Making a comic. What cliches should I avoid?

So I like to make stories of my characters for art practice (and to entertain my friends). I decided that I would make a story about my avian character Beaky Featherweather. I was thinking of some ideas about what she's doing, but I started getting concerned that my story might come off as too cliche or done before.

Do you guys and gals know of any cliches that I should avoid?

 

Maybe the "dead parent" cliche. or the "tell, not shown" cliche. and the "good vs evil" cliche

 

Another cliche is having two main characters of opposite gender fall in love.

 

Psychic Powers and Idiot Heroes are tropes I always roll my eyes at.

 

cats are never a cliche.

 

I'd say, don't get your head stuffed by all this cliche thingie. "Simpsons already did it". That means, almost every thing is kind of a cliche by now, lol. I'd say, not concentrate on cliches, instead try to find a unique way to tell your story. There were a lot of reproductions of the same stories, told over and over again.
For example, I'd give you the Swan lake story. In anime Princess Tutu (that was a funny one) they've inverted the story and the characters so everyone could see them in a pretty fresh way, while other reproductions used the same rail over and over again with minimum changes.
So don't be afraid of cliches, instead find a new way to present it, although I don't recommend you ignoring the "deus ex machina" one, as this is kinda the path of least resistance, which you should avoid in order to make really interesting fiction
"Amnesia" one in most cases is bad because of the same stated reason. Authors are lazy and don't want to put much effort in it. Though there was a game Amnesia (lol) and people gone crazy mad with adoration towards it. Try to think, why.

I wish you luck and patience with your stories! c:

Lol. But it still works if the story is love-based.

 

Depends on overall themes and mood you want to set.

Some of the cliches mentioned here I'd say would work, but it really depends how they are presented and with what class made. Surely such cliches shouldn't be an excuse to handwave plot holes and plot twists - generally, handwaving stuff with some random mcguffin can often be taken as an insult to reader's intelligence.

Same with random attitude changes to make scene more dramatic - if whoever will read your work is young and relatively, let's be honest, easy to take in you may get away with it but there's a reason why so many anime/manga get flak from older audience for cliches like nicely sounding, idealistic monologues that make no sense, sudden appeals to secret hidden power or power of friendship.

Avoid Mary Sue. That may be the biggest of risks - they're your characters so you may feel emotionally involved and either make them really cool and likeable or magnificient bastard-type awesome. They likely won't be then, they'll be annoying. If there are to be adventures, make them struggle, mess up and feel consequences of that at times. Doesn't mean you have to make them bumbling idiots either, though - if they're good at something, let them use their skills, just without it seeming like they're some wonderful supermasters. Balance is the key in nearly everything.

If you want more cliches regarding the story itself, I'd generally suggest going through TVtropes (make sure you'll have a plenty of free time, that thing can bog down a person) - you'll have plenty of cliches regarding characters, plot elements, scenes and so on.

 

@LuckyDuckyReturns! Comics is literally the art of storytelling. Tvtropes offers some good advice on this, tropes are not bad, in fact a lot of it comes down to presentation. I'm working on a comic project too with original characters, so I can understand trying to make something totally unexpected. It's that balance of making it understandable and fresh that makes a good story.

 

Avoid the "The Chosen One" cliche.

It really doesn't, modern film is just convinced that it does .

 

• Don't have your main character have some tragic backstory (adimetro kinda mentioned this). This story will probably be about adventure, so people don't want to hear about how Beaky's village was burned by Floran tribesmen. If it is essential, by all means, but don't but a heavy focus on it

 

If your character is gonna have some companions,and they are on some kind of quest or adventure as mentioned above,be careful around "Take a look at this" lines.

 

I hate the bit of "The Chosen One" so much. almost as much as its counterpart, where the story insists that the protagonist is unimportant and they can just pick any john off the street and make him the hero, so they should shut up and follow directions.

 

Make a "Forest Gump" type of comic. Just a story about your character(s)' adventures throughout their life(lives) as an epic. If you can make the characters likable, or related, it could hit off really well. I'd like to see a new type of epic tale of just random adventures.

 

I find it best to follow one golden rule: "Does this aid the story?" Ask yourself that, ask WHY it aids the story. There's a lot of tropes and cliches that can be stale if used incorrectly... but they can also lead to interesting storytelling if used right. Rules and guidelines aren't very important in the end, because every rule should be broken if you have a good reason to do so. Having your protagonist's village destroyed by the Floran menace just because all the characters you like in other stories have tragic backstories is not a good reason. Now, if your story were all about the on-going conflict between the avians and florans in this sector of space, then it might be a good idea.

 

Cliches aren't necessarily bad. Taking an old cliche and putting a new spin on it is something I both love doing and love reading.
That being said, there are some cliches that should either be avoided or handled carefully.

• Pretty = good and ugly = bad. It's just plain childish and offensive.
• Chosen ones and prophecies. These aren't necessarily bad, but it does bring up issues of free will vs fate, so if you're not going to address that then don't include them.
• Tragic backstories. They can be done well, don't get me wrong. But oftentimes it comes across more as "oooooh look at my OC her paast is so sad pity her " than actually important. I admit, I've been guilty of this one in the past. A lot. What qualifies as too much here really depends on the story you're trying to tell and, in the case of fanfic, the canon universe. For example, my 3 Homestuck fantrolls all have pretty shitty pasts. But it's nothing out of the ordinary for their species, and their pasts played a huge part in who they became present-day. On the other hand, my two Starbound OCs (a Floran and a Novakid) had pretty happy childhoods and early adulthoods (in earlier drafts Floran had an over-the-top tragic past for no particular reason... looking back it's so embarrassing ).
• Everyman heroes. Not inherently bad, but often poor in execution. If your hero is an average Joe/Jane, then what makes them the hero? Is it their optimism, their determination*? Find what's special about them.
• Obligatory romances and pair the spares. Don't just pair up characters because they're both single. A pair (or trio or quad... I won't judge ) should have a reason to be together. Ask yourself, "Why do they like each other?" If you can't answer that, then the don't necessarily need to be together. (I am, uh... also guilty of this one...)

*you get an internet cookie if you got both those references

 

Just make them the same gender then!

[emoji12]

Sent from my SM-A500FU using Tapatalk

 

I wouldn't worry about overusing cliche's in a comic, Comics are more about the artistic scenario. make your character likable and style cool and it doesn't matter if the scenario is familiar.
My opinion on comics anyway.

 

Learn Comedy less Graphicy
No Comedy = Leonardo Da Vinci comic with mindless boring characters
Some Graphics (cartoony style is the easiest) = Fun enjoyable characters with graphics that can be accepted