The infamous "your comic sounds like... this other thing"

[heterodont]

H O M E S T U C K

I got a pm a looong while back from someone who was concerned my comics characters and plot were too similar to homestuck and I GENUINELY have no idea how they thought my plot was too similar to homestuck when the two are VASTLY different plot wise. I was a little more lenient on some of the characters because to a certain degree they were subconsciously influenced by the trolls from homestuck, but that's primarily the hemospectrum and weird skin color/horn combo.

the plot thing STILL baffles me to this day.

tbh i dont like receiving comparisons

[60Six]

I think you're sorta preaching to the choir here, as I think we're all gonna agree with you. It's obnoxious and the bane of every creator's existence, but as @joannekwan said, most of the time, it doesn't seem to come from fellow creators.
I don't personally get story comparisons that much, but one of my characters is constantly compared to Lucy from Fairy Tail. It's a frequent annoyance, but I don't let myself get actually ANGRY about it until I'm actually being accused of something.
In my book there's a big difference between "___ reminds me of ___!" and "I think you took ___ from ___."
One is an innocent comparison from an ignorant person that's not trying to start anything, the other is an accusation from an ignorant person who is trying to call you out for something (that you most likely didn't do). The latter significantly more insulting than the other.

[radicles]

I feel like thats the supreme question for this topic tbh... "MARTHA, GEE, WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO TAKE FROM THIS?"

Sadly they never rly have an answer

[radicles]

Homestuck is destined to backfire in us all at least a little bit thanks to how hUGE and significantly marking to the internet it was, it seems. Gotta agree with @60six and @joannekwan tho, looking at it now a great deal of people in here are just your friendly comic child unsure of what they're seeing. I guess we just dont have to take it too close to the heart if theres not a flat-out accusation?

[heterodont]

definitely haha. I've had a bg character get a comparison to a paranatural character so all I'm missing is the avas demon comparison (which I dreadfully noticed one of the characters has the same horn shape as one of mine...which wasnt intentional) and/or gunnerkrigg court. I didn't take it to heart but its still just like, "did you read my comic...?"

Someone should make a bingo card comparison sheet with all the Huge webcomics and/or Popular franchises - who knows what the prize is.

[radicles]

I HAVE TO ADMIT the bingo card sounds equally fun and ironic lmao (surprise the crowds by the prize being an actual, living crossover picture with a huge 'are you happy yET' in good ol comic sans)

Tho it looks like the whole deal here for every author is to accept these little comparisons without losing our cool, which i have yet to learn :')

[69Michi]

I saw many of this that it gets quite annoying sometimes. And even on those series that I don't own, randomly people would leave a "[Insert popular series's name], anyone?" Even though they might only share one or two element similar. (The example I can think off the top of my head is Undertale and FNAF, EVERYTHING get compared to them on the internet nowadays)

My story personally has been compared to Re:zero. I didn't know about Re:zero back then so I googled and beside time travel element, they share not a single similarity :/ On the side, people also have been nice with their comparison enough to leave "Oh this story is like a combination of [xxx] but has [yyy] element, and I love all of them so I'm surely would love this!"

Most of the time I don't feel insulted, I just feel... frustrated? If the series are in fact share a lot more key element, then okay I can see where the comment came from. But the majority of the time they share nothing similar beside the most common basic element that you can find in dozens of series. So as time passes I just get very frustrated seeing the same comment again and again T_T

Someone should make a bingo card comparison sheet with all the Huge webcomics and/or Popular franchises - who knows what the prize is.

Someone needs to do this LMFAO

[Kura]

It's really weird because most of the time it's for something I have never watched or heard of, so I always have to look it up to see what the heck they are talking about.

[radicles]

Frustration is a really big deal because, add a certain amount of it, a little stress, not much helpful feedback from community = authors dropping their stories. I know people who went back and started their stories from scratch thanks to the whole 'your story got this in it that other also has' and its just... really now, mate?

Its also sad since as you said, most of the time the comparisons are always only about very vague plot points or appearance, and its just as if they arent even taking our ideas seriously

[radicles]

EXACTLY THIS good lord

[NickRowler]

The only one I really got was Naruto...which I guess sort of happens when your comic was originally a Naruto parody (yet I tried to deviate away from that).

I did once have someone claim one of my character was a copy of a Homestuck character. Even tho I never read Homestuck and the character was created in 2005.

I have had people compare me to Tim Burton (especially in high school when I liked to hatch and cross-hatch and everyone had thin limbs). I don't even like Tim Burton. Similarly I had someone suggest me to read Johnny the Homicidal Maniac (because something about my work reminded them of it???)...god, I hated that comic so much. I honestly cannot stand "Hottopic"-like comics or media. I guess people weren't too aware that at the time, my art style was inspired by the Madeline books.

[dojo]

Personally, it doesn't bother me. Granted I get it more over style than story, but GENERALLY, if fans of something else are seeing something that reminds them of that other thing, they're more often than not going to be more interested in giving my work a chance than if it's completely unfamiliar territory. I've seen artists openly and publicly criticize their fans for doing this, and all it really serves is to drive people off who may have been genuinely interested in what you're doing (hell, it's driven me from being interested in stuff in the past). If it serves as a hook to draw people in, I am 100% okay with all the "your style reminds me of invader zim/tim burton" comments I get all the time. And I'll be okay with it if I get comments about the story reminding them of whatever the heck it reminds them of. (well, unless they're being rude about it and accusing me of stealing, but I have my methods for dealing with folks like that and in the end it still doesn't really get to me)

Not saying I don't understand why it can be upsetting to get your work compared to someone elses even when it's being presented as a form of compliment, but I do feel like it's more of a boon than people realize sometimes.

[NickRowler]

I am 100% okay with all the "your style reminds me of invader zim/tim burton" comments

It is a bit annoying when people keep comparing me to Burton and Invader Zim despite me really disliking Burton and Invader Zim.

[efdvorsky]

This happens to me A LOT because people think I design fakemons (and I haven't played Pokemon since 2003?). It used to bother me a lot but I've gotten past it.

The newer designs don't help either tho hahah

[Down_the_Rabbithole]

This hasn't happened to me personally, but I can imagine how it can be frustrating. It's not a good feeling to be accused of copying something when you've worked so long and hard to make something original. On the other hand, I am legitimately curious on why someone would do this because I am just fascinated on how the mind works. These are some of my hypotheses:

1. They are insecure about their own work and feel the need to accuse others of being unoriginal. This hypothesis comes in when their comment sounds accusatory towards you. Best thing to do is ignore it.
2. It is someone trying to give a compliment by comparing your work to something else they like. I don't hold it against them especially if they're not creative types and don't know better. They don't mean any harm.
3. Someone is trying to give criticism, but isn't wording it well. It happens.

Those are my best guesses on why this happens. Don't let these people discourage you. You are the master of your story, not them. Keep your passion stoked and keep producing. The people who love your work will keep on loving it.

[dojo]

I'm not a Burton fan at all, but I still don't mind if people want to compare me to him if it means they'll give my comic a read. Like I said, I do understand why it can be upsetting/annoying, but I personally am just not bothered by it. (on the otherhand I do like invader zim but there was still a time I didn't really want people comparing me to it, but I just don't care anymore)

[VermillionWorks]

Yes, I get this on occasion, usually with things I've never watched or heard of, and my main character used to be compared to Levi from AoT SOOO often, though that's starting to become less frequent.

I try not to let it bother me since most of the time it's meant to be a compliment or little more than an observation. Sometimes people say things just to say things - to be nice and leave a comment. Unless they're directly ACCUSING you of ripping off something, then that's obviously a different situation.

Also @dojo is right, if anything it means you've piqued the reader's interest. If you don't react with too much bitterness (or at least don't react at all) then they might just stick around and get into your comic for the unique story it actually is. XD

Basically, I recommend taking this with a grain of salt and a bit of good humor when it happens, because it may definitely happen more than a few times.

Though I will say what bothers me even more is getting said comparison multiple times from the same person. I'm sitting there thinking, "Okay, let it go. Still wasn't inspired by that." XP

[TheHerald]

Most of my past experiences in telling my stories to others, I end up getting offended. Like this current comic I am working on (which is not even up yet), I had people compare it to Game of Thrones and even Berserk. The one person some said it sounded like Berserk even subtly accused me of stealing the story idea and changing it up, when I never even read the manga or watch the anime.

For me, I do not really bother telling people who are not creators themselves anymore since I keep getting those sort of comparisons and accusations. Since I find a lot of non-creative (in the sense of writing stories, drawing, and all) people seem to believe the saying "There is no such thing as a new idea". So yeah, I usually keep to myself when it comes to story creations and all. xP

[antimekii]

I probably fucked up somewhere but whenever someone points out that something is similar, I'll just blatantly do a parody of it. Like oh, sure my characters doesn't look original I'll use that and make fun of it. It's an anti-roast way, it's fun for me and funny for the people who can recognize the reference.

[shazzbaa]

The big trick with this, I feel like, is to find a way to not be defensive, because if you can treat it as a non-issue, it'll feel like a non-issue to the commenter, too!

If somebody goes "did you get this character idea from homestuck?" and you're like "No!! I've never even read homestuck so I'm not copying it!!" that's just gonna make you look weirdly defensive. If you're just like "I actually never read it, I guess great minds think alike!" or "no I didn't but LOL YOU'RE RIGHT they do both have the horns!" or "lol maybe he could be Tavros for halloween" ---- they're not even gonna have a second thought about it.

I don't expect those sorts of comments to ever go away, but having a casual or silly stock answer ready for those kinds of comments can help you feel less flustered when you get them!!