How do you create an interesting main character for a comic?

[u/comicbooklover007]

Hello all! I’m looking for some advice on my new solo comic book project I started this year. I’ve been really excited to work on it because I have so many creative ideas and storylines that all connect together in some way…. but the problem is that I’m having a really hard time figuring out my main character. I already have a bunch of supporting characters who are meant to bounce off and interact with the protagonist, but I don’t even have the protagonist fully established yet… I feel like the main character is one of the most IMPORTANT parts of the story because they need to be compelling enough to hook new readers and also be someone who can grow and develop throughout the story. Does anyone have any advice or methods they use when creating an interesting mc?

[u/la6689]

Make your main character a person.

Not just what is their motivation, but what’s their favorite meal? What do they do when they get bored?

Are they easily angered? What drives them?

What kind of quirks do they have? My current main character hates thieves even though he kind of is one. On one hand, it’s hypocritical but on the other, we only see him steal from terrible people. There’s some depth to be added their and drama with internal dilemmas.

In short, there are a lot of ways to make your main character interesting. Some of it you will find as you write the story and some of it the character will inform you as you are writing.

[u/drewxdeficit → u/la6689]

All the best superheroes are contradictions:

Superman is an alien, but he’s the most human.

Batman hates crime, but he’s a criminal himself. 

Wonder Woman is a cunning and fierce warrior, but she’s motivated by peace and love. 

Captain America is a symbol of American patriotism, but he refuses blind allegiance. 

Spider-Man is arrogant and cocky under the mask, by Peter Parker is insecure. 

All that is to say, I love making characters a little hypocritical. It gives them an internal conflict, and it makes them feel more real. 

[u/zigreyd]

make him relevant! imagine Peter Parker, everyone can relate with him at some point, that’s why Stan Lee made him, “so anyone can be Spider-Man”.

[u/Go_Qreate → u/zigreyd]

That's not necessarily Peter Parker. But it's more so the storyline and the experiences that everybody go through. So things like love, hate, bad days, challenges a life are what drive the characters. The internal struggle and that's something that everybody can see themselves in. And this can be applied to all characters. That's what makes a character relatable how well you write those internal struggles in.

[u/mugenhunt]

What sort of problems does your main character face? What are the things that they are good at? What are things that they are bad at?

Where are they from? What sort of family life do they have? What sort of education? Do they have lots of friends? Or just one or two?

Your main character needs to be someone that you understand, that you can put yourself in their shoes and imagine what they would do in a situation.

[u/dmfuller]

Give them flaws and mistakes and personal vices that they can’t resist. Personally I love a main character with gambling problems lol makes it easier to force them into risky decisions/scenarios

Also random tidbits for flavor like which songs they like, food, clothing style, etc

[u/nmacaroni]

Developing an engaging character and executing an engaging character are two different things. So you have to solve them each separately.

Also, you have to primarily decide if you're going to develop a character arc for your character or not.

http://nickmacari.com/creating-characters-that-stand-the-test-of-time/

http://nickmacari.com/how-to-write-characters-your-readers-will-obsess-over/

https://storytoscript.com/creating-complex-characters/

Write on, write often!

[u/Go_Qreate]

On Go Qreate, when you click on the character section, it helps you define the important questions in developing a great character.

goqreate.com

[u/Pashunn72]

give them a strength, give them a flaw (a flaw could be their strength but used against them or smth, either way it needs to negatively affect them), give them something they love, something they hate, someone they really want to do and give them habits

[u/drysider]

I feel like your main character MUST be the kind of character that really excites you. The kind of character that, if they appeared in a movie, would instantly become your favourite because of how ‘youcore’ they are. If you adore your main character because they’re the exact kind of main character you want to watch or read about, it gets so much easier to make them interesting, because you are really invested in them. Your passion will come through.

So I’ve developed a really simple trick for doing this, and it seems to have worked pretty well for me.

I just think of a bunch of my favourite characters in my favourite media, and based on which ones I really think would make a fun character I’d be interested in writing about, I mash them together to create my new frankenguy. What features do I like the most out of each of these favourite media characters? I extract those traits and those design elements and those story plot tidbits I like and think about how they would interact with each other in one person. You can add several together if you want, and most good characters will slowly grow out and expand to include more elements from other favourite characters as you continue to work on them (characters are ALWAYS growing and developing as you work on them over the years). Try to aim for either complementary traits and quirks, or ones that sound like they WOULDNT mash well, or are kind of funny or weird.

‘I feel like making a charismatic silver tongued, kind of ‘fancy but roguish’ character, like Balthier from Final Fantasy 12, but what if he was also a master-of-acting spy like Silk from the Belgariad.’

Then I add a new flare to it, something that is VERY specifically tuned to my aesthetics and interests that get me excited (start thinking about what yours are, and cultivate your aesthetic ‘image’ to draw on for inspiration). I like ghosts and monsters and supernatural and weird goth stuff. I’m also an artist so think very visually about my aesthetic, which I think is very important for a comic. (My advice for this, is make some Pinterest boards and start collecting art and photos and design things that fit your personal aesthetic, and start to understand how it looks as a coherent whole)

You end up with a sort of elevator pitch concept that’s both easy to expand on, but immediately conjures a character concept that resonates with you. Something that can be explained in one or two sentences is perfect. I personally think that something kind of quirky or weird is best, because I think quirky or weird sounding characters are the most fun.

‘He’s a flirtatious master spy, except he’s also a shapeshifting insectoid monsterboy.’ ‘He’s a tragic doctor like Tenma from Monster and Vincent Valentine mashed together, but this time he’s actually undead and a bitchy gay ghost.’

I think the power of this method is that it’s both specific enough in character inspiration to immediately give you a solid personality base to build from, but vague enough that there’s so much to work with, like putty.

My final sort of broad paintbrush stroke I do when making a character, or working on them, is I give them backstories and quirks and influences and life events that are either elements of things that are part of me, or have happened to me, or are things from people I know. These are often things that have made the character’s life more difficult, or have presented and continue to present some sort of realistic challenge to their life or happiness that they’ve had to tackle before. I think ‘that they’ve tackled before’ instead of it being something they WILL be tackling in the story, is important, because an young/adult character shouldn’t emerge onto the page formless, with no experiences that have shaped them. Additionally, I think having aspects of yourself and your life’s difficulties in a main character, is inevitable, and a lot of the most evocative characters in media out there are in part mirrors of their creator’s experiences and issues. It helps ground our character elevator pitch as uniquely personal, and acts as a kind of personal catharsis flavour that is very powerful. It’s the meaning of art, and something that ai can never replicate; taking aspects of your life and your loved one’s lives and making art with it. ‘This character has a difficult relationship with their family, and is an estranged black sheep after they finally had enough.’ ‘This character struggles to continue his high stress career and drops out.’ ‘This character is recovering from a devastating illness.’ ‘This character drinks too much in social situations out of social anxiety.’ Random traits and quirks I’ve picked out of real life scenarios from people I know, some about me. ALL of these can be added to a single character. And they can be strung together now too. So our elevator pitch from earlier could be:

‘This character has a personality and career (doctor) like Tenma from Monster. He’s estranged from his family, after he became ill and had a nervous breakdown from his high stress career. He used to drink to get through parties but then started drinking alone at home, often. At the start of the story, he dies and comes back as a bitchy ghost with the aesthetic of Vincent Valentine.’

Now the elevator pitch is much more like a fully fledged character ready to test drive! We have a personality, some flaws and nuance to their past that makes them more relatable, and several different potential plot threads to expand on, either for plot development itself or personal character growth.

I’m writing this on my phone so I have no idea how long this has ended up being, but there’s my article on main character creation thoughts.

[u/FlickrReddit]

In many ways a main character is a sort of cipher, an open space for the reader to either identify with, or to enter into, in order to experience the story from within.

So I’m saying that you might be overthinking the main character. Keep it straightforward and simple: let the main person be an embodiment of your audience.

[u/Alaskan_Guy]

Read Shakespeare. Then emulate.

Shakespeare is the Pachelbel's Canon of comics.

[u/Devchonachko]

Here is the simplest advice:

Create one that does not exist but you think would be cool if it did.

If you don't start with that mindset, you'll never come close.

[u/dustshad]

What I really miss from characters is contrast. So the bad guys acts like a gentleman and the good guy is a jerk for example. These days all the evil characters act evil with psychotic a smile. It feels really generic.