The writer should ‘love’ their characters, because if they don’t care about them, the readers will not be able to identify with them, and then they will not care about their fate either.
I decided early on in the planning that my protagonist would not be a man, but a young woman. There are several reasons for this; first, I like women with a strong character, and second, in many adventure stories the protagonists are usually men, while women are subordinate figures often to be rescued, or even sexy side characters, ‘eye-candies’, who can be ‘taken’ by the male hero at the end of the story. I wanted the opposite, that’s why I created Dabra Fedyrno.
I formed Dabra’s name from Deborah because I liked the sound of it. Her surname was originally the same as the male protagonist’s, but I changed it later, after at one point in the plot the same surnames would have contradicted one of the main
threads of the story.
I imagined Dabra’s appearance as a sort of female Han Solo, e.g. wearing boots, side pocket pants, short sleeved shirt, jacket. She has long brown hair, a pretty face and a slender figure. I didn’t notice it at the time of designing, but later a friend of mine commented that her look reflected my ideal of a woman. Well, I won’t deny it…
During the design of the character, I also considered the small matter of whether she should be left-handed, as I am left-handed, but this feature did not appear in the end, as it is not important to the story. Dabra initially carried her gun in a holster on her hip, which I later “put” under her arm, as I didn’t want her to look too much like Star Wars, where anyone can carry a gun, even in a visible place.
Dabra is a private detective, which allows her to carry a gun, but also puts her in situations where her skills and experience are justified and useful. I also thought a lot about her age; I didn’t want her to be too young, nor too old. The former would have discredited her personality, as it is difficult to believe that a girl too young would talk and behave as she does, while the latter would not have suited the age of the male protagonist or their history together. Dabra is therefore in her mid/late twenties.
I borrowed the first name of the male protagonist – Dorph Bellidys – from American actor Stephen Dorff, and his surname was a figment of my imagination. It’s no coincidence that the y is at the end of the name; I wanted to prevent the word from resembling the English word ‘belly’.
Dorph’s personality contrasts with his appearance: although tall and well-built, he is not overconfident, but he is loyal, determined and persistent. He can be independent, but he doesn’t mind being gently guided or taught. The latter is particularly important, as in one of the Han Solo novels (not official, but Hungarian bootleg) there was a motif of Solo teaching a clumsy character the life and tricks of space travel, but a similar one appeared in Brian Daley’s Hobart Floyt and Alacrity Fitzhugh trilogy, and I liked it so much that I wove it into the story, thus the other thread of the relationship between Dorph and Dabra, respectively, was formed Dorph and the second female protagonist.
Her name is Sirrah, which I got by changing the name Sarah; her surname – Zoey – I came up with later, when I was completing a scene.
Sirrah’s attractive appearance and assertive manner compensate for a secret known to few. What it is, the novel reveals.
Sirrah’s character was not planned, I made her up as I went along, and although her function was roughly established at the time (she helps Dorph), she grew into a main character over time.
Treick Gandimot is kinda the male equivalent of Sirrah; Dabra’s lover and often helper. Owner of an electronics shop, he is usually cheerful and likes to joke around, sometimes counterbalancing Dabra’s stiffness and stiffness (like Dorph does Sirrah’s). Treick is a reliable man, ready to leave everything behind and rush to help his friends – a quality that is emphasised throughout the story.
In addition to the main characters, I also invented supporting characters, some of them during the writing process, as the current plot thread required (the character was added to an ongoing event), while at other times I found a character not originally intended, but just drawn during the planning process, so interesting that I wrote him into the story.
Dyon Ceru is a typical soldier figure, both in manner and appearance. His name is inspired by Dylan McCay, a character from the teen TV series Beverly Hills 90210. Not much is known about Ceru beyond the fact that he is Sirrah’s friend and debtor, and he is even capable of leading a military fleet if she asks him to.
Tolar Menkhyb is a mechanic who helps Dorph in one scene. My original idea for him was to have cybernetic eyes that could be turned off and on, but I later dropped that because it wasn’t justified for the scene (he was looking at a photograph), and on the other hand, another character has (or will have at this point) mechanic accessories, and two of those characters would have been too many.
The design of Proc started with drawing a man with ‘Robocop legs’ (I have a Robocop action figure about 25 cm tall, that was the inspiration). Treick goes to a space station to get information; in one of the scenes here, the ‘robot-legged mechanic-vizard’ appears, who, like Tolar, I also liked so much that I later ‘brought him back’.
Erdan Mintaka is a kind of caricature of the typical, cool space fighter pilot. In his case, we can talk about the most serious personality development, because when we first meet him, he is still an ‘opponent’, but later on… well, that would be a spoiler.
One of Sirrah’s closest friends and ‘collaborators’, Wakka, was so unplanned that I didn’t even sketch him, but made him up as I wrote. The creature is a kind of comic side character, and has a very strange appearance, as he has three legs. I borrowed
its name from a fantasy animal in the popular educational science fiction book After Man.
I also created the negative protagonist, the ‘main villain’. Corab Bengez is an elderly man who helps the alien invaders who appear in the novel. Bengez started out as a clichéd villain, with manifestations that after a while didn’t fit his original personality, so I fleshed him out more; giving him motivation, background and a more nuanced character.
So I had the story and the characters, but it all had to be written.