What do you use for inspiration for your comic?

[PeachyArtist]

I think it's cool to learn what inspired everybody to make their comics. I feel like it gives me a better understanding of the comic.

So~ I'm curious! What kind of comics does everybody make and what inspired them??

As for me, my series, The Cute and Kawaii Club, and my one-shot, Could it be...a Pocky Kiss?, we're both mostly inspired by music. I listened to up-beat and fun Vocaloid songs and utaite covers to gather ideas for both stories. Some songs that come in mind are Kisaragi Attention; Otsuki Recital; Fairytale,; and Caramel Heaven. There are others, of course, but writing down a whole list (while on my phone) doesn't sound too appealing. And I'm sure reading it doesn't either X3

[Raven_C]

Hmm...Well, what initially sparked the idea of my creating a comic about anthropomorphic cats was...Animal Crossing. xD Haha. I was pretty addicted to it a year ago and I use to run a blog full of my AC fanart and comics...and then I decided I was not that happy anymore drawing video game characters that aren't mine. So I created Morsel, the comic I have now. I think rewatching some old movies like Aristocats, Cats Don't Dance, and old cartoon shorts also kind of inspired me. My second comic doesn't have much of an inspiration. I just wanted to draw kids goofing around!

[Dranif]

Legend of John the Parakeet has had a funny inspiration. The idea of it first came to me when someone in the high school I went to decided to sit on a windowsill and act like a parakeet, the rest of it came to me in a series of dreams, and it was all just screaming to be wrote down. As for The Randomness of Chibi Wognif, however, I get my ideas from both real life and my dreams.

[byJDarby]

My comic Edumacation is a college-oriented comic influenced by my own experiences in college. As a Senior in the game, I've got a lot to say and my comic allows me to do so.

At first I thought you were asking "How do you inspire yourself to get in the drawing mood?" With that I would have answered Tapastic . . . the great folks here have so much inspiration to offer.

[noctuidae]

oh boy I could go on forever.

when I was 14 I was fascinated by the Kowloon Walled City and wanted to have a story in that sort of setting. but it took me a while before I could actually make up my mind about what kind of story it would be.

I like reading books like Murakami's Kafka on the Shore and Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis, where something magical or unexplainable invades the characters' lives, and instead of trying to understand it or bring their world back to normalcy, they just try to find a way to live with it. ... So in my comic no one particularly freaks out over the flood or tries to shoo away the weird birds. I happened to be reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez at the time I was really buckling down and actually plotting out my comic, so that pretty much sealed the "melancholy and strange" vibes I wanted to go for.

Artwise I tried to borrow from Edward Gorey, Renee French, and Chris Van Allsburg, but all those years of drawing in an anime style has left me with a less than satisfactory degree of success lmao.

and a bit of the story is inspired by parts of my parents' childhoods.

[Drezz]

Frank Miller's 'Sin City'
Tarantino's 'Reservoir Dogs'
Batman: The Animated Series
James O' Barr's 'The Crow'
Old 'Heavy Metal' Magazines
Anything from Mike Mignola (Hellboy!)
The work of Tim Bradstreet.

Those are my big influences and works that inspire me.

[Amirai]

Mine's a fancomic of Avatar the Last Airbender, so that series itself is the main inspiration.

Artistically, Yusuke Murata's redraw of the manga One Punch Man is inspiring me the most currently.

[jessiepolfliet]

For my comic Stormspectrum I read a lot of comics from Marvel and Dc, So that is mine inspiration on superheroes. But I also read a French comic called Spirou and Fantasio. I like the style, it is cartoon but also very realistic.

[CiciEnixa]

From Dust To Ruination is about a guy named Tristan Dust who ends up unleashing a bunch of Demons back into the world. I really like myths, legends, and supernatural stuff, so I used to read a lot of books, articles, and manga about those things. So, a lot of different mythologies and that kind of thing. For this comic in particular, I was into Demons and the Lesser Key of Solomon and Ars Goetia. I'm inspired by a bunch of different manga and anime over the years, particularly those in the horror genre, like Junji Ito's works, the When They Cry series, and several others ^^

[UzukiCheverie]

Three words.

Calvin and Hobbes.

I cannot stress enough what an influence these comics have had on me as a comic artist, from the time I first started doodling them up until now. Holy crap you don't even know. Even if it's not directly, these comics have really helped shape my own style and content (circle eyes and heads, wheee).

Frakin' love Calvin and Hobbes <3

[TristanJensen]

I say everything counts as inspiration. If you see something funny, take a picture of it. You hear someone say something funny, you write it down, a random idea pops into your head at a bus stop, write it on you palm until you can find some paper. Then put all those funny ideas in a notebook that way, one day, you can say, "What will I draw today?", and have an good idea right away! okay that's a lot of "ay"s, better stop.

Also read Steal like an Artist, it's really helpful for this kind of stuff. Good luck!

[rainbowolfe]

I'm inspired a lot by pop-punk music and supernatural stuff, like TV shows and the Paranormal Activity movies :3

[SpavVy]

I was inspired by Stephen King, Devil May Cry and Black Rock Shooter. As for the art it was the Bacanno anime, Durarara!! And Shirow Miwa's art.

[gateofselidor]

Everything. It doesn't matter where I go or what I'm doing, I'm always observing the world around me and looking for interesting things that I can use in one of my projects. If I go somewhere especially interesting, I like to take plenty of photos for my own reference. I use music to motivate myself if I'm having trouble focusing. As far as other media goes, for Lemongrass, I've watched a lot of historical and nature documentaries to look for interesting landscapes, architecture and cultures that might give me a new idea, or help me develop an existing idea further.

[Sidulus]

Damn. I have so many that it's hard to pin down just a few.

I guess currently my primary ones are history (particularly US. history), Westerns, weird folklore and creepy stuff. Currently I've gotten pretty into H.P. Lovecraft and other works of Gothic fiction, so those have been elements which have been starting to creep their way into my work, as well.
Music-wise a lot of inspiration can be drawn from Bluegrass, Johnny Cash, Tom Waits, psychobilly, and music done by the likes of 16 Horsepower (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16_Horsepower).
I've also been heavily influenced by the early Silent Hills when it comes to horror designs.

I guess really my primary influences nowadays can be summed up a Cthulhu cowboys.

[auren256]

I don't really know exactly. Sometimes I feel highly inspired by something I see on the street, on a movie, by someone (an actor or an actress), or something I read on a book, some philosophical sentence that makes me think...

I must say that when I'm drawing my comics, I use to listen to some especific music, depending on the story I'm working on in that moment. When it's a story of action and adventure, I listen to rock bands. When I'm working in some project about romance, I change the kind of music. Some lyrics and melodies are very inspiring for me.

[AlkseeyaKC]

The inspiration for Neon Glow started when I was trying to make another comic (Alkseeya Power). I kept failing at staring it up and got fed up. I actually never wanted to make comics again because of it. But then I decided, I should just give it a fresh start and just make a comic to see if I'm any good at it before wanting to make AP. So I put some things together. There was a pet site called Squiby where you can upload your own click-able evolving pets. I had some that were quite popular at the time so I thought to make a comic about them. So the neons came first! XD I had been watching a lot of supernatural hunting TV shows like Ghost Hunters and thought I'll have these two guys go around catching the neons. (two guys because I wanted to make a light BoyLove for the fun of it. XD) So I drew Zedof who was to be like the neons, colorful and unique to my style. Then I made Jake who was just all gray in a colorful comic. I thought it would be fun.

[ametueraspirant]

is it too arrogant to say that I sit around with a notebook and inspire myself?

[ebeethe1st]

is it too arrogant to say that I sit around with a notebook and inspire myself?

I wouldn't say so, sometimes the best thing to do is to just get some paper and let your mind go on random tangents until you end up with something mildly coherent, then build from that.

[jjfresh]

Erh, I don' t think I can tell you that yet. I'm trying to make it implied in my story. Someone was on the right track.
Aside from that, something that has also influenced Beautiful Lies is my own experiences. Now, they aren't exactly like the events in Beautiful Lies but it has to do with our minds. "A story about dull or miserable adolescents who seek comfort in their own fantasy world."

It's about escapism. Looking back at my story, I'm not sure to what extent it portrays the message but it shows who escapes, why they escape, and what the result always turns out to be.