What are the most common cliches in webcomics? (so that less people will repeat them.)

There are many, but here are my two cents:
1- the inept and sex-obsessed adventurer.
2- the fake auto biographical character.
3- two guy sitting on a couch, complaining about everithing.

Hmm, I'd say it depends on the type of comic. For example...

Fantasy comic cliches:
Story starts with a picture of a castle with lettering describing how the world used to be peaceful and blah blah, ancient evil...all the humans' fault, yadda yadda...
Elves will always be pictured as an ancient, but arrogant race who's hubris has caused their near extinction. That said, there will be at least one elf in the party of the main character...Who will almost definitely be an outcast for some reason.
The main character will have three to five friends, one of whom, maybe the main character is a lovable theif and one who is a noble warrior, there will probably be one who's a mage too.
It will probably involve an epic journey for something.
Dragons in webcomics are never evil. If they attack people, it's always because of a misunderstanding or corruption, in general, they're always kind, wise and irritatingly nice.
Any organised religion or Church will be evil. Sprits and minor nature deities, on the other hand, will be pure and righteous.
Any human from our world sucked into a fantasy world will either gain powers or be vitally important in some way that's related to a cataclysmic event.

Shoujo manga cliches:
It will be set in Japan, but it will look nothing like Japan, the only nods to Japanese culture will be people's names, school uniforms, occasional use of horrifically butchered fangirl Japanese and everybody liking anime and ramen. The main heroine will either be half Japanese and half , a Japanese girl who thinks and acts in a very western way, or a girl who randomly decided to transfer to a Japanese school for some sketchy reason. Whatever the case, she will get away with not conforming to Japanese ideology in the slightest.
The main heroine is a teenage girl who is sweet and clumsy, who isn't popular but has two or three really close friends.
She will have a crush on a really femenine looking guy, who either turns out to be involved with mystical events that inevitably happen to the heroine, or a guy who *gasp!* looks JUST LIKE HIM!

Yaoi/Shounen-ai manga cliches:
The front cover will have two effeminate men with silky hair looking vunerable and worried, cuddling. One of them will be blonde. Both of them will be shirtless. Extra points for use of roses, scarves gently floating around them and people with feathery wings.
It will be screentoned and read right-to-left.
It will have words like 'sin', 'beautiful', 'lonely' or 'fallen' in the title.

Sprite comic cliches:
The title will have a really overblown subtitle, like 'The greatest battle of our time', or 'The ultimate tournament', or 'The FINAL quest!'.
It will follow the storyline of the game the sprites are from, but with slightly more sarcastic and/or badly spelled dialogue.
Regardless of the game in question, the text will be written in small, plain writing in a default computer font, possibly comic sans or MS sans.

...I can't think of any more good ones off the top of my head right now. There are plenty to go around though.

Friend told me that the most cliche thing to happen in a webcomic is

Guy goes on an adventure, a girl joins with him, then an elf, then the author will quit updating because they couldn't think past that.


Somethings I've noticed...
Furries are almost always wolves, foxes, or cats.(or there is at least one in a furry comic.)

There is so often angel vs. devil oh I mean demons stories. The demons are usually more interesting than the angels.

If a character has a special power up transformation, there is like a 90% chance that he/she will gain angel wings. doesn't fail.

Dragons in webcomics are never evil. That's true. Guess people don't like evil dragons in their webcomics.

When people mention webcomic cliches the one that immediately jumps to mind is starting off with the main character in a dream. (So very guilty of this one!)

It can be an interesting way to start off, because dreams have fewer limitations than life so there's room to do things that might not happen in the comic's reality. But there are so many comics out there that don't use this potential, or use it without base. Like this one - the main character is in this floaty, backgroundless scene trying to communicate with a person that shows up later in the comic but can't for some reason - usually everything is too vague, a few generic phrases here or there. Optional demonic creature for extra tension and a jolt awake. Often there isn't really a reason why the main character was dreaming about this person, at least not a very solid one -

Darth Mongoose is teh funnies. :D

Sprite comics always star Megaman or Sonic and the main character will always be an idiot.

monkeys
ninjas
in-jokes no one but the author and his friends will get
pirates
death (as a character)
senseless violence
male protagonist who is awkward around women


I remember at one point I had a checklist of common webcomic cliche's and checked off how many my comic had. Like 85% of 'em.

Once I introduce my pirate robot: The Dread Pirate Robot, I'll be just that much closer. Instead of a parrot he has one of those Bits from Tron.

I noticed that in almost all of the webcomics there are always these kind of balloon-like thingies floating in the air that seem to tell what the persons are saying.....

Well, when talking about common webcomic cliches, it would be criminal not to mention the "pregnant pause".

Used mainly for humorous emphasis in short-form comics, the pregnant pause originated in newspaper strips as a way to string a single weak pun across four panels and make it look like natural conversation. For example:

FIRST PANEL:
A: So how's your new VideoGameStationPartyBox The Third?
B: It's great! Video games are fun enjoyment!

SECOND PANEL:
A: So how did you raise the immense quantities of money to purchase a VideoGameStationPartyBox The Third?
B: Oh, I simply used your credit card! Consider this your early birthday gift to me!

THIRD PANEL:
A:
B:

FOURTH PANEL:
A: Your birthday isn't for another four months.
B: Ah, but I've been extra good this year! Video games!

Of course, in an attempt to seem "edgy", a lot of webcomics use a variation on this theme, the "pregnant pause followed by non-sequitur violence":

FIRST PANEL:
A: So how's your new VideoGameStationPartyBox The Third?
B: It's great! Video games are fun enjoyment!

SECOND PANEL:
A: So how did you raise the immense quantities of money to purchase a VideoGameStationPartyBox The Third?
B: Oh, I simply used your credit card! Consider this your early birthday gift to me!

THIRD PANEL:
A:
B:

FOURTH PANEL:
A: I will murder you and rape your bloody corpse, I swear to God.
B: Good golly, Miss Molly! Video games!

Also, I think it goes without saying that we need less webcomics centered around people playing video games. It's very boring, watching other people play video games, you see?

I'm pretty sure butchered manga style is a webcomic cliche all to itself. Also in an artistic realm, many webcomics decide that "backgrounds" are too 20th century, and apt for the "white void" look.

I've noticed lots of webcomics like to take pre-existing concepts and recreate them only with much worse pacing and flatter characters.

I've noticed that a lot of comics begin with an introduction from the author or a character in the comic (and in many cases, the two are one and the same) explaining the premise for the comic, and usually apologizing for the quality of the art/writing/coloring/whatever eles they feel embarassed for creating. It's not as prevalent as it once was, but still a very common start for burgeoning webcomickers that rarely if ever occurs in printed works.

If there is a chancellor in a fantasy story, he's evil.
Chancellor Morgan? Evil.
Chancellor Teresa? Evil.
Chancellor Jesus? Evil.

Hm, that's a good one about the authour's self introduction. That comes up a lot. Usually in sprite and manga style comics. The sprite comic will have a recoloured Sonic or Knuckles to represent the creator...regardless of what game the other sprites are from, and usually appears five pages into the comic to explain to us that it's a sprite comic (really? We had no idea!) and that it's going on hiatus for OH NOES THREE WHOLE DAYS! However will you live without it!?

"Hi i'm MarioSmash666 and this is my sprite comic 'Sonic Ultimate Championship Battle- The Ultimatest War!' i am going on hiatus for three days cuz i have a history assinment to write >_< i will make more pages soon so bar with me!"
*One of the characters says something funny*

The manga version will generally happen at the very start, when all you wanna read is the damned comic. The creator will be personified as an anthropomorphic dragon, fox or cat if female (or will at least have cat ears, which would explain why she's got an indoor hobby like making comics if she's a freak of nature I guess), and a guy in a long coat and shades or with a scruffy goatee and a "witty" t-shirt if male. The introduction may sound like this:

"Hi, I'm 'omgyaoiissohawtgurl86'! You can call me Krissy or Sakura! This is my yaoi comic 'Fallen Beautiful Sinners'! It's a yaoi comic so it contains homosexuality, it also contains beastiality, violence, gore, religious controversy, racists, necrophilia and other stuff that mean it may not be suitable for the rest of you small minded people! (translation: Look at me, I wrote a comic where male Vampires and Werewolves have sex in churches filled with evil racist priests! I am SOOO misunderstood and rebellious!).
Plz comment! Don't steal any of the artwork, it's all copyright me and my studio Sagasu Hikari Manga! Here is a picture of the main character, Kaine, 'cause he's sooo hawt and bishie lol!"

....Man, deja vous?

I know one! A woman with big pink hair and a great bum who goes around hitting people!

...no? Just me then :(

ozoneocean
I know one! A woman with big pink hair and a great bum who goes around hitting people!

...no? Just me then :(

If I COULD draw beautiful women with great bums (that go around hitting people) I totally would ;)

I believe it has also become a small webcomic cliche to have an goth/emo type character in your comics. But maybe that's just something 'of this time'.

Dragons in webcomics are never evil.

That may be a product of people thinking evil dragons are cliche in classic fantasy stories. Unfortunately, people have kind of overcmpensated for that, especially with the Japanese creating so many stories and videogames where dragons were intelligent, good, and revered.

senseless violence

Now that's been a cliche of all comics since at the very least the 1600s. You can go back even further if you count certain classical art forms as comics.

3- two guy sitting on a couch, complaining about everithing.

Haha, that's true, especially in a lot of video game related comics.

Another cliche: Those "random" comics.

Oh man, Darth Mongoose. That was really funny. Basically it sums up why I don't read shojou comics in general.

Darth Mongoose
*Snip post stuff*

Hee. You're snarky. I like you. ^_^

isukun

Dragons in webcomics are never evil.

That may be a product of people thinking evil dragons are cliche in classic fantasy stories. Unfortunately, people have kind of overcmpensated for that, especially with the Japanese creating so many stories and videogames where dragons were intelligent, good, and revered.

I'd say this is probably more a difference in overall culture, since mythologically speaking, Dragons in asian mythology are generally intelligent, relatively good, and quite revered. With more and more asian influence, its logical that it would become more prevailent.

That being said, the mindless I-burn-villages evil so the hero can slay me dragons are just as cliche.

ShadowsMyst
I'd say this is probably more a difference in overall culture, since mythologically speaking, Dragons in asian mythology are generally intelligent, relatively good, and quite revered. With more and more asian influence, its logical that it would become more prevailent.

That's not precisely true, well it is in a way, but... Those "dragons" aren't strictly dragons, they just happen to superficially resemble what are known as dragons in the "West"... While "Western" dragons come from a mainly demonic tradition of monsters and adversaries, their Eastern counterparts (Ryu or whatever they're really called, depending on the culture), tend to be gods or godlike nature spirits; basically an entirely different thing, the only connection being a very superficial resemblance in form.

So the depiction of a dragon as an evil, maiden killing, cattle stealing, village burning creature is not cliche but traditional: It's the definition of the beast. Whereas the wise, friendly dragon is an entirely modern confection, based on a mixture of children's stories (like Puff the magic dragon), and strange, culturally twisted, Western appropriation and reinvention of South Asian mythology and religion. The new versions have been reimported backwards and forwards, have become further defined in the popcluture melange, and eventually form the new archetype.

...of course it's more complicated than that, involving reactions against Christianisation, and attempts to recreate old cultural symbols based on similar but untarnished analogues from other cultures, etc. but I'm sure you get the idea.

Yeah, anyway... Webcomic cliches... Um, never having an idea of where the story is going and just trailing off and finishing after 50 pages of absolutely nothing happening. Oh yeah: wily female sidekicks whose purpose it is to look on at the silly male lead male character's goings on and go "tut, tut, you stupid men!". ...the "Marge" syndrome. (It's been going on for longer but Marge is the queen of them all).

That's not the Western definition of dragons, but rather the Christian definition of dragons. Dragons are not strictly demonic/monstrous in pagan cultures. Christians associates everything non-Christian with Satan, except for the few things they appropriate and claim is Christian.

mlai
That's not the Western definition of dragons

To all intents and purposes, "Western" means Christian culture. ;)
Besides, I refer you to the last part of my rant:

...of course it's more complicated than that, involving reactions against Christianisation, and attempts to recreate old cultural symbols based on similar but untarnished analogues from other cultures, etc. but I'm sure you get the idea.

Anyway, "dragons as evil" predates Christianisation in the West. Look to Norse/Germanic and Ancient Greek culture for the origin. If you want similarities to the South Asian examples in the "West" you could perhaps look to the extinct versions in Celtic and maybe Assyrian culture? But they simply have no continuity: ideas 2000 years and more dead.

Not sure if this counts, but sidekicks will sometimes become really powerful or evil or both. The time they stay evil/all powerful varies, but it usually happens.

Nobody dies by falling off something, be it cliff or building. Even if they find a body, the person comes back! (Except in Disney movies.)

Nobody ever calls the police, and if they do, the police are helpless to stop whatever the problem is.

Attractive women are always either pious or really violent. Sometimes both.

Hm...

Comedy:
1. Most main characters are usually clueless about "love."
2. Most main characters are quick to react
3. The main characters must gain sympathy & jealously from the readers
4. The stupider(?) the plot sounds, the funnier the comic is
5. Most main characters are kind & forgive people easily
6. Most main characters are the go-happy (or is it go-lucky?) type of people
7. Over execggerate(?) things

Action:
1. Characters look cool most of the time
2. Ruthless in fights
3. The main characters have "special training" after losing a fight

Actually, even in Eastern mythology, dragons have been known to demolish a village or two. In many cultures, dragons were not considered intellient beings. They were symbols of luck, but like other symbolic creatures were still wild animals with beastial tendencies. There were even some versions and variations that were incredibly evil.

isukun
In many cultures, dragons were not considered intellient beings.

Yes, as I say, that's mostly a modern confection. Gods and elemental embodiments of nature (rivers, waves, eathquakes, storms, volcanoes etc.), don't always have much personality. But they're quite different creatures from the treasure hoarder in Beowulf, Homeric maiden eating titans, world circling or Tree of Life undermining evil Norse serpents, and St George fighting monsters.

I'll give you a cliche I used and notice a lot:

Characters (especially in manga-style comics) that don't look like they would ever be good fighters, but somehow manage to beat everyone else. And yet for some reason they have no muscles and don't seem like they have the personality of a fighter.

Also the evil guy wears glasses and is usually fairly ineffectual except when he reveals he actually has SECRET POWERS.

Also there's a guy going "heh" a lot.

Wait, these are all from my comic. But they're not creative, so I must have gotten them from somewhere.

I want a comic that uses ALL of these to exist. ^_^