I was recently asked to send off some Spongebob Squarepants comic pitches by Nickelodeon Magazine. At first I reacted with joy and surprise, because I was handed the keys to a true franchise and have the potential to leave my mark on a very popular cartoon character. Then the grim realization set in that... I'm writing for a truly established character, and it's a real challenge, and I'm not even a huge Spongebob fan. I enjoyed the first few seasons and the film, but I rarely watch it lately. I am incredibly excited, but quite worried too, this is a huge step for me as a creator.

So, with that background established, how many of you have had experience writing characters that didn't belong to you, such as guest comics, or even cameos or commissioned work? Were they legit, canon, permitted, did you try something unnofficial? How do you view these things and how serious are you about sticking to their formula? Do you take risks, do you consult the creators often? Do you just wing it? What are some situations like this you've been involved with, and how did you handle it? Did you find the results you're looking for? What about research?

I'm fascinated by how creators deal with situations similar to ones I'm in and it gives me good perspective on my own choices and actions, so I am hoping to gather some interesting thoughts on this issue.

I never take a fanfiction request because of this problem. If I didn't make the character, then I have a hard time fitting a voice or personality in.

To solve a problem like this, if I were you, I would go to youtube and/or wikipedia to try and research as much I can about, in this case, Spongebob or any other character that is famous.

Priest_Revan
I never take a fanfiction request because of this problem. If I didn't make the character, then I have a hard time fitting a voice or personality in.

To an extent, I am facing that problem here because Spongebob is a Type A personality while I by nature am Type Z. The advantage here though is that I can deal with a Type A if I have Squidward (a Type Z) to use as well.

With voice and personality, is it really a problem of not being able to fit in one, or that the personality they come with doesn't quite speak to you?

Priest_Revan
To solve a problem like this, if I were you, I would go to youtube and/or wikipedia to try and research as much I can about, in this case, Spongebob or any other character that is famous.

Yeah, I definitely plan on rewatching a few episodes, a lot of the stuff from the original seasons since those appealed to me. Youtube is a fantastic tool in this case too!

HP
With voice and personality, is it really a problem of not being able to fit in one, or that the personality they come with doesn't quite speak to you?

It's not really those, but it's hard to recreate an already in well done personality. If the personality of the character was fairly simple, it would be a lot easier to work with.

Priest_Revan
It's not really those, but it's hard to recreate an already in well done personality. If the personality of the character was fairly simple, it would be a lot easier to work with.

Well, define your definition of 'easier' please? Not arguing with you, but wouldn't a character like Spongebob be easy enough to write? What sort of character could you see yourself writing successfully? Who do you consider easy enough to work with?

hpkomic

Priest_Revan
It's not really those, but it's hard to recreate an already in well done personality. If the personality of the character was fairly simple, it would be a lot easier to work with.

Well, define your definition of 'easier' please? Not arguing with you, but wouldn't a character like Spongebob be easy enough to write? What sort of character could you see yourself writing successfully? Who do you consider easy enough to work with?

Well, look at it this way. Spongebob, although seemingly simple, is fairly complex. He does do and say a lot of things that do seem a bit out of character sometimes.

On the other hand, characters like Patrick or Squidward are pretty straightforward. Patrick is dumb and will usually go off topic, while Squidward is more intelligent and will usually avoid something that bothers him or gets in his way.

Most other Spongebob characters are easy to write about because their personality isn't difficult to understand.

Oh I forgot to mention research. Everyday I watch and read stuff related to characters that I hope to write for. Even ones I don't really like or enjoy, I keep in the back of my mind that maybe I could write for Superman one day, or Spongebob even.

Huhh. I have always thought writing for other people's characters is easier than making up your own. XD Or at least I found it easy and fun when I made little fancomics for animes I enjoyed. Unless you don't know the character, than yeah...it definitely can be harder.

Priest_Revan
Well, look at it this way. Spongebob, although seemingly simple, is fairly complex. He does do and say a lot of things that do seem a bit out of character sometimes.

On the other hand, characters like Patrick or Squidward are pretty straightforward. Patrick is dumb and will usually go off topic, while Squidward is more intelligent and will usually avoid something that bothers him or gets in his way.

Most other Spongebob characters are easy to write about because their personality isn't difficult to understand.

True, Spongebob does tend to get oddly lucid moments, but as a whole he's pretty consistant those moments where he's "out of character" are usually for a gag and rarely stick around for later or mean much as a whole for his character.

Marine, don't worry, you should pitch that story yourself, I have my own I'm working on right now, send away and see what they think! Dave Roman and the other editors are all quite nice.

Yeah, but I'm not exactly a nice guy. People mistake my eccentricity for arrogance. I'd rather break into the business as a ghost writer. Plus I don't want to go to California.

marine
Yeah, but I'm not exactly a nice guy. People mistake my eccentricity for arrogance. I'd rather break into the business as a ghost writer. Plus I don't want to go to California.

They're in New York and I do all my work with them via e-mail.

I've done fanfic (unofficial, of course) and once, I trotted out a fancomic that never got posted - and writing for a character who isn't yours is hard. On the one hand, you have a lot of established backstory to fall back on, and quite probably a developed world to base them in, but it's hard to get the tone and voice of the character right.

Umm... I only wrote for someone else's characters once. For another Drunk Duck comic "Character Select" and I don't think it ended up well. Mainly because the comic I drew was the last one ever posted... I think I accidently killed that comic. As dumb as it sounds I'm a bit leery of drawing fan comics now.

Bwhahaha! I stole most of my characters from the Bible!

I have done some such work and gotten an award for it as the most representative of the established characters of a quite established franchise.

Anyway, it should not be hard if you are used to characterisations. Usually I research upon the character, make sure I see the key reactions of this character to the five basic stimuli:

Fear stimulus (how does the c react to intense fear? intense fear with risk of loss? intense fear with risk of loss of others imporant elements/c's?)
Blackmail stimulus (how does the c react to blackmail. What is the point of caving? Is there a point of caving? What blackmail will be blackmail, and what will be ignored?)
Love stimulus (what is the priority of a love object/affection? Where is the character's limit to altruism?)
Virtue/Rightness/Code of behavior stimulus (is there a code of behavior the character never breaks? is there a need to be righteous? How deep seated is that? Where is that limit, if any?)
Persona projection approach/stimulus. (does the c have a persona? is there a different personality underneath? is the persona a shield/camouflage/defense mechanism?)

Once I have answers to the above, it is like having all the basic strings to the puppet and I can play the character the way the original creator intended.

...and sometimes, I am told, even better ;)

You will find it works not only for drama but also comedy or cartoons. Even Spongebob has these variables to consider.

I enjoy writing and drawing other people's characters, but that's what got me started in comics in the first place. I enjoyed drawing X-Men, Spiderman, the Avengers and Godzilla!

Even after I'd started creating my own characters, I'd write comic plots that included my favorite heroes guest-starring in my comics with my characters. I wrote a fanfic comic version of "The New Mutants" when I was 11 and continued that for a couple of years. Sure, they probably stunk but it was good experience.

As you get more experienced as a writer and artist, you get a feel for how these characters were originally written, how they react to certain situations, and at first you learn how to anticipate these reactions. As you get better and more comfortable writing the characters, you can "improvise" with them. Sometimes it will fall flat, but when you peg their personality with a situation you wrote, there's nothing like it! It's very rewarding.

My brother would like that e-mail HPK, he might send out some e-mails.

I love doing guest strips, and I don't much care about established trends in the comic when I do them.

You are bringing something new to the table. Attempting to emulate what they already have renders the exercise of new blood moot.

I had a ball doing my Hulk fan comic, but that's because he's my favorite character and I know pretty much all there is to know about him.

If I was given a character to write that I knew little about and had to do research for, it would be more of a challenge not just to learn facts about the character, but also to find some facet of that character that excites me enough that I'd want to explore it.

I've written fanfics for years, and I find that once I understand a character well enough I can write them with confidence. I'll write a fanfic here and there for a favorite character as a "character study" to not only see how well I can understand a character, but get ideas for my own.
I've always found fanfics fun and challanging when I get a good story going. I'm hoping to get one or two fan comics up if/when I get started on them.

hpkomic
I enjoyed the first few seasons and the film, but I rarely watch it lately. I am incredibly excited, but quite worried too, this is a huge step for me as a creator.

Sounds like it's time to start watching some episodes again. It's not hard work...

So, with that background established, how many of you have had experience writing characters that didn't belong to you, such as guest comics, or even cameos or commissioned work? Were they legit, canon, permitted, did you try something unnofficial? How do you view these things and how serious are you about sticking to their formula? Do you take risks, do you consult the creators often? Do you just wing it? What are some situations like this you've been involved with, and how did you handle it? Did you find the results you're looking for? What about research?

Remember that this is a well-established and loved character. If you go out of bounds, you will be hated forever. It doesn't matter if your radical new angle is funny... if you piss off the fans, Nickelodeon will get tons of hate mail clamoring for your bloody head.

The ironic thing is, it's not that hard to stay within bounds. Just gotta check any measure of new-guy-arrogance at the door. For any 1 Frank Miller, there's prolly 500 Uwe Bolls.

I don't think there's a formula to emulate someone else's character, but there are a few things that can help you in this task. First of all, watch everything that is availiable about the character. After that, search for artbooks (they have notes sometimes), interviews with the series author (you can learn stuff with this too) and everything with the character on it (except for lunch boxes). Oh, if I were you, I'd try to take a look at places where you can know what the fans think of the character (so you won't be hated forever)...
Well... Sometimes I forget some of this steps, since my webdoujin isn't that serious or intended to be canon. All I do is not to mess up with plot hole things and pray I didn't miss anything...

Hope I could help you with my half-cent on this subject. Best wishes!