I am writing a Comic book and need advice

Have you thought about making them childhood friends or giving them some sort of history leading up to their relationship. Maybe she had a crush on her from childhood, and is just afraid of getting heartbroken.

Well, my protagonist is a white guy, and he isn't some beta nu-male, reddit user so he isn't going to be shouting at others for being intolerant.

Well, I don't know about having him come from a broken home, but I definitely am going to have him have some family issues. Nothing too edgy like receiving 50 cigarette burns a day and cutting his wrists or some Hot Topic-tier trash. Probably something more grounded towards reality like one of the parents being a deadbeat and disappearing so the other parent had to fill both roles for most of the protagonist's life.

I've considered that, and I have written down some scenarios relating to your suggestions; however, in the context of the story (characters are stuck in the virtual world of a video game) it might seem a bit more natural if the two characters just meet when they're stuck in the virtual world rather than having a history together.

I feel as though it adds more weight to see their relationship blossom from strangers, to friends, to lovers rather than already having some past interactions that the reader couldn't see before.

Plus, the whole "childhood friend who is a love interest" makes it feel a little too much like anime, in my opinion.

If you're writing a comic book that someone else is going to draw, it's in your best interest to make your script as artist-friendly as possible so your artist isn't fumbling in the dark. There are templates and books on comic book writing if you need to look this stuff up. At the same time, reign in any desire to pepper entire pages with prose. You're not Alan Moore.

"Sympathetic" characters are overrated, because technically people can sympathize with any character. What you want to do is flesh your characters enough so they aren't just a means to move the plot from point A to B or walking bullhorns spouting rhetoric.

Nobody cares if you're writing a black girl shacking up with a white dude. What matters if that you give readers a reason to give a damn about them.

It depends *why* you're doing it. If your intentions are pure, it's probably fine.

I fell into the same trap with a story I was writing once. I think the way they want you to think is programmed so if you accept any of it you end up unknowingly accepting it all.

My story was about a reluctant team of teenage superheroes. I just wanted the cast to each look and feel wildly different from eachother. Race is basically just for aesthetics or plot as far as I'm concerned. I came up with a black male character, just because I thought the design would look cooler if he was black. But then I thought "I'm not writing a damned thug character" and I ended up with this whole plot about him coming from a good family and basically being a nerd, but his powers altering his appearance in a way that inadvertently made him friends with the metalheads and bikers, so he becomes one, as cover at first, but then he really likes it. The more I wrote him, the more I liked this character. Perhaps the second favorite of my cast. He's a black metalhead who watched a lot of super hero cartoons as a kid and just always wants to do the right thing. So, eventually the idea of him having a girlfriend came up. It wouldn't be a permanent thing, but I liked the idea of having a Black Cat type show up, a wild girl for him to play off of. His powers are great, and she finds him attractive, but there's this element of "is she just using him?" At the time I had three cats, one was a Turkish Angora, and I thought that would be perfect from a design perspective. She could be completely human aside maybe from a tail, but have that cat theme. Her name would be Angora and she'd have all white fur and one blue eye and one gold.

It wasn't until some time later that I realized I'd created yet another of the most common in fiction but least common in real life couples, black male white female. "Well… I mean… But she's not human, so… that doesn't count right?" "I guess I could make her black… But that just wouldn't look attractive at all to me with the white costume."

The plan was going to be for her to betray him at one point, then show up later and save the team and redeem herself, but get killed by what they were fighting in the process. Then he gets pissed off and another aspect of his powers activates for the first time because of the trauma. I know "fridging" but I didn't give a fuck.

The quality of a character can be gauged by asking the question "What does [character] enjoy doing?" and seeing how far you can elaborate on it, like they're a real person.

For instance, the answer to "What does Peter Parker enjoy doing" and "What does Miles Morales enjoy doing" are wildly different, especially because the latter has no answer.

Is "fucking preteen boys and also fishing" good enough answer?

Is the first pic from the real comic?

I guess the question is why? Is this a relationship that formed naturally in your head, or is it because you've been influenced by the constant mixed-race bullshit that's being pushed on all of us through various media? Usually, what you'll see there is blonde white girl and black boy, or white boy and Asian girl. If you've got a reason other than "current year" for the relationship, then it's fine, but if it's because you somehow think there are a lot of mixed couples out there, you may be under some influence and should rethink things.

Too many authors just think that they need to make a statement and fix the world with their work. It's not inherently wrong to put your own views into the story, but making it a propaganda is bad. Politics can serve the story, but story shouldn't serve politics and just be able to stand on its own instead. Good examples of that are 1984, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, and Animal Farm. There are obvious messages there, but there is far more to those stories than that.

Personally I am just sick of comics that are trying to "make a point" or are filled with stupid drama. Especially with things like Maus, that get praised only because of their message, and poor writing and art get completely overlooked.

Eh, fridging would be if she got killed to establish how threatening villain is and to raise stakes. This is just a good old "redemption and sacrifice" that has been used for centuries.

Great response, and I do appreciate the help with those flash cards in the pic. I always see guides talking about how "the character should be able to gain sympathy", but I don't feel like that has to be necessary, especially since that just limits the potential of a character if all I am doing is seeing how likable I can make him/her.

Yeah, I am pretty much just having characters' races be more aesthetic than have some sort of deeper connection to some dark past ("muh slavery, muh oppression).

I don't know, there's something about a black guy and a white girl that just feels really off-putting. Just feels really weird and my internal programming just sets off some alarm when I see it, and when I do, I just get really uncomfortable tbh fam.

I have both characters in this relationship written down with full bio's, lists of things they do in their free time, fears, hopes, pet peeves, some little things that might not ever come up in the actual comic, but just helps the process of writing them as human-like as possible.

Well, I really never liked seeing a black guy and white girl, just always did something to me that sickened me about it.

On the other hand, as much as the media loves to jerk off to interracial couples, I just naturally formed the idea of these two characters, but I don't really make race a huge part of it. I just felt like aesthetically pleasing, plus the woman in the relationship isn't a typical "I IS A STRONG BLACK WOMYN HEAR ME ROAR" types. She is just more stickler for rules and organization on account of a family history relating to the military.

I haven't fallen for the propaganda, and I won't ever. I have been on chans for too long to succumb to SJW autism and faggotry.

Also, pic posted is 10/10 accurate.

Personally I am just sick of comics that are trying to "make a point" or are filled with stupid drama.

It's a shame that stories are made just to prove a point and add their little ID politics into their characters, turning them into one-note mouth pieces for whatever ideology they want to push. Truly, it's a shame.

Don't treat your audience like idiots, but make sure you introduce things before fully utilizing them.

For example, there's a locked gate with a lock, and a crowbar next to the protagonist. You need to make sure that the audience can see that the gate is locked, and a panel where the audience can see that there is a crowbar, through foreshadowing or seeing as much as the protagonist knows.

Use as little number of panels as necessary, once the audience makes a connection between the lock and crowbar, they'll figure it out.

Never underestimate the value of surprise - it's the writer's secret weapon. If the protagonist sees the crowbar (or doesn't) and ends up using his head to break the lock, that's unexpected and will be more exciting. Don't rely too much on it however, otherwise audiences will catch on and you'll stop engaging them.

Finally, just sit down, write, and when you think you've got a rough draft done with the whole story intact, post it here. Don't worry too much about little things like "should my character be black"; they become stupid mental blocks and you'll end up not writing at all because you're scared that you'll make a bad story if you don't include this or prevent that. Just write the damn story; outside people will help you see the mistakes you've made and help you fix them.

If the heroine is black and is in an interracial romance for the sake of being "progressive" than you're a fag.

I'd say the most important thing is to never bring up the fact that she is black.
Not writing like a tool means never feeling compelled to have characters vocalize the obvious.
Don't be dumb and don't write for dumb people.

Your example is terrible though, Voodoo used to be white. Her being black is horseshit.

You're telling me someone decided to make a white woman named Voodoo?
In WILD Cats #1 she does look white as fuck, I'll give you that.
I'm not familiar with too many image comics.
I posted that page simply because it was interracial, they have sex and then she kills him and pretends to be him.
Not so much an example of a good black girl protagonist even though she does avoid pointing out being black.
Good chunk of the comic is about her evil clone.
Regardless she shows up as black on a wikipedia list of black superheroes for whatever that is worth.

Black girls don't often exist or get standalones in comics.
The recent "Moongirl" comes to mind but many know how unimaginative that was for the same sort of race-lifty reasons.
Do any good examples exist?
Vixen?
Storm?

I'm just sick of how they are often tied to their heritage.
Lots of Serengeti imagery.
Because instances of racelifting are commented on with
But that is because they are often good characters.
They don't make being white part of their persona.
Instead of making characters that try to be good it is

Then it's pure. I see no problem with it on my end.

Here's my personal ruleset for including often-politicized shit with characters without turning the whole thing into an SJW soapbox propaganda shitfest, as well as for writing good characters regardless of looks and traits:

1: Write an entertaining character that fits with the setting and the story you want to tell.

Good, evil, likable, hate-worthy, friendly, hostile, just as long as they fit with the rest of the story's elements and aren't boring/obnoxious without specifically being intended to be such. At this point, gender, race, political views, sexual orientation and all that other shit shouldn't even factor in yet, as the first two are random elements that can be just as easily defied rather than adhered to in terms of common traits and personality, and the latter two are more-influenced by their race/gender/who like they to fuck but can also develop independently.

People in reality can and often do deviate quite a bit in personality, traits, interests and views from what's assumed by their looks alone and whatever groups they naturally and/or willingly belong to, so you have quite a bit of room for fitting an appealing design using certain typically-used racial/sexual/whatever elements into a different niche than usual if you know what you're doing. Same goes for fiction, too, when it's written well. A girl just as easily be a tomboy as she can be a pretty princess, a cowardly short guy can turn out to be the strongest and most determined person around, a big tough-looking black guy can end up actually being a huge weak nerd with no athletic capability or backbone, and an elf can be just as much of a foul-mouthed, ale-swilling hard manual worker as a dwarf in the right circumstance despite his fair looks.

Make your character first and foremost independent of these elements as the core, then worry about making their physical traits, mental traits and past all wrap around this core later.

2: Factor in gender, race and general appearance (body shape and type/height/hair color/etc.) now that you have the basics down, but only for the purposes of visual design and integrating said visuals into the setting, not for the actual character writing just yet. Figure out how you want them to look, and how to fit this look into your world without fucking everything up and disregarding established worldbuilding.

In other words, if you want a black woman space marine who likes other chicks as a character in a sci-fi novel, having her be of good physical condition and decked out in appropriate attire (especially face-covering helmet if absolutely everyone else wears one, so many faggots can't stand the thought of their super-special OC's face being off-panel for even one page despite all other armor/clothing wearers nearby who look similar being faceless) is good, since it means her being a lesbian black lady means jack-shit on the job and she's a competent human being just the same as any white man or other race/sex combo. However, making her a 500-pound magic space wizard tranny decked out in nothing but cloth and medieval-styled bling would be fucking retarded, as it would completely toss aside your sci-fi setting's cohesion and believability in favor of putting in an OC that's a mere hair's breadth away from being Coldsteel levels of autistic.

Design for appealing (or unappealing, if that's your intention for some characters, i.e. villains) and fitting visuals, but don't break the limits of your setting by shoehorning insane bullshit, unless your setting is intentionally going off the deep end into JoJo-esque "insane shit everywhere", in which case you're in a whole other ballpark and I hope for your sake that you know what you're doing. The crazy option for your setting definitely isn't recommended unless you've built up plenty of skill and have the right mindset for it, or alternatively are a superbly-strange Japanese guy and have both the skills and the mindset easily-acquired/by default.

(body limit's a cunt, will continue)

3: Factor in gender, race, sexual preferences, body, politics and all that other shit into the actual character's personality and past as appropriate now that visuals are settled, not bringing them up bluntly and openly in exposition/dialogue, and not factoring them in unless it's crucial to the story you're trying to tell and its actors.

What I mean by this is, real people have quite a few personality elements and elements of their minds/bodies/pasts that influence their thoughts, words and actions, but most of the time you'll never know even a fraction of what they are unless you've known this person for many years/gotten very close to them as an individual, and they sure as shit won't sit down and explain every born/acquired trait and life event starting from birth plus their consequences upon the psyche to you. The same should apply to fictional characters: Everyone's got a history and natural traits from birth, but whether or not these mean a fucking thing depends on how the affect actions and words within the context of the story, meaning that any traits which have no relation to what's going on or serve no purpose are better off not having attention drawn to them outside the subtlest hints exclusively for world-building.

When writing a character, such traits really don't apply in any meaningful way unless they play an important role in the character's personality and/or past, otherwise they're just worthless time-wasting filler info at best, and a political soapbox to stand on and blast your personal beliefs from at the expense of characterization/story at worst. For example, if your character is a dwarf who hates elves, having him rant all day about elves being shit for no good reason while either never meeting an elf/encountering anything elven in-story or never interacting with elves any differently than non-elf-hating characters makes the whole thing a waste, while having it actively influence his behavior toward elves and elven things negatively without just having him rant all the time gives it purpose, especially if it leads him to do something significant to the story that he wouldn't have done otherwise. Similarly, if your character is female, having her gender lead her to be promiscuous as fuck and manipulative toward men for no good reason is lazy writing since anyone could fill that niche from either gender, while having it be a direct result of her history (i.e. was literally a prostitute at some point and got used to using her body as a tool of coercion without shame) and thus justified as a character trait is sensible and ties things together far better.

Also, very important to note that showing is far better than telling here, as in showing that your character has these traits through their actions and interactions, rather than having them scream "I HATE ELVES" or "I'M A PROUD BLACK WOMAN WHO DON'T NEED NO MAN" at the top of their lungs every single time they appear. If your dwarf just screams about elves being faggots every single time he opens his mouth, it's obnoxious and contributes nothing, but if he manages to keep the entire party he's traveling with from getting fucked over by malevolent elves at some point because his first instinct is to watch them like a hawk and not believe their words on good faith, even if he doesn't say much on the matter, it actually works well. In the case where this dwarf's elf-hatred actually serves a purpose, we get a sensible purpose of its inclusion, a strong justification for its development prior to the story and a live demonstration of how it affects the character's words and actions, all rolled into one and without any soapboxing or needless exposition.

(body limit again, bear with me here)

4: Absolutely never soapbox about your political views, or use a character/multiple characters as your personal mouthpiece for projecting your ideology into the setting and politics of your story.

At no point should the idea of making a character whose entire point is shoehorning a political viewpoint you agree with as a sympathetic representative, or alternatively a viewpoint you disagree with as a strawman, be one you consider for any longer than it takes to discard it completely. If a character exists only to express a particular political/ideological view with absolutely nothing else comprising them, and all they will ever do in your story is slam their designated viewpoint down the audience's throat, it's time to abort the son of a bitch like it's a deformed baby you've caught wind of in the first trimester and start over. Characters that hold political and ideological viewpoints both expressed and implied aren't inherently-bad, and can be compelling and entertaining if written well, but characters who are nothing more than walking avatars of a standpoint existing purely to represent it are cancer that must be purged.

Now, don't take this to mean that politics cannot exist in your story, real or allegorical, as politics is an ultimately-inescapable realm that bleeds into any and all human artistic expression to some degree, whether intentional or otherwise. Rather, take this to mean that you should never beat your audience over the head with a book containing all of your personal beliefs, as people will read/watch/play your entertainment to be told a story, and "the people I agree with are all good heroic angel messiahs and inevitably win, while the people I disagree with lose every time and are big dumb evil meanie-heads, and it all ends with the people I agree with winning forever while the people I disagree with lose/get locked away/die, THE END" is a fucking shit story in every aspect with no value as entertainment.

There's a entire world of difference between your villain with established character holding a viewpoint in addition to his other traits and views which aligns with an existing ideology (i.e. wanting to purge the weak to institute natural selection in the modern era), and the same villain with no character besides his viewpoint acting as a strawman for it just so your good guys can knock him down and prove him wrong. Likewise, there's a massive difference between your character being a tranny who's completely-normal aside from having a cock and this element not factoring in at all unless the story calls for it somehow (such as inter-character drama that's politically-unbiased toward both sides), and having your tranny character be nothing but a patron saint of women with cocks who can do no wrong yet is oppressed by all existence for simply being alive (for more information and ample examples, see David Willis and his catalogue of hackneyed trash chock-full of Mary Sues).

Assuming you do all of this correctly, you should get an interesting and entertaining character who doesn't fall prey to becoming a piece of sentient political propaganda, regardless of whether they're a plain-jane white straight man working a 9-to-5 office job, a black lesbian woman with tomboyish traits in her personality who's risen to a powerful position through hard work and perseverance, or a nonsensical mass of tumblr stylings and /d/-tier fetishes that by all means should suck ass and be worthy of raw hatred, but miraculously isn't because they're well-written. It's all in knowing how to layer things properly and in what order while being careful not to forget any element, as incorrect priorities like gender/race first produce worse stereotypes than even the most intentionally-offensive material, missing elements create bland and pointless cardboard cutouts in place of characters, and letting your political views become the entire point with no other structure or purpose supporting them destroys it all beyond repair.

Oh, and one more thing, before I forget to include it due to being tired: Beyond objective criticisms of effort, quality, release schedule and other objective factors that you hold control over (i.e. having shitty art with no effort to improve, not bothering to update despite having ample time/never stating a reason for delays, etc.), and constructive criticisms which can help you improve your work without messing with the creative side of it, don't give a rat's ass what most people have to say about your work.

For example, if someone comments on your work and says "not bad, but the anatomy is a little off, maybe check out loomis' teachings at [link] to get better anatomy down, so your comic looks even better", that's objective and constructive criticism of an element you can improve without altering the story one bit, aside from improving audience connection and interest through better art, which means it's worth paying attention to and heeding the advice of. It's a comment upon your work which both points out a flaw and offers a solution to said flaw that you can easily look into, for the benefit of both yourself and your audience, so it's well worth your time to give it attention and see if the criticism plus the fix apply to your work, and take action accordingly.

(fuck me)

Meanwhile, when a retarded tumblrina who identifies as the planet Pluto whines that the black woman you wrote has internalized racism because she's dating a white man and thus an oppressor of her kind, or isn't 500 pounds yet perfectly-healthy against all logic, or whatever stupid bullshit that offers nothing but a subjective opinion on a subjective element of your work which provides nothing useful or constructive to help you improve it, you can safely tell them to blow it out their ass if they don't like it. In fact, you probably should do that every single time possible when this kind of shit happens (and it will happen inevitably, don't assume you're off the radar of the horde of hair-dyed cows, no one is), if only for the entertainment value of watching them sperg out at being told "no, fuck off" for the first time in their entire lives. That kind of "criticism" is nothing more than retards with nothing better to waste time on demanding their personal fetishes and political views be shoehorned into all entertainment that crosses their sight, attempting to badger you into changing your work's creative elements (independent of its quality) to suit their specific tastes and theirs only, and should be ignored completely, if not ruthlessly-mocked until they run home crying.

Sadly, most artists of all mediums get these priorities backwards, and brush off all valid objective criticism of the quality and construction of their art as mere bullying because of dislike toward the creative elements/the author, while instantly adding or removing anything the landwhale pods demand in order to avoid being ostracized by this "audience" (who doesn't care about any entertainment and just uses it all to circlejerk with their own kind about their personal ideologies, so no point in catering to non-buyers/non-readers/non-watchers, yet they do it anyways), or even worse, being called an evil racist sexist nazi bigot monster and thus having their image "stained" (more of a badge of honor to get smacked with those labels, these days) forever. If ever there's an artist that Holla Forums, Holla Forums or any other entertainment board loves taking the piss out of and following obsessively, like watching the local hobos lose their shit every night after smoking crack and then giving them money to fight each other in an improvised fight club, it's guaranteed to be one of these ass-backwards motherfuckers who hold the dubious title of the star of the shitshow, every time.

In other words, don't be an Andrew Dobson/David Willis/Kate Leth/etc., that road leads only to misery, mockery and a lifetime of licking the boots of people who don't care that you exist unless you're their enemy, and will never buy/read/watch anything you make because they don't care, all while being mocked repeatedly by any remotely-sane portion of humanity that stumbles across your pathetic existence.

To be fair, dobby doesn't cave to criticism, he just doesn't take advice at all.

SJWs don't even go after him since they literally don't care who he is.

Damn, that was an interesting read, man.

Don't take any advice from someone who has nothing better to do than bitch all day on the internet. Write a character that's interesting and leads to interesting and unexpected situations. Making you and the audience feel surprise and intrigue is the only goal.

Feel free to add your political beliefs (since all your beliefs will influence your art subconsciously anyway) but making it all one-sided will alienate some readers. Take The Simpsons episode "The Cartridge Family". It takes a touchy subject about gun rights and makes it hilarious and there's something for both sides to enjoy. South Park regularly shits on new agey shit but also has aliens and god in the show, so there's something for both skeptics and believers.

Oh, and make the comic book about the ART. If every panel has two paragraphs to read, no matter how deep you think it is, you're better off writing a novel.

I hope this character is female.

And hot.

I don't, never once is there ever a situation where the character ever says something like "It's because I'm black" or "It's because I'm a girl" and tries to be empowering by proving the mean, stupid boys wrong.

Well, I am really not writing this to earn liberal good boy points, I just brought this whole discussion up to just hear what Holla Forums has to say on the matter of this topic, especially since it really is happening a lot in comics with everyone turning black or getting together with a black person.

I absolutely despise it, and I can't understand how writers who do this don't realize that they are being racist for only using blacks as a mouthpiece and useful idiots to convey "muh slavery".

Thanks, my nigger.

Holy shit, this is a great read. Thank you for the advice. I am definitely going to save this, not just to apply it to my project that I am working on, but any future projects as well. You have ascended to my nigger-tier.

There's a sense of satisfaction inside of me knowing that when I finally get the comic released to the general public, there will definitely be one neon-haired land whale frothing at the mouth when she sees a BLACK WOMAN being in a loving, caring, and even sexual relationship with a STRAIGHT, WHITE, MALE. I just feel so much smugness.

I can only hope I have the honor and opportunity to do this. I really do. Especially since when a lot of creators have a chance to do so, they bend over backwards to please the unsatisfied SJW menace instead of telling them to fuck off and cry to their tumblr followers.

I am not one to fall into listening to what an SJW of all people would ever have to say. Just made this whole thread to hear about what you guys have to say on the matter, especially since Holla Forums knows about the horrors that plague comics nowadays.

Great comments by everyone so far. Really appreciate all the helpful advice.

I will give you all +10 Good Boy Points.

Yaaaaay!
Do I get less jail time is they catch me?

You only get one dick in your ass instead of two when you get sent to the reeducation camps in order to be programed with more love and tolerance for others.

I can live with that.

When writing dialogue, you need

That is true, but you can also go too far into the other direction, which is something I'm a bit guilty of, especially in dialogue scenes. I subconsciously write dialogue in a way that sounds natural, how real people talk, which doesn't always translate well to comic books. For example, I once wrote a conversation that was pretty concise and offered some insight into the characters, but it ended up lasting around five pages, which is quite a lot if we consider that a regular comic book issue has about 20.

Drawfag nigger here, i gotta say one thing here.
Make the character and the world fun please don't stress yourself over SJW shit. if you want you character gay make it gay, if she's black, Asian, blue, green, elf make it so.
The anons here are some of the most down to earth motherfuckers you will ever find on the internet. Do you bro.

You and me are kinda in the same boat with the character being different races and all. but let me tell you a joke…
I give zero shits about my character being black. Go look in OC thread look up my image and see the reactions. People liked the design and they wanted to know the story.
THAT was enough for me to say this character will work.
BUT I have to me it work and so do you OP.

Just have fun with it man and don't do something because everybody else is doing. Do it because you want to.

how about having the white male get with a white female? miscegenation is boring.

.I still can't wrap my head around the fact that current writers are so easily willing to sacrifice a sense of fun and excitement just to ruin several pages so the audience can know what the writer believes is the "right" way to think and that if you're a white man, you should pretty much incinerate yourself

Shit, look at Kate Leth, she's been going on about how she doesn't want her characters to be hurt in the pulp because it would hurt her feelings.

How the fuck can you have an adventure of any kind, if the fucking characters can't get hurt because it'd make the writer upset?!

Stop asking for advice on Holla Forums and write your fucking story!