How important are backgrounds?

[Jin-roh]

I had a thought recently.

I usually try to do try somewhat interesting backgrounds in my comic. Sometimes I more sometimes less. I usually like having the reader know where the characters are during the conversations. I also feel that I can express some of their traits by the things they hang on the walls.

And yet, as I was reading the complete Calvin and Hobbes the other day, I realize the Bill Waterson often does his comics without distinctive backgrounds. Dilbert is the same way.

Backgrounds make my comic look nicer, but I feel they are very time consuming. How important do you feel that a background is in a comic? Bear in mind, I do a slice-of-life genre about kids at a Christian College who live with two roommates who are early twenty something goof-offs.

-Joel

[Joel Fagin]

Not even remotely. Humans are programmed to seek the face of other people with their eyes. Everythign else is just... background. Many, many sucessful comics - Calvin and Hobbes, for example - get by with little to no backgrounds.

However, it depends on the comic and artistic style. My own art doesn't work very well without backgrounds.

- Joel Fagin

[AspComics]

I'm with Joel on that one. For short comics that use quick, one-time gags, I don't think backgrounds are necessary at all. With larger story-driven comics, that are set in specific locations, I'd see backgrounds as being more important. Of course, it's all up to the artist to decide how detailed to go with backgrounds... or to even use them at all.

[Warofwinds]

Depends on genre and content for me. If it's an "office humor" comic, we ALL know what the backgrounds will be, and they'll be the same. Even if they're not drawn, they are easily imagined. Usually all that's needed is "placement" objects, like a desk, chair or table.

My comic takes place on another world. Backgrounds are very important for me, as they give the mood to the scene, and the characters are constantly interacting with objects.

In my experience, the more serious the comic (not in effort, but in content), the more backgrounds are needed.

[Boozeathon4billion]

Since I'm currently doing a single framed comic, backgrounds are necessary to put as much into an update as possible. Posters, signs, buildings, etc can all add to the scene and make it funnier or more distinct... or just be what is needed for the pieces to fall in place at all sometimes when my ideas don't really connect in others heads like they did in mine.

On more story/character driven comics I can see how backgrounds could be more minimalistic without really impacting the comic... but at the same time, a lot of good comics put great stuff in the backgrounds (Questionable Content, for example). I think its up to you. Do what you can and do what you decide on well. Experiment with stuff, too. I never would have gone to color if I hadn't just decided to challenge myself... and I'm really glad I went that way.

[Rhenny]

Depends, I use them sometimes, sometimes not at all through my entire run. I keep differing feedback some love them, some think they clutter up the work.

[RadPal]

I think everyone already said what I'm about to say in a way, but I think backgrounds are important for comics that need to immerse the reader. For example, in a fantasy comic, or a serious, long story-line comic where getting the feel for the world, its surroundings, and all the small knick-knacks of the environment is important. It is necessary to set the mood in those cases. In the very least, the first panel can be a wide-shot showing where the strip is taking place, then zoom in to the characters with lesser detail to the background.

In other comics, less is better. Don't confuse background with props, however. If you need to portray your characters sitting down, then, of course, the chairs and desk are somewhat important, though you can get away with a rectangle behind the character for the chairs and no one will notice all you did was draw a rectangle. Go check some of your favorite comics and pay attention to the backgrounds and props. They'll be a LOT more simple than you thought the first time you read it through. Like the others said, our brains fill in the rest for us.

With me personally, sometimes I'll throw in a few lines to give the dimensions of a hallway or something, and most of the time I'll only do it in one panel.

[Levi-chan]

Maybe you should look at backgrounds as part of the overall composition. It's a highly useful way of framing the object in the page, and can be a good tool to emphasize certain items in the foreground.

To contrast by example, you can try examining Makoto Shinkai's works. Sometimes, he frames characters in VERY elaborate backgrounds when doing pillow shots, or as a way to emphasize the enormity of the world against the protagonists. In parts where the focus of a scene is the character's inner conflicts, conversations, and etc., the background turns monotonous.

I think of it in terms of photography; elaborate backgrounds are like wide-angle shots, no-backgrounds are close-ups on low aperture.