Pretty immediately I recognized the cloak as that of org 13! I was really deep into KH a million years ago when I was a kid. What gave it away most, however, were the chains and the shape of the dangly pointy bits on them.
Perhaps you can alter the design of the robe more to suit the world your character is in? A small change could be adding a subtle dragon wing or skull in place of the pointy bit on the chains, and a bigger change could be perhaps changing the silhouette of the robe, such as slimmer sleeves or added layers.
If they are dealing with dragons directly, perhaps they might need heat protection?
If they are not directly dealing with dragons, and generally only interact with them as dieties, perhaps the dragons or fire are a popular/fitting decorative element?
I was reading the case of a mangaka who lost her credibility and basically destroyed her career for using poses from other mangas I guess people will not get mad if it is clearly a tribute and you say so, but if you use the clothes for your oc and the poses for your comic people will go crazy. Nowadays there are so many self-appointed "internet detectives" that will find out if you copied.
Huh. I've never heard of this, but I have to say- as someone who doesn't read manga all that extensively, it just seems a little- odd? Looking at these covers I could swear I've seen the poses and composition on them replicated by many different artists. The girl with flowers and young man resting against a smaller woman's lap- both of these seem like very popular choices to me while browsing the shoujo manga section at a local comic shop, much like western superhero comics tend to replicate certain types of poses and angles in their covers. I guess I just wonder where the line is drawn? At what point are the poses considered a copy, given that there are certain poses the human body naturally gravitates towards and look good as a composition? I mean...it's not that I can't see the similarities in the examples you've provided, but at the risk of sounding ignorant- does this kind of thing typically cause a fuss?
I mean artists steal all the time, it becomes a problem when you are trying to pass something you didn't create as your own. But if what you're making is original and completely your own, regardless of what references it may allude to, you are fine, don't worry about it. However, let's say you make an original story and call it Spider-guy and it's about a teenager living in Los Angeles who gets bitten by a spider then that's pushing it A LOT, you know? So if your story/characters are not complete carbon copies of something that already exists you'll be fine.
@yozhikisblue Oh yeah!! Definitely, there are common areas and poses. I mean art is so saturated that someone somewhere must have thought about your idea before. I have dumped to the trash some drawings that I made 8 years ago that now resemble a popular manga covers...I made them first but people will accuse me of stealing from a popular artist. Honestly, I give people the benefit of the doubt when they are accused of stealing because accidental similarities happen.
Also, we can't ignore that trends exist. Like in the 90's posters in which all characters were distributed in a V. Shojo manga has pastels and flowers randomly flying around. Sometimes the line is blurred. This mangaka in the example got caught because she stole covers from the same artists all the time. Clamp is pretty famous but if she had copied from smaller publications people wouldn't have noticed. Also, Clamp published those before the others ..yes we can say they own that composition.
But usually, art thieves get caught because they do it constantly.
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- Their art is a carbon copy that is impossible to ignore. For example the cover with the girl and the flowers. The image is traced from the original cover. We might find lots of covers that have the same idea. But is incredibly unlikely two people make the exact same.
Exactly @BobbyjoeXforgotensb you clearly made a tribute cover inspired in a music album but I don't think some would ever say is a copy.
At a convention last year, I attended a panel with Kevin Eastman (creator of the Ninja Turtles).
He said this funny story on his first time meeting Stan Lee. When Kevin met Stan, Stan told Kevin that he was pretty darn close to suing Kevin because of the Turtles' similarities to Daredevil;
Daredevil's powers came from a chemical spill. Turtles from an ooze.
Daredevil fights a syndicate known as The Hand. The Turtles fight The Foot.
Daredevil has Stick. Turtles have Splinter.
etc,etc,etc.
Came here to write about the No Game No Life author, like @Teowi mentioned. This case also proves, that even if you trace from non-published artists like on Pixiv or dA you will still get caught at one point.
Just check out the whole article: http://www.otakutale.com/2014/no-game-no-life-artist-yuu-kamiya-allegedly-caught-tracing-other-peoples-work/28
Or check out this one http://www.comipress.com/article/2007/07/09/22677
And remember, even if you haven't copied, people will still see similarities. E.g. D.Gray-man author was pulled from Shounen Jump as she got caught in the middle of a plagiarism scandal, but it was later agreed that no plagiarism was involved. Despite that D.Gray-Man now runs in their monthly magazine instead of their weekly magazine.
So, if you really feel stuck with some poses or gestures, I recommend taking a picture of yourself for reference. I doubt it's plagiarism since both mediums belong to you. But I know a number of artist will look down on you if you trace from photos instead of just using them for reference.