Stories that inspired your own story?

[silacinnamon]

I've been thinking about how my favourite movies, animes, shows etc influenced my stories even without me noticing it... and sometimes it ends up being a lot different than what originally inspired me!

For example, my comic Stellae was very inspired by Masaaki Yuasa's Kaiba, especially the art style and the setting, I loved how he created many different, surreal worlds that the characters visited. At first I wanted to make my comic very slow-paced and melancholic too, but it ended up the complete opposide, an action/comedy sci-fi lol

My other comic Narwhal's Song actually started as... a Harry Potter fan fiction mixing some of my human OCs and some of my neopets OCs. Then I changed it to a slice-of-life in a high-school very much inspired by Hogwarts, and the final version has basically the same characters, but the school from the older version of the story doesn't even show up.

I'm still writing another story (a continuation of Narwhal's Song), when I started I was really into space opera animes like Towards the Terra and some Gundams, so those already influenced me. And I want it to be something about communities fighting oppression, so I'm looking for inspiration in stories like Hunger Games and Dark Crystal: The Age of Resistence... And this is actually the first time I'm taking my time to analyse stories that I like to see how I could write my story better by doing something similar or different from that.

How about you, which other stories influenced your comics or romances? Do you actively look for stories similar to what you're writing to take inspiration, or does it just happen naturally? Did anyone else also started with a fanfic that turned into something really different?

[Iris-Grimoire]

My comic Splitting Image is mainly inspired by the book series Deltora Quest, the movies Megamind and Wreck-it-Ralph, and the show Xiaolin Showdown - as well as saturday morning cartoons and games with that aesthetic in general.

The first first FIRST version of it was basically just Deltora Quest and Megamind, as a one-shot action story in a nameless sword and sorcery world. As I integrated it into the larger universe I work with, it also absorbed some Touhou Project inspirations but they don't really show, and when I decided to rework it entirely, I had to think of what I wanted to write rather than just practice. This is where the other two came in, with villains that aren't really villains, characters that change alignments a lot because of their inner problems, and a lot of the matter of 'roles' and how people expect them to work. I was expecting a way more always-action story with the intial notes, but it ended up being more about character exploration and angst when it came down to it, with specific chapters dedicated to fighting and adventuring coming up.

[AbelDraws]

In my case the spark that gave life to my story around 6 years ago was this anime, Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu.

I looooved the artstyle and really liked some elements of the story (esp the magic system and all that). I don't remember a lot about the series now (except that the ending was horrible because it got cancelled or something and they had to rush it x'D) but it got my mind working and inspired me a lot so I'm forever grateful for that.

[infinitycomics19]

I have definitely been inspired by Studio Trigger. Specifically the art and the over the top action style.

Via my comic here:

The Panty Bear | Tapas

[teasidesketches]

When I was a wee little Rue, I loved, and I mean loved the Atelier series, namely the Atelier Iris games (we don't talk about the third game--the first two are the only important ones). Those games likely helped inspired the initial concept for Ivory Weald, I want to say... in fact, I could name a couple characters who I can actually trace back to those games for inspiration! I was also heavily inspired by jRPGs; the Tales of series in particular, especially the game Tales of the Abyss, was also a big inspiration for me.
Though, the story has developed a lot since that point, and I'm not sure if I can exactly pin down its most recent inspirations, if there are any... A lot of the story was written while I was getting my English degree, so I can't say that the novels and analyses I did in university didn't also influence my story, even if indirectly.

[silacinnamon]

Your art style is very dynamic like them but still feels original, I love it!!

[silacinnamon]

I also love the Tales series, especially the character/costume designs! Now that I think about it, Tales of Vesperia inspired me a lot too. But I still have to finish playing Tales of the Abyss!

[teasidesketches]

If you ever get the chance, I would definitely recommend finishing it! It's probably still one of my favorite JRPGs ever, and Jade has remained one of my favorite fictional characters ever since (though, I love all the characters really, Jade just holds a special place in my heart).

[rajillustration]

Oh yeah I was also very heavily inspired by Harry Potter. So much so that I slip in little Harry Potter easter eggs everywhere, so one of my mains is named Fred after Fred Weasley and has red hair and freckles (although he acts completely differently.) Then his best friend is named Gordy Harrison, which is short for "Georgie" so you get Fred and George. And then Harriet Malloy and Gordy Harrison are alternate universe reflections of eachother, and I connected them so that each of them has "Harry" in their name.

And honestly most of the reason I'm writing Alchemist Burnouts is because I wasn't overly fond of how Harry Potter ended haha. There were some things Jo glazed over that I just...wanted to write an entire book about.

[DualDragons]

Mainly drew inspirations from things like avatar, fantasy rpgs and animes

[IndigoShirtProd]

The general premise of a group of tens having to save the world after being granted new powers is not a novel idea. I pulled inspiration from all sorts of places including anime and western cartoons. It's hard to pin down what influenced me in specific because of how much the story has changed and evolved since I drew the characters for the first time in 2015. Here's the comic I'm referencing: https://tapas.io/series/The-Black-Belt-Society-

[Prometheus]

For me, the stories that inspired me for the main story I’m focused on right now were: Fullmetal Alchemist (this started my pursuit to drawing manga) and, very slightly, Greek Mythology. My story deals with a demigod and his family, who are full gods, who are corrupt. Without intention, the gods names are very similar to Greek Gods. For instance, the main character’s cousin is named Airis, very similar to Ares. The MC’s Father is named Chronus, inspired by the name Kronos.

[joannekwan]

The idea for Demon House was sparked after reading Daryl Toh's Tobias and Guy webcomics. A demon living with a normal human? Yeah I'll put my spin on that.

Heavy Horns is interesting because the idea for having a guy with horns in an otherwise normal contemporary world was inspired by the children's book Imogene's Antlers, which I still remember watching a read-through of on Reading Rainbow.

As for it's BL aspects, I drew a lot from the works of Est Em. I wanted my work to be real, mature, and good, like hers.

[vfinnigan]

It didn't take much inspiration for me to write Tiger on the Storm. David Sawyer's daughter told me about his service in the Air Force and personally asked me to adapt his war journal. I agreed. It was as simple as that.

I was inspired to start a series on women in the US military by a lady I know who served as a WAC (Women's Army Corps member) in World War II. She told me about how one day she got to ride along while a WASP (Woman Airforce Service Pilot) towed targets for gunnery practice. Since the WASP are not as well known as the WAC's, I decided to devote the first comic in the series to them.

[ivanskilling]

My current series is inspired by the Hua Mulan (2007 live action) movie because I loved the conflict in the story.

Shackles | Tapas

I normally read a variety of books to broaden my perspective, and that triggers my inspiration. So a lot of my ideas are a big combination of multiple sources!

[lacoticus]

My series probably was inspired by One Piece. I like the goofiness of it and yet the themes Oda tackles are superb

MassAssage | Tapas

[kitschensyngk]

Nachos Con Carne was mainly inspired by the stories I hated. Mainly coming-of-age stories with cliche plots and characters and end-of-episode lessons about friendship and family and things, largely written by people who haven't set foot in a high school in 10 or 20 years. Because when you read in the news about what kids are going through these days, stories about going on two dates at the same time or having two tickets to an awesome concert and picking which friend to invite seem ultimately meaningless.

As for positive influences, Charles Schulz' Peanuts and Kiyohiko Azuma's Azumanga Daioh immediately come to mind (precocious children with vivid personalites making mundane yet astute observations about the world, plus not unlike my story, they have titles that have nothing whatsoever to do with anything in the comic). Megatokyo was another one, not only for its art style and humor, but also for teaching me things like not having to end every page with a punchline.

Other influences include Tenchi Muyo!, Ed Edd n Eddy, Roald Dahl, Douglas Adams, and many many others.

Nachos Con Carne | Tapas

[Jitsu]

Card Captor Sakura and Madoka Magika definetly. I tried to find a middle ground between Sakura's absolute sweetness and Madoka's absolute darkness =P while the inspiration is obvious, i try to tackle an angle that none of the other two went for.