*Colin and Betty from Pinky TA
When you write a big long story that goes over many chapters and arcs, things tend to evolve, grow and expand quite a bit outside of what you originally envisaged. What I'm talking about here are side characters- These are people that may ...
Why do my characters all speak the same way? (Guest Post by Gunwallace)
HippieVan at 12:00AM, April 15, 2016
Rather than write about something I'm good at I thought I write about something I'm struggling with, and my attempts to resolve it. Writing characters with distinct voices.
Comics are usually conversations between characters. Speech bubbles are the preferred way to tell comic stories, as opposed to large ...
International Women’s Day in Webcomics
HippieVan at 12:00AM, March 11, 2016
A lovely illustration from The Pirate Balthasar.
Initially, I had planned this week’s newspost to feature a selection of my favourite women characters on DD. But I realized as I was composing my list for this newspost that I was essentially just making a list of protagonists from my ...
Casting Part Deux: 4 and More
Banes at 12:00AM, Dec. 17, 2015
Last time, solo heroes, teams of two, and trios were the order of the day. Today let's talk quartets, quintets, sextets, septuplets, octets, and…uh…neuf-tets…?
More possibilities for self-contained drama/comedy/conflict exist with groups of four or five. There are several ways to begin building such a ...
Wish Fulfillment
Banes at 12:00AM, Dec. 3, 2015
In the movie Annie Hall, the main character writes a play and uses it to give his failed relationship a happy ending.
There are countless stories where awkward, nervous protagonists…perhaps courtesy of awkward, nervous writers…win the battle, defeat the villains and get the gorgeous girl.
An unknown number ...
Do You See the Kind of Shape I'm In?
Banes at 12:00AM, Sept. 24, 2015
CHARACTER SHAPES
I've never consciously designed characters this way, but I recently remembered hearing about this notion some time ago, on the dvd special features for an animated something-or-other.
Characters derived from basic shapes can give a very strong impression of their basic personality type. This can help the ...