I've recently decided that Slackman needs to have some kind of love interest (other than beer and pizza) and so I set about sketching, as you do.

So what I came up with looks a little like my girlfriend/partner/whatever the fuck they're called these days... and I'm just wondering if this is in some way going to bite me on the arse later?

hahaha excellent! So if it's a bad idea it means I should DEFINITELY do it right?

It's good to have personal family and friends in your comics. That way, you can make fun of them without them being mad at you. For example, you could draw your girlfriend crashing a car implying that your girlfriend in real life can't drive.
If she gets angry, just tell her it's a joke. It's called being passive aggressive, and it works.

Hahaha Yeah at least my Missus loves Slackman... my ex wife would have NEVER got the joke... I mean hell, she still can't get over the time my brother called her a cunt...

If she deserved it, she shouldn't get over it. That's one of those words you CANNOT take back. You better mean it from the bottom of your being calling a woman that.

In some of my stories and comics, if I'm not directly basing characters on people I know, then I at least use some of their personality traits here and there.

I'm not really familiar with your comic. I can't give you direct advice. All I can say is that if you can pull it off correctly, then go for it.

Wow, this talk is reminding me of that guy who made (or still makes?) American Splendor. That's basically a comic about his day to day life. It includes his co-workers, wife, everyone.

I have my gf in my comic too... She constantly asks if she's in a new strip.

But I loves yah all!

This brings to mind something I'd heard about the Anita Blake series: the main character's a big ol' Mary Sue, and the author even wrote in her husband as the primary love interest, and he was a fairly popular and sympathetic character. Cut ahead a few years, and suddenly he's a huge jerk and his attempts to "force" her into marriage earlier in the series is likened to rape. Obviously, she had gone throug a bit of a divorce since then. I can't really describe it much more beyond that, since I heard all this second-hand so I don't know how it actually went in the book.


All I'm saying is, it's a risky thing to base these people on your loved ones.

The only people I've ever included in my comic were indirect character representations of a couple of friends of mine. Therefore I can write for them without said people getting irritated or embarrassed about what I wrote for the character because it's not 100% supposed to be representing them. Just their creative property, or something along those lines.

Interesting. Hope having her likeness works out for you.
An earlier webcomic I did outside of DD (don't bother looking, you won't find it) some eight years ago had featured my friends and family at the time as background characters. So I showed them. They were mildly bemused to indifferent about it. Quite the supportive sorts, no? :D

Having characters that are based on people you know is kind of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it gives you the opportunity to create situation based on your real life yet still be fictional at the same time. On the other, though, there is the tendency to make the main character a god-like version of yourself, which can be very annoying.

For example, the main character in my comic is, when stripped down to his barest elements, a child version of myself. However, where there are some similarities between Drannik and myself, I try to differentiate him so that he's less perfect than me (he's schizophrenic, he kills someone, he has no real family, he grew up in a cult). Many of the other characters in Negligence are based on other people I knew as well, but given some variation.

To answer the question, I do not think that inserting your girlfriend into the comic is a bad idea. Just try to find a way to make the character different from the real person, and don't make her a Mary Sue.

meh it's fiction for a REASON. I mean, don't strain yourself or anything, but shouldn't fictional characters be invented? No matter what, the character will probably have traits of your girlfriend- art imitates life, as they say. People get sensitive when they start plagiarizing directly from their own life. Then, every comment is personal effrontery.

Plus, irl people are not nearly as interesting as fictional people.

I don't know- as someone said, if the relationship goes south, then what? I vote bad idea, depending on how similar the character is to yer girl.

I base a lot (uh, okay- most) of my characters and the stuff that goes on in my comic on my life. But I never create characters directly based on or resembling my friends and family- even if they ask me to (and they do). Random people I've met or known is different. A lot of background or minor characters are pretty much ripped off directly from real life. One chick I didn't even change her name. And she's not portrayed in a, er, favorable light! ;)

And I gotta disagree with ya, Kristen- truth is stranger than fiction. Some of the kooks I've met I couldn't make up in a million years if I had superhuman imagination!

It's like getting your girlfriend's name tattooed on you. If it fails, now you have this tattoo that no longer means anything...

I put characters based on real people I've met in real life.

I do that all the time.

I just modify the physical appearance.

Well I went and did it, I based a new character on my girlfriend. I thought about it a lot and I think what it really came to was the fact that she was the one who encouraged me to make comics more than anybody else ever has, she's become something of a muse so it seemed only logical to create a character around her.

lOVE your avatar Skullbie......what a jerk he was.

ttyler
lOVE your avatar Skullbie......what a jerk he wa--

Yo i'm really happy for you, and Imma let you finish, but Coked up Vibrator Cat was one of the best avatars of all time!

he saved Taylor Swift the embarrassment of making a shitty speech!

Skullbie

ttyler
lOVE your avatar Skullbie......what a jerk he wa--

Yo i'm really happy for you, and Imma let you finish, but Coked up Vibrator Cat was one of the best avatars of all time!

Hahahahah xD I loved that cat xD

Ryan_Scott
Well I went and did it, I based a new character on my girlfriend. I thought about it a lot and I think what it really came to was the fact that she was the one who encouraged me to make comics more than anybody else ever has, she's become something of a muse so it seemed only logical to create a character around her.

LOL baaaaaad idea, buddy. It's obvious that you let your emotions blind you and you weren't going to listen to anyone else, anyways.

Like people had said, this is similar to dating someone at work (as in see-her-everyday kind of work). It may be great now, but if you guys split, you're going to have to stare at that character every time you draw a page. You'll probably decide to have a bus run over her (in the comic).