We’ve all heard of Mickey Mouse as well as other iconic fictional characters in the mainstream media. Some infamous artists also make original characters with unique designs, traits, and backstories too!
Just looking up “original characters” on google gives you dozens upon dozens of interesting characters and a nice definition of what an OC is, but I wanted to go more in depth. So what is an original character? It’s pretty simple really, a fictional entity created by someone who is not affiliated with a company.
There are also different types of original characters, like personas or self inserts that I’ll get into later. Regular original characters are usually just characters used for something like a comic, animated series, written stories, or anything really! Sometimes they aren’t even used for something and they just exist because the artist enjoys drawing them or collecting OCs. Yes, some people collect original characters! It’s a good way for artists to make some extra money. Buying and selling a character is usually referred to as an “adopt”; these adoptable characters are traded within the artist community just like Pokémon cards. Adopts can be sold from as little as 1$ to 2000$, or you can trade your designs. This depends on the species of the character, the popularity of the artist, and how good the design is of course.
Self inserts and personas are also very popular for artists. Personas are usually an original character that is used to represent the artist. These personas can look exactly like the artist or they can look like something else! They can be what you strive to be, or just a simple lil character so they can intervene during stories. Self inserts are pretty much the same in terms of representing someone. The only difference is that self inserts are original characters that are made with a theme in mind. Let’s say you heavily enjoy a TV show and you wish you were in that TV show, you can make yourself a character that inserts yourself into that TV show! This is very common for a lot of fandoms to show their love and appreciation for what they love.
This was a very lighted-hearted topic with no other goal than info-dumping about original characters. I hope you enjoyed listening to me ramble!