AMA: Side characters

Q.: I got into a fun discussion with some comic book friends the other day about how the 'Big 2' frequently have cool supporting characters, then stop doing anything with them because they're out of ideas and later introduce a new character to serve the same role redundantly rather than using the characters they already have.  As someone who has found a decent balance between introducing new characters and making use of the existing supporting cast, how do you decide when new characters are appropriate, and how do you avoid having existing characters just be forgotten?

A.: As with most things, I learned by screwing up! As some of you might remember, there were no fewer than three mad scientists in the pre-reboot Evil Inc comic strip! There was Dr. Vincent and Dr. Muskiday...

...and, of course, Dr. Haynus...

Dr. Haynus appeared in the opening days of Evil Inc...

...with Muskiday being introduced the following week:

I added Dr. Vincent much later as an homage to the late, great Vincent Price.

While working on my plan to turn the Evil Inc comic strip into a graphic novel, I noticed three of my characters were too similar, affecting the storyline. It was a tough decision, but I eliminated the redundancy of mad-scientist characters. Although I had a soft spot for all three, I ultimately chose Dr. Muskiday because of his exceptional character potential.

After some trial and error, I've learned to be more careful when introducing new characters in my stories. It helps the reader keep up with the plot and makes it more enjoyable when a familiar face pops up later on. This technique adds a lot more richness to the reading experience overall.

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