I must admit that the artist takes most of the credit for a comic
but what of the writer, where does his/her influence come from, great books? Mythology? poetry? Or even songs.
If any of you want to share your thoughts on a writers inspiration, feel free.

I'm a artist/writer. Not only do I have to keep my art in top form, but I have to keep my writing in line to. ^_^

What comes to me when I have to write for anything is really 'What do I want to see more of?'. If I want to see more love stories, I'll write a love story. If I want to see a book on a tragady, I'll write them.
But mostly they come from life experinces, imagination and music. ^_^

In comics, art is ascendant. :)

In most comics here the artist is also the writer... But not all.
I try not to let real writing influence my writing too much since what works well in novels doesn't work well in comics. The last time I adapted one of my written stories for my comic it took a LOT of work to translate it across the forms and while the art was great, a lot of the best bits of the writing had to be sacrificed. :(

Anyway, that's in terms of writing as a form. But in terms of what the story's about and how the plot goes etc, I'm most influenced by "cleverer" action films I think. Not the dumb mainstream Hollywood ones, but dumb mainstream French ones maybe? Or English? lol!
And better anime like Ghost in the shell. Definitely that. Dominion Tank Police... Manga like Appleseed and Ghost in the SHell. Masumune Shirrow, ahh, I owe him so much!

But when it comes to novels, I don't know... Robert E Howard sort of, because of his simple, visual writing style and vast technical, historical background knowledge of his subjects. CL Moore for her fantastic feminine heroic, sensual style...

Also various English sitcoms and sketch comedies were an influence; The League of gentlemen, Black Books...

I know this isn't topical but Dominion Tank Police is hands down my favorite anime/manga shirow has been saying he's going to do a follow up for Conflict since 1992 and every year it doesn't happen i get more excited for it TO happen. Tank S.W.A.T is tops of my "i want it" list of imports.

Anyway, as a writer/artist most of my comic writing influence comes from films and television. I am more concerned with pacing than I am with other story elements. Although I really try not to let those elements slide, especially character development. If you write character's people identify with then you're already well on your way to a solid story.

I love Shirow. I basically have almost all of his manga works. GITS is his masterpiece (GITS2... meh...), but I also like most everything else, including Appleseed 3 and 4 even though it "strays" from the theme. Pfft, whatever - good is good.

He's also the first artist who taught me the value of intricate action choreography. Impact - anyone can do impact. You're not a master until you can combine impact with John Woo choreography, on paper. Hard.

shirow is too confuzing for me
but i do like his art

These artists influnced how I want to write.
From the comics field, the writers who influence me are Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman.

From the Sci Fi realm, the writers who influence me are David Brin and Robert Heinlein.

From TV and Movies, I've been influenced by Babylon 5, Star Trek, Dark City and Terminator.

This is where I get inspiration of what I want to write about.
I get many ideas for stories from talk radio and NPR. I'll take a topic and extrapolate it out to it's illogical conclusion.
Like a story about the parents who stopped their severely mentally disabled child's body clock, so she would never go through puberty and become adult size, so they could take care of her without help. What would a society be like if that became norm as a form of "compassionate" population control? Who decides who gets to grow up? What if they choose wrong?
Like a theme from progressive radio, that if the neo conservatives had their way, they would get rid of democracy and go back to feudalism with the ruling elites running the world. Lots of stories of epic struggle come out of that idea.
Like a theme from conservative radio, that gay marriage will destroy society, bringing it down in flames. Well...parody stories come to mind.

Inspirations can come out of anywhere. My inspiration for my comic writing is from music, movies, dreams, life experiences, and the list goes more.

However, writing for a certain thing is somewhat different than writing for something else. What I mean is that writing for novels or poetry is somehow different than writing for comics or screenplays because when you decide that you want to write this story for any of the medium, it just makes you feel this story is perfect for this kinda medium.

The hardest moment for a story is the damn beginning. Once this moment is gone, things will become much easier to write.

That's true, usually. I don't know of too many comics that have and artist and an author working on it.

But there are some comics where the author gets a lot of credit. Allow me to use one as an example: The Surreal Adventures of Edgar Allan Poo.

I love the story more than anything in that comic (the art is amazing too). I always thank Dwight for the great comic before I thank the other people of his comic.

ozoneocean
In comics, art is ascendant. :)

In most comics here the artist is also the writer... But not all.
I try not to let real writing influence my writing too much since what works well in novels doesn't work well in comics. The last time I adapted one of my written stories for my comic it took a LOT of work to translate it across the forms and while the art was great, a lot of the best bits of the writing had to be sacrificed. :(

I know how you feel Ozone. My comic is adapted from a novel and I feel the same way - that a lot of the great prose was sacrificed for a visual plane. But I try to keep in the parts of the novel that truly moved me or built/established a scene in a unique way.

As a writer my inspiration definitely comes from listening to music. There are a few shows or movies I've watched that have really charged my need to work but music consistently activates my creativity. :D

As both an artist and a writer (as in; I do both the art and the writing for my webcomic, AND I write novels and short stories), where does my influences/inspiration come from?

Short answer - everywhere.

Longer answer - I can't work without having music on, so I know that a large part of my creative flow is influenced by music (both with lyrics and without). I get plot-ideas from everything from books to movies to watching the evening news. Sometimes, when I'm thinking out loud - just rambling, which I do quite often - to sort something out, I can stumble on something that then sparks something else and then the ball is rolling.

I love folklore of all kinds, as well as mythologies, and I can spend hours pointlessly browsing articles on Wikipedia just because it's fun.

Also, since I'm both writer and artist, I get inspired by art. I have this weird thing where I need to determine a story's "colours" before I start writing on it - if it's going to be bright blues and yellows, or if it's going to be green, red and brown (mild form of synesthesia? Who knows) - and I almost always draw my characters, even if it's a novel/short story rather than a comic. I have yet to try to turn a prose-story into a comic, though I want to do so some day - I imagine quite a lot of lovely narrative will be lost, but so it goes.

i think people have always know that the writer is a key piece to comics. granted in some of its early days, neither the artist nor the writer were that well recognized. it wasn't until stan lee and jack kirby did people really see the contributers for their own value, and not just their contriubtion. more and more writers are getting credit, especially with graphic novels, but also in western comic books, the writer is always label first in the credits. so i don't see it as writers not being giving the credit they deserve, but that's me.

Since it's through my account the comic gets put up everyone thinks I write Mercs, but no. Me and Mon worked it out that whoever writes it posts it. That's why her account has Ruins of OC on it, cuz I don't write it. I jes created the characters. I don't feel under appreciated as the writer certainly and if you know my material you can probably guess where I draw a lot of inspiration from.