Comic Genesis Forums

i've finally posted some comics, ive worked out what all my characters look like. But i have no idea how to give/introduce personalities(i sortta left that bit out when starting:-?).
Ne ideas?
http://fcit.keenspace.com

Well, there's no easy answer.
Avoid describing them directly (like "this is Ewan. He's violent").
Try to put them in situations where they'll reveal their personalities by particular acting.
Check out HNTRAC's "How not to introduce character". (Link is in my signature).

There's a thunderstorm coming, so I have to make this rather brief.

It might benefit you greatly to check out the book Characters & Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card. It is one of the most comprehensive guides I've found that deals with characterization, personality development and introduction, and forming dynamic and well-rounded characters.

One way to start giving your characters personalities is by finding likenesses between them and real-life people. Observe them and their quirks, their eccentricities, their reactions to certain everyday events. The more you observe human nature, the more reference you will have from which to carefully choose your personality traits. Look beneath the surface. Try to figure out the motivations of different people for doing some of the things you do. Or draw from your own experiences. What would cause you to do something like this? And think carefully about what could inspire what reactions or changes in your characters. Don't just settle with your first ideas. They will most certainly not be the best ones.

Also, ask yourself the question, "What has caused this?" when developing certain personality traits. The more you mentally interrogate your characters and build up their pasts and the experiences and characteristics which shape them, the more well rounded and believable their personalities will have a potential to become.

It also depends on what kind of story you're doing. If it is mostly a milieu-based or idea story, or a gag comic, characterization will probably be slightly less emphasized than for an in-depth epic or psychlogical drama. Also, don't simply state observations about him. Reveal their personalities through their thoughts, actions, motivations, other characters' perceptions and reactions to them... etc. Don't tell, show. This is especially easier to do with art than with words. Illustrate them being 'themselves.' Readers will naturally draw conclusions from how they act and what other characters say about them.

I recommend spending at least a month developing your characters and working out their complexities before actually putting down the plot/story yet. For mine I have spent six months before I actually put anything down on paper and up onto Keenspace, and I still spend hours each day 'interrogating' them about their pasts and their motives and working out their compex and contrasting characteristics. If you start the story without fully understanding your characters, there is a much greater chance for plotholes and confusion along the way. Basically, just keep polishing and polishing your characters until you know them almost as well as you know yourself.

Anyway, I hope this helps for now.

I'm one of those people who starts with the character/s and works her way up but. Try this, imagine what your character looks like, now imagine a person, real or fictional, who has a trait that you want them to have. Then, imagine how that person expresses this trait with or without words, and have your character do similar things. By building up traits, one by one, you can pick and choose how your character will react in given situations and it lends them a fuller personality. By having a person to use as a template for that trait/emotion/expression it makes it easier to know where to start from, and you change it how you see fit from there.
~Faded

Also, think what your story is about. Think of the first/main major situation. Who is involved? What kind of personalities will help progress the story the best? And what kind of personalities would suffer the most because of/during it? Figuring this out could be a clue in what kinds of traits you want to include in your characters.