Group Dynamics


I'm working on putting some teams together for some new comics. Will I ever get to them? Yes, I think so!

Figuring out an ensemble is a long process. At least it is for me.

Before I started my first webcomic, Typical Strange, I spent over a year sketching the characters and brainstorming scenes that would slowly begin to define the characters. Then it was more years working on animated episodes (and learning how to do basic animation) while doing more brainstorming on the characters. By the time I'd switched over to portraying their adventures in a comic, I knew that group of characters very, very well.

Anyway, it's a nice place to start in my opinion - having a collection of characters and relationships and a setting is, I think, a sit-com approach to writing. So it's not an intriguing hook, character arcs and plot that begin the adventure - it's a cast of characters and a situation/setting that we can then set loose into as many stories as we can think of.

One element of creating a group is CONTRAST. I think of contrast as an essential element in writing (and in visuals). It's a concept that's often on my mind. The cast of characters should have things in common, probably, but there should be some kind of contrast between the characters. It might be in their appearances, behaviors, or personalities - their points of view on the world, intelligence or status in society - but finding both commonalities that keep them together in the story, as well as the contrasting elements that keep them interesting to watch are important details.

Some group creation approaches:

The Fantastic Four, the first Marvel Comics superteam, were based on the elements. The THING, made of rocks, was Earth, Human Torch had fire powers, Invisible Girl was air, and stretchy Mr. Fantastic was like water. Contrasts among their actual personalities was there as well, to some degree.

Ivan Reitman said that he modeled his characters in the movie ‘Evolution’ the same way the cast of ‘Ghostbusters’ took shape: he liked having one character be “The Brain”, one “The Mouth” and one “The Heart”. That's an interesting dynamic. Not that anyone remembers Evolution, and it probably didn't turn out quite as well as they wanted. But it did have a nice group of heroes.

Anyway, I'm currently working out some new groups of characters. You don't want the contrasts to be too extreme in my opinion. Depending on the setting, it can seem too unbelievable that these characters would be together. That's a valid criticism of some lesser slasher and horror movies - the collection of characters seem like they would never be friends or be anywhere near each other.

The contrasts might only come out in the way the characters handle stress and conflict.

Anyway, those are two big elements to handling group casts I think: commonalities and contrast.

What do you think? How have you gone about creating a cast of characters? What are your favorite ensemble casts?


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