The Importance of Backgrounds

Most beginning artists debate drawing backgrounds because of the complexity; backgrounds can be intimidating so it's definitely understandable. However, you need to keep in mind that a background adds a lot to the comic; it can sometimes be subtle, sometimes obvious, but backgrounds can add a lot to the comic. Part of the debate about whether or not to have backgrounds needs to keep in mind what they bring to the table.

That said, there are several different ways you can break down a panel. For our purposes, we're breaking it down into the characters and the backgrounds. For most people, they'll start with a rough sketch of the panel, possibly play with it a bit, and then draw the panel. In general, most artists will do a panel in one of two ways: They'll either do the entire panel as one piece of art, or they will do the backgrounds and composite the characters.

Drawing a panel as a single piece allows you to get all of the details right; with the light coming down on everything from the same angle, for example, and you only need to worry about perspective lines once. Compositing is a little more interesting, as each piece needs to be drawn and then fit into the overall picture; while it can be tricky to make that all character heights are relative and shadows can be difficult, it allows you to draw a clean background and not worry about trying to connect the lines.

[Of course, CGI artists have the best of both worlds: They can create the backgrounds and then throw in the characters; they only render the page when all of the details are right. This means that all of the details, such as shadows and light sources, don't need to be adjusted for each figure or building; you can light everything at one time. They still start with the same rough sketches, however.]

A background can be as simple or as complex as you would like. European comics like complete backgrounds because they are used to classical art; it just feels more natural for everything to have a background. Asian comics may or not have backgrounds: They may have backgrounds to establish the location or culture but then omit them to focus on the action or a character point. (This also helps speed things up considering the deadline pressure they are under.) American comics tend to be somewhere in the middle and may use simplified backgrounds as a compromise.

Grounds the Piece

One of the complaints that a lot of beginning artists have to deal with is the "floating in space" issue: The characters drawn just don't appear to be an actual part of the scene and seem to be floating above it; they either lack shadows or simply don't have a background. While there are times you want your characters to float and while removing the background can be effective, completely divorcing your characters from their surroundings can generally prove to be disconcerting to the reader and adds an unnecessary level of surrealism to the scene. So while omitting the background occasionally can work, it is not something you want as the default.

Establishes Genre

People are weird: They're willing to follow you into some pretty weird places, but they need to have an idea of what to expect. Audience expectations are based on the genre they are reading, so you need to establish that genre as quickly as possible. While it can be fun to play with audience expectations if you take too long to establish what they should expect then you could lose them before things even get interesting. As such, your backgrounds can give them clues as to what they can expect, from the type of vehicles, buildings, or even activities in the background.

This means that whatever is flying around in the background, be it dragons, planes, super-powered beings, or even dirigibles will go a way towards establishing what genre you are playing in and what tropes the audience can expect. While you can subvert expectations somewhat, you need to establish what they need to expect before you can subvert said expectations. Your background helps do that; once you do that, you can subvert them all you want.

You can be as subtle as you want, but do try to give them a sort of idea of what to expect, and you'll find the audience sticking around a lot longer.

Establishes Culture

Culture is a weird thing for writers: We want to explore alien cultures but we also want to look at how it's similar to our own. This puts the audience in a weird place: When we lay down the culture, they know that no matter how alien the culture may be to them, they can expect us to work on the similarities. However, we need to establish that culture first, and the architecture, transportation, and even costumes of that culture establish the culture. The best way of doing that is to make sure that backgrounds do a little heavy lifting and show off the culture a little bit.

Establishes Time

Part of the setting is the time. There are numerous ways to show what year or even epoch it is, ranging from specific outfits, the prevalence of obvious arms and armor, or even what kind of advertising is going on. A lot of these can be more subtle than those of establishing the culture while others can be so obvious as to be hard to miss. This is a good way to establish some of the basics that culture doesn't cover.

If you're looking to establish the same city but on a different date, this is the most effective way of doing it: Figure out what carries over between the different times, what changes, and make sure the changes are made. Buildings are going to change, what people are wearing, and even what trash is in the streets are the obvious beginning points so start there and go from there. This can be a fun exercise, and worth playing around with.

Establishes Technological Level

Just because you have the same culture and at the same time doesn't mean that the same technology may be expressed. A good example of this is steampunk; sure, it may involve an English culture and a late 19th-century date, but the technology is definitely more advanced than in 19th-century England. Details in the background (wiring, vehicles, lighting fixtures) help establish the tech level of the setting, thus giving the readers cues as to the appropriate level, and nothing establishes the tech in use by seeing it in actual use.

[While culture, time, and technological level may seem so interlinked as to be virtually indistinguishable, they are nonetheless incredibly different. Culture is the beliefs of the society in question and how they accomplish certain things; those beliefs manifest themselves in how a society builds things, how they dress, and countless other things. Time looks at how a society develops and its origins; while the culture may (and should) change over time, time just gives everyone a snapshot of that culture. Tech level is just the intersection of how the culture thinks at the time and how far it has evolved at that point as expressed through its technology.]

Establishes Location

This is actually two points in one: real-world locations and fantasy locations. For real-world locations, subtle details will define the locations, and people are always looking for those subtle details. For example, London has been so defined by Big Ben that it appears in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, even though it's an obvious anachronism. To show you how important details are, consider how often people are thrown out of a movie when they see a movie car chase that shifts between different locations that are even just tens of miles apart or when they see a subway platform in a city without a subway.

The takeaway here is that if you're attempting to build a location, details matter. Make sure that your details will fool a native, or at least pass some sort of muster. You need to allow for how the city was at whichever stage you are portraying it and get those details right. If you do, or at least get enough right, you will get some pretty solid fans, especially if it's a detail that a lot of others get wrong; get Trafalgar Square right, and you will have fans that will sing your praises and defend you to death.

When it comes to fantasy locations, the background details help establish the location's reality. If your book is set in a seaside town and you never show the ocean, the ships, and the docks, no one will buy your location. If you're trying to pull off a space station, you need to show the stars, the nearest sun, and any important astronomical objects. In short, just as details establish a real-world location, details will help establish the reality of your made-up world, and that added layer of reality will do nothing but help your story.

Helps Establish Characters

If it helps establish location, imagine what it can do for characters. Putting your teenage boy in a messy room with rock posters helps readers see him as a real boy, not just a cut-out. Have an OCD character? Having a room that's perfectly clean and perfectly ordered solidifies that impression. The same applies to making a mad scientist versus a more strenuous scientist; having a few well-preserved specimens just establishes the proper edge of insanity as much as a visibly sterile lab helps establish a professional lab.

By the same token, it also helps foreshadow aspects of the character. A boy with a clean room has a different personality than one with a clean room; there could be mother issues or he sees a lot of company, for example. If you're trying to establish the lab of someone involved in human experimentation, you need some strong restraints. A necromancer and a demonologist will have very different chambers. They may seem like little details, but those details define the character.

Gives the Characters Something to Do

Every character has a hobby or profession, right? Admittedly, this is more of an acting question, but what does a character do with his hands when they aren't otherwise occupied? The background helps answer that question: A character with a gaming rig is obviously going to be playing a game, while a character with stacked bookshelves is a reader. A character pouring over a light table establishes an artist, and so on. While these may seem like inconsequential actions, they help to establish character, giving the character additional dimension and further grounding them in reality.

Anchors the Action

What makes a more interesting action scene: A plain, featureless plain or a series of columns? Sure, the plain is great if you're doing a team battle and want to make it power versus power, but the columns give the combatants something to climb and leap off, hide behind, and even trick the other side into wasting ammunition. Bet that makes the columns sound a lot more interesting, right? By creating an interesting background and then allowing your characters to use that background in their activities, you create much more dynamic action scenes and memorable scenes.

Allows the Artist Some Fun

I know some artists are going to hate me for this one, but sometimes having a background to develop is not always a bad thing. It helps the artist really get into the mind-space of the character, but also allows them to play with a lot of details, like establishing the world's pop bands, what the characters like to eat, and even where they spend most of their time. Want to hide some Easter eggs? Backgrounds are awesome for that. So while some artists may hate working on backgrounds, they offer a lot of opportunities for fun if used right.

Can Help Inspire the Writing

Writer's block is usually when you have nothing to write about. There has to be a story about why the room is so clean. How about the contents of that jar with a unicorn head? What books are on the character's bookshelves and why? What if the story was told using the character's computer character? What if the group was forced to fight at a water park? All of these started as little background details, but when the writer looked at the details and asked the right questions they found inspiration.

Those little details in the background can help you later on.

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As you can see, backgrounds add a lot to the comic. There shouldn't be that much debate involved in whether or not to have them; a comic without backgrounds is missing a lot of information. While eliminating them to simplify the drawing task is understandable, as well as limiting their use to make deadlines more attainable, you should debate taking them away completely because of how much they add to the situation. A comic without backgrounds, even simplified ones, just doesn't look right, so please keep them in.