Oscar Wilde said, "Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."

Voltaire wrote, "Originality is nothing but judicious imitation. The most original writers borrowed from one another. The instruction we find in books is like fire. We fetch it from our neighbours, kindle it at home, communicate it to others, and it becomes the prope."

Bill Waterson creator of Calvin and Hobbes stated, "I used to make original snowmen, but it was time consuming, hard work. So I said, heck, this is crazy! Now I crank out crude imitations of what's already popular! It takes no time or thought, and most people don't care about the difference, anyway! And what good is originality if you can't crank it out?"

"Originality is merely an illusion." supposedly stated by M.C. Escher...

As artists in the webcomic community we all strive for originality or that's what I assume we strive for. But what of the concept of originality? Can anyone truly be original whether in art, literature or other arenas of expression or intellectual pursuit?

At a base level I think it is impossible for someone to be original. We all come from a shared paradigm with its own history and experiences. But what do you all think? Are you original? What makes your work original? And if you think your are not original and you pursue creative endeavors, then why create at all?

And if you don't see the irony of this post with its quotes then...
forget about it!

Originality is just rearranging established ideas in a way people have not seen before. Nothing will ever be 100% fully original, but nothing really needs to be. Everything builds on what came before it. In the artistic community, that works to our advantage. A story with no basis in past writings or the world we live in is incomprehensible and boring. If we can't make a connection to something we recognize, we have a tendency to not care.

If you want to reach for the stars, you have to stand on the shoulders of giants, as somebody probably said. Every great artist, innovator or thinker in any field can be directly traceable through the lineage of ideas that came before them, and the more ideas and viewpoints you absorb, the greater your chance of reaching those stars.

It's down to how you define originality really. If, as some might suggest, it means free of all identifiable traces of influence, then no, it doesn't exist. If on the other hand, it means bringing a different viewpoint or novel perspective to the table, then yes, it does. And in the arts or popular media, there's also the notion of taking something old and updating it; dressing it up with contemporary concerns or ideas. Stars Wars looked pretty original at the time, but it was a combination of old ideas in a shiny new wrapper.

To me, an original isn't someone who reinvents the universe on a molecular level. It's someone who takes what we already know and tilts it a little, allowing us to see what we'd failed to notice or taken for granted. These rare people are the 'originals' who shape the way we look at the human condition and the world around us. I know that sounds a bit portentious, but hey, I'm a ghost. :)

Ironscarfs Ghost
If you want to reach for the stars, you have to stand on the shoulders of giants, as somebody probably said. Every great artist, innovator or thinker in any field can be directly traceable through the lineage of ideas that came before them, and the more ideas and viewpoints you absorb, the greater your chance of reaching those stars.

It's down to how you define originality really. If, as some might suggest, it means free of all identifiable traces of influence, then no, it doesn't exist. If on the other hand, it means bringing a different viewpoint or novel perspective to the table, then yes, it does. And in the arts or popular media, there's also the notion of taking something old and updating it; dressing it up with contemporary concerns or ideas. Stars Wars looked pretty original at the time, but it was a combination of old ideas in a shiny new wrapper.

To me, an original isn't someone who reinvents the universe on a molecular level. It's someone who takes what we already know and tilts it a little, allowing us to see what we'd failed to notice or taken for granted. These rare people are the 'originals' who shape the way we look at the human condition and the world around us. I know that sounds a bit portentious, but hey, I'm a ghost. :)

I agree with Scarf you don't have to reinvent the whole universe to be original, you just have to build off of an idea and make it your own or even just improve it. It would be impossible for someone to just reinvent the whole universe to make something completely new and original because it has all been done already...its like way back in the day when The Simpsons was accusing South Park of stealing their ideas so they did that whole "Simpsons did it" episode with Professor Chaos. If you think of something new more then likely someone else thought of it first. These days almost everything can be traced back to something retro, and stuff that is retro can be traced back to something even older.

I like to think my work is fairly original, but hey it's just meant to be funny and make you think if you can find the subtle hints in there.