Not a week goes by that I don’t check my inbox and see a variation of the following question: “Mr. Bell/Darrin/Moron, how do you get the characters in ‘Candorville’ to seem so three-dimensional? I want to work long hours for 1970’s wages as a cartoonist someday, but my characters seem so flat and lifeless.”Here’s how you do it, kids: stay in school, read as much literature as you can get your hands on, and always cross at the crosswalk (I don’t know what that has to do with learning about character development, but it’s a good idea anyway).Other tricks: Pay attention to the people around you, and create backstories for them in your head. See a homeless person? Create a story about how he ended up that way. Not only will you be on the road toward developing three dimensional characters, but focusing on the plight of another human being helps you develop your “compassion muscle.” Unless, of course, you come up with some calvinist backstory about how the guy’s homeless because he deserves to be, which would be a pretty boring, two-dimensional story.Or you can take the easy way out, and simply channel your inner loser. Be critical of yourself. Have you done anything stupid that you wish nobody would ever know about? Don’t repress it deep in your subconscious, where it’ll fester until it eats some choice part of your soul. Don’t live in denial. Confess your loserness to the world. Not only will it keep your soul from being eaten, it’ll give you some quality character development.Case in point:Of course, for this strip I used option A. I would never do something like this in real life.•••

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