Originality...?

A friend of mine, many years ago, showed me a cartoon that was fascinating, funny, and horrifying. In my memory, it was the first anime I'd ever seen. I'd forgotten most of it over the years, and would try to find it once every so often, without knowing the title or any character names or anything.

Finally, as the Internet became more and more comprehensive, I found that it was not an anime, but a Canadian made cartoon called Rock and Rule. I watched parts of it online, and it was nice to catch a little piece of my forgotten history!

What surprised me about it, though, was how much a minor character named Cindy (see picture above) resembled my own beloved character Penelope!



Penelope is one of my favorite creations, and I was stunned to find a character that resembled her so closely, both physically and personality wise.

I'm aware of many of the strong influences on my own comics, but it freaked me out to learn that there were influences I had no conscious memory of!

Weird.

What are the big influences on your comics? And is there anything new under the Sun? I kind of think not.
But that's probably not such a terrible thing…

Happy Thursday!
-Banes