Comics Are Great! 30 – Shape and Variance

It’s all about character design this time, featuring the return of Jake Parker and Gale Williams! With Tyler James’ 30 Characters Challenge right around the corner, it’s time to think a little about what specific concerns face a cartoonist when making up their fictional people. Jake brings a stellar presentation to explain how a basic understanding of shape and variance will deliver good character design, even if you don’t think your drawing skills are up to snuff. Gale brings a few thoughts on how putting your character in a situation to help figure out what makes them tick.

We’re then joined by Eli Neiburger of the Ann Arbor District Library for some more book recommendations!

Links mentioned in this episode:

• Jake’s Inktober challenge
• 30 Characters Challenge
• 30 Classes in 30 Days
• Patbird & Galesaur
• My He-Man and the Masters of the Universe character re-imaginings
• The Astonishing Secret of Awesome Man
• Dark Michief: A Collection of the Frightful Kickstarter Campaign
• Open Lab at the Ann Arbor District Library October 16
• Teens Make Comics Panel at the Ann Arbor District Library October 18
• The AADL Games continue!

Book recommendations this episode:

• Peanutbutter & Jeremy’s Best Book Ever
• Little & Large
• Meanwhile: Pick Any Path. 3,856 Story Possibilities
• The Big Book of Hoaxes: True Tales of the Greatest Lies Ever Told!
• Cartoon Animation
• Action! Cartooning
• Fantasy! Cartooning

Here’s the video from this episode’s live stream (audio player at the bottom of this post):

Tune in next Wednesday live at 12:30 pm Eastern Time on Comicsaregreat.tv!

Audio hosting provided by Ka-Blam Digital Printing. This episode was recorded live at the Ann Arbor District Library.

Follow Jerzy, Jake, Gale, and Eli on Twitter!

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