ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates how comics may prompt their readers to ascribe properties to characters. In this investigation, it considers the main parameters of characterisation, especially with regard to the characters' mimetic function, that is, how they can be perceived as possible anthropomorphic persons. Subsequently, the chapter discusses the way in which a character in comics may achieve a sense of psychological complexity. It argues that characters do not need to be the sole focus of narrative comics, since the story's centre can also be an incident, event, plot, theme, or sometimes a space or an idea, for instance. The concept of character is tied to a larger generic frame: the expectations and qualities of narrative fiction. In first-person narration in fiction, the relevance of the concept may also be limited, especially if the story is wholly focused on the narrator-character's personal experience.
