I totally understand loving someone else's story or characters so much that you feel like you're drawing too much inspiration from them to the point of being unoriginal. I would say not to worry about having to be completely original. It is not possible to be completely original, since the entire content of our minds came at some point from an outside source. The problem is when too much of your inspiration is coming from only one source or from a set of very similar sources - then it is inevitable that you will feel like you are copying someone else's character / style / story / idea. The remedy is to find multiple, diverse sources of inspiration and integrate them into something new.

Concerning a simple vs. detailed art style, this really depends on you and the subject matter. Simple art styles in general will lend themselves better to comedies or light-hearted stories, while more detailed styles will lend themselves better to 'heavier', more dramatic stories or horror. But there are always exceptions.

Concerning starting a story, I would just look at the beginnings of a bunch of books / comics that you like and see how the 'pros' did it.

Concerning getting better at writing, I'm no guru but some important tips are:
- Make sure your characters (especially your protagonist) have significant flaws.
- Make sure there is conflict. And not just a little; a lot. Conflict is the base ingredient in a story.
- Write a broad outline and figure out the ending early on.

Hope some of that helped a little and good luck

One place to start is Nitty Gritty Tips. Here are some key forums where multiple artists discuss topics you might have questions about, and several of these should include additional resources. (You can also just google things like "panel structure tutorial", or "how to place word bubbles" and find lots)

Some times the best way to learn is to just start trying to do the thing. And then as you bump into problems, you can find your own solutions, google for help, or bring your questions here and get more targeted advice and feedback. Good luck!

There are tons of resourced for writing advice you can find online, you can also seek out books to better learn the craft! That said, I think it's a good idea for impatient non-writers to try things like taking a short fairy tail and making it their own short comic. It's a great way to get in practice if you're having a hard time starting those bigger ideas. You'll learn a lot through small practice comics. And while it's fine to do it yourself, don't feel like working on a small project with a friend or other writer will hold you back. It's just another chance to learn, practice, and grow.

Kinda see the above advice. At the end of the day, you can't do it until you're doing it. So starting sooner is better than later. But you can choose a small join project with friends, or doing your own spin on a fairy tale, etc, as a way of making an easy start if the BIG EXCITING COMIC seems too daunting or you're stalled on ideas.

It's important not to just regurgitate existing works, but it's not a big deal if your influences are obvious. Especially if you need to start somewhere. Nothing is completely original, as they say, and recycling your favorite tropes and cliche's isn't a big idea. Try to make it your take on these ideas, though, no matter how inspired you are from existing properties. You might just need to get started and see what happens. You can always edit, or pivot, if you realize what you're making is too close to something that exists. ((and if you feel like your work is just too close to the real thing, you can choose not to monetize your comic, and then like fan comics, it's not a big deal))

At the end of the day you need to do you. A big part of making comics is learning how to draw fast, and how to cut corners. It's easy to underestimate how exhausting it can be when you haven't really done it before. That doesn't mean you have to go simple, just be aware. AND drawing for long periods of time can DAMAGE your body, so please take breaks, stretch, and otherwise care for yourself. (I myself draw in a semi realistic fashion and my comic is full color, so I know first hand how taxing that is)

Again, this might be something that you just try, and see how it goes. Maybe you'll find you can handle drawing in your usual way. Maybe you'll need to simplify. Maybe you'll find a happy in between! You can say "I want to do it this way," and go ahead and try that, but also keep an open mind to trying other things depending upon what you find!

Try not to start with an info dump, but yeah, pretty much start however you want. I hate figuring out how to start, so I pretty much jumped into things happening and trust my readers to pick up on things as we go.

I mean, usually when I see things like this, it's someone acting entitled. Sometimes even rude towards other creators. But obviously everyone deserves respect, and it's best to approach everyone with kindness, even if you don't love what they have to say. My experience on tapas and the forums has always been that it's mostly a very kind and supportive community. We want everyone to do well and grow.

so my attention span is... not.. great....... so forgive me for skimming this and picking out the bits that Spoke To Me

also, before we start, WELCOME TO TAPAS!

there are lots of places to learn all this lovely juicy stuff!!!

i recommend, as a first port of call, scott mccloud. hes like, forgive me will eisner the father of comic theory and comics about comics. he has three comics that talk about comics - how to make them, what they are, where theyre going, their history. all sorts of lovely jubbly nerdy stuff. youll hear me and others like @niah146 gush about scott mccloud... regularly.

understanding comics is his first book, its a great introduction to the medium - it introduces lots of concepts abt the mechanics of comics and the nature of panelling and panel transitions, and then spins off into history and wider art theory and lots of stuff. i first read it about a year ago when i was just starting to take comics seriously, and it blew! my mind!

then theres reinventing comics (harder to find online, but look in your local library), which looks more into comic history and potential for the future. also an inspiring read, but a lot of its a bit dated.

and then making comics, (you can find it online if u rootle enough) which could be a good start for you - it covers the basics of actually making comics. i havent read this one yet, but ive heard its a really good beginner crash course.

besides that
1: look around the forums, people often have discussions about panelling, composition, word bubbles. @SleepingPoppy beat me to mentioning the nitty gritty tips rude
2: look at comics you admire, and applying what you learn, study what they do. and copy it.
3: ask!!!!!!! you can always ask for feedback or advice on the forums, and theres lots of people that will help you out

tbh i think writing on your own is the best thing to do when starting out - to be crosstrained in the art and writing of comics is a really good thing, and doing all bits yourself makes for smth harmonious (not that collabs cant also be harmonious, but it takes more time and experience to mesh)

and yknow what? every writer is a shit writer to begin with. hemingway? there was a time when hemingway couldnt write for SHIT. SHAKESPEARE? that dude couldnt even READ in the very beginning (yknow, bc he was a baby). everyone starts somewhere, and you learn how to write by writing. and reading. read. read a lot.

totally definitely absolutely start with short stories and short comics - and have fun with it! pick stuff you arent too attached to, fun weird ideas to fuck about with. derivative structures, worlds, stories, characters... just do something short you can crap out and move on to the next thing, and experiment as you go. if you see something a writer or comic creator does that you really like, steal it, whack it about, see what makes it tick, and move on.

you will never be ready, in your opinion. definitely start slow and small, ease yourself into it - do not start with a 5000 page epic. please dont. - but do just start. the first few things you make are allowed to be entirely awful, theyll be yours, theyll have that glimmer of you that youre gonna polish as you go until it shines.

someone on the comic podcast 'dirty old ladies' (highkey recommend, btw) once said "everyone has 200 awful comic pages inside of them, and the only way out is through." so start, and embrace the crap because its part of the learning process.

be derivative!!! fuck it!!!!! everythings a ripoff of something else!!!! the handmaids tale is a ripoff of 1984, the lion king is a ripoff of shakespeare and the bible, star wars is a rip off of ninja(? kung fu? kinda thing) movies, narnia is a ripoff of the bible... ya get me?

that said, your inspirations are all very popcultural. this is fine and good and great, but id recommend widening your scope, it could solve your dilemma here. look into what influenced the marvel or overwatch writers - what stories inspired them? and what stories inspired those stories? and what stories... etc. read some classics, watch some old movies, look at some art. read some mythology. read some psychology. talk to people. steal their stories. add some funky scifi junk. make it your own.

the key to originality is a wide pool of references. its not about an all new ingredient, its about a new recipe.

then keep it! that advice is for people further down the line, looking to take their comicry into a career. and there are plenty of comic artists who do really intricate, painterly work - in webcomics, and working for marvel and DC. the only way for you to know whats best for altering your style, imo, is to get working and get experimenting and see what you like

at this point, dont make comics for anyone else. dont think about target audience, trends, demand... whats the story you want to tell? how do you want to tell it? do that.

draw out a plan of the entire plot before you really start. this means you can work out the kinks, figure out the order of things, and select from this wide array of events a good place to start.

look at how other stories do it! how do your favourite comics start? your favourite movies? look into story structure and read stories with good structure and pick apart (and steal) what they do.

like, basically, yeah

that sounds like a really good start look into other media that goes for that tone, and see what they do.

its really cool to see someone so passionate about comics, i really hope my advice and these forums help you on your way ill always be happy to give feedback or advice on anything you post here!

I say this a LOT, and I dont say it passing judgement, but more as a reminder- because there are creators who want to hear "the easy way to get to"- especially younger creators who put all their eggs in one basket thinking that their comic is blow up within a short period of time. If it happens- more power to them, but if it doesnt happen: be patient, buckle down and put in the work to build & grow your audience. Dont get discouraged if things dont go the way you had hoped...even I have to listen to my own advice at times, coz I get discouraged along this journey.

Just group your ideas together and figure out how you want your story to flow and where you want to go with it. For me, whenever I feel myself getting amped up about an idea I have for a story- especially after I've put it on the back burner for a week or so, then I know it's a good idea to build something on. As for your idea being similar to an established thing- it happens sometimes, but make sure you arent directly deriving your material from an established source; readers will let you know.

As for art style- you do what you're comfortable with...if it takes you a minute longer to do the work, build a buffer(a number of pages already done before you start posting), before you run the comic. Sometimes things happen, and you may feel like you dont want to get behind in your updates and let your readers down or lose some...my style isnt something that I can whip out in 3 hrs, so I try to build a buffer when I have the chance.

Lastly, have fun with what you're creating..!

Everyone have been giving you an helpful tips, so maybe I just add a little bit.

just practice by doing a short story or short comic, like a 15 pagers. If you like the existing characters, there's no fault in making a fanfic for a while until you can cook out your own story.

This is your early stages, and no one would blame you for not being perfect. You just have to have the courage to shows your works to the world, and be proud of your achievement.

Practice make prefect, and you'll get better as time flies. Either your artistic skill or your writing skill.

Good luck for you .

When I was interested in starting a webcomic, but didn't know how to do it, what I did was go to TopWebComics2, click on anything that looked interesting, and read as much as I could. I did this for a few weeks, just reading a whole bunch of comics and getting a feel for how they started and what I liked. If I was interested, I'd take note of what had made me intrigued and keep reading. If I was bored, I'd pay attention to what had bored me. If I thought "oh that's neat" but then found myself never coming back to look at the comic again, I'd try to figure out what it was missing -- why wasn't I interested enough to come back?

For the comics I kept reading, I paid attention to which ones I lost interest in and which ones I excitedly looked forward to every update. What needs to be in an update for it to be satisfying? How fast or slow should the story move?

I read a lot of Scott McCloud and a lot of other comicking books and took a lot of comicking classes and read Story and read the DC Comics Guide to Writing Comics1 and I was hired by a friend to draw her script and got to study her writing style in the process, and all of those things were VERY HELPFUL (I especially recommend Story if you don't mind a long read), but the places where it all really made sense for me was just, looking at other comics and learning from what they did, and what worked, and what absolutely didn't work. Almost all the decisions I made at the beginning of my comic were based on what I'd seen in other comics.

And yet, despite all of that, after I finished Chapter One I could see things in the story that I could've done better -- and what I realised is the only way I could've learned those lessons was by making Chapter One. It didn't matter how much I read and studied -- there was only so much I could learn that way. I needed to make comics in order for it all to really click.

(That said, here's a post I made when someone asked me for Webcomic Starting Advice2 which I still stand by!)

More or less the answer to all your concerns is you just have to do it, you don't get better at anything by worrying about it. Just remember "Suckin' at somethin' is the first step towards bein' sorta good at somethin'"

I would advise you to do what I’m doing.

Save that story you love for when you can really do it justice.

I’m not planning on doing the story I love for many years. Because I know if I put it out now I would not be satisfied with the results. It’s not as unpleasant as it seems. You will have other comics and projects to keep you busy as you patiently wait for the one.

I had to kill a story I loved to death once because it turned to shit due to my inexperience. I never even got to write that story. It never left the solitude of my brain. I don’t want to kill another. And I’m sure you don’t too.