What thing did you learn while doing research for your comic/novel?

[GGOkumura]

This week's chapter depicted characters playing poker. Before i'd chosen poker as the game they were going to play, i didn't know anything about blackjack or poker. So in order to portray a believable blackjack or poker scene i had to learn how to play them. Every now and then I research stuff for my comic and learn a bit more.
Images from the scene

So I was just wondering what things other creators have learned through their research for their comics and novels.

[WistyWrites]

Hmm? Research? What is this strange magic you speak of?

[carreonaiwille]

Many, many things. The setting I am working on is largely based on Spanish Era Philippines. It was a bit difficult because aside from the political climate and the succeeding revolt, nothing else gets told in schools. Upon researching, I learned about
The Tabacco factories, an Orphanage in the middle of the island in a river, the purpose of the layers of clothing, and the reason why big buildings do not have sharp edges.

Also, I looked into judicial systems in Victlrian era and also a bit of the Orphan train.

I learned quite a lot actually.

[GGOkumura]

wow, that's a lot

[hallowrook]

I learned nail polish/paint was invented in ancient China while I was researching for my webtoon, The Black Fox Spirit's Ode. You'll see a lot of my characters in The Black Fox Spirit's Ode with painted nails or nail art. B)

[LettieK]

I learned a fiddle and a violin are actually the exact same instrument- the only difference is the genre of music played with them. It's called a fiddle when playing folk, and a violin when playing classical. (maybe that's something everyone already knew, but I thought it was interesting, ha!)

[Kuma]

I do a lot of research for my day job and a lot for the novel. I think the thing I studied the most was weather patterns to see how the geography of the world my novel is set in would affect the climate.

[Kaydreamer]

There is no safe place to be shot in the torso. Every single place is a coin-toss for hitting a vital organ, an artery, or irreparably shattering important bones.

Also, the shoulders are one of the most dangerous. Hollywood lied.

[chestnutriceeee]

Early 20th Century. Other than the war side of history, there are so many places where things were practically the same they are right now and equally many places where mankind has literally leaped to advancement. The worst part is, while many technological breakthroughs were impeded by war, more of them came about because of it. History is really amusing.

[scribesunlimited]

One of the most important things we think everyone should learn:

Get people introduced to your characters first. Whether you hole up on an art site, a comic forum, whatever, it's important for you to make your characters "famous" first. That's how "The Depths" became so successful. We had cute otter girls we commissioned a lot of artists to draw every so often, and once people saw the characters and knew them so well, we sprang the comic news on them.

Everything just exploded from there. So...get a good audience for your characters first - then launch the comic and you have a built-in instant audience already.

[GGOkumura]

Nice! didn't know that.

[GGOkumura]

a must know

[queen_of_spades]

I made research for names for my characters. And learned a bit about type of houses and how women wore make-up over 2000 years ago... (a different/modern story of Samson and Delilah with some hints of an imagined version of the past - not exactly the bible version)

[domisotto]

Lots of things, but my absolute favourite was that Regency’s ultimate bad boy, a complete and utter jerk, Lord Byron found waltz scandalous when it appeared in its first version. Putting your arms around a lady’s waist! In public! O the mores!

[MeltingCORE]

I've learned about how nuclear power works and the industrialization of food. (I sound morbid but hey, I write sci-fi!)

[DemureGirl]

I needed to design some sigil for the ruling houses so ended up researching hereldry. Really interesting what all the things mean, from the pose of the creature, to colours and even the way it's facing!
Here is the "main" one I designed

[YS_og]

Had to do a lot of geographical and geopolitical research on Colombia/Bogota and will do the same for Bangladesh, Philippines, and Ukraine as well. Has actually been fun thus far

[LinQ]

I learned how bread is made. Particularly in medieval times. It was for a chapter I wrote recently, ahead of what's released on tapas right now. Did you know brown bread was a lot more common back then and white bread was reserved for the rich? It's kind of ironic because brown bread tends to sell at higher rates nowadays. Also risen bread was made before yeast was discovered. Some guy just decided to leave his dough out one day before baking and got a much better result. It just became a standard part of the process to leave the bread out after that until some scientists discovered yeast and they started putting it in bread.
Also apparently the ovens couldn't be cleaned completely before use every time so the bottom of bread was usually black. To serve the higher class they would cut the bottoms off. Anyway that's all I've got for interesting bread facts

[crowstories]

I recently wrote a historical fiction flashback chapter which required a ton of research on Constantinople and the Byzantine empire... but the most interesting/creepy thing I learned was the origin of the phrase, "hit the hay".

Back when people used to sleep on straw mattresses, they would beat them before going to bed, to scare the bugs off.

[renaissancebadger]

I've learned more about Boston working on my comic(on webtoon) than I have being there. Mostly where the waterways are and where convincing superhero secret lairs could be. Also I've learned that I'm even worse at perspective than I anticipated.

As for my novel; I've learned that people will read and sometimes enjoy books you wrote for yourself and that the Rhydderch family has the best latin motto of any family ever.