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[phyrbyrd]

So I've been trying to write a comic book. Well, I guess 'trying' is too strong a word, I've been kicking around ideas and developing characters in the hope that plot will happen. It's a superhero team story, and so I'm dealing with a number of my own pet peeves about the comic book industry

Comments

[anonymous_bosh]

I think it's still very much worth it to write out any stories you've got, but you might think about why they group like that. Is it a pattern you're familiar with in TV, other comics, other stories? Is it a pattern you're familiar with from life? Does it give you the most interesting arguments

[phyrbyrd]

I think the primary group is forming that way because I want to have characters to interact interestingly with my protagonist - so far we have the mentor, the semi-abusive ex-mentor who is too old for her and a really bad idea for a love interest, the much better love interest and the best friend, although come to think of it, I'm not sure this trans woman works that well as a best friend for the protagonist. Still, the story's not entirely about her, so

[masati]

What do you like about the character? Not the stuff you've put on in an effort to flesh her out (which it sounds like her ethnicity is to you), but the other things. It sounds like 'transgender' thing is, for the conflict it'd breed.

And why not have them all white? Or, why bother specifying the colour at all? If you're writing a script then write the script without saying what they look like, give it to your artist and let them come up with their colour, build, etc.

Okay, so the artist may be you as well, but unless the colour is important to the script don't write it in. You could then give the script to some friends and ask them what they think these people look like based on how they act, talk, etc. Maybe you could even ask someone who you like the art of to help you with the character design.

Don't make the mistake I think Ursula K. Le Guin makes and specify race where it's unimportant to the story.

[phyrbyrd]

Well, to be honest I don't like much about the character, and the only real reasons she's there is that the team needed a fifth member and I wanted said character to be female. Her powers are superficially similar to the main protagonist's - I liked the alias that it suggested. She adds nothing to the team power-wise but her emnity with the team asshole (whose issues with depression, alcoholism and PTSD are yet another thing I'm worried about stepping on toes with) is an interesting dynamic, so i suppose i like that. i'm seriously considering cutting her and one of the other male characters out and rewriting some old characters so that I care about them

[masati]

Why does the team need a fifth member? Would the need for a fifth member if you omitted that character provide some interesting stress/tension/plot? If the team had that fifth member and all they added to the team was hassle wouldn't the team drop them? Is that happening now (again, possible plot and possible future plot due to resentment)?

I can imagine a scene "Why did we hire her?" "We needed a fifth member" "What the hell for? We're just covering *her* ass as well as our own!"

And if the team is incomplete, then do they need to step up to their responsibilities, complete and ready or not?

[charlycrash]

Is it alright to include this character as a target for the team asshole's ire - and he does always use her transgenderism as a weapon, simply because he's trying to be deliberately hurtful - or is it worse to have her be the only one who isn't a target?

It really depends on the way it's handled, I think. Some people are wankers, and thus some characters are wankers, and I wouldn't worry about writing someone that way - but I would worry about whether the story itself inferred that his actions were either justified or unjustified.

My problem is that she doesn't catch my imagination.
I have made many, many characters for this, both major and minor, and I've tried to write minorities and even out the gender balance, but the characters I can't write often get replaced with characters that catch and hold my imagination, and usually these characters are white. Why do those characters have to be white? Make one of 'em Latina

[phyrbyrd]

Oh, he's a wanker alright. I mean, he wasn't always a wanker but he is now, to pretty much everybody, and now that I think about it, most of the members of the team are people who've known him since before he was a wanker and one of the chief functions of the transgender character is that she'd be pretty much the only character really willing to call him on his shit.

I do randomly change race of characters sometimes, and occasionally gender, but it rarely sticks. I mean, the story is set in modern-day England so these things do actually matter to a lot of people, and it's no use pretending they don't and we live in a post-racial, post-gendered society.

[koh4711]

I think it might be worse to try and write a culture you're unfamiliar with because you feel you should. The problems you're having with the character not capturing your imagination might be a subconscious block that something doesn't quite fit. So you might take a step back and see if you should change it

Muslims

[coolforkatz]

I know a few Muslims. Most of them are very reserved and hard working. The ones I know are vegetarian or only eat halal meat, they do not drink alcohol, they seem to be very ambitious at work, they are very family oriented, they like to gossip within their own family but put a lot of thought into making sure no one outside thinks badly about their family, they like to travel especially to see friends and family. They need to go to mosque on Fridays and pray regularly. They seem to be very ambitious at work.

There is one Muslim character I know who I would like to give you insight into. This character swears a lot, smokes, drives a taxi as a second job, makes tea for everyone, is always on the phone to family, does everything possible to annoy people including flicking them with rulers and calling people names especially if the names are in Urdu or Hindi. But everyone really likes them because they are funny and generous.

I hope none of this seems racist or offensive, it is not meant to be, it is just a list of my observations.