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spadesart
Nov '16

title says everything, does anyone else ever sneak in self inserts as background characters or side characters (or make full on self insert comics outside of comics purely about your own life i guess?)

i joke about my character william4 being my self insert because he's so similar to me and kind of works as a reflection of how i see myself?

and this one on the page i'm working on is just a straight up self insert (spoilers if you read my comic i guess, i'm pretty open with wips)

  • created

    Nov '16

  • last reply

    Oct '19
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respheal
Nov '16

Ahahaha yeah funny you should mention that owo''

I'm hiding in the second panel on this page17.

I don't have any major characters that are definitely self-inserts, although Conan sorta started that way before his personality became more clear.

VikiKuli
Nov '16

I've never thought of doing this but it seems so tempting now...will probably happen in my comic1 in the near future!

NickRowler
Nov '16

I actually never used a character who was 100% like me. I have however took pieces of myself and put them into several characters. Like anxiety, eating problems, depression, etc.

dojo
Nov '16

Not in Perilous Journey (so far), but Paisley Brickstone, kinda. The two kids who are the most "self inserty", without being direct inserts, are two that will be introduced in Chapter 1 that are twins. One just got semi-introduced this week in the prolog, but the other won't be introduced until December, probably. Pierce is a hothead and Fenmore's a smartass and they're constantly bickering because Fenmore doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut, and Pierce doesn't know how to control his temper when Fenmore's being a prick. Here's some stuff of them:

Sketch from Chapter 1 of them giving each other the stinkeye (circled them)

Sketch from Chapter 2 of Fenmore being smug and Pierce getting pissed:

Might be very minortly spoilery but information like this gets casually dropped in my comic to no fanfare anyway since all the characters know each other for the most part and it's just the reader and Harvey who don't really know anyone (and Harvey's too quiet to ask).

But yeah, it's like you where they're not supposed to be actual self-inserts, they both just ended up with the flaws I feel the strongest. I did directly put myself in the background on a couple pages but I won't be pointing them out BECAUSE REASONS.

indagold
Nov '16

Well Mallena from Welcome Back took some of the letters from my name and I modeled her to look a little like me just on account it's about dreams and it's mostly my dreams. Although she doesn't share any similar personality traits, interests or characteristics. I just wanted some sort of idol or avatar to fit the dreamworld and after much character development she's just another character more than anything.

I wonder if people think Jacob is a self insert but really I just modeled him on neurotic teen artists I knew in school who take themselves too seriously and make weird modern art pieces for shock value; trying to break out of conformity and rebel.

punkarsenic
Nov '16

i mean, in a way, every character is drawing from the self or from people you know, and i tend to put myself into all my characters in varying ways. maybe because im autistic, so cognitive empathy (or lack of it) leaves me with only really my own experience to draw from, but i think it leaves a link back to me that adds extra dimensions of understanding.

then again... yeah, sure, ive made characters that are genuinely me in a hat. maybe too much. its fun, harmless, and they tend to evolve away as i do anyway.

colinwmd
Nov '16
indagold

I'm planning to have a self insert in my long story once I start it.

It's set in the town I grew up in and I used to clean windows there when I was doing my A levels. One of the locations is a cafe I used to clean so a young me might appear in an establishing shot there with a bucket and a cloth, in my old yellow and black chequered shirt...

Michelle
Nov '16

I've yet to literally draw myself into a panel, but sometimes I'll give a random person in the crowd my hairstyle and/or fashion style.

Strangely, I've had a couple people think the main characters of my comic were supposed to be me and my boyfriend...? I kinda see it with the bf, because his hair is similar, though he changed his hairstyle -after- I made the character. So I joke that he's modeled himself after the comic |D as for my appearance, I really don't see the similarities... but the idea of making a self-insert comic about me and my partner would be super weird.

aran150
Nov '16

Uh.. Noooo... Totally not. That's a different Aran in my comic. Totally not based on me.

But seriously, yeah, Aran shares my name, he looks like me, but personality-wise, totally removed. I'm not that much of an ass. And since I don't identify as him, I feel no regrets doing terrible things to him or making him out to be a dislikable character.

VermillionWorks
Nov '16

I don't usually put straight-up self inserts into my stories, but I certainly have put parts of myself, like certain opinions, behaviors, beliefs, ect. and put them into characters, often times without really thinking about it.

I kind of think a part of 'you' naturally goes into your stories sometimes. For example, when humor crops up in my stuff, a lot of my characters have a strange penchant for sarcasm, like me. XD

Aspie_Gamer
Nov '16

Susan from my comic Life of an Aspie2 is pretty much the closest I'll ever get to being in my own comic. To elaborate upon what I mean, Susan's personality is sorta based off of mine, but I've given her a few quirks I personally don't have as an aspie particularly a couple related to her gender such as seemingly being able to socialize normally. (What's called "chameleoning" in the aspie community; basically copying what normal people do in social situations to help mask her autism. With boys, its pretty obvious when one of us is on the spectrum especially growing up.)

Kura
Nov '16

Not a literal self insert no. There are other more interesting or important things to throw in my comics from my life personality and experiences. My face not being one of them.

Chopythes
Nov '16
1

Yep! It's a thing I do just for fun or when I need more people in a crowd xD
From Beyond the Ordinary

And one from Vasteros Next1

I try to make it less obvious that it's me, despite the odd looking hat I've got <3

But I also have as a rule to never have a line when I do self inserts, unlike I did with my first (rather terrible) webcomic: themoronn.smackjeeves.com in -08.

TrustyShamrock
Nov '16

i sorta did by accident. my main character geckie in robo hole turned out to be wayyy too much like me. first i was like wow what a interesting design! i never thoughta making a character with a face like this. hurr dee durr. but halfway thru my comic i was just like oh my god its me
plus when i drew his character design i just put him in the clothes i was wearin at the time cuz i didnt feel like comin up with a costume. but i ended up liking it on him so i kept it. its too late now to change it tho so... ewps

Isky
Nov '16

No. If I ever throw in a self-insert character in my story, I'd probably give them a gruesome death.

2 years later
tmunnerlyn
Oct '19

My novel started off as nothing more than cringy self-insert fanfiction that I used to manage my anxiety. Over time, that character developed his own personality, had his own backstory, his own tales to tell and eventually...it just wasn't me anymore. I've used my story to vent about situations I've been in and to help overcome my own trauma. I wanted to tell a side of anger that most wouldn't understand without having gone through it themselves. I initially wasn't going to write it, being "too good" for self-insert stuff, but my friend Kaetana encouraged me as a lot of people find relief in it. Four years later and at a nice 260k words, I have no regrets.

DualDragonsMaster of Yeet
Oct '19

I was planning a self insert in the past, yes. The character had black hair like me and was supposed to be really badass (perhaps too exaggerated).

In the end he kinda became his own character, and he doesn't really resemble me anymore which is fine.

Though there is another character that's based on me in my comic. He doesn't play an important role at the moment though.

arcojawa
Oct '19

I.............. briefly considered it. But I ultimately decided against it and put some rando in "my place"...... I don't remember why I decide to do it and why I decided against it. So long as you don't go overboard with their characterization I don't think there's anything good or bad about self-inserts.

GamerPrincessXI
Oct '19

I did a self insert for Nova and Max and mentioned Life of Shiori in that same comic, XD.