Before we could start writing our first comic, we had to think about who our main characters would be. The process of developing our characters was educational journey that brought us leaps and bounds closer to publishing our first comic.
We knew that we wanted to reach out to the younger crowd, so we created two young IT professionals as our main characters. We thought our characters should be Chinese, because we knew we wanted to reach out to the Chinese market; the names given to them were "Xing" and "Ping.
Figure 1 – Xing's initial character panel. Compare facial features to the final art located at the end of this article.
Figure 2 – Ping's initial character panel. She will be revised to have a smaller chin and softer features in general.
We also chose to introduce a fun character, named Squishy. Squishy is a fantastic, mascot-type of character. He's modeled after those stress-balls you get at technology trade shows. (You know, the ones that help with Carpel Tunnel syndrome, and with getting your product's name out there.) Squishy guides our two main characters (and the reader) through the learning process.
After taking a look at the initial character designs, I felt that they weren't quite right somehow. We decided that we needed some outside feedback on the visual design and character development. I put together a focus group, using a sample of people I know who are fans of Anime and Manga. This group of people includes some diverse backgrounds, including American, northern Chinese, Japanese-American, and Korean-American.
Figure 3 – Initial version of Squishy. Note the small eyes. The eyes, we were told, should normally be as big as they are in the bottom-right frame.
I was amazed at how much feedback I got when I ran the character designs past my group. I was told that the names "Ping" and "Xing" might be insensitive, because the characters looked Caucasian (surprise! ), so why would they have Chinese names? Also, it was pointed out that our female character seemed too masculine, her appearance needed to be softer, and that she had a funny-looking chin. The guy was okay, albeit very generic-looking, and his chin also looked a bit overdone. As for Squishy, I was told his eyes were too small and beady; he looked a little bit like a villain. His eyes needed to be a lot bigger if he's going to be our comic relief.
Figure 4 – "Leah," revised panel. She laughs, she frowns. Note the improved chin line, softer facial features, and half-rimmed glasses. Eventually, we went with full frames - but these are cool, too.
We reviewed the feedback and thought about how we could improve our character development. We brainstormed new names for our characters, settling on "Zach" and "Leah." We wrote character descriptions for each one. Zach, we decided, needed to be the goofy one. He would be very smart, but not well-organized and a little silly. Leah would also be smart, but more interested in things like reading books, being organized, and getting things done on time.
We synthesized the feedback and passed it on to our artist, who provided a set of samples in return. We picked what we thought was the best work from the samples, choosing what seemed to be a more appropriate eye size for Squishy, and better proportions for Leah. I took the set of samples back to my group (we met every Wednesday), and asked for feedback on the improvements.
Figure 5 – The updated version of "Squishy." His eyes are now bigger and more adorable, similar to the large eyes that are prevalent in Anime publications.
The process was involved, but as you'll see in the final art, it was well worth it! The characters are better proportioned, and they have a more complete look in general. They look great!
That's it for now. Please respond, we appreciate hearing your thoughts and feedback. Tune in soon for some info on our Storyboarding Process and more panels from our comic on the Cloud!
Figure 6 – Final character art. This watermark is on the inside front cover of all three comics in this series.
beware: Xing is a trademark (as far as I know)