How would you classify the genre of my new comic?

[Humbug]

I feel my setting doesn't really fall neatly into either Fantasy or Sci Fi. It is too modern and has no magic to be considered a Fantasy, but it's not advanced enough to be Sci Fi. Whenever I think of the latter category I think of really advanced tech like spaceships and lasers and fusion cores.

I would really classify my setting as DieselPunk; relatively modern technology with a mid century aesthetic, everything is still only powered with electricity and gasoline. The world is dystopian and non-humans are called mutants.

Tapas doesn't have a modern genre so my only options are Fantasy and Sci Fi. What do you think?

[jwabeasley]

Sci-fi used to be a lot broader - but if you have speculative technology, it's still a sci-fi. Just like my comic Etherwood is still a fantasy even though it takes place in a setting only a little removed from modern America rather than being full of elves and swords and stuff.

Would you like to link the comic to us so we can see it?

[Humbug]

My comic is not up yet, I'm still in the process of drawing episode 1. But here's a sketch concept of a bike with a sidecar the main characters are going to be using and a panel of a TV (screen blanked out to avoid spoilers).

[ArtGremlin]

If it’s fiction about science, I’d call that a science fiction regardless of how high-tech it is. I made a sci-fi comic for a bit, and it was set in 2001. There wasn’t any fancy tech or anything but the science was fictional (aliens)

[vapidink]

The best tip I was given on how to figure out if a story is sci-fi is to ask myself whether the plot would be possible without science at its core. I wrote a grounded sci-fi story set in the near future and the main thing that makes if sci-fi is that the plot hinges on neuroprosthetics.

Fantasy and sci-fi are very broad terms that can get divided into subgenres anyway. The story I mentioned fits into the dreampunk genre, for example. For your story, I think there's definitely enough to make it sci-fi.

[Humbug]

Thanks for the feedback! I'll be picking Sci Fi for the genre then.

[kyupol]

I'd call it more fantasy as it's primary genre.
Sci fi is it's secondary

[moontokkym]

Reminder that Arcane is considered "Modern Dystopia", which is a subgenre of sci-fi despite having a magic system, it's treated more like really powerful fossil fuel and steroids for most of season 1. Hunger Games is also sci-fi despite there not being much in the way of ouvert sciency stuff (the books explain the genetic manipulation used to make mockingjays and tracker-jackers, and there are some holograms and stuff, but it's not the first thing you think of when you think sci-fi). Fahrenheit 451 has no new tech that doesn't exist today and nothing that was really inimaginable at time of writing (imagining massive in-home screen walls when cinemas are already a thing isn't exactly innovation).

Like others have said, there's "stereotypical" genre fiction, with fantasy dragons and sci-fi space travel, but the genres are much broader than you think. Dieselpunk and most "-punk" genres (yes, including steampunk) are subgenres of sci-fi. The only "-punk" I can think of that isn't is splatterpunk, which is a gorey subgenre of horror.

[remiquise]

Sci-fi is just science fiction, not future. Space and high tech are normal for the genre, but I did a comic that was "steampunk" in nature. Set in the early 1800s with technology that doesn't exist and sure, eould be impreasive even today, but I wouldn't call typically "advanced".

Remember, even Frankenstien is sci-fi and in the books it's not even mentioned how the dude brought the monster to life. The whole "It's alive!" And lightning was made up for the movie. Everything besides the living collection of corpse parts is super grounded in the times.
And some people even argue The Mysterious Case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde is sci-fi too-- and in that one the only "tech" is a potion that changes the dude's appearance so he can go do devious things without it being connected to his good doctor name. Granted, that's just what some argue it is just labled gothic fiction hah;

Point being, just like fantasy sci-fi is SUPER vast. Where people recognize fantasy as being more than just "lord of the rings" with its many subgenres, less seem to think that way about sci-fi for whatever reason.
Don't get too caught up thinking sci-fi has to be futuristic or super high tech haha; chances are, if it's dieselpunk it's sci-fi.