TWCL

[Eve Z.]

Do you have these moments when it seems like your characters are making the story and not YOU?

OK. I had this kind of moment today, after uploading my newest page. And NOT just today. It's kind of creepy, you see?

First, you write the script for the new page without very much thought, sometimes it's just something that you think fits into the story. Also, sometimes you make plans beforehand as to what the next page should be like and when you draw it and write it, it turns out to be a little different than planned. Then you read the page again and you find a new meaning to some of the lines, after you drew it and wrote it and never thought about it, as if the characters themselves thought them and not yourself.

So here's today's moment: After I drew my comic page/shaded it, worked on it for several hours, I uploaded it on my site and I realized that my main character was in a total negation. It was hilarious. I didn't intended it to be that way, but someone did. I LOL'd and freaked out at the same time. Especially since her last line was also 'no.' about which I wasn't sure made much sense, but reading back it made a lot of sense and sounded funny as hell.
^ This is an example.

So, you guys with more experience in web-comics, share your first experience!

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EDIT to change the title.
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[wendyw]

One of my characters in Gilbert and Grim has fallen in love with another one. At no point did I intend it, but after rereading several pages with the two of them in I realised that's exactly what was happening in those pages.
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Blog

[xwhy]

They don't write it, but every now and then a throwaway line from the past comes back in a different way.

One strip originally ended with a character commenting, "You're a braver man than I." As an afterthought, I had the first respond, "'Than I'? Dude, you start dating an English teacher?" (They're both math teachers.)

That summer, turns out, yeah, he is, and a minor character (who didn't even have a name up until that point) was elevated in the hierarchy.

Re-reading some old throwaway lines gives me ideas sometimes.
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[Varethane]

Heh, I feel like my characters write my comic all the time XD;;

It's usually a bit of a trick making sure to get them into situations that will get them to react the way I want them to or do the things I want to draw them doing. :U And I'm constantly finding that I have to change my script around, since when I draw the pictures that go with my preliminary scripts often makes me realize that they'd respond to certain dialogue cues in different ways than I'd originally planned on...
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[lexia]

nope

[vaslittlecrow]

Oh God yes... All the time.

For example.

[Traegorn]

Ended up with a character having died because of something like that.

[thegooddoctor]

I think this is true of all writing. If you are doing your job as an author, your characters should definitely feel as if they are writing themselves.

[Sylvia]

thegooddoctor wrote:

I think this is true of all writing. If you are doing your job as an author, your characters should definitely feel as if they are writing themselves.

My characters feel the endless lifetime emprisonment of author tyranny. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
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[R(ed)]

vaslittlecrow wrote:

Oh God yes... All the time. For example.

How did I miss your work?!
I'll be soft and say "awesome".

On topic, I feel sort of like Nostradamus, I'll script "and so x-y-z happens" and then I realise that one of my chars wants to do something else, or that the story works better if that isn't seen. My bit-cast want to talk more it seems...but they all die near the end!
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[vaslittlecrow]

R(ed)
Hey, if my doodle, junk work and brainstorming blog is not your cup of tea, that's fine. If my methods of coming up with ideas bother you, that's cool too. So, if my shrink approves of me using art to exploit my delusions/hallucinations (yes I realize they're not real,) it works as a helpful coping mechanism, and it doesn't hurt anyone, why not keep it up?

Now, if you want to grab someone else's ankles and make yourself better about your own inadequacies, go for it. It's a free country. I'm doing research and laughing at my crappy drawings from college, so I'm kinda too busy to be dragged down.

[R(ed)]

Do you know, I spent all day thinking of a coherent response?

vaslittlecrow wrote:

R(ed)

Yes indeed.

Quote:

Hey, if my doodle, junk work and brainstorming blog is not your cup of tea, that's fine.

Well to be exacting I actually love your art style, I thought you were a blond woman at first though. Your blog is quite interesting, I do like your article on "being single" and found your experience living above a brothel very funny.

Quote:

If my methods of coming up with ideas bother you, that's cool too. So, if my shrink approves of me using art to exploit my delusions/hallucinations (yes I realize they're not real,) it works as a helpful coping mechanism, and it doesn't hurt anyone, why not keep it up?

Personally I don't trust hypnotists, mostly after I read that it is possible to convince someone to kill themselves or to auto-terminate (it involves running water). None the less, I am actually interested in hypnosis, although my friend threatened to disown me if I ever mastered the art. She knows I would only abuse it. *sadface*. Actually I love the way you depicted yourself physically becoming your character, I find raw tablet art has a freshness that pencils cannot duplicate, but still have that raw emotion. I personally am very afraid of what I would summon under your circumstances although your husband is a star, I will give him that.

Also, your mind makes it real, therefore it is real. So don't feel ashamed.

Quote:

Now, if you want to grab someone else's ankles and make yourself better about your own inadequacies, go for it.

Say watt? You have the wrong end of the stick I think. Firstly, yes, I have a lot of things that need sorting out, I doubt any artist would say otherwise, but I am not putting you down! On the contrary, I favourited your blog, read your blog, admired your work, took to note some of your words-of-wisdom and you remind me why I should socialise more. You are an interesting woman...and as your post mentioned, you are fed up of people telling you your fetishes. And I know that feel, despite not having sex since /0.

Quote:

It's a free country.

You're an African American, don't cuss yourself, please. (As an aside, I'm some hyrbrid Carib-Indo-Brit mix, but last time I checked, self defence laws in London didn't mean I should be shot for walking down a white neighbourhood.)

Quote:

I'm doing research and laughing at my crappy drawings from college, so...

Crap drawings...hmmm, I should flame myself or other webcomickers?

Quote:

I'm kinda too busy to be dragged down.

I'M NOT THE ONE INSULTING YOU! Really, I'm not insulting you, you can ask anyone on the board who has been (un)fortunate to have met me IRL, I am quite a nice person who tends to use hyperbole and speak in metaphor, but I am NOT THAT GUY!
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[Casual Notice]

R(ed) wrote:

Quote: It's a free country. You're an African American, don't cuss yourself, please. (As an aside, I'm some hyrbrid Carib-Indo-Brit mix, but last time I checked, self defence laws in London didn't mean I should be shot for walking down a white neighbourhood.)

What the FUCK? There is so much bullshit in the above sentence that I thought I'd stepped into a high-density feed lot.
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What I lack in sincerity, I make up for in sarcasm.
S*P*Q*R

[R(ed)]

Minor "whatisnamethatgotshot" rant.
I'm ending that train there right though, and I apologise for being needless sarcaustic. Lay off the chans methinks.
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[vaslittlecrow]

Casual Notice
I know, right. Isn't prejudice awesome?

R(ed)

Chans, huh? Been there, done that, done there and kind of figured... Thank you for your kind comments, your stupid comments and your sarcasm, all the same. I will take them for what they are: your opinion.

Clarification about me being "African American": Technically, I am not African American. Yes, I am part Mandinka, Yoruba and Moor (the latter technically could be considered Arab or European Black, rather than African.), However, if you feel the need to slap an ethnic label on me in order to assign stereotypes, I suggest you get it right first. I am Puerto Rican. My ethnic heritage also includes Irish, Genoan, Calo Rroma, Spanish (which is my predominant ethnicity) and Taino (I actually speak the language, though in a dialect that died out with my grandfather so, I have no one to speak it with.) In my Native American tribe, we have a saying: "Aji Aya Bombe!" It means, "death before slavery." If people want to adopt the identity of slave or oppressed, that's their problem. I personally choose to reject that label and as a result I live free. That's the warrior's way, my friend. I am rather disappointed that you brought up a very tragic incident where a HISPANIC (read: predominantly of Spanish descent) man who was assumed to be white, shot an African American and benefited from a horrible "self-defense" law, to explain why I am not a free person. It really doesn't convince me that you are not THAT person.

In the future, I ask that you refrain from expressing opinions on what you assume my supposed ethnicity's influence on my life is, as your prejudices really are none of my business, especially since they are entirely unrelated to the topic of comic art.

As for your comments on hypnotism, thanks for sharing them.

Yes, I was looking at my crap comics from college, and yes the blog I posted was my dump. Am I ashamed of that work? No. Do I laugh at it and learn from my mistakes so I can actually apply it to my real work? Yes. Is it fun to share my goofy moment and silly roughs, even when it's not my best work? Of course, and especially since I don't have to worry about annoying advertisers or viewers. I find it liberating to share my uninhibited work. Even when I make junk art, I love it, I own it, I rock it and I am proud of it. Shameless is my way of being. Also, the art was done with brush pen on Bristol board, not a tablet -- electronic or otherwise. And just because I experienced anything, it doesn't mean that I should be gullible enough to believe without critical analysis.

And actually, I was modeling at a studio above a brothel not actually living in it. But thanks for reading that article, it was a pretty crazy experience.

Thank you for acknowledging the end of your train of thought. Better late than never.