From Fone Bone to Ramona Flowers to Calvin and Hobbes to Nimona -- great comics have great characters. Cartoonists often talk about how their characters come to life on the page and write themselves-but before that can happen you have to get to know them by drawing them a lot.
Doodle out two different characters and get to know them by drawing them in different positions and with varied facial expressions (happy, sad, angry, etc.). Then explore your characters even further by answering this simple questionnaire.
After you get to know your characters better, create an eight-panel comic using only dialogue (no backgrounds) where your characters resolve a conflict or misunderstanding.
Start by constructing your characters with simple shapes. This will help give them each a unique visual silhouette. The more complex the shapes, the harder it will be to draw them in different positions.
You can fold a sheet of 8.5" x 11" (or A4) paper a few times and in seconds have an 8 panel grid! Or draw your comic on 8 index cards. Don't like one of your drawings? Just toss out the card and draw it again on a new one.
Try to give each character a distinctive voice. If someone read the dialogue without the images could they differentiate the two characters?
In her webcomic Cucumber Quest, Gigi D.G. did a great job of making sure each character spoke with their own voice. Some even had specific speech patterns which helped distinguish them from one another.
Chris Schweizer uses different body types and clothing to vary his character designs so that each has a distinct visual silhouette.
Neither Krazy Kat, Popeye, or Nancy were the featured character of their comic strip. They were all marginal or supporting characters before asserting themselves as the star.
On writing her comic strip:
"Sometimes I become the characters themselves. I think their thoughts and feel what they feel... I wait for them to speak and to be spoken to. I can't always predict what the characters will say or how their world will evolve around them. And I'm often surprised by their conversations."
On drawing her characters:
"...by reaching out, moving my pen around its form, touching it, pressing against its face, its body, feeling it, I make it real. This part of my job is pure pleasure!"
If you post your work from this week online, make sure to use the hashtag
#CCS1WeekWorkout so that other workout students can check out your work!
