What's the origin story of your comic/novel's title?

[sxxaint]

alright that made me laugh

wattpad is such a clusterfuck, my novel doesn't even show up at the top of the search for my exact title - it's beyond stupid. I've just figured I'm simply not going to get the "Crush on Mr Bad Boy" audience to read my book, nor do I particularly want them to, despite the fact if I wrote less densely, Cain and what he's getting up to would probably be appropriately toxic

[TheGentleArtist]

I literally got my comic title, Tokyo Star Memories, from this chart years back:

I kept ever since then and made a different cover for it before I went with my current one. I don't think I can access the original because it's in my cracked, but still functioning tablet. I just can't find it's charger; though I have to say, it was a bit of a mess in terms of design, but simple and balanced enough to be used.

Tokyo Star Memories | Tapas

[Schwarze_Neko]

Well the origin of my comic's name comes from the poem The Raven from Edgar Allan Poe. I chose it because one of the main characters is a crow and the main character is a plague doctor so I thought between the mask and the crow that it would fit perfectly ^^

Here it is, feel free to check it out!

Nevermore | Tapas

[gmaximin]

I wanted to do a comics about “efficiency”, and how I felt that the concept was used by lazy managers to oppress/threaten/hide their own deficiencies; while it should be a genuine objective worth fighting for...
And then I came across an épisodes of Skins (one in which Effy Stonem got drugged and played), and pieces just aligned... efficiency => Effy... I added “the living efficiency” to remind that my character is just the embodiment of efficiency right in the title. Et voilà:
“Effy - The living efficiency”

Effy - The Living Efficiency | Tapas

For my previous work Stand(H)ard, the title came quite late. I made a gn about standardization, and I was struggling for a title. While doodling around for cover concepts, the () came by, and since the story did cover standardization of sexual morals too, the pun was born: Stand(H)ard

https://effycreations.com/standhard/standhard-new-edition-page-01/

Effy Creations - Stand(h)ard graphic novel

[rajillustration]

I got a few

Alchemist Burn Outs was originally "The Pendleson Knights" for the longest time, but because Pendleson could have multiple spellings and isn't really a...name that exists...I changed it to Alchemist Burn Outs. Since this is a fantasy, but it's a more modern fantasy--and alchemy, while definately hard magic, tends to be a little more understated, so it's not a high fantasy. Then I stuck on Burn Outs not just to be a pun but also because the main characters are failing out of school.

Alchemist Burn Outs | Tapas

In my little comic, Bardsong, it is named after the musical magic that bards create. The story is about a bard who is buried under the weight of a high-fantasy algorithm, basically. He spends his time wrestling with the parasitic relationship he has with the Bardsong he makes and how it affects how he feels about himself and the other people in his life and his struggles to change it.

Bardsong | Tapas

And then my favorite name for a comic I've made is Avu, which is unfortunately a comic that I will never have the time to finish (I had to edit out so much that it's only like 10 pages on tapas when it took me 2 years to make lololol). But Avu has multiple meanings in the story, as the easiest spell to create, the way to say "hello," the spell that that makes all magic function, and the spell that all of this cat-society relies on to exist, but it's also the word that Misty cannot say properly. So it's like a class system thing and it's a story about dismantling systems and watching your world fall completely apart because it was all fake to begin with. ...If I ever manage to even write that far, RIP my old pet project comic.

Avu | Tapas

[Gudfish]

My comic title is the punchline to my favorite joke as a kid. (See version of joke below)

A panda walks into a bar, sits down and orders a sandwich. He eats the sandwich, pulls out a gun and shoots the waiter dead.

As the panda stands up to go, the bartender shouts, "Hey! Where are you going? You just shot my waiter and you didn't pay for your sandwich!"

The panda yells back at the bartender, "Hey, I'm a PANDA! Look it up!" The bartender opens his dictionary and sees the following definition for panda:

"A tree dwelling marsupial of Asian orgin, characterized by distinct black and white coloring. Eats shoots and leaves."

Obviously the joke is about a Panda eating at a bar so figured it was fitting for a comic about a Panda who opens his own bar. It is also the name of his bar in the comic.

Eats, Shoots & Leaves | Tapas

[CursedBeasts]

Bestia's Wrath - was originally a temporary title that stuck

Varthax: the Lost Firstborn - pretty self explanatory I guess. It's a comic about my fan-character who is the lost child of two canon character.

[anmitsuu]

AWARE comes from several scattered references in my story. It's actually really applicable to the entire plot lines: some things that have yet to be introduced and characters that have yet to be introduced. But here's a short synopsis without spoiling too much!

She is aware of where she belongs.
She is aware of the things that will take place.

He is aware of her.
He has never been aware before.

In a meaningless world, does it mean more to be aware or to be blissfully unaware?

AWARE | Tapas

[MoseyP]

Thanks everyone for all these awesome replies so far, it's been super interesting learning about the origins of these titles!

[Possum]

I AM IN TEARS AT THAT TITLE WHAT???? My god!

[DiscountedArtist]

I went on random word generator, found the word "discount," and decided "DiscountedArtist" would be a good name. Then for my comic, I just decided to make it named "Discounted Comics"

[MoseyP]

Random word generators are funnnn I'd love to try and write a story based on randomly generated words one day

[Shanny8]

The main characters name.

Smart scientist woman hooks up with a Thunder God, gives birth to his child while he goes off "to save the universe" and raises said half-god child on her own; child becomes an unwitting player in a war with a secret society of thunder/lightning demi-gods/goddesses from various other mythologies...

Ray Thunder | Tapas

[kitschensyngk]

It's a sort of tribute to two of my biggest influences - Charles Schulz's Peanuts and Kiyohiko Azuma's Azumanga Daioh - in that they're comics about idiosyncratic kids with titles that have absolutely nothing to do with anything in them.

Nachos Con Carne | Tapas

[MattRAuthor]

Mine took me a bit to think of, but it's pretty much the main theme of the whole series, where my MC questions his faith and his gods

A Betrayal Of Faith | Tapas

[linaket]

Mine is from a quote by Albert Camus! I have an excerpt of it in my first episode but the full one is:

“But I don’t care for normal love when I’m entirely drawn to violence and screaming. And that’s probably not smart. But now what does intelligence do to me? You see, I put everything here, blue on white, and don’t hide anything anymore. But I’m not putting on enough screams and enough fever yet. For almost a week now, I’ve been silent, I’ve been shutting it down, I’ve been keeping watch and I’ve been ruminating. But I who have spent my life mastering my shadows, I am now their prey, it is with shadows that I struggle.”

Shadow's Prey | Tapas

[DeleteThisAccountFag]

(post withdrawn by author, will be automatically deleted in 24 hours unless flagged)

[ChaoticConstellation]

https://tapas.io/series/Ready-Spaghetti

My main character's last name rhymes with Spaghetti, and he's Italian. It fit and stuck. Plus it's a bit silly, which is the initial tone I wanted to set.

[AilyneGouveia]

"Memento Mori" :

• An object kept as a reminder of the inevitability of death, such as a skull.

• Memento is the 2nd person singular active imperative of meminī, "to remember, to bear in mind", usually serving as a warning: "remember!" Mori is the present infinitive of the deponent verb morior, literally "to die". In other words, "remember death" or "remember that you will die"

My comic has a strong bound to death since you follow the footsteps of a hitwoman.

"Memento Mori" is the creed of the protagonist and "Sins" because of the rotten nature of the world in which the story takes place (Crime, corruption, murder and so on ...).

Memento Mori - Sins | Tapas

[arydthefoxeus]

Ooh, well, my book's title is Stillwaters, and I'll try to explain this as spoiler-free as possible.

So Stillwaters, still and waters combined. My MC has an extreme fear of deep, vast bodies of water, to the point that he doesn't dare stand too close to them. He has amnesia, so he doesn't remember the source of his trauma, but this is just a bit that has a strong connection to the title.

This was a note I made:
The title is derived from the aspect of calm waters suggesting calm and silence, but as the title suggests, ‘still’ suggests something eerie, like a sleeping monster. This means that beneath its peace, something is hidden, most probably something dark/twisted. And like the fragility of water, one little tap can break the stillness of its surface, same as the facade of many things.

And considering my book is majorly about rich teenagers flawless on the outside, while being pretty damn rotten underneath all their glamour, I'd say the last sentence is rather fitting.

Stillwaters | Tapas