What inspired the plot of your comic? (If you have a gag comic, what inspires your gags?)

[Down_the_Rabbithole]

Ready to spill some juicy stuff? I know I am because I'm nosy!

I know that the story behind My Friends in Distantland is a bit of a personal one, but here we go.

I'd originally planned this to be a slice-of-life type thing with very little plot, but I didn't like that. I put it on hold for a while especially when I got this really weird bout of depression (diagnosed) caused by fear. Fear of the future, fear of failure, and, worst of all, fear of people. I became convinced that any wrong move could make everyone hate me and maybe I deserved to be hated.

With some psychiatric help, though, I broke through that fear. I decided that I wouldn't let fear control me and that's what the plot should be about. I have studied and am still studying all the ways fear works from an individual level to a cultural one. Although fear will always exist, and it does exist for a good reason, it shouldn't stop anyone from living their lives.

That's the story behind my story. What's yours?

[GesuGesu]

gag comics > either poop jokes or dirty jokes
rabbit boy > inspired by a mix of "Rabbits" by Kanai Mieko and "Toddler Hunting" by Taeko Kono (was a final creative project from my Modern Japanese Lit. class)
I Don't Want to Become a Manga Protagonist > I was lazy and didn't want to think up a quick story for my scripting assignment so I borrowed off the Tumblr idea about a a girl who has "main character hair" but didn't want to be a main character

[indagold]

Welcome Back Series was a surreal experiment to do something based off dreams. It was definitely out of scope for me because my previous work was strictly fantasy, very dark and had no pretty colors. The plot was inspired by typical whimsical adventure plots, going into new worlds outside of reality through dreams. I was also sick of every comic online being a slice of life teen highschool drama so I took the setting and turned it on its head. I kinda wanted to parody hippie/hipster type comics that tend to have the same themes as well as explore mental illness in the later part of the comic that you see in these type stories. The characters are not struggling with the mental illness themselves (well kinda) but the stigma, fear and toll on one's body and personality that comes with it as well as just dealing with life on it's own.

Garden Of Mold is an offshoot of the top comic. I felt I wanted to make a based off of a few very specific dreams but the fact that Welcome Back had a strict storyline meant the idea had to scrapped or retooled. Even though I included a sideplot with similar themes the final spin off comic is nothing similar and more similar to the older story.

[ChipGod]

Conversations me n my girlfriend have honestly

[otometracker409er]

"8 Eyes for You" - To feed my fujoshi state and that I didn't like some other BL stories

"In Love with Doubt" - To talk about how people doubt each other, treat each other bad, how love hurts, etc. (Just the reality world than what you think you see on tv)

[PaulDevers]

"Low-Tier Jane" - For it's style of humor, I really like older cartoons and newspaper comics, and Brawl in the Family's style of family-friendly humor. The main character herself was a joke among my friends, with it being when one of us sucked at something like video games, we'd call them a 'low-tier jane'. I made the first strip as a joke, but then it all spiraled out of control into a full comic!

[littleelliebot]

Well, I remember I was watching Aeon Flux at my grandparents house when I came up with the idea P:
That was like, 10+ yrs ago tbh so I dont remember too much of the original development of from there.

I think I'd have to watch it again to figure that out xD

[mariusthered]

My comic Talesfromswipecity is inspired by lost of things. it is sort of my idea for a sociaty with things from my childhood and issues i want to address thrown in. I like to bring things to peoples attention such as teens who are affected by divorce, bullying , the modrern slave trade. I always say anything can happen in swipecity!

[niinasalmelin]

For me and my comic Numb, old horror movies were great inspiration. Like Carrie (-76), Dario Argento's stuff, Halloween and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. There was great work with slow buildup in those ones and the surreal mood they all have going on. Since Numb is a mystery/horror/drama I wanted to reach that momentum in it as well.

As for the story, it's something that came from a very personal place and has been forming in my head for years. Couple months ago I had very first talk about for real with my sister and it was great. Before that I've kept it all to myself so I guess I can say that outside other media I consume and the experiences I have in life my infulence list doesn't go that far. It's Character driven so I take the most care to make them feel real and layered folks.

[divyadeep2007]

I mock fantasy genre because i love it so much xD. So my inspiration is basically all fantasy stories.

[Zanreo]

For Consolers, my game company gag comic... basically all the ridiculous stuff game companies get up to. There's a lot of stuff to draw inspiration from there...

[isaacfriedman]

That horrific thing that happened last night. That's what inspired my comic

[briadawson2014]

Man my series Federation Fighters is honestly just an episodic, action, slice of life series that does develop a plot later on. It's mostly influenced by the Western episodic format and the look and plot of a shonen anime.Originally, it was a raunchy, teen action series that developed into a much more rounded series with depth and social issues and representation with the action element. It came about years later when I saw how limited my characters were because I was sticking to how media and society portrayed certain characters.I wanted to be one of those artists that breaks the barrier to more diverse characters and stuff.

[CHMsketches]

My comic is about bullying. I guess that my inspiration came because I feel this topic and I want that people get knowledge about that, how they can overpass this and deal with it. The comic is a slice of life, in a positive way :)))

[Wishjacked]

I mean, I hate to say it, but probably Twilight?? I was irritated by a person I knew who was obsessed with vampires so I wrote a story about a girl who killed vampires. Like… that…. that was the only thought behind the original plot….

[kencoon7]

I started with gag comics about an old man and his thoughts. (Me. I am 76.)
Now I am trying to get good enough to make a book from Roger Wiley on Amazon. I wrote it.
Ken

[raya]

Our series Hiraya is a gag comic based on random things/events we experience in college. we originally thought that we'll just put random events but we're thinking we might put a bit of a plot. we're still experimenting ahaha

[timinabox24]

all of my comics are heavily based on my real life events

[SynCypher]

You'll probably think this is stupid but, it is literally the reason: As a kid I couldn't figure out what the heck 'The Goon' was supposed to be in the "Little Bunny Foo-Foo" nursery rhyme. I always imagined it as some loping half-rabbit dog monster with multicolored spots. The Awlers came about when I thought back to all of those nursery rhymes where, what I imagined was way off base from what was actually being said. So, hahah my comic is literally inspired by the fact that I couldn't brain as a kid.

[Down_the_Rabbithole]

Don't worry. I wondered the same thing as a kid.

I also wondered what all those monsters were on Loompa Land from Willy Wonka and the Chocholate Factory were.