Pretty simple, how do you come up with them, or what inspires you to create them, not just the lead characters but the support as well.

Some characters are there for a purpose they serve that purpose and are gone but those that appear semi regularly surely are more than just an image.

For example in Malefic Greg is a combination of people I know, the look is vaguely like a few people but personality and background... well he has elements from myself and some of my closest friends. He was created for the purpose of being the leading man.

Dan was created for the comic relief and is part me but largely inspired by a guy I met a few years ago who is very heavily into role playing games and is pretty detached from reality. I didn't consciously put anything of myself into Dan but it has come about naturally. As has his increased presence in the comic.

Vicky was originally inspired by skanky hookers I met when I was a Taxi driver, she has evolved a bit but that is yet to be shown in the comic.

Similarly Toby was originally going to be her pimp and a nasty piece of work but I felt having the one black guy being a pimp was something of a stereotype, and not a good one, even though he too was inspired by someone I had the misfortune of meeting. So Toby ended up being, well a bit bland as he didn't get much time to shine before being dragged beneath the earth by demon tentacles.

Now all my characters are deeper than I make them sound from this but that is the starting point.
Aside from Greg and Dan none were create for a specific role, now most stories require characters to perfrom certain roles to either get the drama or push the story along. I wanted to avoid that and let the characters and the events shape things.
So any characters death could come at anytime if I think their actions would put them in that situation.

The characters in my comics are inspired by people around me, characters in books I've read, tv shows/films I like, etc.

I also think of what role I want them to have in the comic, eg. In The Door: Kay= Lead character, the 'hero' but he needed to be curious and mischievous enough to want to know what was behind the door in order to advance the story. Maria= The mother figure who is always looking out for Kay. She is basically a supporting character who backs Kay up in the situations he can't deal with. Albert= The nasty, suspicious character who's always getting in Kay's way. Basically needed to provide conflict in the story.

That example is a pretty simple one, but it doesn't tend to start off any more complicated than that for me. Of course, once the character's 'role' is decided and I start putting them into situations, more of their personality begins to emerge. Most of my characters personality only comes about once I start scripting/drawing the comic. I know the basics, like whether they are brave or a coward, caring or selfish etc. But little quirks, common expressions for them to have, catch phrases, etc, they all come about later.

Kaida: Inspired by my friend Gael primarily as well as a large dose of Jigen from Lupin III and the quiet/uninvolved but deep backstory type characters from a variety of anime. Actually, most of the bases for Kaida are male characters with dark pasts. The jewelry and clothing is inspired by Gael. Her skinny build is taken from Jigen.



Yuki: Yuki is mostly Bethany in personality, very bright but also absent-minded, with both a love of "kid" things (fairy tales, games) as well as grown up things (parties, dating). I do "water down" Bethany's absent-minded quirkiness for the sake of believability. Yuki also has a lot of Mihoshi (from Tenchi Muyo) in her design, because Mihoshi reminds me of Bethany. I think there's also some general Detective Conan (the show, not the character) conventions in her with her martial arts abilities.



Seiko: I more or less let this character develop herself. I wanted a "third woman" to round out the main cast. Originally, I just had her history jotted down as an orphan and a scholar, kind of a bookish type with a social/street naivete. In terms of determination and morals, I see strongest correlation to Nausicaa and started developing her in that direction. I think there's also some Tuppence (from Agatha Christie) in her with the knack for seeking trouble (and sometimes getting knocked out).

Alex: His appearance is based on Tenchi Muyo. His personality is just intended to be very down-to-earth and balanced. He's sort of a voice of reason in madness.

Fudo: I originally based him on all the villains that give me the creeps, but his personality developed in a different direction. Most notable contributor to his appearance is Gin from Detective Conan. His "villain" personality was compiled from a few sources including Akabane from Get Backers. Currently, he's a much different character, however.

Mike: Mike's personality is simply unchecked emotion. He says all the things I prevent myself from staying and acts on impulse without thought. His appearence was just an accident, as he was drawn haphazard as an "extra" and not originally intended to enter the main cast.

Tristan: The idea behind Tristan is that he attempts to be a debonair character but falls painfully short. My main inspiration for his character is Officer Takagi from Detective Conan. Oh, and his looks/design was an accident. I actually decided when I introduced him that I wanted to just grab a minor background character I had drawn earlier to fill the role. THAT character happened to have been designed to look like a stereotypical "hot" guy (almost bishie) to distract Yuki early in the story. Tristan's personality never really fit that appearance, but that contrast has somehow managed to work well.

Brad: Brad is just a buddy. I designed him to pair with Yuki as her childhood friend. I'm not sure what all inspired him. I just write him as an always optimistic and playful best friend and partner (non-romantic). Brad started as an extra, and his look is very plain.

Raidon: His inspiration was Professor Moriarty and Lex Luther, as a guy who is philanthropic and loved throughout the community. Raidon's appearence is a mix of Lupin III sideburns/pompadour and Kagato (Tenchi Muyo) glasses.

Meredith: Professional sadistic psycho in stiletto heels. That's all. :) This is my most one-dimensional character. There's no depth to her at all, and I like it that way.


Well, that's enough. Heh. I've been at this a while, so I have a really large cast. These ten have been my core cast for a while, but I have quite a number of "lesser" recurring characters.

All my characters are based off my friends. Looks personality, what have you. Somethings about them I change like Ari being half "asian" half "spanish" and Annie being an orphan.

Others (to be seen much later) are based off historical figures such as Captain Kidd, Barbarossa and, Jean Lafitte, to name a few. Obviously I have to fill in most of the personalty myself on account of all I have to work with are some old history books.

And the others are based off of old jokes and things I think are funny like Prince Albert. (Yes, I will make that joke just watch me.)

The Intrepid TORPEDO is basically an exagerrated superhero version of my own experiences and frustrations. I wouldn't say Torpedo is completely based on myself (we don't even look anything like each other), but he certainly has elements of my personality.

I was in a really dark place when I was doing "PAIN." Painkiller is pretty much my dark side unleashed.

The characters in ZetaMax are all based on actual friends of mine. Well, except for the big tree monster.

Ahab is largely the more unseen parts of myself mixed with a hint of Julie Winters from the Maxx and Devi from I Feel Sick.

Marcus' name is actually a reference to a Clutch song called A Shogun Named Marcus. Well before Arachnid Goddess, I've always written Marcus as a veteran with a life lived in some form of personal desperation. He reflects my belief that vets are some of the utterly toughest people on the planet.

Bagman, image wise, is based on Joker from Persona 2: Eternal Punishment. I later redid the concept as my live action character for Vampire the Masquerade, where he was named Nervous Xians. After that, he was a villain in an existential roleplay campaign I designed on a different forum.

Sina-Inu is inspired from a friend's scorpion roleplaying character from fifteen years ago, who was named Sina.

Sarsippus is a joke on the 'arboreal tree squid' meme that used to exist. Her name comes from Sarsippius' Ark, an album by Infectious Grooves.

The Cult of the Eye is obviously based appearance wise on the KKK.

One of their members, Zillah, was the stage name of a stripper in NJ who had her fifteen minutes of fame in the news when she was found to have a preserved human hand in her basement. It's also a genus of spiders.

Zygiella is also named after a genus of spiders.

Zion is just how I look in my annual body paints come Halloween time.

Zipper's name is an inside joke, based on how many people I've known in my life who don't use their real name but a noun or description. (Bear, Moose, Purple, Five, etc)

Cassius' appearance is a cross of Doctor Wily from Megaman and Revolver Ocelot from Metal Gear.

Nigel is inspired from Owen Burnett from Gargoyles. I referenced Owen again when Nigel winds up getting his hand damaged.

The Subterranea landscape was inspired from the legends of Shangri-la and Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne.

They're inspired by real people. Where else will I get inspiration?

Perhaps my own pre-programmed sub-personalities? (lol jk...)

Partly from people I know/have met, partly from archetypes, partly a random combination of personality traits (depending who you ask, there are five to seven and every person/character sits somewhere on the spectrum of them) and partly from film. My background characters are each unique in appearance partly so that I have a wide cast of potential main characters for later arcs but mostly because I just have fun working on character designs. It's like I'm in a contest with myself to come up with the most ridiculous outfits I can that still fit in the context and don't distract too much from the action.

oops! wrong anthrax.

aww hubba hubba. i'd like more of that, please. :D

I feel so out of the loop seeing as my inspiration for my characters are entirely stupid things and very trivial, instead of friends or family or even myself.

I guess I'll start with the titular characters of my comic:

Exile was basically made when I was flipping through the channels with nothing to do when I came upon 'Ben 10' on the Cartoon Network. An ugly alien was getting dragged along the ground with a chain on its leg. It was here when I thought it was some cool villain with chains for his weapons; turns out it was some ugly hick in a truck. I was annoyed because there are so many stupid and lame (and incompetent) super villains out there. So I made Exile (with the ball-chains as his weapons). I later developed him into having my rage problems, the self-conscious problems of a teenage girl and the severe arachnophobia of about 90% of the planet.


I made up Doug when I was mowing the lawn. Because Exile needed a buddy to prove to him that he was evil. I later on gave him my obnoxious behaviour and the feminist personality of a man who was raised in a family with only women around.


I made Miss Spider simply because my comic was turning into a huge sausage fest. She's more developed now. She's a shy hero who has body image issues.


I made Blitz because the comic needed a robot alien. And I also have an affinity for mute characters. He's the most challenging character to do seeing as all his emotion needs to be portrayed via body language, his eyes and his antennae.

I have so much more, but I'll just give you those ones since I don't wanna clog up the thread with a giant reply.

Freegurt
I feel so out of the loop seeing as my inspiration for my characters are entirely stupid things and very trivial, instead of friends or family or even myself.

(angry girl friend stare)

PIT_FACE

Freegurt
I feel so out of the loop seeing as my inspiration for my characters are entirely stupid things and very trivial, instead of friends or family or even myself.

(angry girl friend stare)

Nope, not even girlfriends considering I don't have one, haw haw.

I think that is the nature of your comic though. I have vague plans to do something like that at some point, I say like that in the loosest possible way, but ideas are coming together.

It's a superhero comedy with really OTT characters that may never see the light of day as the hero is not coming along too well. Some great bad guys though.

The point is not one is based on anybody I know but are inspired instead by cartoons and comics.

Considering I have such a short-run comic strip, it's hard to quantify the personalities of my characters too much. Mostly, they are inspired by gamer trends I find in the various LARPs I have attended. Generally, it's easy to find the combat-character player, the dude who'll argue over rules with the slightest provocation, and whatnot.

I know I have had to repeat to one friend in particular that I just based the appearance of a character off him, and that the character's dopey behavior doesn't reflect on him.

My greatest inspiration certainly comes from the colorful and more than a little crazy people I get to see every week at Live-Action Role-Playing games.

Freegurt

PIT_FACE

Freegurt
I feel so out of the loop seeing as my inspiration for my characters are entirely stupid things and very trivial, instead of friends or family or even myself.

(angry girl friend stare)

Nope, not even girlfriends considering I don't have one, haw haw.

oh people can give ya the angry girlfriend look without being yer girlfriend. you'll know the look when you see it.

I am not sure where I get my ideas for characters.
I asked the giant talking cat in a suit of armour that lives next door to me and he wasn't sure either.
Mind you, he doesn't like furry comics much.

Tite Kubo. :/

You see there is this secret society of authors. Whenever you get an idea for a character or story, you put it in an envelope and send it to the next author on the list. Eventually it comes around and you get a bundle of ideas and characters.

Actually it's a stew pot. Everything and everybody I've ever met gets thrown into the pot and eventually when I need a character I take out a ladle full of whatever is cooking and there he/she is.

Air Raid Robertson and Ridley follow an archetype I use in my comics pretty frequently. It's basically the notion of using a well intentioned yet scatter-brained hero with a tenuous grasp on reality. This hero is paired off with a sidekick who is much more sensible, but his practical advice usually gets ignored. There are many examples of this pair in popular fiction, but the earliest I can think of is Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.

Like a lot of writers, this pattern wasn't evident to me until someone else pointed it out. The "quixotic hero with sensible sidekick" does pop up in a number of my older comics though.

everything. I often take some element and work around it. For example, I put a Ikki Tousen: Great Guardians poster on my wall. I never watched this series, I know only it's about fighting girls with fanservice. Poster has 4 girls on it. I thought "I wanna have 4 fighting girls in my comics too". I worked around the idea and in the end I got 4 women with pretty scary superpowers, demonic outfits, dark motivations and general evilness, without any fanservice material, that looks nothing like girls from the poster, aside that one of them has eyepatch.

Well, since Chomp is a comic about food - that's exactly what inspires me :) The characters - who are various vegetables, soda cans and other grocery products - personify the qualities that these foods are associated with. E.g. peppers have quite the temper and the egg is... and egghead. The fun in making this comic is putting these characters in various roles (a doctor, a rock band, etc.) and social situations and creating some "chemistry" between them.