I have a weakness for animal comics.

This should surprise absolutely nobody.

Give me a creature with a strong personality and I'm interested.

Give that creature a group of other creatures who don't quite know what they're all supposed to be doing and I'm probably staying.

But after spending a ridiculous amount of time drawing animals myself, I've realised that the best animal comics aren't necessarily the ones with the cutest characters.

Here are seven things I look for in a good animal webcomic.

1. The Animals Feel Like Animals

This is probably my biggest one.

An animal character doesn't have to behave exactly like a real animal all the time. It's fiction. We are allowed to have some fun.

But I like being able to recognise the creature underneath the character.

A horse should have the physical presence of a horse.

A bird should move like a bird.

A cat shouldn't suddenly have the body language of a golden retriever just because the artist needed a particular expression (unless that's like... literally a plot in the story. I'd read a comic about cats turning into dogs!)

Those little details make fictional creatures feel convincing.

2. Every Character Has a Personality

If I can swap one animal for another and nothing about the story changes, something is missing.

I want to know why this character is in the story.

What makes them different?

What annoys them?

What makes them happy?

What are they afraid of?

What do they do when things go wrong?

The answers don't have to be complicated. But even animals that don't speak like humans have motivations, habits, moods…

Sometimes "this character is extremely food motivated" is plenty to get started.

3. The Relationships Matter

A good group of characters shouldn't just exist in the same panel.

They should affect one another.

One character should make another character angry.

Someone should make somebody else laugh (even if it's at their expense).

Someone should bring out a side of another character that we wouldn't see otherwise, which is really important in animal comics because the relationships can be communicated through body language as much as dialogue.

Who sits beside who?

Who follows who?

Who gets protective?

Who gets left behind?

Those things can tell a story.

4. There's a Reason to Keep Reading

I don't necessarily need a giant cliffhanger at the end of every update.

But I do need a question:

What happens next?

• Why did that character do that?
• Where are they going?
• What is that weird thing in the background?
• Is that horse about to kick somebody?

…Okay, that last one might be specific to my comic.

The point is that a good webcomic gives you a reason to come back.

5. The Art Has a Point of View

I'm not looking for perfect art.

I'm looking for interesting art.

A distinctive way of drawing faces, an unusual approach to colour, a particular way of exaggerating expressions, a strange little detail that makes the artist's work immediately recognisable.

Independent comics have an advantage here because creators aren't necessarily trying to make everything look like everything else.

The quirks are often part of the appeal.

6. The World Feels Bigger Than the Page

This is especially important to me in fantasy comics.

I want to feel like the characters exist when they're not on the page.

Where did they come from?

What happened before the story started?

What does their world look like outside this particular scene?

You don't have to explain everything. In fact, please don't explain everything. Give me enough to become curious.

7. I Care About Somebody

This is the big one.

I don't need every character to be nice, to make good decisions or even be likeable, but I need to care what happens to somebody.

Maybe I care because they're funny.

They're irritating but fascinating.

They're vulnerable.

I see something of myself in them.

Maybe I just really want to know whether they're going to survive their own terrible decision.

That's enough.

What I Tried to Do With The Golden Troupe

These are some of the things I think about when I'm making The Golden Troupe.

The animals are animals.

The characters have very different personalities.

Their relationships matter.

And the story is ultimately about what happens when a group of very different creatures finds a way to belong together.

I don't expect every reader to connect with every character.

In fact, I'm perfectly happy if you have a favourite and a character you can't stand.

That's part of the fun.

I suspect everybody is going to have an opinion about Aspa.

If you'd like to find out who you end up siding with, you can meet the Troupe and start reading here.

And if you want to follow the comic as I work on what's next, you can join the Troupe here.

Just don't tell Qui I said he wasn't the favourite.

He already has enough of an ego.

At some point, I apparently decided that making a normal comic wasn't complicated enough.

So I made one about a past life.

Set around 2,500 years ago.

In the Achaemenid Empire.

With animal companions.

Naturally.

That's how The Golden Troupe came to exist.

So What Is The Golden Troupe?

The Golden Troupe is a hand-drawn animal fantasy comic about a travelling group of companions in the ancient world.

The first volume, TOGETHER, is about how this particular group came together.

And when I say "group," I use the term somewhat loosely.

There is a fiery mare, an eager golden eagle, a relentlessly cheerful cheetah and a very particular saluki.

They don't all have the same personality.

They don't all want the same things.

And they definitely don't all agree with each other.

That's where the fun starts.

Why Animals?

The animals aren't just there because animals are cute.

Although let's be honest, that doesn't hurt.

I wanted the creatures to have their own personalities and their own ways of interacting with the world.

Most of the animals in The Golden Troupe behave like animals. They don't have human conversations just because that would make the storytelling easier.

Instead, I use their behaviour and body language to communicate what they're thinking and feeling.

A horse has a different physical vocabulary from a cheetah.

An eagle interacts with the world differently from a dog.

A saluki has a completely different presence from all of them.

Those differences become part of the storytelling.

Why the Achaemenid Empire?

The historical setting is one of the things that makes The Golden Troupe unusual.

The story takes place around 2,500 years ago during the Achaemenid Empire, a huge ancient Persian empire that stretched across a remarkable portion of the ancient world.

I didn't want the setting to be a generic fantasyland. (Also, I had a long history of being drawn to things in this region that didn't exactly make sense for how and where I grew up... But that's another story for a different day.)

The world has a real historical foundation, which gives the characters somewhere specific to exist. 

It also gives me a lot of things to research.

Sometimes "I'm going to look up one tiny historical detail" turns into an afternoon disappearing down an extremely specific research rabbit hole.

This is apparently part of the job now.

And Then There Are the Characters

The setting may be ancient, but the characters are what make the story:

Aspa

Aspa is a fiery, moody mare with a strong protective streak.

She isn't interested in winning everybody's approval.

Honestly, I think that's one of her better qualities.

Morgh

Morgh is an eager golden eagle who is extremely focused on hunting.

He is also extremely focused on being annoyed by Aspa.

This is not a coincidence.

Rioxia

Rioxia, or Rox, is the cheetah.

She's cheerful, affectionate and inclined to love basically everybody.

This is useful when you're travelling with people who are considerably less enthusiastic about one another.

Qui

Qui is a saluki.

He's refined.

He's pompous.

He's particular.

And he has the general demeanour of someone who would like the entire world to be slightly more tasteful.

Underneath that, there's considerably more going on.

The Story Isn't Really About the Animals

Well.

It is.

But it's also about something else.

The Golden Troupe is about what happens when very different individuals find themselves travelling together.

It's about companionship.

It's about belonging.

It's about figuring out who you can trust.

And it's about what happens when people who don't necessarily fit together discover that maybe they don't have to.

That's why the word TOGETHER is so important to the first volume.

The story isn't just about where these characters go.

It's about how they become a group.

What I'm Making Now

Volume 1 is complete.

I'm continuing to develop the world and work toward what's next for the Troupe.

And because there's always more happening behind the finished pages than can fit into the comic itself, I'm sharing some of that process here: artwork, character development, sketches, stories and the occasional glimpse into whatever strange rabbit hole I'm currently investigating.

If you'd like to start with the actual story, you can meet The Golden Troupe here.

If you'd like to see what happens behind the scenes, you can join the Troupe here.

Welcome to the campfire.

Mind the eagle.

I could have made a comic about a group of animals who are all best friends.

They could travel around together, support each other unconditionally and never get on each other's nerves.

That sounds nice...

It also sounds really boring.

Instead, I made a comic about a group of very different creatures who have to figure out how to exist together.

And honestly, I think that's much more interesting.

Animals Have Personalities

Anyone who has spent much time around animals knows they're not interchangeable balls of fur, feathers and bad decisions.

• Some are outgoing.
• Some are nervous.
• Some want attention from absolutely everyone.
• Some would prefer you keep your hands to yourself, thank you very much.
• And some seem to have decided that your entire existence is personally offensive.

I love that.

When I'm creating an animal character, I don't want to take a human personality, stick some ears on it and call it an animal. I want the creature to feel like a creature.

That means thinking about how they move, how they react to things and how they communicate without necessarily using words.

That's especially important in The Golden Troupe, because the animals mostly behave like animals.

They don't sit around having perfectly articulated conversations in English.

They communicate through what they do.

A look. Morgh, STAHP. I get your eyebrows just do that, but you look mad all the time.

A movement. Aspa, I'll give you a reason to pin your ears.

Who they choose to stand beside. Maybe a little TOO close. RIOXIA.

Who they absolutely refuse to stand beside. Qui,. Get back here.

Sometimes that's all you need.

Meet the Problem Children

The Troupe consists of four very different animals.

Aspa is a fiery, moody mare. She's strong, protective and has very little patience for nonsense.

Morgh is an eager golden eagle with a serious fixation on hunting and an even more serious fixation on being annoyed by Aspa.

Rioxia, or Rox, is a cheerful cheetah who basically loves everybody.

And then there's Qui, a rather pompous saluki who has the general air of someone who has been inconvenienced by the existence of other people.

You can probably already see the problem.

Put these four together and you're not going to get a perfectly harmonious little friendship circle. They're not making friendship bracelets for each other, even if they had opposable thumbs. Except Rioxia. She'd make enough for everyone (and then some).

And that's exactly why I like them.

Found Family Doesn't Mean Everyone Gets Along

I think we sometimes get a little too tidy about the idea of found family:

• The characters meet.
• They instantly understand each other.
• Everybody becomes best friends.
• Roll credits.

But real belonging doesn't always work like that.

Sometimes...

• People don't always understand you immediately.
• Somebody annoys the hell out of you and you still end up caring about them.
• Somebody else's boundaries demands your full attention.
• You discover that the person you thought you couldn't stand is actually the person who will show up when things go wrong.

That's a much better, more dynamic story. To me, anyway.

The characters don't have to become identical. They don't even have to like each other all the time.

They just have to find a way to belong together.

That's Really What The Golden Troupe Is All  About...

The Golden Troupe is a hand-drawn fantasy comic about a past-life story set around 2,500 years ago during the Achaemenid Empire.

There's travelling and adventure and history and animals doing animal things.

But underneath all of that, it's a story about connection:

• What does it mean to find your people?
• What happens when you don't quite fit where you started?
• Can a bunch of very different creatures become a family without having to stop being themselves?

Those are the questions that keep me interested in this story.

And, to be so for real... drawing animals getting into trouble is pretty awesome too.

Come Meet Them

If you love animal comics, fantasy stories, found family or characters who are just a little bit difficult (or a lot a bit difficult), you can meet the Troupe and read the comic here.

And if you'd like to follow what I'm making between comic pages, you can join the Troupe here.

There's room around the campfire.

...just maybe don't sit directly next to Aspa.