Breakout Character in Comic Books.
The following have their own pages:
Other
- 2000 AD:
- It's easy to forget that Judge Dredd didn't debut in 2000 AD until Prog 2. He's appeared in every issue since then and even got his own monthly magazine. He is also the only character from 2000 AD who has made any significant pop-cultural impact outside 2000 AD's niche audience of fans of British dystopian sci-fi, with multiple film and video game adaptations.
- Judge Dredd has its own example in the psychic Judge Anderson, who was introduced in the same comic that introduced recurring villain Judge Death as one of the monster judge's unfortunate victims when she sacrifices herself to trap him inside a Boing-encased Anderson-shaped can. Her looks (based on Debbie Harry initially) and free-spirited jest in contrast with Dredd's signature gruffness made her so popular that she was brought back and even got her own spinoff, Anderson: Psi-Division.
- The Adventures of Tintin:
- Captain Haddock started out as a one-shot character in The Crab With The Golden Claws, but became so popular that he went on to play a leading role in the rest of the series, appearing in every story after this one.
- Professor Calculus. Starting as the inventor of the shark-shaped submarine in Red Rackham's Treasure, he went on to become a recurring character, and Destination Moon, Explorers On The Moon and The Calculus Affair all centered around his achievements.
- Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics):
- Mina the Mongoose received her first full appearance in issue #76 of the comic, although she was originally a background character in issue #52. She was first discovered by Sonic the Hedgehog after Dr. Eggman captured her mother and roboticized her, leaving Mina mourning and vulnerable to capture by Shadowbots. She fell in love with Sonic after spending more time with him, and tried to win over his heart. When she realized that Sonic loved Sally Acorn, she gave up on pursuing him, and she instead began a singing career, eventually becoming the lead singer for Knothole Knuts and later the Forget Me Knots. Though she left the Knothole Freedom Fighters, she remains an ally and friend to them, as well as an active-if somewhat misdirected at times-citizen of New Mobotropolis. Mina's character design has become very popular among Sonic fans, such that some of her supporters wish for her to appear in the next future Sonic the Hedgehog video games. Still no word from the Sega Corporation, though.
- Much like his role in the video games, Knuckles the Echidna quickly skyrocketed in popularity when he was introduced to the comic. He was the third character to get a three-issue miniseries (after Sally and Tails) in 1996, then got a second miniseries the following year, then finally got his own full spinoff series that ran alongside the main series for nearly three years afterwards, ending in 2000 after 32 issues.
- Asterix:
- Obelix was introduced as a supporting character in the first album, Asterix the Gaul. He soon went on to become Asterix's sidekick in following stories and is nowadays seen as the deuteragonist of the series and part of a famous duo - the comics and movies would often be referred to by the general audience as Asterix & Obelix instead of its official title Asterix, making Obelix in the eye of the public de facto as important as the titular Asterix. The first live-action adaptation even did go with the duo's name: Asterix & Obelix Take on Caesar, and so did all the sequels except the third movie. Obelix got some self-titled albums too: Obelix and Co., Asterix and Obelix All at Sea and How Obelix Fell into the Magic Potion When He Was a Little Boy. The special for the fiftieth birthday explicitly includes Obelix in its title (Asterix and Obelix's Birthday: The Golden Book), despite the series' official name still being Asterix.
- Dogmatix (Idéfix in French), Obelix's dog, was likewise a very minor character when introduced in Asterix and the Banquet who wasn't meant to make further appearances, only to become popular among readers and resulting in him being featured in advertising and merchandise. He got his own series of children's books in the 1970's, followed by his own prequel series, Idéfix et les Irréductibles both as a comic book and as a cartoon in 2021, having his own adventures without Asterix and Obelix.
- Disney Ducks Comic Universe:
- Scrooge McDuck was first created by Carl Barks as a rich Long-Lost Uncle Aesop character who invited his nephews to his cottage for Christmas. He was brought back because his greedy, misanthropic nature and personal wealth could drive stories by playing him as an antagonistic supporting character, but he slowly evolved more and more into a protagonist as he gained more character depth beyond "rich and greedy", eventually becoming the former Trope Namer for Mr. Vice Guy. Among many fans, he's more popular than Donald Duck, spawning Scrooge-centric works such as The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck and DuckTales (1987).
- In the Brazilian Disney comics:
- Fethry Duck soon became on of the most popular members of the Donald Duck character cast and he starred in various comics with him as the titular character (and give him also a superhero identity, the Red Bat).
- Similarly, Dickie Duck. While a minor character in many countries and virtually unknown in the USA, she is extremely popular in Brazil, where she stars in her own comics together with her own group of friends.
- Gyro Gearloose. He appeared as a background character in some stories by Carl Barks before he got popular enough for the publisher Dell to give Gyro his own comic book series as titular character in stories written by Barks. Nowadays, Gyro is a main character in the comic universe and appeared in various media, including animation like DuckTales and its reboot, and video games like Donald Duck: Goin' Qu@ckers. He also has his own supporting cast like Little Helper, his nephew Newton Gearloose, and his Arch-Enemy Emil Eagle.
- The Dutch character Douwe Dabbert was never planned to have his own series: he was originally a supporting character in the one-shot comic The Spoiled Princess. However, he became so popular that he quickly got his own series that ran for 26 years, while the eponymous princess Pauline vanished from view and only returned for a single story years later.
- Lady Death started out as a supporting villainess in Evil Ernie, essentially the Lady Macbeth to its undead Serial Killer protagonist, before getting her own title that also retconned much of her motives and background. Nowadays she's probably far more well-known than Evil Ernie himself.
- Lady Rawhide was the fan favourite character in Topps' Zorro series, and was spun off into her set of miniseries.
- Lucky Luke has the Dalton Brothers. The original squad appeared as one-shot characters, as they were killed at the end of the story. However, they proved popular among the audience and Morris regretted killing them off. René Goscinny also liked them, so he created their cousins, who were similar in appearance and wanted to seek revenge from Lucky Luke. And ever since then, they've appeared in plenty of other stories, have become trademark characters, had their own spin-off series and there was even a point where they were more popular than Lucky Luke himself! It's true however that in later years they've turned into base-breaking characters, after years of overexposure.
- Vincent Van Goat from Quantum and Woody. Originally intended as a one-issue gag, he became so popular that fans brought goat-themed toys, drawings, and memorabilia during promotional tours, leading to more apperances in later issues.
- Marv from Sin City proved popular enough in the very first story that the series switched to being told in Anachronic Order so that he could reappear after getting killed off.
- Star Wars
- Admiral Gar Stazi of Star Wars: Legacy. Introduced basically to explain what happened to a pre-existing galactic faction, his appearance featured some memorable examples of badassery, prompting the author to write more and then some more stories about him. By the end of the series, he basically has his own secondary plotline, spanning one third of the issues.
- Doctor Aphra from Star Wars: Darth Vader. An unscrupulous evil combination of Han Solo and Indiana Jones, Aphra quickly gained popularity for her evil tendencies combined with her likeability and unique relationship with Vader, while also having a complicated view of the Empire, which she supports. AS foreshadowed from their first meeting, Darth Vader ended with Vader "killing" her to protect his secrets, but Aphra managed to fake her death, leaving her free go off into her spin-off ongoing series (as in plural), making her the first Star Wars character not from the films to receive an ongoing series from Marvel.
- The Smurfs made their debut as one-shot supporting characters in Johan and Peewit, a Belgian comic book about a heroic king's page and his jester sidekick. The pair went on adventures that often featured magical creatures of the author's intention. The Smurfs were one such group of creatures, and were only intended to appear in one story. They became so popular, however, that the author kept bringing them back, and within a year they had received their own spin-off series, which completely eclipsed Johann and Peewit in popularity. What goes around comes around: Johan and Peewit (now named "Peewee") became minor characters in The Smurfs (1981) cartoon, eventually getting entire episodes to themselves (with the Smurfs showing up as cameos at the most).
- Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW) introduced a number of original characters. But the heroines Tangle the Lemur and Whisper the Wolf, who were introduced in issues #4 and #8 respectively, in particular, received a lot of fan attention to the point where they got their own story in the 2019 annual and later their own spinoff miniseries. They eventually were added to Sonic Forces: Speed Battle and Sonic Dash, making them the first comic original characters in Sonic to make the jump to the games as playable characters.
- Supernatural Thrillers started out as an Anthology Comic where each isssue was an adaptation of horror/suspense literature (i.e. Theodore Sturgeon's It,The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, The Invisible Man), but the original creation The Living Mummy from the fifth issue proved to be so popular that the series was retooled to be about him from the seventh issue onward.
- Swerve, a formerly minor background character, has become this in IDW's Transformers comic largely because he's totally hilarious, spending all of his time making snarky comments and lampshading the many tropes and cliches that everyone else stumbles into. He also gives the greatest idea for a prank ever, moving around the furniture in someone's room while they're sleeping then pretending that nothing changed the next day (he also says that he's planning on taking it up a level by wheeling the victim into another room while they're sleeping).
- Kriss of Valnor in Thorgal was so popular with both the readers and the author after her debut in "The Archers" where she proves herself to be as strong as the title character but way more ruthless that she ended up being one of the main characters in the series then got her own spinoff series.
- Grimm Fairy Tales: Britney Waters/Red Riding Hood. She gets heavy promoted, is in quite a few covers (almost as many, if not more than Sela), and has her own spin-off title. May also cross over into Wolverine Publicity. Robyn Hood also seems to have entered this territory.
- Warlord of Mars: What warlord? For Dynamite Comics, the normally Damsel in Distress character of Dejah Thoris is far above John Carter in popularity. So she stars in a lot more series and crossovers than he does and outside of the Warlord of Mars titles, John's appearances are usually as a bit player.
