15-05 (Patreon)

I think I've talked about this before, but it's something I've had on my mind lately... many artists have "Original Characters", or "OC"s as they're often called. Some people hear that term and immediately think of fan-characters set in existing comic universes, but lately I've seen it more used as just a term for new characters created by artists... but more specifically the term seems to apply to characters that an artist draws often, but that they don't treat as part of a regular on-going series of any kind. Whereas characters as part of a comic, animation, or series of written stories are largely simply considered "characters", and aren't always as heavily tied to a creator in the viewers' minds, so much as thought of as part of the series they originate from.

I bring this up because I was kind of jealous to see the attention that some artists I follow on Tumblr get for their OCs. Fans often send them questions, suggestions, thoughts, etc. about their character. However, I've realized that I have been asked about stuff in the comic before, but for the most part I don't really answer. I'm worried about spoiling what is going to come up in the story... so I think it's really part of just how the two types of characters differ. Since an OC isn't necessarily part of an ongoing series there's not as much imperative to save twists and plotlines for the future.