My experience as an artist AND a writer (I make comics, it involves both) is that cribbing from one person is plagarism, while cribbing from eight people in the

My experience as an artist AND a writer (I make comics, it involves both) is that cribbing from one person is plagarism, while cribbing from eight people in the course of a single drawing/paragraph is a Bold, Original Style. Reading widely has exposed me to new ideas, some of which became favorites. It's also exposed me to a lot of bad writing, which is helpful in building that inner sense that says "this sentence is shit" or "this sentence is amazing". And it's given me a good sense of the clichés of how a plot will progress, and how to balance using them because, well, they're clichés because they work, against doing something different to suit the precise needs of the story, or to surprise readers. And yes, I have also chased obsessions, too. There's time for both. I've got favorite creators who I've devoured everything they made, and will buy a new work from without needing any review. Hell, the two key insights that helped me approach the very complicated last third of my dense, weird graphic novel came from re-reading an old favorite (Iain M. Banks's "Use of Weapons") and from watching something way out of my comfort zone (J.C. Staff's "Revolutionary Girl Utena"). It would have been a lot less coherent without the lessons in the power of repetition I learnt from Utena. Ultimately whatever works for you as a creator is good, but I sure do find that a more broadly-cast net has a lot more interesting things to pick and choose from in it.