| Summary | For Issue #3, we're returning to our Create a Character framework - but this time, we're opening the halls of New City High and inviting you to help us populate them. From students and teachers to administrators, friends, rivals and unexpected personalities, we'll use the same creative process introduced earlier in the Studio to build the community surrounding Andre and Tamia. At least two of the characters created through this collaboration will appear in Issue #3 - with the possibility that others may return in stories still to come. |
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| Background | New City High is filled with students, teachers and personalities whose stories are still waiting to be told. As we develop Issue #3 of Back of the Yards, we're inviting collaborators to create original characters who might walk its halls, form new relationships and help bring the school community to life. |
| This & That | Selected ideas and artwork may be featured through Made Collaborative and considered as we develop new characters that may ultimately appear in Issue #3 or future issues. Contributors whose ideas are incorporated into these new characters will be credited as part of its development. |
Every school has its characters. Help us create ours.
New City High is more than a backdrop for Back of the Yards. It’s a place where friendships form, rivalries develop, and young people begin discovering who they are.
We’ve already met students like Andre, Tamia and Russell. But the halls of New City High are filled with other stories waiting to be told.
Who else might we meet?
A new student with an unusual past? A teacher who sees something others overlook? A classmate, rival, friend or unexpected ally?
As we develop Issue #3, we’re inviting you to help populate New City High with original characters inspired by your imagination and experiences.
Your character could become part of the world we’re building together.
Let’s start with the basics.
Every day, students, teachers and staff walk through the halls of New City High. Each has a story, even if we don’t know it yet.
And that’s where we’ll start.
Imagine someone we might encounter at New City High.
What do they look like? How old are they? How do they dress? How do they carry themselves? Are they someone who blends into the crowd — or someone who immediately stands out?
As you work through this first step, we’ll use Andre Davis, one of the first characters created through the original Made Collaborative workshops, as a frame of reference for how a few basic physical and background details can begin to make a character feel real.
Explore Issue #1 of Back of the Yards below, inspired by our original youth collaborations on Chicago's West Side. The story and characters were further developed by Len Kody and Jimmy Briseno, with illustrations by Dan Dougherty.
You can also download or print a PDF copy using the first icon on the right side of the flipbook's bottom toolbar.
Physical traits can help bring your character to life. Consider details like hair color and style, eye shape and color, facial features, skin tone, and body type. These characteristics can make your character more distinctive and offer clues about their personality or background.
For more inspiration, explore the table below or check out this helpful guide to physical descriptions.
Beyond physical traits, consider your character’s basic background, including age, birthplace, nationality, education, occupation, residence, and family relationships.
Think of this step as introducing a character in a movie screenplay. A few carefully chosen details can help readers visualize who your character is before exploring their personality, motivations, and deeper story.
For a great example, consider how the screenplay for Training Day, starring Denzel Washington, introduces Detective Alonzo Harris:
“DETECTIVE SERGEANT ALONZO HARRIS, IN BLACK SHIRT, BLACK LEATHER JACKET. AND JUST ENOUGH PLATINUM AND DIAMONDS TO LOOK LIKE SOMEBODY. HE READS THE PAPER IN A BOOTH. THE GUN-LEATHER-TOUGH L.A.P.D. VET IS A HANDS-ON, BLUE-COLLAR COP WHO CAN KICK YOUR ASS WITH A LOOK.”
In just a few sentences, we get a vivid sense of Alonzo's appearance, occupation, and personality.
Watch the clip below to see how this brief character description comes to life on screen!
Picture your character walking through the halls of New City High for the first time.
What might catch someone’s attention? Think about the character’s age, build, hair, clothing, facial features, posture or anything else that makes them distinctive.
What are the first physical details someone might notice about your character?
Now look beyond his appearance.
How old is he? Does he live in Back of the Yards? Did he grow up here—or is he new to the neighborhood? Does he go to school? Work? Have family nearby?
You don’t need to know his entire story yet. Just start with a few basic details that give us a sense of the life he may have lived.
Now bring those ideas together.
Using the Training Day example above as inspiration, imagine that you’re writing the young man’s first appearance in the Issue #3 screenplay.
In just two or three sentences, introduce us to the person.
What would the reader see before they knew anything else about him?
In Step One, we began with what others might see—your character’s appearance, some basic details about their background, and the first impression they might make.
Now let’s look beneath the surface.
What is your character actually like?
Are they confident or insecure? Quiet or outspoken? Careful or impulsive? Do they trust people easily, or keep everyone at a distance?
A character’s personality shapes how they respond to the world around them—and often tells us far more about them than their appearance ever could.
So for Step Two, we’ll begin thinking about the traits that make your character unique. In other words, we’ll begin exploring their personality.
And perhaps few characters in popular culture have a personality as complicated—or unpredictable—as the comic book villain known as The Joker…
How would you describe the Joker’s personality? Impulsive? Humorous? Creative? Daring? Unpredictable?
Which of the personality traits below best describe him?
For more inspiration, explore this extensive list of character traits from ProWritingAid, a resource for creative writers.
In contrast to the Joker's fictional personality, let's consider the real-life legacy of Frida Kahlo, one of the most influential artists of her time.
A Mexican painter celebrated for her deeply personal self-portraits, Kahlo explored themes of identity, pain, and resilience. Despite significant health challenges, she became an enduring symbol of creativity, individuality, and Mexican cultural pride.
After watching the video, how would you describe Frida’s personality? Creative? Daring? Inventive? Thoughtful?
While Frida and the Joker may share certain traits, such as creativity and daring, their personalities are otherwise strikingly different.
These differences also reflect something deeper: their character archetypes, which we’ll explore in Step Three.
But first! …
Think about the new character you’ve begun creating.
Choose three to five personality traits that describe that character.
Is he confident? Guarded? Loyal? Reckless? Funny? Suspicious? Ambitious? Impulsive? Something else entirely?
Don’t worry about whether the traits are “good” or “bad.” Interesting characters usually contain a little of both.
When someone first meets your character at New City High, they’ll probably make assumptions based on what they see.
What might people initially get wrong about your character?
Maybe someone who appears intimidating is surprisingly thoughtful. Someone who seems confident is actually terrified. Someone who looks like a troublemaker has a good reason for breaking the rules.
What’s beneath the first impression?
Personality often reveals itself most clearly when something goes wrong.
Imagine your character faces a difficult situation at New City High. Maybe they’re challenged, embarrassed, threatened or forced to make a quick decision.
What do they do?
Do they confront the problem? Walk away? Make a joke? Lose their temper? Protect someone else? Pretend they aren’t afraid?
How does their reaction reveal something about who they really are?
What does his reaction tell us about who he or she really is?
By now, our character is beginning to take shape. We have a sense of what Dex sees when he first encounters him—and the personality that might lie beneath that first impression.
Now let’s go deeper: What drives him?
Compelling characters are shaped by their values, desires, and fears. One way to explore these motivations is through character archetypes — familiar patterns that help us understand a character’s motivations and role in a story.
Consider the Joker and Frida Kahlo from Step Two. Both faced adversity, but followed very different paths. The Joker embraced chaos and destruction, while Frida channeled her struggles into creativity and artistic expression.
These contrasting paths offer a useful introduction to character archetypes, which we’ll explore below.
Our exploration of character archetypes begins with Carl Gustav Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist and influential figure in modern psychology.
Jung introduced the concept of the “collective unconscious”—the idea that humans share certain universal patterns and symbols that shape how we understand ourselves and the world. From these shared patterns emerge familiar character archetypes that appear throughout history, mythology, and storytelling.
Click below to explore these archetypes and discover which might describe the Joker, Frida Kahlo, and other familiar fictional and historical figures!
Closely related to character archetypes are core values — the fundamental beliefs and principles that guide a character’s choices and actions. Think of them as your character’s personal compass.
Together, a character’s archetype and core values help shape their motivations, decisions, and role in the story.
Explore the sample values below, or browse this more comprehensive list of core values for additional inspiration.
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Think about the archetypes above. Which one – or combination – feels closest to the character you’re creating?
More importantly, what does that character want?
Respect? Belonging? Independence? Security? Recognition? Revenge? A way out? Something else entirely?
What matters enough to him that it might influence the choices your character may make in Issue #3 and beyond?
Every character has a story, but no character exists in isolation.
Think about the character you’ve created for New City High.
How might they connect with the people and stories already unfolding around them?
Perhaps they become a friend, rival or unexpected ally to Andre or Tamia. Maybe they have a connection to Castañeda, Room 23 or another part of the school.
Where might your character fit into the world of Back of the Yards?
Every memorable character has something that makes them unique.
What sets your New City High character apart from everyone else?
Maybe it’s an unusual ambition, a deeply held belief, a hidden talent or an experience that shaped how they see the world.
Give your character something distinctly their own – something that makes their story worth telling.
With your character's physical traits, background, personality, archetype, and core values taking shape, it's time to add the details that make them truly unique!
In this final step, we'll explore your character's backstory, relationships, and personal experiences through 100 quick questions in the Google Slides presentation below. Answer as many as inspire you!
And for a little creative inspiration, we turn to Stan Lee, the legendary Marvel creator behind Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, and many more.
Original artwork by participating artist Eric Nyamor.
Every character has a life before we meet them — family, friendships, memories, ambitions, and experiences that shape who they become.
We may never see all those details in the comic, but they help make a character feel real.
Now let’s explore who this young man was before we encountered him or her.
Every character has a life before we meet them.
Think about the character you’re creating for New City High. Where did they grow up? Who raised them? Who matters most to them? What experiences have shaped the person they’re becoming?
Give us a little of your character’s story before we first encounter them at New City High.
Now bring your character’s past into the present.
Why is your character at New City High at this particular moment?
Are they looking for somewhere to belong? Trying to prove themselves? Pursuing a dream? Escaping something from their past? Or simply navigating everyday school life?
What does your character want — and how might that shape their relationships and experiences at New City High?
We’ve imagined what your character looks like. We’ve explored their personality, motivations, background and place in the world of New City High.
There’s just one thing left.
What’s their name?
It can be a real name, a nickname, or both.
We’ve spent some time getting to know this character. Now it’s time to introduce them to the world.
You've met Andre, Tamia and some of the other personalities shaping the world of Back of the Yards.
But New City High is filled with stories we haven't told yet.
Who else might walk these halls?
We're developing new characters for Issue #3—and we'd like your help imagining the students, teachers and personalities who bring this school to life.
ENTER THE WORKSHOP →
No drawing skills required. Just bring your imagination.
Although by no means, required, but to the extent you have developed any concept sketches or illustrations of your new character, we encourage you to submit those illustrations to us. Just do us a favor and let us know which character you are submitting illustrations for, and we will absolutely make sure our artists receive them when they are reviewing your character submissions!
And we may feature your artwork in the future either on the project website or directly in our comic issues, all subject to your approval!
Some special pieces may be selected to appear in the Back of the Yards comic book. iPad/iPhone users, submit images from FILES (NOT from Photo Library).
Some special pieces may be selected to appear in the Back of the Yards comic book.
UPLOAD YOUR IMAGES BELOW
Some special pieces may be selected to appear in the Back of the Yards comic book.
UPLOAD YOUR IMAGES BELOW
Some special pieces may be selected to appear in the Back of the Yards comic book.
UPLOAD YOUR IMAGES BELOW
Some special pieces may be selected to appear in the Back of the Yards comic book.
UPLOAD YOUR IMAGES BELOW
Collaborate with professional artists by contributing some artwork of your own! Some special pieces may be selected to appear in the Back of the Yards comic book.
UPLOAD YOUR IMAGES BELOW
