Comic creator tips

How do I make my characters feel alive?

I saw a post on social media recently that I responded to, and immediately felt as though I could have answered it better. The question was along the lines of the title here, how do you make your characters come alive? A good question for anybody making comics or telling stories, and so I decided to give it some serious thought.

The best way to make characters feel alive is through their relationships with other characters. The way they interact with and change because of the other players or objects in the story will make them feel like living people.

And of course, they are in the minds of readers and writers alike. How your characters interact with one another is the most important method of bringing them to life, and there are some good examples of how this can be done. In Rober Lous Stephenson’s Treasure Island, Jim Hawkins is a pretty dull character, until you see him interact with John Silver and Old Ben. The he becomes someone we care about and want to see succeed. His motivations and goals also play a part in this, but the relationships are the crucial part of the story.

Similarly, in Sergio Leones’ Once Upon a Time in the West, the way the central three character interact is what makes the compelling and interesting to the viewers. Cheyenne, Jill and Harmonica are all well balanced characters, but when they are together, formulating their plan to bring down Frank, they become real in our hearts and minds. Harmonica and Cheyenne genuinely like each other, and a friendship develops over the story that you want to see continued, and this is shown in the way they interact with each other.

Sometimes it is necessary to have a character on their own in a story, and therefore have nobody to interact with. This is frequently not true, as a character is never on their own, and can react and respond to objects, absent characters, themselves, or the reader. The main character of your story ALWAYS has the reader to react to, and this will bring you readers closer to the character and their story. And I’m not talking about breaking the 4^th wall here, but rather giving the reader opportunities to be invested in characters and their goals in the scene.

Two good examples f this can be seen in the Doctor Who episode Heaven Sent, where Peter Capaldi’s doctor is the only character in the whole episode and must contend with a ghoul from his childhood. However, through the story he constantly talks to his companion who is not there with him and builds relationships with the setting and objects in his world. Now granted, this is a long-established character, but it’s a good example of how solo characters can still be compelling.

My second example of this is from Raider’s of the Lost Ark, where Indiana Jones is on his own at the start of that movie. He has little prior build up and nobody else to bounce off, but his desire to take the idol and his tentativeness about the amount of sand to use is enthralling. He feels alive because he is actively interacting with his setting and the objects in it.

But how does this translate into the visual medium of comics? Well, as a writer you can build the script around interesting characters moments, and pair characters together to bring out those interactions. Use dialogue to indicate how characters feel about each other, not just the situation or conflict they are in. If you are the artist, think about expressions and body language. These will be different around different characters, just as we are in real life. You can also use colour and blocking to highlight certain character interactions. And even though we are working in static panels, there is still a lor you can do with still or small squences of images.

Here are 5 tips on how to make your comic characters feel more alive:

1 – Relationships are critical as discussed above. Your main character will behave differently around different characters ad indifferent situations, so build that into the story. If they like a certain person, they will be more open and talkative around them. If they are distrustful or wary, they might use different body language or shorter sentences. How the protagonist deals with others will make all your characters come to life.

2 – Busywork. When your protagonist is not the key focus of the scene or panel, but they are in the background, give them something to do. Let them have interactions with other characters or be doing something in the room/world they are in. Static characters in the background are a good way to grind any passion to a halt in readers. If your protagonist is never in the background, try putting them there and see what that does for your other secondary characters.

3 – Expressions are one of the main ways artists can bring their characters to life. Many artists stick to one or two facial expressions, which is often dull to look at. Try giving your characters different expressions in different situations. If they don’t have many expressions, try exaggerating one or two to really make an impact. And don’t forget, body language is a much an expression as anything on the face. Folded arms, learning on things and how they stand when relaxed are all indicators of like in a character.

4- Likes/dislikes. We all have things we like and things we don’t, and so should your characters! Do they have a favourite type of drink? Do they like a certain music style? How would they react if they saw their least favourite colour, or if their most hated band came on the car radio? These can be subtle things and can become repeated motifs in the story if you can structure them well. Give your characters likes and dislikes and they will come to life in your mind straight away.

5- Heroes. This is a common storytelling tactic but it’s true and can be used to give depth to all your characters. Each one is the hero of their own story, and they should act like it. We all experience life from our own point of view, and so do your characters. Just because we are only following one or two doesn’t mean the rest of them are just waiting in the wings all the time. Have them being interrupted or constantly thinking about other projects. Or they can simply have a presence, that they are the lead and everything around them is part of their narrative.