16 Responses to ““Nothing Can Be Original Anymore” -Don’t You Believe It!”

1. Philip Tan on May 17th, 2011 2:02 pm

   …such are @$$tard excuses for @$$tards who refuse to admit that they are lazy to even try…

   hope that does not boil your blood too much, Gerry… hindi worth it… >___>

   p

2. JOSH on May 17th, 2011 2:04 pm

   All we have to do is to dream even just a little. Who knows, our dreams might create something unique! ;P

   *Thumbs up!* Saludo po ako sa inyo, sir >=)

3. BSL San Luis on May 17th, 2011 3:30 pm

   I agree with you saying that people shouldn’t try on being original. though i still think it is somewhat true. i would rather say that people could just improve or innovate the idea if they really give up.

4. Leinil yu on May 17th, 2011 4:22 pm

   This annoying mantra is unfalsifiable.

5. Edward on May 17th, 2011 4:50 pm

   I agree with you sir. Creativity is always needed and will always be there. People saying that “nothing is original” is just another excuse of laziness. There is always something new, all you have to do is find it.

   But the thing is, it’s not a matter of originality, it’s a matter of creativity.

   For example, the graphic novel “300″. It’s already a very long story about 300 Spartans stopping one million Persians at Thermopylae but the author did a different version of it and still it became successful. All he did was re-create the story to his creativity but the concept is still there.

   Another is the superhero “Batman Begins”. The last Batman movies were a disaster, honestly, I hate watching the past Batman movies because i’ts boring but when “Batman Begins” came off, it was a masterpiece. The director added “realism” to Bruce Wayne’s story and the audience loved it.

   I also watched the making of “Kung-fu Panda” and what the animators did was they concentrated more on the story. They said they spent like four years making the story and the last was illustrating it.

   They said the illustration is easy in making animation but the hard part is writing the story because audience are really interested on the story more than in the illustration, but of course the art has an impact too but not as much as the story.

   Speaking of Kung-Fu Panda, one of it’s former animators named Jason Brubaker created a blog about making a graphic novel. He wrote it in so simple terms that I learned a lot in how to make comics in an international level.

   Just type this at your address bar: http://www.remindblog.com

   I learned a lot from his blog. He also said the mistakes comic book people do and what it feels like in a comic book convention. And the latest news about the comic book industry in the west which we can apply here in our country. I hope all of you check it out, it’s really helpful.

6. powil on May 17th, 2011 10:19 pm

   Directly confronting the question “how to be original” doesn’t work for me. Asking the question “How should I tell my story as if it were my last” is way better than “How to make my story original”.

   I’m not anti-original – I dislike copy cats. But whenever i focus my attention on being original, I could not reach my target.

   We must find other paths, as this post says.

7. Miko on May 17th, 2011 10:19 pm

   Very well said.

   But I love these lines the most:

   “Do I know for a fact that original things can be created? No. But do I let that stop me from trying? No. And that shouldn’t stop you either.”

   This is now part of my favorite quotes. In the future, when I sit down with my children and grandchildren to talk about you, about your work, about Pinoy komiks, about life even, I’ll quote this and I’ll also say: “Vintage Gerry Alanguilan right there.”

8. Jose Mari Lee on May 18th, 2011 1:10 am

   Sheesh, Alanguilan:

   I’m with you all the way on this one.

   I would agree if someone says almost all the themes in our planet have been used up. But creativity to write one’s story is as infinite as the universe. Human beings may have all the same mixture in them, and therefore, we all have the same emotions.We all cry, laugh, smile, get mad, be horny (sometimes only, okay?) Lol – but, these emotions are the reasons why there will always be original stories to be written out there, new ideas to be explored, and new things to be invented.

   Those who say that nothing’s original anymore are HACKS to begin with, and they deserved to say what they say. They can be MAGTATAHO and they’d be able to serve their fellowmen that way much better.

   Even the collections of cliches from whatever were written before: such as: poor boy meets rich girl, the lady in white where almost every culture in this world have seen in their country one way or another; and so much more that we’ve read before – yet, if you sit down, think about it, and write a compelling tale involving these cliches, you could still produce an original material. Even O’henry’s and Guy de Maupassant’s SURPRISE ENDING can be modified to surprise the readers: CREATE A DOUBLE, or even TRIPLE Surprises in the end and you’ll have a winner of a story.

   Yes, Carlo Caparas, there’s still originally out there in the universe. You just have to be inspired once again. Write once again just like the way when you were still a struggling comics creator. After all, the world is not just made of straw and pale blue shell. Nope, it isn’t.

9. Mike Dimayuga on May 18th, 2011 8:19 am

   very thought provoking, gerry. actually, i’ve been thinking about this a lot too, since i eventually want to produce my own stories. i agree with your thesis 100%. original ideas are still out there, but i’m enough of a realist to accept that it won’t be coming from me. the best i can do is to come up with something GOOD and worth reading, and thats ok too, imho. i’m just too enamored by the stuff i’m interested in; too locked in to think outside the box. ;D

   ===

   i read in bleeding cool that you’re definitely going to comic-con? if true, that’s great news! maybe i can finally meet you in person!

   -mike

10. raipo on May 18th, 2011 8:06 pm

    “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
    Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. ” -Hamlet :D

11. Michael Kanoy on May 20th, 2011 12:27 am

    The claim that “everything’s been done already” is more of a warning to everyone who dares submit creative work, whether story or artwork, and has the audacity to claim that he creates something nobody has ever made before.

    I’ve had the opportunity to even meet a veteran komiks writer who claims that his work is original down to the last letter without knowing that the basic structure and theme of his plots have been done before by other writers in both English and Filipino.

    Even great writers like Neil Gaiman and China Mieville acknowledge the truism of the adage “Everything’s been done before.”

    The challenge is not to be foolish and claim originality for originality’s sake, but to be aware of what has been done and to either pay homage to the best work by using them as inspiration to recreate, add variation, mix and match and make the recipe your own; or go completely 180 degree and violate and break every holy rule ( in writing or art ) and still make your work good.

12. Jose Mari Lee on May 20th, 2011 10:24 am

    Gerry:

    Who are these so-called people with “creative” minds saying nothing can be original anymore?

    If this is their outlook and/or reasoning, I truly doubt if they’re creative at all, to begin with.

    While themes are quite countable, it has nothing to do with being creative or original.

    What is original?

    • Not dependent on other people’s ideas; inventive and unusual

    A writer can actually use all the clichéd elements that have been written before, but if he shows it to his readers from another vantage point, something that the others didn’t do, then: it would fall under the “inventive & unusual” definition of the word original.

    So, who cares if one writes about the poor boy meets rich girl conflict? Or the mystery of a “white lady” that most cultures allover the world, have one way or the other, seen a ghost of a lady in white. As long as the story has a new conviction, new angle, and new voice: I would call it original.

    Who cares if George Orwell wrote Animal Farm where the protagonists are animals?

    Can we call Orwell a hack just because Aesop was ahead of him to use animals in his stories when he lived in Ancient Greece during the 5th century BC?

    I certainly will not. Aesop lived in another time, and in his own time, he created original collections of stories, expressing his thoughts on what’s going on around him.

    Well, Orwell lived in another time, and he created an original way of expressing his thoughts reflecting his own time.

    In short, it is not something that was never thought before would constitute what an original work is. One can still be original if he will use old ideas in a new light.

    In fact, one can write a story using all the CLICHÉD ideas in the annals of Philippine cinema and komiks: the poor boy meets girl, the white lady seen in towns in the dead of the night; the use of birthmark to identify long lost relatives, the clairvoyant Filipino, and the gallant Filipino. All these, might be extremely familiar, and familiarity, according to Shakespeare, bridge contempt. It will, if you don’t apply ECO FLOORWAX in your story. But, even if you used all these overused elements in Filipino movies and Filipino komiks – with a new vantage point – well, you will have an original work. It might even give your material a POST-MODERN touch and pizzazz.

    “Nothing is original anymore.” This is what Judge Judy would call: BALONEY! And “stupid is not written here” – as she points at her forehead. Plus -
    “They keep me here not because I’m gorgeous, but because I’m smart.”

    Yep, those who say nothing is original anymore may be GORGEOUS, but they’re NOT SMART.

    Indeed, Judge Judy makes sense!

13. Norby Ela on May 20th, 2011 12:24 pm

    man. i really like your post. :-)

14. Norby Ela on May 20th, 2011 12:40 pm

    I heard that line from one local-known painter here in the Philippines. It just amazed me that he said that. No imagination at all.

15. Flor on May 21st, 2011 3:10 am

    Hahaha! Nagkakagulo yata kayo sa ORIGINALITY kuno, ano? Ah, meron talagang mga originals na mga gawa, ang mga COPYCATS lang na WALANG MGA ANINO ang hindi naniniwala dito. Abangan ninyo ang susunod na chapter sa blog ko na tungkol sa ECCENTRICITY at ORIGINALTY ito, kaya lang maraming mahahagupit dito.

    Pansamantala ay punta kayo sa blog ko at basahin ang ORIGINAL NA MGA IDEAS kuno duon. Ang isa sa pinaka-ORIGINAL na idea duon ay ang FLOR’S FUNDAMENTAL LENGHT L, makikita ninyo ito sa Chapter 9.

16. Luis Katigbak on July 11th, 2011 6:45 pm

    “I can’t say with certainty what has and hasn’t been done since there’s so much unseen out there but there’s a hell of a lot that I’ve never seen tried in comics.

    “Emily Carrol just put out a set of zines with each one showing one page moments from a different member of a family’s life leading up to a big fire, and you get different sides and different clues deepening on which zine you read. Or there’s that Pat McEwan short in the back of Weasle #1 where each panel is a room and you don’t read left to right — you follow individual characters. I think that idea could be pushed even farther. — you could combine both those ideas and have choose your own adventures that read what direction the reader chooses to look and have it jump books or have pages fold out like posters in it.

    “I had this idea for a book that starts as a Scott McCloud how to draw comics or how to do perspective or draw manga book – hosted by a guy and his beautiful assistant. 3 chapters in to a standard how book to the assistant is found dead and then the learning comics part gets dropped and it switches to a murder mystery.

    “Or like, I’ve never seen a serious comic showing the life cycle of a fungus.

    “Even if stories come from the old roots I think doing them in new ways creates something bigger than just the root idea. Plus as a reader or an artist I feel like you have to have hope for undiscovered country. You can’t be an explorer that already expects every mountain to have a flag planted on it – there are still mountains on mars.”

    ~ from an interview with Brandon Graham

    http://supervillain.wordpress.com/2011/07/02/emma-peel-sessions-62-brandon-graham-interview/

    :D