a love V, John and Chris both like Sarah, and Sarah likes them both and can't choose. Overdone, ridiculous, blatantly self-indulgent on the author's part, boring.

An actual "love triangle" works like this: John likes Sarah, Sarah likes Chris, and Chris likes John. WAY more interesting. I say, more love triangles please, and less love V's.

bmacbride 2015-05-06 14:40:48 UTC #34

Most things I don't like in comics are just personal preferences of mine that aren't really good criticisms, but one thing I really don't like is pretty common. I hate wish-fulfillment stories, characters, couples, etc. I hate when it's so obvious that a main character is actually the author, and the love interest is someone the author fantasizes about, and there's no basis at all for their relationship or situation.

For example, "nerdy average straight dude who is totally not me" and he somehow attracts "busty conventionally attractive scantily clad blonde girl who is totally not my favorite porn star", usually rescuing or defending her from a situation of sexual violence, and immediately garnering her romantic and sexual interests in return. Yeah, I see you there.

And, of course, "shy average girl who is totally not me" discovers she is very special and has magical powers and also attracts the attention of "dark brooding sexy guy at school who is totally not Edward Cullen" and he probably treats her like shit but it's ok 'cause it means he actually likes her. <3333 I see you there, too.

UzukiCheverie 2015-05-06 14:58:04 UTC #35

Yes. This. I agree so much, and I've seen a few series like this on Tapastic already.

If you can't tell your story with a balanced mix of text and illustrations that complement each other well and don't overwhelm the reader with information, but also doesn't require text to tell every aspect of the story ,then comics probably aren't for you; try writing novels instead.

If you find yourself falling into this category, try this - if you end up explaining things a lot, pace your story. You don't need to stuff it all in there at once; most readers just don't have the energy to go through all that and understand everything from a first read-through. See if there's anything you can tell with illustrations instead of walls of text. To make a long explanation short, this:

You'll probably hate Uzuki from Time Gate then xD She falls into this somewhat aggression category, as well as Yashiro later on. Of course, it's explained later on.

I agree with your point, but of course, if it's explained, and explained -well-, then I let it slide. Same with what we said about overly-depressing characters above (like Lightning from FF XIII) - if they have some tragic backstory or strong reason that makes sense and is able to perfectly explain their personality and make the reader understand and sympathize with why they act the way they do, then it works; but if they're just obnoxious and angry or depressing and "emo" for no reason at all, then it's just pointless and all you're doing is boring and annoying the reader with characters you tried too hard to make "cool".

While I understand your point, not all high school setting stories are the same and equally bad. Yes, there are a lot of generic, cookie cutter high school stories out there - just like how there are a lot of generic, cookie cutter romance stories, action stories, etc. All genres and styles have their bad parts, but that doesn't mean they're all bad. You just gotta find one you like and give the story a chance; if it manages to keep you hooked and interested, then it taking place in a high school shouldn't even matter.

Grell was made for fanservice. Remember though, that with serialized mangas like that, sometimes the creators don't have control over that sort of thing - they still have editors who demand a LOT of them, and chances are, the creator's editor/team/etc. thought that a fanservice-y character like Grell would appeal.

They weren't wrong. Grell is the favorite of many readers. Doesn't mean he's a great character, of course, but a big part of being a monthly/weekly serialized mangaka is keeping your manga alive each issue by appealing to the general public and getting the best possible ratings you can. Same goes for television shows and movies. It's pretty much the biggest reason why "fanservice" exists, IMO.

FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT OH LOOK I HAVE SPECIAL DEMON POWERS THAT SAVED ME IN THE NICK OF TIME FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT OH GOD I'VE LOST AN ARM BUT IT'S OKAY MY COMPANION WHO JUST SO HAPPENS TO HAVE HEALING POWERS AND SHOULDN'T BE HERE BECAUSE IT DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE FOR THEM TO BE SHOWED UP JUST IN THE NICK OF TIME FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT SOME MORE

although i shouldn't be talking, there are demons in time gate later on lol But the style of Time Gate is at least not so much "shounen". It's not really shoujo either. If Time Gate were a legit manga, I'd have no idea how to describe it lol It just is what it is. Plus it deals with a lot of themes of death and what happens after death and such, so it's not adding in demons just to make flashy fight scenes.

That's what I've always thought >.> Thank god I'm not the only one.

Mitsuhiro likes Uzuki, Uzuki likes Saichi, Saichi likes . . . MITSUHIRO?! What a plot twist THAT would be.

Monster Pop! by Maya Kern actually deals with a lot of love triangles. Girl A likes Girl B, Girl B likes Girl C, but Girl C dating Boy A, and this other guy who's name I can't remember likes Girl A (and I'm not labeling characters because I don't want to spoil it for anyone lol). It takes place in a college setting, and each character is a different breed of monster (one's a cyclops, one is a Medusa type woman, a tiny Nicki Minaj makes an appearance, etc. lol) Despite the cliche sound of it, it's a really good comic, very lighthearted and easy on the head. Just a nice comic to read if you want to smile <3 (but the love triangles are starting to tear my heart out dear god).

Actually, is Monster Pop a love triangle or a love square? I'm no good at geometry.

Sorry for bringing up Time Gate so much, I know it sounds like I'm advertising, but I'm like, half-and-half a culprit of the "girl attracts the attention of the dark brooding sexy guy at school". Except the only reason Uzuki attracts Mitsuhiro's attention is not because of "love at first sight" but rather that one of them is going to die within a predetermined amount of time and the other has to find a way to stop it. So it's not really romantic. In fact, some parts of their "relationship" as classmates and acquaintances can be considered downright abusive (Mitsuhiro not letting Uzuki out of his sight, Uzuki threatening Mitsuhiro constantly, both of them having their lives threatened by third parties all the time, etc. They're just a pair that has been pushed together by fate's terrible hand and they have to figure out how to get out of their problem alive. It's an awful mess for both of them lol).

eagle1 2015-05-06 15:05:47 UTC #36

@bmacbride, those tropes are called Mary and Marty Sues. Horrid, as a general rule, and should not be used in those ways.

There have been characters that were versions of their authors that were good, even great, but it takes a good writer to pull them off. James Bond would be the most famous.

Eagle
(I've only got one, and I ain't tellin', but he's not in the comic I post here)

Doubtcent 2015-05-06 16:12:12 UTC #37

I personally getting tired god complexes and underdog stories these days. First allow me to explain what I mean:
They're main protagonists that are predestined to win in the end and triumph over the antagonist, just because they're the main character in a story.

See if this sounds familiar:
Everyone eventually looks up to this person, everyone eventually relies on this person, this person is special or more special compared to everyone else, and this person is going to win in the end no matter what, even if the way they do it seems contrived or convenient to the plot.

We see this everywhere nowadays. Every main character or hero is like this. From Harry Potter to Ichigo Kurosaki, Spiderman to Ironman; we know from the get go that because they're the main character, because they're the focus, they're going to be or they already are the strongest character in the story that is going to succeed. It's the same with underdog stories. If the main character is an underdog, because they are the protagonist, they will win in the end. A lot of times, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. And I'm tired of it.

But there's a reason why I don't list Monkey D. Luffy from One Piece. Yeah he has a lot of the same tropes, but the biggest difference I see is even though from the start he is relied on, there are so many impending obstacles in the way of his goals, and there are still tons of people who are so much more powerful than him, so you don't know how or if he'll make it. He sometimes doesn't. He doesn't die, but he often suffers a ton. From the start he has the silliest powers, but only has gotten to where he is now through sheer willpower and by the help he is given by everyone else. He only gets that last punch in because everyone else helped him get in the position to do it. He has only succeeded by the skin of his teeth thanks to his crew giving him the support. In other words, without his crew, there is no Monkey D. Luffy.

I want to see more stories where the main character may not make it, or really doesn't make it. Even if it's only partially. I love Hiccup from How to Train Your Dragon because even though he "wins", he doesn't get off scott free. Or like Frodo from Lord of the Rings. Or like Ando from Maoh - Juvenile Remix. It really never happens these days (unless the writer is trying to be dramatic) where the main character gets axed off or really has no chance to win and actually loses. There seems to always be a predetermined thought that they're always gonna win because they're the main character. And I'm tired of it.

VermillionWorks 2015-05-06 16:51:52 UTC #38

Okay, here's one, but this one isn't so much something that will immediately turn me off a comic, if it's good I'll still read, but I have always kind of wondered about it. Please don't take offense if it's in your own story. ^^;

What is with comics and schools? I mean, comics are often set in schools (particularly high school), or special magic schools, or monster schools..or...why do vampires hang around schools so much lately? Surely they can find more interesting places to stalk people. Also goes for manga and anime once again.

I get it more when the main cast is very young and it's...kind of unavoidable, or if the author is younger and more familiar with that, but geh, feels like an excuse to draw uniforms sometimes...

If I want to read about magic-users, I'd much rather read about them AFTER they got past the whole mage academy stuff, and not all romance stories have to be set in high school. =/ Maybe it's because I just didn't give a crap about school personally, and desire to see more different settings.

bmacbride 2015-05-06 17:18:30 UTC #39

I'm totally the same way, I'm so bored by most anything with a school setting. Part of it is probably that I barely remember high school, except that I didn't care or participate in very much. I just wanted OUT of high school. Another part of it is that school settings are almost always completely campy and unrealistic. If you have to use a school setting, can't you draw more from your own real experiences at school, instead of from the Disney Channel? I'm also completely disenchanted with "teen angst" and "teen rebellion" and "teen puppy love" themes. I didn't even like those themes as a teenager, because I never had any solid experiences with any of it. I was a bored and morbid kid...

But like you said, people inevitably must draw from their own experiences and interests when they create, so school life and teen angst stories by young people are unavoidable. Especially in societies where kids spend a huge majority of their lives at school and haven't had any opportunity to expand or discover themselves yet.

jessiepolfliet 2015-05-06 17:25:12 UTC #40

I think so too, wich is why the parents of my hero are still alive. lol if I am tired of one thing it is constantly the same joke cliches in slice of life comics, like having no inspiration to draw you know the same jokes we have seen a 100 times before.