We have all wanted to take a creature from mythology and warp it
to our own needs. There have been good ideas and bad born from this,
and so I suppose I should mention some of the considerations of
making this work.
The first is finding the creature. You
need something that fits your comic, and adds to it. You need to find
something that requires little adaptation but will still work as a
character; the ideal is to find something that is at least humanoid
or has a humanoid form often enough to work with the other
characters.The usual temptation is find something really unique and
go from there, but that usually doesn't work as well as you would
think as you either have to tame it to the point that it doesn't
resemble the origin creature or it has some sort of problem that
makes it difficult to adapt.
On the other hand, using a variant of
an established creature will also usually fail if you try to make it
too unique; you want to cash in it on its “brand”, but want
something unique. Just remember to keep enough of the base creature
to give readers something familiar and you should do fine; you do not
want to mutate too much or it's a new creature. The worst example
here is the Twilight vampire: The shiny vampires make sense in that
world but there are too many differences between expectation and
example for it to really work.
You then want to research the creature.
You want as much information as possible on it, both to make sure
that pre-existing fans of the creature will not be too mad at you and
for the sake of the illustrator. You want something that the
illustrator can sink his teeth into while at the same time making
sure that you are doing right by the creature. Although I can
understand that iconoclasts would prefer to just wing it, you'll find
that nine times out of ten your research will give you some
additional inspiration, usually some minor bit of trivia that is
incredibly interesting, making it easier to get your mind around the
creature, and making it really come to life. You also need to avoid
the “the myths were wrong” concept; the idea is to at least
resemble the expected creature, or you may as well as start fresh.
You also need to get the iconography of
the creature right. Mythological creatures fit a niche and by staying
in their niche they can add a lot to your story. This applies from
something as simple as werewolves and people's fear of change and
predatory animals to school ghosts and kids' fears of the unknown.
Obviously they can come out of that niche once in a while, but using
a monster in a non-traditional way needs to create confusion, and
should be avoided if it is just for the sake of being cutesy. If you
need to, do not be afraid to come up with something new just to feel
a niche in your story if the creature you are adapting looks like a
bad fit.
Lastly, just have fun with the critter.
If it isn't something you can have fun with, then either create
something new or go with something else. If you are having problems
breathing life into something, then the problem is either that it
doesn't fit with your plans, or it just isn't something you like.
Keep in mind that it does not need to have a unique personality;
sometimes a monster just doing what it does is more than enough.
Sometimes you do not need a new character so much as you need a plot
device, and that works as well. Make sure your monster fits the
comic, and you should do fine. Don't just pull a creature from the
encyclopedia, but breathe life into it and give it its own fire if
you want it to work.
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