Developing How to Take Down Your New Democracy

Note: This is a long-form writing piece for an Individualized Writing college class. The original piece is a bit longer, but I edited and removed some parts in order to prevent revealing spoilers from the final story. I also added pictures because I wanted to show off yolo.

Intro

The story I chose to record for this assignment is a journey through character development. For the past two and a half years, I’ve been creating a story for a graphic novel I want to draw, but it feels more like I’ve been creating a cast of imaginary friends who have come alive and won’t leave me alone.

Being a cartoonist, my method of creating characters may be different than people who only write. It’s a combination of drawing a character (whether I pre-imagined them or not), observing the personality that shows through in the drawings, and then exploring that personality. Exploration includes the character interacting with other characters or experiencing different situations. Without exploration, the character remains flat, but with it, they evolve into something complex and interesting.

By now, I have a Calvin and Hobbes relationship with my characters that makes them seem alive. They’re friends I can play with, have a conversation with, or go on an adventure with, while I’m sure those from the outside don’t see them the same way (though they may have their own characters that they interact with). If I don’t play with my characters often enough, it’s almost like they’ve died, and I begin to feel guilty, because I’m their only method of communicating to the real world. By now I feel as if I have to tell their story or they’ll never forgive me.

Anyways, I hope others have had a similar fun experience creating their own characters and if not, please don’t think I’m crazy. Here goes.

 Character Development in "How to Take Down Your New Democracy"

(a Graphic Novel in Progress)

Josh Fox exploded through the window of the jewelry store into the open street, pieces of glass flying everywhere. He paused to take a quick look at the pocketwatch he had just heisted and muttered, “Brilliant.” His moment of glory was short-lived, however, as his loud, unnecessary window-crashing noise alerted nearby police to his location. Josh’s tail bristled as a police siren and flashing lights appeared out of nowhere. Glancing backwards, he lost his cool and decided to flee. As the blue and red lights reflect off his fiery orange fur, gaining closer every second, Josh dashed into alleyway, again thinking himself ever so clever. However, he emerged from the other side and stopped dead as a helicopter spotlighted him. Josh rotated his head, viewing the line of cops and cars surrounding the alleyway’s exit, as if they had been sitting there waiting for him the whole night. “Brilliant,” he restated, realizing his plan probably wasn’t as great as he thought it to be.

It was spring 2011 when I was assigned a project in my Elements of Visual Thinking class at Oklahoma Christian. Our job was to illustrate a comic page. The page could either be part of a larger story or present a whole story in and of itself. I decided to try to make a page that could both stand on its own and also be part of a bigger story. For this project, I wanted to invent a new character rather than recycle an old one, so I invented a fox because I thought they were cool. Foxes also seemed sly and clever, so the animal fit my story perfectly (well, perfectly ironically)- Josh was a fox who failed hard at being sly and clever.

 

(this is the only scan I could find of the original comic- The page is actually colored black rather than being on-white)

In the comic page, I presented Josh as some form of punk, but he wasn’t truly a bad person. It was also implied that he wasn’t the smartest of folks when he exited by crashing through a window that he apparently didn’t have crash through to enter the store in the first place.  It also implied that Josh got an awful lot of attention from law enforcement for stealing such a small object. The helicopters and large amount of cops on patrol were added for exaggeration; there’s no way that amount of force was required to catch this clumsy criminal. “Comic effect” is a good enough reason, but Josh’s sense of importance was stored in the back of my mind.

After completing my assignment, Josh Fox stuck with me. His character design and personality were quite fun and I was eager to explore his world. Like all of my anthropomorphic animal characters, he stood on two legs. He was colored orange and white and wore a brown jacket and olive green cargo pants. I also gave him a fedora and sunglasses, and a gear for a belt buckle (don’t ask; I don’t even know). 

 

 (One of the earliest drawings I could find of Josh)

Josh always took on cool action poses in my sketchbook. He constantly tried to present himself as smooth but he knew he was actually incompetent. I really didn’t know what to do with him. By himself, he kind of just flopped about trying to show off. “Come off it, Josh, I know you’re hiding something. What do you actually want?” I’d ask. “Well I’m awesome; give me something to do or I’ll just screw around being cool,” he said back. Eventually I decided that Josh was a wandering homeless person who tried to ignore reality by acting like everything was fine and doing whatever he wanted. “Aha! That’s why he was trying to steal that pocket watch,” I concluded. In order to teach Josh that he wasn’t a cool punk who could do as he pleased, I confiscated his fedora, sunglasses, and even his gear belt buckle (actually I removed the gear because it just didn’t make sense). These seemed to mask a deeper personality and I wanted to see what he would do without them. Alas, not much happened (though he looked a bit more respectable). The establishment of Josh’s being a homeless, gangsta-wannabe really didn’t lead him anywhere. What was he supposed to do floundering around clumsily and failing all of the time? I thought that I’d eventually get bored with this 2D character that refused to make anything of himself. Thankfully, I was wrong.

Alfadecorus Dauntn’aryu stood there and stared into space. She thought, and stared, and thought, and stared. Then she blinked. She kept standing there. Thinking. Then she scratched her long, pointy, elven ear and adjusted her wide-brimmed hat. Then she stood there and thought some more. Her complex thoughts occupied her entire being as she stood still, unmoving, in a spot, and used her brain to analyze data and predict where she could use it in real life.

If it isn’t obvious at this point, Alfa’s creation wasn’t nearly as cool or star-studded as Josh’s, although the process was much more complex as Alfa evolved out of someone else’s character rather than out of a story.

During the summer of 2011, I got a job 30 miles away at a greenhouse (yeah, this was my only viable summer job option). I worked eight-hour workdays with a one-hour lunch break. Since home was so far away, I had to pack lunch and stay in-town for that hour. At the beginning of the job, I decided that I’d try to read a book series over the summer by reading during this long lunch break. I happened to pick out Eragon by Christopher Paolini. I don’t really know why. During the semester at OC some of my friends talked about it a few times but besides that I have no clue why the book called out to me (yes, I know that sounds freakish).

(painted that summer with brand new Photoshop program and my first tablet)

 

While I read about dragons, elves, war, and magic at the greenhouse, I read a webcomic called Lackadaisy (by Tracy J. Butler) at home. This story is about a bunch of jazzy, anthropomorphic cats running a speakeasy during the Prohibition era. The characters were really expressive, cool, and lovable. I realized I loved how the characters, who constantly break the law, were portrayed as good guys- I could see they were running an illegal gin joint but didn’t dare think of them as “bad.” One thing I realized while reading is that I began rooting for a character, named Rocky, who was an even worse failure than Josh. “Huh,” I thought, “This story actually does the “lovable loser” well! They just have to try really hard at whatever they fail, and have good intentions.”  I think I also blame Lackadaisy for my characters’ early-on lighthearted take on interfering with the law.

 

 

(These two images are copyright Tracy J. Butler @ Lackadaisycats.com) 

As for the Inheritance Cycle (Eragon series), I hold it responsible for the creation of Alfa. In the books there’s a female elf character named Arya who I really liked. The parts of this character that I found most appealing were her mysteriousness, warrior spirit and skill, subtle or hidden emotions, seriousness for her duties, introvertedness, and disdain for traditional gender roles. I also liked the fact that just because her mother was Queen didn’t mean she was a princess; too often princesses are stereotyped as girly so this was a great way for Paolini to opt out of it (don’t know if that was actually what he intended, but whatever).

One day while working at the greenhouse, I was incredibly bored and there hadn’t been any customers for a really long time, so I got out a piece of paper and tried to draw a character based off a vague image of Arya I got in my head while reading Eragon. It only took two drawings before I was satisfied with a design. There was Alfa, who I actually didn’t name until almost a year passed after her creation. She was six feet, three inches tall (seven feet tall including the ears) and had a long blonde braid. She always hid under a wide-brimmed hat and beneath her heavy trenchcoat she wore a green dress that matched her eyes. She also wore jeans (yes, underneath her dress, it’s not that weird) and converse-style shoes to convey a small sense of modernity.

 The embarrassing first-ever drawing of Alfa done at the greenhouse

I took the drawing home and wondered what to do with the character. Immediately I tried putting her into Josh’s universe. The result was amazing. Alone, Alfa didn’t do anything except stand there seriously and stare into space in a womanly, dignified manner. When placed together, both Alfa and Josh seemed to gain an instant sense of purpose. They instantly started reacting to each other. At first they just got into action poses together (Josh’s favorite activity), but while doing this, they looked like they meant serious business. I didn’t know exactly which business, but I became really curious and continued exploring them. Josh was also the only one who could draw emotion out of Alfa. However, eventually, he started bringing out an intense and crazy  (almost uncharacteristically so) side I didn’t know existed. Though Josh brought Alfa out of her comfort zone, I think it got out of hand when they started burning stuff with matches, gasoline, and flamethrowers, baring expressions found only on the mentally insane.

(One of the earliest drawings of the two - This is the summer when I bought Photoshop and a tablet; hence the dodging/burning, and colored layer masks)

 

 

(Well that escalated quickly...)

Later in the summer, driving home from work, I saw a random cloud formation in the sky that looked like some kind of interesting tiger creature. I got home and tried to draw from memory what it looked like, but didn’t do well at pulling the image back (this is what I get for not knowing how to draw and drive). This resulted in some kind of buff tiger dude. Unlike Josh, this character came into the world cool and smooth and actually pulled it off. I wanted to somehow include this cool tiger in the story. Since I already had an orange fox, I made the tiger lightning blue and named him Tobias (I named him after a nerdy, lovable kid from my church camp) instantly.

Tobias got along well with Alfa and Josh. For some reason, even though I had invented Josh long before, Tobias had apparently known Alfa for longer than Josh had known Alfa. This became apparent as Alfa acted very familiar with Tobias as soon as they were introduced. Also, I discovered that Josh was a new friend of the pair. However, Tobias, though having a long and deep history with Alfa, related to Josh more. They were both more fun than serious and even started pulling pranks on Alfa (much to her chagrin).

 (part of a 30-page for-fun comic I wrote)

 The trio of danger, as I call 'em (right after this drawing I stopped drawing Tobias in a wife-beater shirt...)

During the fall 2011 semester at school, I started drawing Alfa more toned-down. I think Alfa started trying to fit in with Tobias and Josh because she felt like a stick-in-the-mud. Physically, Alfa’s sharp design shrunk (literally-she became five feet tall!) and softened into a squishy form that looked more like a child rather than an adult. She almost turned into a college student- even in dress, sporting plain old jeans and a sweatshirt. This design was a lot easier to manage than a semi-realistic human figure, as I had never before invented any characters with such a figure. After a while I got tired of drawing her in this form, however, because it didn’t really fit with her personality. As college went on, Alfa was able to evolve back into an adult- however, my anatomy was still a bit off, and she never looked consistent.

(Alfa's softy form, along with some horrendous Photoshop painting effects....) 

Sometime after Alfa started transforming back into an adult, I decided that it was silly that all elves in media, including mine, seemed to have blonde or light-colored hair. This thought prompted me to sketch up a dark-haired elf. It was intended to be an antagonist for Alfa (obviously, it had to be a male). I gave this guy-elf pitch black hair and he had a very nasty, naughty, disturbing look to him. This drawing was so creepy that I instantly gave up on the design. Later on, however, I was in the middle of finishing a drawing that required a brutish and rude character to make fun of Alfa’s facial hair (don’t ask) so I dug my guy-elf up out of the graveyard of my mind. I decided to give him a second chance and created a more appealing design, at which I succeeded. Somehow, he had a relation to Alfa but the two hadn’t known each other long. I thought about making them siblings who never met until later, but that idea had been used a dozen times before, so I dropped their connection as a mystery to solve later. Soon, this male elf character became known as Acerferus Shadowfax.

 

(The second time I wrought his face upon paper, and part of an early digital painting, respectively - These established a tortured personality with him, though later on he looks a lot less so)

Acer is pretty nasty but in a dignified manner (if that’s even possible). He wears gloves and dark, long-sleeved leathery top with matching leathery pants. He’s the same height as Alfa but is slightly stronger (just fulfillin’ the male/female stereotype, guys). Acer has slightly darker skin than Alfa and, best of all, he’s not blonde! His personality is poisonous, causing those around him grief (or vice versa- happy characters give him a headache).

(nasty but dignified? eh?) 

During the spring 2012 semester, I drew a 50-page comic story trying to explain why my three main characters were burning money (this had become a motif in my drawings). In the story, Josh, Tobias, and Alfa decided to raid a government facility to destroy some money in order to weaken the government. They ran through the building knocking out guards and found the minting room. During this portion of the story, Josh and Tobias made the situation inappropriately and ridiculously light even though it was actually incredibly dangerous. They decided to pull a prank on Alfa in the middle of their mission, trapping her in a room with the burning money. They came back in and carried her out, but she forgot her hat in the room. Josh got it for her, accidentally blowing up the room in the process (somehow Alfa was keeping a tube of gasoline in her hat- I don’t know, don’t ask). The explosion rattled the facility, and guards came running. Then Tobias, who I decided actually works for the government but is trying to weaken it from the inside, leaves them and pretends he had no idea what was going on in order to provide cover for them. Alfa and Josh flee and escape the facility, tripping over barbed wire and jumping a giant gate on their way out.

This story, looking back on it, was quite pathetic. The writing was sub-par and Josh, Alfa, and Tobias weren’t really in their true character. Instead of letting their personalities direct the story, I instead tried to make them fit my lame storyline. As a result, they ended up acting a bit “off.” For example, Alfa acted like a stuck-up, annoying, motherly figure who liked giving lectures, nagging, and getting into arguments and physical fights with Josh. She was way too emotional. Tobias acted irresponsible, pulling a prank with Josh on Alfa in the middle of an extremely dangerous situation. Josh was silly, as usual, but dumber than I intended to portray him. Because Alfa was acting off, Josh also acted off in reaction to her.

Even though I now cringe gazing upon its pages, this failed comic did a few things right- Over the course of the story I created  a human named Gideon, who would later become a police chief. The fifty pages of character drawing helped me get the hang of my trio’s designs a little better. Also, throughout the story, Alfa and Josh maintained their own vocabularies and dialects. Josh, with his low amount of education, used simpler wordage and slang: “Don’t worry, I’ll catch ya!” Alfa, obviously more educated and logical, used bigger words and no contractions: “I may be able to after you cease crushing my respiratory system!”

After I wrote the story, I started working on construction drawing on my own. Construction drawing is the process of breaking objects and characters down into shapes so they look consistent when drawn from different angles. At first this was an aesthetic choice, but my dimwitted mindset of “Heehee, drawings with lots of extra lines look cool and artistic” eventually realized that this was a great way to set up proportions of the bodies so the characters didn’t look ridiculous. (Before this, Alfa’s waist was way too thin, Tobias’ chest look like it had A-size breasts because of the angle and style I drew it, and Josh sometimes had an hourglass figure.)

 (yeah... had to fix a few digi paintings after enough people thought he was a female...)

This is probably a good point to note that up to this time, I hadn’t named Alfa, Acer, or Josh. They had been known as the “elf lady,” “the dark elf,” and “Fox,” respectively. In the stories I wrote I was able to avoid using names. It takes me a long time to name a character because it depends on how deeply I know them. Different names have different feels to me. If I don’t feel like I know a character fully yet, I want to take my time deciding. However, it had been well over a year since creating these characters, and I decided to name them already.

On May 1^st (somehow I have the exact date), during the summer of 2012, I decided to invent names for Alfa and Acer. Since they were a distinct race of elves, I wanted their names to sound, well… less than normal. That day I spent a whole 6 hours examining words in Norse, Old English, and Latin in order to try to create names that were both meaningful and sounded old or at least unusual (I’m not gonna name elves boring ol’ human names like “Jim,” “Bob,” or “Sally,” I mean, come on…). For Alfadecorus, I used the word “ælf” (Old English for “elf”) with Latin “decorus” (Latin: becoming, beautiful, proper). For Acerferus, I combined “acer” (Latin: sharp, fierce) with “ferus” (Latin: wild, savage, cruel, uncivilized). Their last names I came up with due to help of online name generators. After coming up with Alfadecorus Dauntn’aryu and Acerferus Shadowfax, and realizing how ridiculous they sounded, I felt like I was finally able to get a lot more personal with the characters. Sometimes I feel like if I act confident enough that these names are legitimately cool, people will not think they are as silly as they actually are. (As a side note, I did NOT realize that “Shadowfax” was the name of Gandalf’s horse until way later.)

At this point, I had established Alfa and Acer as two different characters that were part of the same race of elves. I wanted to then define characteristics of this elven race if I ever wanted to invent some other elf characters and make it consistent. Looking at some other literature and references, it seemed to me that elves were generally portrayed as prissy, prancing, nature-loving sissies who looked too beautiful to be considered threatening. Sure, they’re great at archery and acting graceful, but Alfa and Acer didn’t want to be that way. They were more muscle-driven in accomplishing their tasks, and proud of their strength rather than an ability to dance like a nimble ballerina. Therefore I decided that my elven race was strong, tall, philosophical, logical, and dignified. They also consider their personal integrity and dignity highly important to maintain.

 

The height of elven dignity

After I felt like I had a strong sense of my characters’ personalities, I set out trying to come up with a story that they could all work together in. Because I learned that you can’t just set up a storyline and force the characters into it, I approached the issue in a more character-driven way. I knew Josh was homeless, so I knew that he’d have to eventually meet Alfa. However, Alfa was rich, and also really socially awkward. At this point I had to start asking myself questions. Why are they burning money and destroying and invading? Why does Josh join Alfa and Tobias? What value would Josh be to these two if he’s uneducated and homeless? How did Alfa and Tobias meet? How are Alfa and Acer connected? Why is the government corrupt? Why isn’t anybody except Alfa, Josh, and Tobias recognizing that the government is going in a bad direction? How does Acer fit into all this? What are the character’s motivations? Why would they risk getting caught to “fix” the government? After doing some research about types of government, I started answering the questions with individual “what ifs” for each character.

It all snowballed from there, and by the time I was done asking questions, I had an extensive and complex backstory for my four characters; they were now interwoven and inseparable from each other. I then felt comfortable starting what would be my next 50-page project, which turned out to be the climax of the story. All of the characters were, well,… in character this time, and over the course of the project I actually made new discoveries along the way. There were character combos I used that I had no precedent, and their reactions to each other were wonderful, and drove the story along.

After discovering all of my characters’ personalities, motivations, hopes, and dreams, I feel a responsibility to share them. They have led my down their deep, complex, oftentimes dark path and now want me to share their story with the world. I’ve spent so much time with these guys that they’ve become a constant presence in life. They’re almost like imaginary friends (don’t run, I’m not crazy!). Unfortunately, since they’re such a deep part of me, they react to my bad moods. Sometimes when I get too depressed or confused they hide in a closet and don’t come out until it’s safe. I feel almost guilty when they do this, but I don’t blame them; I don’t want them to get depressed or confused too. Hopefully, I’ll maintain a stable, consistent life and I’ll be able to interact with them all the time, and therefore be able to translate their story accurately.

Ultimately, each character has made a transformation on their journey to this launching point.

            Physically, Josh looks the same he did on day one (except he doesn’t have an hourglass figure anymore), with his bright orange and white fur and clothes. However, he is considerably less clumsy and more clever. Rather than remaining arrogant, he has gained a sense of confidence while remaining humble and innocent. He works for Tobias and Alfa as a person who goes out and interviews people and gathers information about public perception of the government. This includes reading newspapers (it was established that he is an avid reader, though no he has no other formal education).

            Alfa’s ears grew about two times the size of her original design. Her nose also got longer and pointier. She has better proportions but is more muscular as well. She has retained her introvertedness, sense of seriousness, and combat skill (she can swordfight and also use her fists). She grew a small appetite for adventure that she feeds by inviting Josh to fun new experiences. She has a deep, psychological guilt complex driving her as well as deep yet nearly undetectable desire to help others. Alfa also doesn’t spend long amounts of time staring into space anymore.

Tobias gained better anatomical proportions, but his personality is the same as always. He’s a mathematician and a scientist, but has a really laid-back attitude towards life. I’d want him as a best friend (Alfa is lucky).

Acerferus gained a tragic backstory that explains why he’s deprived of love and attention and is generally a hateful person.

I grew as an artist along the way, learning construction drawing and realizing my extreme incompetence (and hatred) of drawing anything that wasn’t a character, such as environments and objects. Drawing in perspective is also a weakness I discovered, especially the use of it when trying to render a background.

In retrospect, sometimes I stop and wonder if I have let my characters develop too much. I haven’t even started actually drawing the graphic novel, and their personalities have already evolved because of my placing them in the situations I know they will face in the future. “Have I explored too much?” I sometimes ask myself. My two elves answer, “YES,” as, throughout all of my story-planning, they’ve been beaten down once and know they’ll have to go through it a second time, albeit in a more organized way. Sometimes I feel like apologizing to them, but then again, I’m the one making them do it again (sorry, guys!).

The upside to having written so much of the story (or at least, discovered it) is knowing that I have a beginning, middle, and end. I won’t have to worry about writing myself into a corner. I know my characters will develop. The downside and my fear, however, is that the story will lose its spontaneity and end up stale. Knowing everything isn’t fun. I’m almost thankful that I do have a few holes in the story that I will have to creatively fill in as I go. I may even decide later on that the story needs to take on a different direction. Being open-minded and letting the characters lead me, I think the story will hand me enough surprises to keep it exciting and enjoyable as I go. I shouldn’t have to, and refuse to, squeeze them into a pre-set story ever again.

All of this to say, development of my main characters has been quite a journey in and of itself and I am excited and nervous to finally start illustrating. Now, if I could only stuff my fear and anxiety long enough to actually draw up the first issue…..

 

Now please, somebody save me from these people!!

~Spectrumelf