Guest Post: What Are Some Good Ideas For Comic Characters?

Every comic book needs a character to make it interesting. A spirited and entertaining character propagates your story very well. However, before creating a character you must decide an idea for your comic book.

You can use the below tips that will help you in brainstorming ideas for your comic book.

1. Think of a short story that can be explained well. A short story with fun characters, easy to define moments, and a lot of dialogue reaches the readers more effectively.

2. Prepare a rough structure of your comic. Define the important points like a grand opening, plot points, and climax.

3. Write a brief summary that explains the personality of your characters. For example, who are they? What are their strengths and weaknesses? What do they want? What significant role does each character play in your comic?

4. Decide how strong and extraordinary emotions like love, death, hate, happiness, anger are represented in your comic.

Once you’re done with deciding the storyline, it’s time to create your comic characters. Once you create the main character, you can use the same process for the rest of them. So let’s begin.

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Part 1- Planning and sketching

1. Get inspired

You can get inspiration from your favourite comic books for developing your character. Don’t only focus on superheroes. Newspaper comics, webcomics, or manga can also help you in building your comic character.

Ask whether these characters are engaging and interesting. Questions to ask yourself- What’s so special about the character? How does the writer create it? What makes it interesting? How has the writer developed the storyline using the character?

Art style plays an important role. If it’s a serious comic, the art is detailed. For a lighthearted comic, cartoonish characters work the best.

2. Your characters depend on the type of comic

Comics can be diverse. Gag-a-day comics are published in newspapers. However, comics can also be serious. Most of the webcomics have complex characters with long-running storylines.

For a simple format, you can refer to animal routes and emulate comics. These have very few panels and end with a joke.

For a serious comic, a webcomic will serve your purpose. You can gain inspiration from comics that have questionable content.

You can also look for graphic novels. Though different from comics, they can provide some ideas.

3. Start rough sketching of your character

Once your type of comic is decided, you can start a light sketching of your character’s look. Don’t worry if it doesn’t look professional. You’re in the preliminary stage. Grab a pencil and paper and begin sketching.

Rough sketching helps you in knowing your drawing style and the general appearance of your character. Make your character engaging and quirky. If you’re new to drawing, you can opt for a simple design.

Sketching will help you in understanding your character’s personality. You will get a fair idea of the clothes of your character, which reflects personality.

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Part 2- Note down personality traits

Here you begin to decide your character’s personality. What does your character look like? What kind of personality should he or she have? Brainstorm on such points before moving to final sketching.

If your character is more complex, you will have to consider positives and negatives traits and also their dreams and hopes.

If your comic is genre-based, opt for characters that mostly appear in fiction.

1. Work on the physical aspects of your character

Decide on the tools you are going to use to develop your character. If you’re tech-savvy, electric tools are a good option. If you’re old fashioned, the drawing will work best for you.

2. Start drawing basic face and body

Once you decide the tools, start drawing your character’s body and face. You might want to be extra careful while drawing the face because it displays all the emotions.

Start with basic shapes and then fill the details. Focus on the shape of the face, whether it’s heart, round, or oval-shaped. Differentiate physical characteristics like eyes, nose, lips, etc.

Keep redrawing your character with various expressions. Many artists continue redrawing until the character will connect with the reader.

3. Settle for the final design

Choose one final design that you feel is the most interesting and engaging.

Part 3- Developing a personality profile

1. Naming your character

Start brainstorming names for your character. The name should be easy to read and at the same time appealing. You can choose a name that better describes your character’s personality.

Names are easier for animals. For serious characters, you need to choose names more carefully.

2. Note down the most notable characteristics

Note down the basic characteristics and then move to more specific traits. For example, how do they react? Are they generous or heartless? How do they respond to conflict?

For simple comics, your character should not be complex. It should have basic emotions. For serious comics, you can go deeper with emotions.

3. Your character’s past plays an important role

A backstory is essential. Especially if your comic is more complex, spend time on framing out where your character was before a particular scene began. A complex story’s character doesn’t need to have a complex backstory. Just lay down the basics like birthdate, location, etc.

Remember that your backstory influences your current personality and choices. You can consider how a backstory affects your character’s life.

4. Consider the wants and needs of your character

Spend time on thinking about the wants and needs of your character. This affects their actions. For simple characters, the wants are also basic. If your character is complex, you need to find a sense of purpose.

Needs should also be looked upon. Universal needs like food, shelter, love, and care are common. You can also include unique needs.

Bio: Abdul Ansari is a freelance blogger who has written multiple articles for fitness and sports websites. He reviews outdoor and home products at Reviews.in. On weekends you will find him playing volleyball.

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Author: thecomicvault

A place for superheroes, positive mental health and pop culture references. Unlock your inner geek and step inside.

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