The Characters Are Taking Shape

The last few days have been a blast creativity-wise.

The first draft of Ecclesiastes U contains many, many pages of word balloons each of which are filled with dialog. While writing that dialog I had no clue who the speakers were. I wrote without specific characters in mind. It was a stream of consciousness process. I’d read a phrase from Ecclesiastes in Mr. Q’s word balloon, then reflect, respond, and riff on each phrase, writing down my rough ideas like mad and eventually typing them into the Publisher template of six panels per page.

I'm now sorting through and categorizing those word balloons according to speaker. Some word balloons are best suited to the hedonist; others are best suited to the scientific materialist. Some to the Teacher’s Assistant. In the first 40 pages I’ve come up with 11 or 12 main categories of comment meaning I’ll now have 11 or 12 main characters.

Here’s a pictorial survey of the convoluted process of creating words before pictures.

Here's page 11 of the first rough draft; speakers of each word balloon are unidentified

I drew a dozen or so random cartoon faces using a brush pen; the final drawing
will be rendered in Micron .05 pen and then colored with Prisma Color pencils.

I cut and pasted those faces onto sheets for easy clipping

I scotch taped faces to appropriate word balloons in each panel (pages 1-40, so far)

FYI: The guy in the first panel is Mr. Q. Panels 2, 3, and 6 is a rapper (Hispanic or black, haven't decided yet). Panels 3 and 4 is a cartoon depicting the Teacher's Assistant. As mentioned, there's no guarantee the final characters will look anything like this. 

I was always under the impression one created characters with values, histories, temperaments, and idiosyncrasies first. Then writers put those characters together in a variety of situations and let chemistry do the rest.

I on the other hand reversed the sequence. I first juxtapose the philosophy of Ecclesiastes with the musings of university students. This in turn creates reactions of puzzlement, anger, outrage, confusion, humor, and so forth. And then finally, to make sense of those reactions, I isolate the speakers according to character.

Here’s the challenge: Those thumbnail sketches look nothing like the final character, size, gender, age, facial hair, hair dos, or attire. Their facial expressions are inert and they’re all talking heads. The finished product will include wide angle shots, long shots, close ups, facial expressions, full body action (in a classroom), and color. These thumbnail sketches are useful to distinguish one speaker from another but I am working hard not to allow these pictorial references influence how the final characters will look.

This is all wonderfully complicated. If there is an easier way to create graphic novels I don’t know it…which is understandable. I’ve never drawn one before.