How has your cultural background influenced your comic?

[SirGutsalot]

Hi everyone! My comic Lacrim is set in a very deserted countryside similar to the red center of Australia.
Being that I am Australian, I think there are probably lots of things that have influenced my comic given my nationality (maybe even that I'm not aware of...). I know that I have used a bit of Australian slang here and there and also the architecture is very multicultural...
So...
How about you? Does your comic show signs of cultural influence?

[joannekwan]

I think definitely all my series reflect my Northern California sensibilities to a degree, even if they're set elsewhere in the country. I'm pretty liberal and I always try to have diverse casts (myself being a child of immigrants and all). Heck, my two main series are set in a vague unnamed city largely influenced by my experiences with San Francisco.

[Cherry_sama]

Well, Canadian prisons are, apparently, some of the best in the world, so I guess that made my comic's prison super humane by virtue of that.

[ahhvecadoes]

Heart Hex takes place in Chicago, IL and Teo, one of the characters, is from Milwaukee, WI originally. Both areas have some of the highest concentrations of Latinxs in the Midwest, and as someone who 1) is Latina and 2) lived in Milwaukee and would visit Chicago regularly, I felt it was an underused backdrop for Latinx characters.

You can definitely see already in the architecture that it's very Chicago. Buildings are old and often take German influences, which I miss greatly here in the SW. My favorite thing I'll be doing is touching on the concept of 'dibs' in Chicago, which is the vicious winter ritual where everyone fights to get a street parking spot by shoveling it and putting random things on top of it to call 'dibs'. It gets nasty. Also just being able to have characters in a Midwestern winter hell will be fun to write.

[GesuGesu]

uhhh. I'm Chinese, but it doesn't have much to do with my comic.. Most of mine don't have a specified setting nor ethnicity to the characters.

[MateusAviani]

In Brazil, we get drunk, we cry, we die, we make comics about it...

well, I do it.

[LuciieR]

My country is very diversified about races and costumes from different parts of the country, and I want to show as many mixed characters as I can in my comic, because it's what I consider Normal. My city is the 4th(???) most populated, so I have a pretty neat range of options on costumes and ethnicities for my characters.
Since my comic takes place in Brazil, I'd say everything on it it's a sign of cultural influence lol

[simonjfletcher]

My Comic Real Dreams is set in New Zealand, where I am from, so it's pretty mixed culturally. The main character is half Peruvian.

[Kura]

In a lot of ways for my one comic, a little more unintentionally for others. Most of it being culture shock because a lot of my readers are from the United States and assume that I am to???

I think the most significant one was from comic I worked on several years was about two guys that had just gotten married and were raising a family, and I got hit with "That's not legal. You need to do your research." or "What fictional world do you live in where guys can ACTUALLY get married LOL!!" Even though uh... same sex marriage in my country has been legal for years... like... since I was a kid years... x.x.... the comic theme was very loosely inspired by my uncles... that I grew up with...
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[heraclus]

First of all i think everyone should be proud of his nationality , i planing to put some greek symbols in my series , like meandros( greek key) symbolizing infinity , the eternal flow of things ,the bonds of friendship, of love and devotion.
I like ancient stuff

[Sieza]

My comic was actually influenced by the fact that I don't experience enough diversity in my community. I come from a little red state in the south of America. I guess without giving it away, were known for our horses. Anyway, because I come from a small place, I created a universe in my head where everyone is unique and all have their own differences, but it doesn't let them get in the way of wanting to know each other and getting along. I hope that as my comic grows I can add more diversity into my comics by traveling and meeting new people of all religions, races, and of sexuality.

https://tapastic.com/series/Kokoro-Guardians

[TheKawaiiGarden]

Nah not really, I'm from Iceland myself but Legends of Kayal is set in a high-fantasy world far different from ours.
I guess though that the snow elves (Hythians) are semi influenced by iceland/nordics.

[keii4ii]

It's hard to imagine a comic that has zero cultural influence. Body language, eye contact usage, sitting/ standing posture, the timing of laughter and the manner of smile, etc... all these things are shaped by the culture. Even getting naked to have sex is cultural! (There are places in the world where it'd be very weird to get fully naked to have sex)

That said, some influences are much more noticeable than others. HoK is very obviously influenced by the Korean culture, but it's also full to the brim with more subtle, yet no less significant, influences as well.

[NickRowler]

My cultural background is Hispanic and Scotch-Irish. However, I don't think these really play much of a role in my comics.

What does play a role is my multi-cultural family. So I will have interracial couples and biracial characters. I also feel it is important to have characters with darker skin (I find it weird when I see media with only light skin characters, mostly because I am so used to being surrounded by people with various skin tones).

[azureXtwilight]

I have to admit that being Asian there is a lot of Asian characters, but I made the setting in an alternate world where all cultures are intermingling with each other, so I am hoping there is no problem here.

I also don't draw sexual situations, rather just implying them, coming from a country when you can't have sex before marriage and is actually punishable by law.

[jurinova]

I don't think my comic's plot has been influenced very much but I think there's something quite Finnish in my storytelling, especially in the way I use silence in my comic. I tend to prefer silent scenes because to me silence conveys emotions and mood usually much better than words can. I always enjoy it when I can write/draw a scene with no dialogue.

I also have plenty of characters who stuggle voicing their feelings, which seems to be a very Finnish thing to do. (People in Finland don't say "I love you" easily and neither do any of my characters.)

[yondoloki]

hmm... I don't know if my own culture has influenced my comic.... I am Dane but the comic is set in Victorian England and deals with old fairy lore.

The only thing I can think of is that it is highly inspired by fairytales, and that I have always loved fairytales, growing up with H.C. Andersen (which if you live in or near Odense where he was born, you will get shoved down your throat wether you like it or not), and the thendensies in Danish storytelling that happy endings are not a given... But I think I'm reaching.

[gregsfaulk]

Hello all,

I must say that being in the USA there is a underline---or perhaps hidden---critic censoring my comics story line. I do worry that I might be alienating a group of people because of I am not PC enough. At the same time I worry that I am not pushing the limits enough; that I am being to scared of what others would say. Then the finial question: am a representing my race/culture/gender in a good light? All in all cultural background effects my writing more than I would like it to.

G.S Faulk Last Days of Kevin