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Stereotypes
14 years ago
The new comicry has begun at beyondtheveilcomic.com
DreamTaker is out of the gate and off to the races and I couldn't be happier with her as an artist. A comment was made though on the stereotypes I drew upon for the characters being worked with, and I felt my response was worth a re-posting here from the BtV forums. It follows:
Of course I don't take it harshly. Stereotypes are precisely what you describe. Whether they (the characters) start off with minus likeability, as you say, is a matter of taste. Trust me when I say that without stereotypical builds telling a story becomes much harder, and a lot more trouble has to be gone through... to use your own analogy, 8 hours in the kitchen might produce a good homemade sauce, but you still had to spend 8 hours in the kitchen to get there, and there's no guarantee the sauce you made is going to be so much better than the powder and water out of the box that it was worth the day in the kitchen you had to spend to make it.
All of the characters thus far introduced by either DT or Beo have been based on stereotypes of one sort or another, from Zak's fairy type dress to Dualen's dour tone and Asta's imperious attitude. When I break stereotypes, I do so for a reason. I am not, and never have been, a big fan of originality.
Characters are what they are, and what moves the human spirit has changed little in three thousand years. We still relate to each other in the same ways we did when we considered looking at fire light flickering off the back of a cave wall an evening's entertainment.
The doors are in the same places they've always been. With each new story the door gets a makeover, new coat of paint, maybe the handle design gets changed or the hinges put one the other side, but the location of the door remains the same.
Our brains are hard-wired to put things in categories. If this weren't true, we'd have no stereotypes to begin with. As it is we group things by nature, and being introduced to something that defies established categories simply for the sake of being defiant is more often frustrating than interesting because the depth of our understanding is stunted for no good reason we can see. Ideally, with limitless life and resources, we as individuals could afford to contemplate everything as a unique entity free from any generalized characteristics or traits. In the real world, with a short life and severely limited intellectual and physical resources... our brains require shortcuts. Categories provide, and stereotypes result.
I pray you not look at the fact that you recognized the categories I employed as a negative, but consider it rather deliberate artifice on my part in order to give you insight into the characters I'm portraying without having to spoon-feed you every life detail. I certainly did it on purpose, and I do hope your initial dislike for the artifice does not ruin your appreciation of the story as it unfolds.
DreamTaker is out of the gate and off to the races and I couldn't be happier with her as an artist. A comment was made though on the stereotypes I drew upon for the characters being worked with, and I felt my response was worth a re-posting here from the BtV forums. It follows:
Of course I don't take it harshly. Stereotypes are precisely what you describe. Whether they (the characters) start off with minus likeability, as you say, is a matter of taste. Trust me when I say that without stereotypical builds telling a story becomes much harder, and a lot more trouble has to be gone through... to use your own analogy, 8 hours in the kitchen might produce a good homemade sauce, but you still had to spend 8 hours in the kitchen to get there, and there's no guarantee the sauce you made is going to be so much better than the powder and water out of the box that it was worth the day in the kitchen you had to spend to make it.
All of the characters thus far introduced by either DT or Beo have been based on stereotypes of one sort or another, from Zak's fairy type dress to Dualen's dour tone and Asta's imperious attitude. When I break stereotypes, I do so for a reason. I am not, and never have been, a big fan of originality.
Characters are what they are, and what moves the human spirit has changed little in three thousand years. We still relate to each other in the same ways we did when we considered looking at fire light flickering off the back of a cave wall an evening's entertainment.
The doors are in the same places they've always been. With each new story the door gets a makeover, new coat of paint, maybe the handle design gets changed or the hinges put one the other side, but the location of the door remains the same.
Our brains are hard-wired to put things in categories. If this weren't true, we'd have no stereotypes to begin with. As it is we group things by nature, and being introduced to something that defies established categories simply for the sake of being defiant is more often frustrating than interesting because the depth of our understanding is stunted for no good reason we can see. Ideally, with limitless life and resources, we as individuals could afford to contemplate everything as a unique entity free from any generalized characteristics or traits. In the real world, with a short life and severely limited intellectual and physical resources... our brains require shortcuts. Categories provide, and stereotypes result.
I pray you not look at the fact that you recognized the categories I employed as a negative, but consider it rather deliberate artifice on my part in order to give you insight into the characters I'm portraying without having to spoon-feed you every life detail. I certainly did it on purpose, and I do hope your initial dislike for the artifice does not ruin your appreciation of the story as it unfolds.
I read your comic when I did my journal-sifting today, from first to most recent, and I'm very interested in keeping up with the story. The characters are interesting, without any single design or storyline detail of a single character stealing the spotlight throughout the various arcs as "the main character," which is refreshing.
I'm also looking forward to more of Dreamtaker's take on the style of character Beowulf had been illustrating for this series.
If you're so inclined, join us on the BtV forums at beyondtheveilcomic.com/forum
Right now I'm trying to get in contact with our webmaster to get the forum button back up on the main page (and a few other things) but the wheels are still rusty from almost a year in mothballs, as you may imagine.