Fleeting Characters

Fleeting Characters

by CaveMonster - 02/04/2005 - 20:41

Most webcomics are pretty geographically centered around where the main characters live work and play. This makes adding characters easy, since they can come and go as the creator pleases. The other model is that of a travelling party, like in an rpg.
In my comic the central narrative is about a single character's journey. There is a point in the story i have in my head where he meets a fellow traveller, but for it to flow and make sense, that point is many weeks away. In the meantime, I've already introduced two characters who went away and won't be seen at least for a while. I don't want to keep bringing in secondaries and then sending them away, but I don't want to rush in the next long term character either or try to drive the plot without anyone else in it. Any ideas?

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by scarfman - 02/05/2005 - 09:32

If I had this problem and this was the way I put it to myself, I think I'd try to come up with a temporary secondary character who contrasts in a significant way with the coming fellow traveler, and have that character hang around now till then.

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by kjc - 02/05/2005 - 16:55

In the play Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, various directors have implemented different ways of showing that it's a play within a play about a play, etc. One of my favorites is to have the characters not in an active scene sitting off to the side, playing poker.

You could have your characters playing poker (or hearts or bridge or twister or whatever) off in a space (a cave?) labeled "waiting room." It'd be surreal & fourth-wall-breaky but amusing.

Or you could have it not four-wall-breaky & just show scenes of them doing what they do... cooking breakfast or decomposing or whatever they would be doing while your main character is doing what he's doing.

Kelly J.

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by CaveMonster - 02/05/2005 - 21:35

Thanks! These are some really great ways of approaching the problem!

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by Brad Hawkins - 03/25/2005 - 10:00

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by Xaviar Xerexes - 03/25/2005 - 10:02

Doonesbury buried its fourth wall years ago. It's well into Moonlighting-Syndrone

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by Anonymous - 06/18/2005 - 05:36

I'm not sure if you should be worried about it. Surely the whole point of having a character on a journey is that he will meet new characters, and will leave others behind. Try embracing this factor instead of getting rid of it. I would love to see a journey comic which, in terms of character interaction, is not exactly the same as a comic about people who aren't moving, due to the fact that a couple of people are travelling together.

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by Flatwood - 06/24/2005 - 13:04

I was recently worried about only having a major character around for a SHORT amount of time. I thought about increasing its "screen-time" so that it would make more an impact before it was removed. Then I realized that a good character can make a major impact in a short amount of time. Let the plot dictate the characters is what I say. Unless you're making a comic totally about characters...in that case, just throw the plot out the window. Is that clouded enough?

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