Mine is pretty common, it's having people look over your shoulder and compare your original creation to [insert character here]. I know they usually don't mean any harm most of the time, but it can be really damaging to some artists, especially younger ones.
For me, it's especially problematic because I have crippling kyrofelonoshophobia. That is, seeing or hearing some cartoon characters sends me spiraling into horrific panic attacks. I cannot stress enough how bad some of these panic attacks are, literally to the point of vomiting on some occasions. But because I favor drawing in a cartoony style, this comparison happens frequently.
I am mortified of Mickey Mouse (even typing his name is making me highly uncomfortable) but I also majored in animation and adore vintage-styled cartoons. So as I'm sure you can guess, any time I start drawing black and white cartoon animals, it gets a big fat Mickey comparison....even if it looks nothing like him to anyone who has a functional set of eyeballs.
My case may be extreme, but the comparison thing still happens to many people and can really be discouraging to new artists. I hear of so many times where a new artist (especially those interested in anime/manga type art styles) get comments that their art looks like [insert anime character] because of something totally minor like spikey hair or the color of their uniform. Like, have you seen anime? Do you know how many other characters there are with spikey hair that aren't Yugi?
