An early pencil rough version of page 5 of A Glitch in Time. There are at least two types of conflict going on in the page. Can you identify them?

Another way of looking at deep characterization is as the real motivations a character has. This is often the opposite of, or contradicts, what a character says are his or her motivations. Face it, in real life, we don’t even know our own motivations much of the time.

How complex do you want your characters to be? If a hero is too complex, do they run the danger of being unlikable? Spider-Man is just flawed enough for people to relate to him and feel good about it. A reader feeling: “He screwed up in that situation just like I would have,” is one of the keys to Spidey’s longtime success. If Spider-Man intentionally treated his loved ones badly, he’d be more complex, but we wouldn’t like him as much, would we?

Generally, your main characters should have the most complex characterizations.

Supporting characters are just that. They exist to reflect qualities of the protagonist(s). Commissioner Gordon may now and then have a story focused on him, but generally, he’s there to tell us more about Batman’s relationship with society.

Incidental characters need the least depth of all. They exist solely to move the story along. The guy who runs the newsstand exists only to sell the newspaper to the hero. “Mid-’50s, gruff, needs a shave,” may be all the characterization he needs.

Conflict by Danny Fingeroth
One definition of a story is: somebody wants something, and someone or something else keeps him or her from getting it.

That “someone or something” is the conflict.

If a story was about a day where nothing went wrong and nothing was at stake, it wouldn’t be much of a story. The thing that makes a story about something is the conflict.

Conflict can be:

• Physical. For instance, two characters battling. Under this could be included emotional arguments or intricate psychological conflict between two people. Also, outside - hurricanes, bombings, etc. — would be forms of physical conflict.

• Internal. This involves a character at odds with him or herself. For instance, an alcoholic desperate for a drink, but knowing if he takes one he will be lost, must choose between need and desire.

• Personal. Has aspects of the first two types. For instance, one partner in a romantic relationship may want to get married, the other may not.

Let’s say we have a situation where Spider-Man is about to go out to fight Doctor Octopus, who’s trying to kill Jonah Jameson. As Spidey’s heading to the rescue, he hears that Mary Jane is trapped in an elevator with a madman who threatens to unleash a deadly virus on the city. What does our hero do? Save a guy he hates (Jonah) or the woman he loves — and the city, as well? That’s what’s called personal conflict. The protagonist (the hero) must choose between two things that are seemingly impossible to choose between. These echo our most difficult choices as humans, It’s easy to choose between something good and something bad. Choosing between two goods or between two bads is when life gets hard — and drama gets exciting!

Robert McKee, in his book Story, phrases it this way: “Choice must not be doubt but dilemma, not between right/wrong or good/evil, but between either positive desires or negative desires of equal weight and value. True Character can only be expressed through choice in dilemma. How the person chooses to act under pressure is who he is — the greater the pressure, the truer and deeper the choice to character.”

Another way to say it: conflict defines character.

When devising an internal or personal conflict for a character, ask yourself: what’s the worst thing (besides dying) that can happen to this person? What decision would give them the most trouble? In super-hero stories, you usually have the added need to externalize that conflict in a physical manner. Stan Lee and Steve Ditko’s Spider-Man: Master Planner trilogy has one of the more elegant mergings of external, internal and personal conflicts. In it, the thing that Spider-Man needs to save Aunt May is the same thing Doc Ock needs to rule the world.

Try to introduce your story’s conflict(s) as early as possible. That way, your reader becomes emotionally involved with your characters from the beginning. And that’s a good thing.

How to Create Comics from Script to Print by Danny Fingeroth and Mike Manley. Raleigh, N.C.: TwoMorrows Publishing, 2006. 108 pages, ISBN 1-893905-60-8 ($13.95).

Danny Fingeroth was group editor of Marvel’s Spider-Man comics line. He consulted on early versions of the first Spider-Man film and on the Fox Kids Spider-Man animated series. Danny is the author of Superman on the Couch: What Superheroes Really Tell Us About Ourselves and Our Society (Continuum) and has written upcoming episodes of 4Kids’ Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He teaches comics and graphic novel writing at New York University and The New School, and is editor-in-chief of Write Now! magazine, published by TwoMorrows (www.twomorrows.com), the premier magazine about writing for comics and animation.

Mike Manley is a 22-year veteran of the comics and animation fields. He’s penciled, inked and storyboarded for every major publisher and studio, working on everything from Batman to Fairly OddParents. Mike is also the editor of Draw! magazine. He has lived in the Philly area since the mid-’80s when he became addicted to chicken cheese steaks. Currently Mike teaches at the Delaware College of Art and Design (DCAD).