Comic books serve as a great source of inspiration for some of the highest-grossing box office movies and cartoons. Just seeing how much attentions movies like the Avengers, the Dark Knight, Man of Steel, the Guardians of the Galaxy, etc. have received, it really is not surprising that the popularity of the comic books themselves have risen as well. Clearly, a lot of us couldn’t help but daydream about creating our own original stories that would perhaps, one day inspire a famous movie producer to make a motion picture adaptation, or just have a vast fan base of numerous comic book readers. And let us not forget the best of all, Comic-Con. Anyone who went or heard stories about Comic-Con conventions is definitely obsessed with the idea of becoming an important part of it, one day. Well in the event that you are interested in writing a comic book franchise of your own, I will provide some helpful guidelines to help you realize your dream.
What Makes a Good Comic Book Hero or Villain?
Judging from what can be witnessed immediately after seeing any comic book protagonist, the key elements that should be incorporated in his or her creation are definitely: good looks, witty sentences, admirable physical attributes or magical powers and, of course, a cool outfit. There are alternatives also, for example if you do not want your character to be good looking or attractive, you can always add scars or any other ruff features, but in a manner that it looks “bad-ass”. This is what the majority of comic book heroes have in common, although a hero or the main protagonist in a story does not necessarily need to be like this – think about the main character from Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter. Despite the fact that heroes in these stories were not outstanding when compared to the rest of the crowd, they were inspiring characters nevertheless, since they were fully aware of their disadvantages and still took on burdens which could have undoubtedly crushed them. However, attitude and appearance are only there for aesthetic purposes – what makes a good hero or villain likable is the fact that they are usually an embodiment of some virtue or some problem which is very present in modern society. Take a look at the character Bane from Christopher Nolan’s movie “The Dark Knight Rises”, irrespective of the fact that he was a villain, he had great hero potential. At the very beginning of the movie, he stood together with those who suffered the most, the oppressed lower class of the society which is completely neglected by the upper class (even the mask gadget he wore over his mouth can be seen as a metaphor for the lower class people who are silenced and whose opinion the upper classes refuse to hear). Unfortunately, if he fought against inequality, which is a good cause, then he shouldn’t be a villain, so in the end, he was unmasked as an insane terrorist who simply wanted to blow up the whole town. However, I have to admit that before Bane revealed his true intentions, it was really hard for me to consider him as the antagonist of the last movie. Additionally, your characters should have personalities and not be one dimensional, so make sure they are not easily defined and predictable – you need to come up with good motivation that drives them to do what they do. Avoid the character that does good only for the sake of doing a good thing, and make sure you justify their actions – the same goes for villains.
Symbolic Value
Heroes and villains should have symbolic value that can be reflected in their outfit or their behavior. Joker stands for madness and chaos, which completely opposes what Batman is trying to establish – justice, peace and order. Superman is an ultimate force for good and he stands for true ideals and virtues which people should strive to achieve, whereas Lex Luthor is a realist who thinks that worshiping ideals can only hinder the true progress of one’s own capabilities, thus he wants to bring Superman down. It is this conflict of values which makes fights in comic books so compelling, as well as the fact that heroes are usually cornered and forced to out-think or outlast their enemies. In other words, clashes between heroes and anti-heroes should be depicted as flashy and epic struggles. Taking into account that villains are also the embodiment of problems, they are to avoid being killed and removed from the story. At the end of the day, the hero simply wins the battle, but the problems are still there, bound to resurface. Therefore, villains should reappear for the second round and try to break your hero once again.
Do I Need to Know How to Draw?
Well, truth be told, it would great if you are able to draw your own creation. However, a lot of comic book writers tend to cooperate with someone these days. There are a lot of skillful graphic designers with the expertise to make your story come to life. With vivid descriptions, you are bound to achieve the desired goal even if you are not drawing the comic yourself. If you are planning on choosing a good graphic designer, make sure you see his previous works and make sure that you are certain that he or she is someone who is willing to listen and draw under your instructions. Be precise when describing the mood of the drawings. The scenery can tell a lot about the story and its issues, so you need to think it through thoroughly. This is a part of the process which is really time consuming, so you need a pay a lot of attention to details, because readers and critics will appreciate it. Make sure you arrange the size and position of pictures correctly and leave enough space for speech bubbles – like I said, the process requires meticulous technique, but once it is finished, your story can finally come to life.