I just want to know if anyone else has characters in their comics that reflect their personality? And if they do, was it intentional, or did you notice it later?

I know personally that it was only recently that I noticed that my comic had no females, so I added one. It was then that I realized that the girl was nothing like me and that after closer examination it was the main character (who is actually Jesus) that shared a lot of my characteristics. I didn't try to write it like that, it just happened.

So does anyone else have characters that reflect their personality?

I'm not a white female obnoxious elf, but I sometimes see pieces of myself in Nadya. (Or the other way around.) It definitely wasn't intentional. All characters have a piece of you in them, though.

I think in Nadya's case, it's mostly about me trying to understand why she feels like she's owed something by everyone.

Hmm...Well let's see...
Yeah, my characters portray my two sides of personality.

When I'm in a good mood - I'm a complete idiot. I make an idiot of myself, and I'm completely content with whatever happens. Like Frank!
But when I'm in a bad mood - I actually use my brain, and if anyone says anything moderately bad about me, I tell to F(%& off and die. I also make smartarse remarks then. Like Vinny!

I'm like Vinny a lot more than usual.
Like right now.

A little bit of me ends up in all of my characters, because that's how it works for me, but there's no one character who is really me. Colin has my glasses and my love of books, Nicodemus has my occasional shyness (and my shoes, too), Lexie and I share a hair colour and a manner of speaking, but none of them are replicas of me.

Aside from Nicodemus' shoes, none of it was really intentional; I didn't sit down and think "I ought to put this part of my personality into this character!" - it just turned out that way. A character based completely on me simply wouldn't fit into my comic.

There's definitely a lot of me in several of my characters. Also, many of my characters have traits I've borrowed from family and friends including my mother and father and so some of their elements are probably in me somewhere, too.

I guess the two characters I would identify with most are Stan (although I am not sixty-five years old!) and Boo (although I am most definitely not a red-headed Celtic warrior queen!)

Like Stan, I have a very dry cynical side to me which can mask fairly idealistic principles, as well as a belief in common sense over dogma. Like Boo, I have a self-deprecating but teasing sense of humour, as well as a very British compulsion to support the underdog.

Unlike either of them, I'd be a coward if I was ever called upon to go and fight bad guys!

Well, they're all figments of my imagination, so I guess there's a little bit of me in all of them, or at least a bit of how I perceive other people. I think the character in Bulletproof who was closest to my personality and the way I see the world was probably Shockwire's brother David, who has only appeared on a few pages months ago so far - none of the more major characters are particularly like me, and I actually find that easier to write. If there's too much of me in a particular character, there's an enormous danger of Mary Sue Syndrome and all its various symptoms that inevitably lead to shoddy writing.

When I made the character bios I tried to make them well-rounded and not resemble me. I succeeded with my main character who's nothing like me, but the taller, mean, longer-haired girl reflects me a lot. u.u

I got a bit of me in most of them I think. It's not intentional. I just didn't go out of my way to make my characters like or unlike myself. They are who they are. However, two of my main characters are based semi-loosely on my roommates. I call them "watered down" versions of them because my real roommates are a bit too quirky and one-dimensional to be "believable" in fiction. ;) Seiko dresses like me, and my friends accuse me of being like her as far as "socially naive" and shy/awkward around guys.

I see my own traits most in the teenage boy characters. Alex is very much like me in the way he reacts to things and his general demeanor. Mike doesn't act like me at all -- BUT he acts and says the things that I *want* to say and do. (He acts on impulse/emotion.)

Oh, no way. We just share the same interests, personality, looks, and names by coincidence.

Hmm, no, none of my characters are that much like me. Of course there are some similarities, but not enough to say "oh, they are SO like the creator!".

I used to create main characters who basically ARE me when I was younger, but luckily I got out of that phase quite quickly. My personality is kinda weird and doesn't really fit in any decent plot, so I'm glad I stopped doing that.

The only exception is one of my stories which is based on my everyday life at school. Though that's kinda obvious considering the characters are all based on real people.

Theres a little bit of me in every character. Major or minor.

At the same time, I make it a point that nobody is really my mouthpiece or a direct representation of ME. I also make them say things that I disagree with.

hmmmm.
i can see bits of myself in my main character in that he's soft-spoken and almost cowardly. of course, those are really small facets of me. i find that all my characters are reflections of myself, but with more emphasis on certain personality traits i have. i find that makes it much easier to relate to the character, and makes dialogue flow from my head more smoothly. it's not that i do it on purpose or anything, i just tend to stick to what i know. i try to keep it different though, there's nothing more annoying than two characters you can't tell apart!

I tend to write characters with a little bit of me in them, because otherwise I can barely know how they'll act.

Damien of Warriors of the Night is my most unconscious thoughts. The stuff I think about without realising it. The things I know instinctively, but have actually been working them out in my head. He does what I would only do when backed into a corner with absolutely no way out. In other words, he's my dark side.

Other than that, the main characters are named after me, so yeah, they do have some part of me in them

There are scientists out there who say that "Multiple Personality Disorders" don't exist. We comic writers here at Drunkduck are proof that it does, though in a mild form (they don't come out to dominate our body). :)

Lonnehart
There are scientists out there who say that "Multiple Personality Disorders" don't exist. We comic writers here at Drunkduck are proof that it does, though in a mild form (they don't come out to dominate our body). :)

They don't?

I know i've ended up saying thing thats more one of my charters them me (not from LUTTH of couse because that is me!) But i find if i work on a charter for a while io find myslef 'quoting' them in real life.

And yes most of my charter have bit of me in them.

I would have to say that a good majority of my characters are inspired or influenced by bits and pieces of other people that I know in real-life rather than actually being a part of me...even though me and my character Flint share just a few similarities.

All in all though, I do believe that there are pieces of the artist (or creator) in each character they draw.

As everyone has already noted, any character you create as a little piece of yourself in them. That's how they were "born", and only later do they manage to grow up into their own, completely unique characters.

As for which of my characters I mostly resemble, in personality that is, I would have to say Henry. He's easy-going, willing to make a fool of himself, and yet he's always there to help, even if it doesn't seem that way at first.

My personality comes out of my comics alot. All the main characters in Wakon Yosai are like me in some way.

One of my characters is actually based on me. The others I just kind of gave personalities to help fit the story and that I thought would fit regarding the way they look. My main comic requires making and allocating a lot of personalities. I've created and designed over 100 characters, though I really need to begin drawing and posting the artwork.

In my subcomic, I try not to feed into archetypical personalities, but we'll see how that goes. The main character isn't based off of anyone, but he has that brooding, potentially insane, pugnatious and blood-thirsty, lone wolf ready to bite type of person. That comic I should be posting soon.

but he has that brooding, potentially insane, pugnatious and blood-thirsty, lone wolf ready to bite type of person

Thats the type of characters I like to see in comics. :)

I'd like to think that our comic characters are like little glass shards of a mirror. They inherit little traits for us, like parents because we created them and gave them life. A little piece of ourselves is all we have to give them to make them seem real.


Or I could be reading way too much into it. :/

Some of the Due East characters are completely made up (particularly Crystal, Lindsay, Deon and Nathan) while others have pieces of people we know. Only one character seems to have some of my personality in them, and that's Sapphira. Sometimes I see some of my wife's personality in Brielle but not always (and if there is, it's not intentional). Doug has some physical and personality similarities to my late father. Carolyn was inspired by a mutual friend of mine and my wife, from church.

mishi_hime
I'd like to think that our comic characters are like little glass shards of a mirror. They inherit little traits for us, like parents because we created them and gave them life. A little piece of ourselves is all we have to give them to make them seem real.

That pretty much sums it up. Author inserts and Mary Sues aside, it's hard to completely distance yourself, and not interesting to plop yourself in the middle. FFC is more guilty of this for me, since Katyn was intended to be nothing like me and ended up a lot like me. Ry has a lot of my traits as well.
In TM, I did a bit better, each character having one element of me that allows me to understant them better - Tren has my temper, Jaith compassion, Tai introversion (is that even a word?), ect, but you couldn't really point to any one and say "that's her" or "that's not her". They're all a part of us.

Pineapple, your topic is fun, interesting and your handle is delicious, especially when combined with vanilla ice-cream or chilled yogurt.


*** Warning: Excessively verbose post follows ***

I personally think everyone puts a part of themselves into most of the characters of their comics, intentionally or not. After all, how could you create anything if you didn't draw upon your own observations and experiences? So the characters in any comic either embody a part of the creator, or the creator's observations of others.

Using Super Temps as an example, Molly/Skull Girl gets my naivety, innocence, enthusiastic energy and optimism (thus supplying all the material I need for humour for a character who wants to be evil). She's petite because I like petite women, she's got punky hair because I like punky hair (on other people), and she wears a thong because there's a funny joke to go along with it. Skull Girl designed her outfit to be purposely outrageous, impractical, and sexist (it's 'evil'). That's what makes an 'appropriate' super-villian outfit. Hidden in this joke is the fact that in other comics, the females wear similar outfits but without the motivation to do so, and yet the comic expects the audience to take the characters seriously.

So in one character I neatly package several of my own traits, preferences, and disdain for common practises in comics.

Most of the cast either gets one of my traits, fufills a fantasy, reflects an experience or partially embodies an ideal or dislike of mine. The only exception to the rule would be Iron Pants, who is a parody of Iron Man (and even then I speak through him sometimes), and Devil Girl (who just isn't fleshed out much yet)

A quick overview:
Skiv - Just about everyone has run off of stimulants at some point. Skiv's facial structure is also based off my own.
High Voltage - original embodiment of everything I wanted to make fun of in comics and mainstream entertainment, from a hero's perspective.
Mr. Evil - High Voltage's villain counterpart. Originally goofier, he's an amalgamation of every mentor I've ever had.
Hydromancer - My frustration of not being able to fully apply my talents in employment.
Jenny the Kat - My disdain for arrogant conformists who mindlessly mimic whatever trends they see.
Jackie - My empathy for anyone who got blocked from something on the basis of appearance or class despite their well-suited natural talents and abilities.
Kim - Based off another character that I often use as a sounding board.
Armageddon - The embodiment of every stupid character I thought got way too much screen-time or importance, despite being the least interesting or badly constructed.

well... in my comic 'this comic kicks ass' they share my sence of humour (obviously) but personality wise... their pretty 2D.

but, my comic M... has me in it.

on a side note, i once had a comic with like... three Me's in it... but only two of them were really anything like me...

It's very normal that characters share some of their author's characteristics.

Let's see my case... uhm...

Well, I suppose Trixie Pixie ("Pixie Pals") shares my blind trustness and general naiveness, while Azazel ("Nagaly") shares my "Loser" status.

However, the characters who more resemble me are not in my comics but in some stories I'm writing down. Those also count as Characters, but here I expect we are speaking in characters created for Comics, right?

I think my main character, Marissa is alot like me in one way, but completely different in other ways. I'll feel like a prude explaining the qualities I share with her, but they were put into the story based on my own values. I think Angela is too perfect to be like anyone, but my ex said I was alot like her, so there it is. My littlest character, Tomoya, is based completely on one of the preschool students I taught in Japan. :)

One of the lesser characters currently (and the one in my avatar) is for all essential purposes, me. From the cluelessness down to the non-existent fashion knowledge. :D

My two main characters started off many years ago as little sketches based almost entirely on me and my best friend. After I decided to cram 'em into an actual comic with a plot and everything, they developed their own personalities which are not like me or my friend at all. Kinda cool how that worked out, but it's much more fun to write this way.

Hmm. Because I use fan characters, I can say that a lot of the characters are unlike me. Especially with a co-writer/artist to smooth the kinks.

I suppose Flash Gordon is the one who is most like a caricature of me. A self-righteous guy who always had it good, thinks he knows best, assumes control, and talks at you. I never thought Flash did that, until my co-artist told me this character gave that impression.

And then my co-artist proceeded to knock Flash down from his own pedestal, every chance he got. Made the story unexpectedly fun, actually.