Background Details (Patreon)

I'm currently scribbling away and doing some planning on future pages and decided to give you a little insight into the process. When you read the comic you probably won't notice a lot of the little background bits and pieces that are put in to flesh the characters and their world out. This might be a naughty comic but it doesn't mean I skimp on this side of things.

Shelby is set in a coastal town that's inspired by Brighton and Blackpool and takes place in about 1995. There's a bit of fudging with some details because this is a made up furry world, but that's my basic time and geography point of reference. I play about with putting a few modern things in, like mobile phones, just for ease of storytelling but try and keep it all with the same general feel. In 1995 you wouldn't have camera phones or broadband internet, video streaming wouldn't be an option for most and the home PC would still be a novelty in many homes. Not only that, it would be common for young working adults to still live with their parents and have to share a landline telephone that you couldn't use at the same time as the internet! How times have changed.

My current agonising on a background detail nobody will notice has been cars. In the 90s it was more common for people to have one of their own and for a household to have more than one of them and a car can give you an impression of a character very quickly. They're a very useful narrative tool in a comic. Some characters are easy to sort out and some not so much. Remember, the reference point here is a UK coastal town in 1995.

Shelby is the easiest of all. His parents have provided him with all the money he could need so he's going to go and buy something familiar, something brand new and something fast. A 1995 Shelby Mustang will do the trick very nicely in white, it's exotic and expensive in this setting and very American in a way that it needs to be, it's also not dripping with visible muscle like many of the other choices I could make so it suits Shelby nicely.

Romesh is slightly trickier. He's young and Indian-British so he wants to impress. He's not really the hot hatch type, nor is he likely to go for a big saloon car like the Mercedes his parents would buy if they could afford to. Romesh is more likely to go for something less than 3 years old but not brand new (budget considerations) with two doors and brash styling. A 1992 Honda Prelude with bodykit and massive sound system is going to be his thing. It's probably also hire purchase (or finance as they call it now) and he can only just afford it.

Carl is different again, in part because he's older than Romesh and Shelby. He's fairly sensible and quiet and just a little ordinary. Carl even has a mortgage. He wants a car that's practical, affordable and easy to look after. Something everyday, ideally in yellow or orange which are his favourite colours. His budget is much more limited than Shelby or Romesh so his car is likely to be 5-10 years old and a little careworn. A 1989 Ford Sierra hatchback 5 door is a good fit for him, probably with a sunroof for horn clearance when the weather allows.

There's not much space on a comic page for me to explore all of these things in a way I'd like to but I always try and get the details in there to give a fuller picture. If you liked this post let me know, I'll be happy to do more in the future to give you that little bit extra info about the world Shelby is set in.