”Look-a-like kids play the best”
(literally translated from Swedish, equivalent to “birds of a feather flock together”)
A bunch of circles with dots - thats what my storyboard looks like so far. They are supposed to represent eyes and faces until I’ve found the designs for my characters. So what are my thoughts on character design thus far?
I’m trying to create an all age story, a matinee, that combines a thrilling spy story with some humour and historical facts. When researching the character design of a few classics in the genre a distinct pattern emerged: a title hero (small but brave and smart), a goofy sidekick (larger, provides the humour), and a cute animal (invoking sympathy, sometimes funny but serves mostly to save the hero when in distress).
Although I love these comics there is much to discuss about the cast, where stereotypes are plenty and females are few. The humour in Asterix is mostly based on stereotypes of different countries and cultures. Franquins Spirou only have one female character; an independent and feisty journalist, but a terrible driver to balance things out. And ”Tintin in the Congo” is notorious for its colonial attitude towards the Congolese (it also features a less known but equally shocking big game hunt that turns into a slaughter of the local wildlife). Some of these comics are dear to me, but their reasoning when it comes to characters is best left in the past.
As always there are the exception that proves the rule. Carl Barks Uncle Scrooge-stories have a different line-up of characters and are probably more entertaining than the lot. Come to think of it … if you remove the beak from the ducklings face you’re left with a circle and two dots.
I will use some aspects of the ”rule of thirds” and break others. My lead will be a brave girl, but I hope her personality will be too complex to put down in a few words - like real people. The sidekick will be an intelligent coward, probably a young man who we don’t know whether to trust. The cute animals will be absent though. Or should I introduce a ”Jonny the Jelly-fish” to the cast?
