Fast-forward almost 25 years and my long time desire to create a comic of my own meets inspiration in the form of watching my 9 year old nephew interact with my English Mastiff, Magnus. When I was a kid I was extremely curious. This led to some very peculiar situations, almost all getting me into some sort of trouble. The reflection of my past mixed with the present and thoughts about the future built up in my head to focus on a comic about a young boy, a mixture of my nephew and myself at his age, and his faithful sidekick, the family Mastiff. This is how AJ & Magnus began.
As I worked out the details with my husband and we planned the comic strip and characters, the thought that kept coming up is "is this Calvin and Hobbes?" and in my head I'd answer, it's definitely influenced by Calvin and Hobbes, just like it's influence by Peanuts and the other comics I grew up on. I even wrestled with changing the comic name just to shirk further similarities. Then, as I was writing strips I had to double check it wasn't something done before. This led to "what's fair game?" meaning this IS a comic strip about an 8 year old boy so scenes would take place in school, dealing with "kid" stuff, things that all happened in Calvin and Hobbes. If AJ is giving a report, is this too close? But how do we even make a story if we have to ignore every scene that ever happened in a Calvin and Hobbes strip? This internal battle went on for weeks when I finally told myself that I didn't care if people wanted to call this a Calvin and Hobbes rip-off because I know it's not. Everyone gets inspiration from many different sources. Even Calvin and Hobbes had specific ideas taken from Peanuts strips where you could see the influence Peanuts had. Don't believe me? Consider this:
Peanuts is a comic about children discussing matters much bigger than their age should allow with logic and wisdom of someone much older. Calvin is a child who considers and discusses matters much bigger than his age with logic and wisdom of someone much older. Then there are direct inspirations:
Children Use Cardboard Boxes in Creative Ways:
Inspiration and homage clearly, a demonstration of how creative people work and take ideas to spin off their own ideas.
For me, it's not about being an original, completely unique, never-been-done-before concept. Those are great when they happen, but this isn't that. AJ & Magnus is a very personal collection of characters whose lives are full of adventure and telling their stories provides entertainment. In a world where almost every idea has been done, don't let that stop you from putting your own work out there. Just remain true to your own purpose, keep it entertaining and just ignore the naysayers who want to write you off as a rip-off. There will always be people out there so unhappy with themselves they strive to make themselves feel better by trying to spread their misery to others. Just be polite and ignore them. That's not to say shrug off constructive criticism, just the stuff that's clearly being said to try and insult you.
I mean, think about this for a second; If we lived in a world where "similar" ideas weren't celebrated, everything ever influenced by something else wouldn't exist. You'd soon have only ONE TV show that features four friends hanging out together, ONE song about dancing, ONE video game about a lone hero saving the world, and ONE comic about a child and their pet. That's just silly.
In the end who cares if something is "kinda like" something else. It only matters what is you're putting out there is quality and accomplishes your intentions. For us, we aim to make people smile and when we reach people in this way, it makes up for all of the criticisms.
