The Hero's Journey: Does it Apply to Your Comic(s)

[Tieback]

Back in high school english class, I was first introduced to the Hero’s Journey. We were studying classic works like: Beowulf, Shakespeare, King Author and The Iliad and Odyssey. The Hero’s Journey, for anyone who doesn’t know about it, is a literary pattern that describes the typical “journey” a “hero” goes on. It’s broken down into 12 steps.

1. The Known World: the hero is living their life, but something isn’t right.
2. The Call: Something happens that forces/motivates the hero to accept a challenge.
3. Refusal: The hero is scared/hesitant/has doubts about accepting the Call.
4. Mentor/Helper: The hero meets someone who is able to help them on their journey.
5. Crossing the Threshold: The hero fully commits to the call to Adventure, and leaves their ordinary world and enters a secret one.
6. Tests/Allies/Enemies: The hero is tested/has trials and sorts out allegiances in the special world. They gain new knowledge and skills.
7. Approach: The hero and newly discovered allies/knowledge/skills prepare for a major challenge.
8. Ordeal: Hero faces death/biggest threat/biggest fear and must use newly acquired allies/knowledge/skills.
9. Reward: By facing their biggest challenge, the hero walks away with some kind of reward or new strength.
10. Road Back: The hero must leave the special world and return to the ordinary one.
11. Resurrection: The hero is challenged one last time at the threshold of their home.
12. Return with Elixir: The Hero brings the “reward” home and is able to use it to make the ordinary world better.

I always loved the idea of the hero’s journey, and I like seeing how this pattern is used and renovated in modern stories. When I write stories and comics, I like to see how my story fits in with, or sometimes, breaks away from the Hero’s Journey. I was curious if anyone else uses this tool in their plot writing, and if you don’t, I’d recommend giving it a try.

[mariusthered]

I cannot say that this fully applies to my comic Talesfgromswipecity but I guess there are eliments if you really look for it.
The main four characters ar teenage girls battling the tides of life in a Sociaty that is diffrent to the rest of the "modern world"

the call comes with diffrent story lines
the Ordeal that would be parents and teachers and the rules they inforce
Tests each others freindships
The reward Cassie would say that would be chocolate mud pie at bobs dinner.

[scythe]

Most definitely, anyone reading The Woken who's already familiar with the hero's journey will have seen the familiar signs. I'm a huge proponent of this particular literary narrative.

[masoneasley]

Yep, definitely applies to my comic; Legend of Azure.

I think a lot of writers enjoy the hero's journey because many of us would also like to take such a journey to find ourselves.

[AoDLegacy]

Some of that fits my story, but then my story gets bored of that idea and goes a way no one imagines. The way my story works upends a few established ideas. I love twists.

[respheal]

Eh, if you stretch it enough, sure. To be honest, I actually drew more inspiration for Galebound from The Fool's Journey than The Hero's Journey xD

Lesse...
1. The Known World: Check, country bumpkin in a stable...
2. The Call: ...who gets kidnapped.
3. Refusal: If being kidnapped isn't an "unwilling entry into adventure" I don't know what is.
4. Mentor/Helper: Here's where it gets really shaky. I guess Din sorta counts...? Once he softens up a bit, anyway.
5. Crossing the Threshold: Check. Definitely check. I know exactly when this one happens.
....aaaand so on. Thinking about it, I think I actually send Conan through the hero's journey twice in this dang story, but in neither iteration is it followed perfectly without some serious "english teacher bending the plot over backwards for the sake of the lesson" shenanigans.

[indagold]

My work tends to be out of bounds when it comes to usual story structure like this. I did have a story idea that used this but never made a comic out of it. Currently none of my comics fit this and as of now I'm working on a tragedy so that's out of the window lol

[KSlinger]

Yeah, West follows this quite accurately! Very accurately, in fact. Quite cool to see it laid out like this and also reassuring to know I'm following a format that's enjoyed by many. Cool post.

[Puppisama]

The Ordeal & the mentor/helper definitely applies to VCvsDvsCFAD, since well, creatures from another dimension just come to wreck stuff and Momo the Corgiberus is there to kick them back to their hole. The ordeal is dealing with the creatures, and the Helper is Momo.

[shazzbaa]

I never sat down to follow the Hero's Journey intentionally, but (a) the hero's journey taps into a lot of really resonant, instinctual themes that humans naturally want in stories, which is why it works, and (b) we've all read and watched so many things that pull from this structure that i really don't doubt there's a bunch of pieces in there!

Known World/Call definitely works for Tareth... there's not a specific Refusal but there is reluctance.

The idea of "leaving the ordinary world" would only apply metaphorically; there isn't really any kind of hidden or different or restricted world.
Meeting Jonan and Xira could count as Helpers? But a Mentor character doesn't show up until Book 2 -- is that when The Journey really begins, or is that character just a late ally?
There's different pieces that could be said to apply past that, but I kinda have three main characters, and they apply to different characters at different points of the story. I'm not sure which one of them follows the hero's journey most closely!

[kirahaydenyin]

Sort of... if you count anti-heroes like the Punisher. The protagonist of Witch Spine is an assassin/hitman like character but he's not devoid of compassion. His journey is a little different because he's not given a call to do something, he made his own call. He's not out to stop some great evil, he's just there to do what he can. No one is really relying on him to do anything, or expecting him to save anyone. I think the most interesting aspect of Witch Spine is how the protagonist, Adam, makes friends. Assassins in general don't need friends, they need allies. I guess you could say the "Test" is making/keeping/building trust in friends.

[dojo]

Both of mine will definitely follow this, although Paisley Brickstone will be far less obvious than A Perilous Journey.

I do feel like a lot of people's stories wind up following this formula whether they intend it or not. Like in my case, I wasn't intending to, or even really thinking about it, but they definitely do. I can't really talk a whole lot about either, though, since they're still in the very early stages (only been at it for a little over a month now) but it IS there. Paisley Brickstone just follows it a lot less conventionally than Perilous Journey does.

[JessJackdaw]

My story follows the Hero's Journey except... out of order.

I love "in medias res" stories, and that's where Pest Caravan starts, right in the middle of the Hero's Journey. All of the intial Call, the Refusal, even the Crossing have already happened in the grand scheme, and the comic starts on step 6 with the ordeal waiting in the wings.

But, there's actually a mini hero's journey in the whole first chapter the comic starting with Amber literally refusing a (phone) call.

I guess I have a lot of hero's journey stories going on at once... (shrug)

I think there's a lot of truth to what @shazzbaa and @dojo said, because really it seems like the format is just the optimal way humans like telling stories. You could probably make every long-form story ever told fit somehow if you think hard enough.

[TrustyShamrock]

whaaaat i didnt even know about these rules and my comic follows/will follow each step! i feel like i stuck myself in a trope hole without even knowing it XP

[dojo]

I wouldn't really call it a trope hole at all. It's just a very tried and true method of storytelling that even though at it's very core it may look like it's following some kind of boring, generic formula that should be avoided, but it's really not a bad thing at all to follow it.

Like take Lord of the Rings vs. something like uhh, lets go with something dramatically different like Ferris Bueller's Day off (assuming you've seen both but I picked them since they're both pretty known). Lord of the Rings is a more obvious example because you've got your heroes who have to travel to a mountain to chuck an evil ring into it and then they return home and everything's grand again and characters learned, and all that fun stuff. Ferris Bueller on the other hand, you would not watch it and go "this is totally just the hero's journey" even though it is. It may not be for the titular character, but it IS for Cameron and Jeanie. Both reluctantly go on an adventure, both learn something along the way, both have people trying to teach them something along the way, and both face a trial when they return home and are forced to use what they learned.

[KrispyKremeBits]

My comic Blissful Madness follows the Hero's Journey but not completely. The Refusal doesn't happen until later on in the story because my heroine instantly accepts The Call (not fully but mostly in a way) and has a Mentor/Helper with her from the beginning. We don't learn about the known world until a while later. It's going to be a little while before we get to any of this though.

[Ambat]

You know what, I've always been aware of the hero's journey trope but never really studied it much, and what's funny is that I came into this thread expecting my answer to be "no"--but absolutely 100% after reading through your breakdown, Nocturne absolutely follows the trope haha! I feel like looking at these kinds of setups for stories can help you strengthen the concepts you already have--these formulas are tried and tested and are relatable for audiences across the world.

[El_Psy_Congroo]

You guys should definitely read Joseph Campbell. You don't have to agree with every aspect of what he's saying, but his breadth of knowledge is amazing if you'd like your appetite on different world mythologies.

My comic probably does follow it to an extent but there is now one character that can really be considered the "main hero". But elements of it are definitely used for certain character's arcs.

[alexanderorion]

I always like to ask people if they have a moment to talk about our lord and scholar Joseph Campbell. I kid, but his work has been very influential to me in my personal life, and if there is an opportunity, I like to try and suggest that others read his work as well, or perhaps watch his interview with Bill Moyers on Youtube.

The idea of the Hero's Journey is that it can theoretically apply to any and all stories, if you break it down. Some of the pieces may be out of order or be missing entirely, but the same general structure applies. And this doesn't just apply to the entire story, acts, sequences/chapters, and even individual scenes. If done well, at least, they all start with some sense of normalcy, introduce a conflict of some sort, and then work to resolve that conflict. Comics are a side venture for me behind screenwriting, and so I love this stuff.

To actually answer your question, POST HOC definitely follows it, but it starts after the crossing of the threshold, as the protagonist was given life with a goal to accomplish. To be honest, the majority of the story will be Tests/Allies/Enemies.

[divyadeep2007]

Its funny this thread came in. My comic Utropia: Quest for the Glorious Asspull is literally a mockery of the hero's journey in fantasy and sci fi. I just started it out. Give it a look, you'll see