For me this is a bit of a complicated answer (except for the sassy villain question - the answer is yes (*-ω-)>c[_] )

Today’s been a bit of a roller-coaster for me, so for now I’ll see what you guys have to say and half-watch the relaxing 90s cartoon that’s on in the background.

Well, for Chronicles of Starclan, I would be a mix of Coldember and Pollenspots. My sassy villain is definitely Pebblestar. Imma PM the other author to see what she says-

Cool! Yeah I know the sassy villain thing is random, I just felt like talking about characters and I love sassy badguy dialogue :3

Gotta say that all my characters contain pieces of me, but Gideon has the biggest one. I've used him to process a lot of life stuff, whether I was conscious of it or not.

Not sure if I'd call him "sassy" but I do have a manipulative villain named Gabriel who becomes much more sarcastic in upcoming chapters.

I don’t think sarcastic counts as sassy, but it’s close enough

“Sassy” and “manipulative” often go hand-in-hand. Xan is VERY manipulative, much more so than sassy. Aaron Shaw is also manipulative but he’s more so sassy. Poor Kairo has to deal with these guys a lot later in the story

I'd say every one of my characters has a bit of me in them. Like each of their quirks is something from me. I'm a big nerd for 80's, 90's, and 2000's stuff. Thus a number of my characters are nerds for that stuff, too.

As far as a sassy villain...I have a couple. The Judge Sisters. Evelyn and Isabelle Judge.

Evelyn is the manipulative brains of the duo while Isabelle is the dense brawn.



Isabelle in particular LOVES to monologue to herself due to being so full of herself.

None of them are completely me but they're all a little bit of me if that makes sense?


Fearnot has that unrelenting positivity I had before the recession- before the first time my dad was diagnosed with cancer the first time. Eloise was given the sadness and isolation that followed those events. I think of my bullies when I think of Eloise's stepsisters. I think of my family when I draw Giselle's family.

In Sirius' Magical Orb, Orion was given my dutiful obedience in a world that makes no sense- relating to my experiences growing up in a religious household. Ping got the rotten, selfish part of me that was also a bundle of laughs. Sirius himself was given more of my selfishness and childish ego. He also got bits of my parents.

In Terrestrial, Solaris is also given my dutiful obedience but with the hindsight of how robotic that made me feel. I pour a lot of growing up I did as an adult into his story. Terran got a lot of my grit and difficult emotions. She isolates herself emotionally in a similar way that I do. Ceres is someone I quietly fear I may be more alike than I'd want to be, because he reminds me of traits that a lot of my family members have.


I didn't do this intentionally- I don't really think about myself or my experiences when I create or develop characters. I've tried a couple of times slipping in a cameo here and there but I keep thinking no one wants to hear my story. So I guess what I've been doing is subconsciously slipping it in everywhere? Idk- but good question tho.

Most of my characters have pieces of me in them, even the villain to an extent :) I’d say that Audrea is the closest to me, since I feel like our personalities, interests, and general attitude towards things line up the most. Of course, none of them are what you could consider a self-insert lol

(By the way this bugs me, but is Audrea an incorrect spelling? It’s supposed to be pronounced ‘aw-dree’ and I always see that name spelled as Audrey. I chalk this up to assuming this is how it was spelled before I really saw it, but is my spelling actually wrong? Sorry to derail)

Donovan is kind of a sassy villain? I feel like it depends on his mood and who he’s talking to. If he has a true grudge against someone, I feel like he’d be a lot more sassy, if not just plain mean to them. Often though, he doesn’t, and he comes off as much more diplomatic. Even then, I’d say he has a lot of cynicism about him.

Octavio is the voice I wish I had, and Jesse is the voice I do have.

In terms of sassy villain, they're a coming up...

Honestly, they're all a part of me! I could probably go into more detail about how they've changed over 5 years of writing for them, though. O_O That might require a bit more sleep first, lol.

And...sassy villain or super rich troll? Both?


Also @Bizfurd

When I see this name, my mind instantly goes "AW- dree- ya" for pronunciation. Probably because of the name 'Andrea'!

I think you hit the nail on the head there! That sounds almost exactly like my process.
Also, I’m so sorry about your dad - I don’t know what I’d do if anything ever happened to my father. He’s a fairly strong influence for the positive paternal/leadership roles some of the characters have such as Derek or Chief, although he’s a bit different as well.

I feel like a lot of people (including readers of the comic) can probably sense that Kat is a lot like me, and they’re not wrong. Kat is the first impression you’d get, but if you know me better you might see a fair bit of Evan as well. To put it simply, Kat is my extroverted side and my “heart”, and Evan is my introverted, overthinking side and is currently very much like the unhealthy person I became as a teen. There is something that I can relate to or sympathize with in almost all of my characters however. If Kairo strongly represents anything I can relate to, it would be...carrying my childhood shame into adulthood actually. Touchy subject I know.

I started making up the story when I was 16, so I was more immature at that time. I played around with ideas that I liked, but ended up eventually seeing Kat as basically a self-insert but more impulsive and brave than me.

Fast forward several years, and Kat is much more complicated. She’s still very much a self-insert, but she is not completely me either. She’s better than me and gives me something to aspire to.

But, in the context of Kat and Evan’s relationship, Kat often takes the role inspired by my eldest sister who in my mind is the closest I’ve had to a loving mother. This is especially shown in the way she behaves toward Evan. Kairo’s sister Sara (who practically raised him) ended up becoming very much like my sister as well, which wasn’t planned, but I find it makes the story play out in a more heartfelt way, since I know how Kairo feels. I even told my sister about this recently and she was honoured
ε(*´･ω･)з

I don’t usually base characters off of real people except myself, which might sound vain but it’s because I know how I think and it’s easy to imagine what I would do in a situation. But as characters develop, sometimes they start to resemble people I know and then I start asking myself what that person would do instead.

Merged Doublepost:



Huh, interesting thought! Gee I hope my characters don’t sound like me XD if anyone does, it might be Evan only with a bit of an accent. My voice sounds like a kid’s unless I focus super-hard on controlling the pitch. It took me ages to set up a voicemail that didn’t sound like a...I dunno a Britney (*≧∀≦*)

I also see ‘Aw-dree-a’

Also auto correct spells it ‘aw-free-a’ i guess

I know, right?? It’s crazy how much these stories are influenced by your life and even your everyday experiences without you even realizing it at first! At least that’s what it’s like for me lol.

Also I am looking forward to seeing X’s sassy side. Not to be weird but he actually reminds me a bit of my villain Xan. Let’s hope he’s not as awful

No sassy villain in mine. When it comes to characters, I'd say I'm a mix of Unni & Shirin (Unni's brashness and adventurelust plus Shirin's social awkwardness, workaholic-ness and autism spectrum quirks)

None of my characters represents me in any way shape or form. Exept one and I dislike that one

and no sassy villain, weirdly

Which of my characters is me? Well, that would be me, of course.

Yes, I stupidly used myself as a "character" and all I can say is NEVER put yourself in your comic. It's a mistake. Don't do it.

Characters can change and grow, but yourself? Sorry, but you're stuck with what the universe gave you. That's the reason why I had myself stuffed in a trunk and shipped to Abu Dabbi.

As for a sassy villain? Probably Loki, but that owes more to Norse mythology than a conscious choice on my part. ;-)

Which of your characters is “you”?

I had a comic project where I *explictly* made a pair of characters resemble two halves of me and as a couple they represent me as a whole. Grace was my past, Imogen was my future, then things changed. Grace, while I'm not really an anime nerd by any stretch, is as socially blunt yet academically interested as I am. Imogen is bubbly, carefree, and speaks French - I can display these traits and MB tests struggle to put me as either Ixxx or Exxx and I still have an interest in learning a second language. While I prefer Four Humours over MBTI to describe chracters, Grace and Imogen are supposed to have opposite MB scores - suppose that is a veiled criticism of how even when the scores are opposite I can still see myself in them.

So that's where I have characters that are "me" by design. Let's look at the other case, where elements of myself emerged from how I go about developing characters, getting attached to them, and writing their stories. Enter Tim Wilson, my Teletubby gijinka who - curiously - shares my sense of self-worth and anxiety levels. He worries himself to death what others will think of him; I similarly worry myself to death but I'm getting better at that over time. I've had him around long enough in my head as "main character status" (can you believe School of Ragdoll was launched over 6 years ago, no I can't either) and I am *very* attached to him, so naturally this would happen. Before, this post was taken up by Mani Sharma, who now barely resembles me now and I don't think he ever did.

All my stories end up personal otherwise I wouldn't know where to start. That's probably a major reason why Shintina and her haunted sister never took off: I never experienced this personally and I wasn't that experienced in storytelling at the time. But certainly, I can write stories about becoming at peace with who you are - the aptness is not lost on me personally - and I will take advantage of my interests and use them in a narrative. Inserting myself is inevitable.

(Also do you have a sassy villain in your comic)

She's not a villain - I never develop villains - but Lorrie Shipley is certainly turning out sassy. She wasn't designed to be like this but I look forward to introducing her to you all. She's a new one for me: a character that hates everyone by default.

I've never made a self insert character, as I don't think that'd be very interesting for anyone. Most of my characters have at least some things in common with me though, write what you know and all. I also don't have a sassy villain... Unless you count the game I'm working on. But Venus is more 'hammy Saturday morning anime villain' than sassy right now.

I read Audrea as au-DRAY-ah.

In my case, the character with whom I empathize the most in my comic is probably Cneve, though I have no real similarity with her and also she is the wrong gender. She is sorta vaguely the mentor character of the story though.

I wouldn't describe the villain(s) of The True Face as "sassy".