Although comic books are a mostly visual medium, it is very important to create compelling characters to draw readers in. In all genres of comic books, it is important to have believable interaction, dialogue and feeling between characters in order for the reader to accept the story.
Instructions
1. Determine what genre your comic will be in. The typical genre is, of course, superhero, but there are many other genres around. Are your characters space explorers who swear and spit like sailors? Or is your comic geared toward younger kids, with a Disney feel to it?
2. Develop a main character, or a group of characters to base your plot around. What drives these characters? What makes the reader root for them? Make sure your characters are believable. Like in any fiction one of the keys to a good story are characters the reader can accept. Reference a fiction character guide for more information on this step.
3. Visualize what these characters look like. Can you make assumptions about them just from their appearance? Use that to your advantage--remember the reader normally looks at the pictures before he or she reads the speech bubbles. Also you should create a type of "synergy" with your characters personality and look. If the character looks like Captain America you probably don't want him to act like Lex Luthor.
4. Create an opposition for your characters. Who or what are they fighting against? Creating villains is just as important (and more fun) than creating the heroes. You want to justify your hero's actions and feelings toward his opposition too, ideally making the hero's identity directly tied to what he or she is fighting against. Good examples of this are Batman and Spider-Man who both have origins from murdered relatives. Their main foes are not the murderers, but rather anyone who does harm to the innocent.
5. Add a quirk to each character to increase depth. For example, the bubbly teenage girl really has an anger problem. You can think of these as flaws--they make your character more human (even if he's a 7-foot-tall intelligent gorilla). A good fiction tool for this is to write down a list of your character's strengths. Then on the other side of the paper write three to five (or more) flaws the character has. A lot of times they can be in the same vein of personality (passionate vs. obsessive).
