Author Avatar: Difference between revisions

{{quote|'''[[Lord Byron]]''': I’ve a couple of cantos concerning the adventures of one ‘Childe Harold.’ A manly specimen, rather passionate, who journeys to Eastern Albania. ([[Beat]]) Hobby may recognize a deal of it.

'''Hobhouse''': Does he sigh a lot, and mope after girls?

 

 

How this "random" character knows the characters and their minor issues is rarely explained within the context of the series. Very often it is stated or implied that the avatar is the narrator.

 

{{examples}}

* ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' is about the main character going through psychological struggles which mirror the ones [[Hideaki Anno]] faced when making it. See [[Creator Breakdown]].

* ''[[Patalliro]]''! In both the [[Anime]] and mangas, a [[Super-Deformed|chibified]] Mineyo Maya pops up occasionally. His amusing little avatar even got a few mangas of its own, which were actually quite funny.

** It's worth mentioning, though, that she's only the lead artist. Ageha Okawa is a lead scriptwriter, and her (new) name, meaning "Butterfly", obviously explains CLAMP's penchant for butterflies in their recent works.

** She actually takes turns with Nekoi as lead artist. Basically, Mokona is the one behind the fluffy bangs and the thick eyelashes, and Nekoi is responsible for the [[Noodle People]] style.

* Mattsu and Asu Tsubaki, the authors of ''[[He Is My Master]]'', show up in heaven (as an alligator and a hamster, respectively) every time Izumi mentions [[God]], usually to ignore her plea for help.

* The nurikabe that appears in ''[[Mahoraba]]'' is apparently an avatar of author [[Kojima Akira]].

** The ''television'' series mascot Babbit is sometimes confused for an Author Avatar since he gives so much running commentary, but that's more a result of [[Executive Meddling]] producing a surprisingly funny character.

** Meh, Obana's overt appearances are silly or humorous. Her real avatar is Sana's mother, especially in the manga.

* [[Mangaka]] [[Shirow Masamune]] often draws himself as an octopus with a minigun for a nose.

** In one episode of the anime, Naru was temporarily a singer idol; possible a reference to the fact that Akamatsu's wife was a former singer idol.

* In ''[[Doctor Slump]]'' and early issues of ''[[Dragon Ball]]'', a small robotic man wearing a hat, with a face like a gas mask, would sometimes appear walking around in towns and villages. This was in fact the Author Avatar of mangaka [[Akira Toriyama]].

'''Robot Toriyama''': You've got business with my dog Turbo?

Cut to Senbei angrily chasing Robot Toriyama around the field. }}

*** Toriyama Robot also appears as a secret character in the videogame ''Tobal No.1'', when the player clears all the floors of the expert level dungeon in Quest Mode. Akira Toriyama was the character designer for the game.

** In early [http://mangafox.me/manga/dr_slump/v01/c001/1.html manga] and [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7wFCxrcin8&feature=player_detailpage#t=74s anime] ''[[Doctor Slump]]'', he is depicted as a bespectacled mechanical bird<ref>as a play on his name, "tori" meaning "bird",</ref> holding a big pencil.

* [[Johji Manabe]] caricatured himself and his two chief assistance as background characters in several of his stories. Most notably in ''[[Caravan Kid]]''. "Pipe down it's just a patrol. We don't run unless the editor shows up".

* [[Akira Toriyama]]'s long-time friend Masakazu Katsura parodied this in his early series ''Wingman'', where his characters would allude to a certain ''Mayarito-san''. This is an allusion to Toriyama, only with the syllables reversed.

* In ''[[Slam Dunk]]'', a chibi named "Mr.T" would from time to time appear to explain basic basketball rules to the viewers. Logically, this is the Author Avatar of [[Takehiko Inoue]].

* Rohan Kishibe from Part 4 of ''[[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure]]'' is intended to be a representation of Hirohiko Araki, the author. The character is a manga author to boot! His Stand is also very telling: he can read information on people and even write commands which they must follow, a very symbolic ability for someone who represents the author. He's also an [[Insufferable Genius]].

** Ironically enough, Rohan absolutely despises Josuke, whom Araki has stated to be his favorite character.

* In the [[Nasuverse]], Kinoko Nasu is depicted as a mushroom.

** [[Punny Name]]: "kinoko" means "mushroom" in Japanese.

** In one of the gag comics, she reveals she's given birth to a baby...kitten.

* Barasui, the creator of ''[[Ichigo Mashimaro]]'', appears at the end of the first manga volume, mainly to apologize for the [[Art Shift]] and to be criticized by the main characters.

* Black Dog, an H-manga mangaka, frequently appears in his work as a tiny black figure that apologizes to the audience for various things.

* Makoto Raiku frequently appears in bonus material in the ''[[Zatch Bell|KonjikiNoGashBell]]'' manga, but he makes one memorable appearance in the anime...as God. Victoream eats a magical melon which lets God grant him one wish, and he of course wishes for another melon—which Raiku cannot grant, because he ate it already. So Victoream instead wishes for a movie to be made about him, and Raiku complies.

** Koji Kumeta himself often appears as a stereotypical (probably correctly so) overworked manga artist.

* In ''[[Keroro Gunsou]]'', one of manga editor Aki Hinata's employees is called Yoshizaki-sensei, referring to Mine Yoshizaki (who not only created Keroro but used to work with ''[[Futari Ecchi]]'' creator Katsu '''Aki'''). This character goes on to appear onscreen several times, including one scene in the third movie where he's enthusiastically sketching Dark Keroro's flying fortress.

* In the author notes of ''[[Pokémon Special]]'', the author is an Electrode, the first artist is a pencil-wielding, glasses-wearing Oddish, and the second artist is a Swalot. In the beginning of the Emerald arc during the Battle Frontier opening ceremony, an Electrode and a Swalot are the rental Pokémon that Lucy and Spencer fight against. (Does it say anything about the creators seeing how those two Pokémon got the shit beaten out of them?)

* The author of the ''[[Tokyo Tribe|TOKYO TRIBE2]]'' manga, Santa Inoue, appears in the anime adaption talking with two other gentlemen who are likely part of the anime staff, discussing manga scripts and whether or not the anime staff should take a hip-hop class or not. Apparently, he's so well-recognized in the TT2 universe that two of SARU's members, Kai and Gondo, refer to him as "Sensei".

** He later made an appearance in the first episode of [[Heroman]] asking "[[Alliterative Name|Joey Jones]]" for his coffee.

* [[Yoshihiro Togashi]] of ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]'' often turns up in the background of his work as goofy-looking dog, generally a stuffed toy or logo. In ''[[Hunter X Hunter]]'' he includes his wife, Naoko Takeuchi (also a manga-ka, of ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' fame) in her preferred shape as a bunny rabbit.

* Sai from ''[[Naruto]]''

* An in-universe version happens in ''[[Wandering Son]]''. The [[Transsexualism|transgender]] protagonist writes a gender-bender play about everyone in the world switching sexes one day. The main characters of the play are avatars for herself and her best friend.

 

* [[Epileptic Trees|According to various fan theories]] at any rate, in ''[[The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen]] -- Black Dossier'', [[Alan Moore]] rather brazenly (if in a way that's fitting, given the nature of the work) adopts [[William Shakespeare]]'s ''Prospero'' to act as his Stand In, using the character to discuss Moore's theories about the nature of fiction. According to these fans, as drawn the character certainly resembles Moore...

* [[Grant Morrison]] inserted himself as godlike character in his run on ''[[Animal Man]]''. This character, now referred to as 'The Writer' was killed in an issue of ''[[Suicide Squad]]'' by John Ostrander (possibly as a [[Take That]]).

** Morrison also quite obviously modeled King Mob of ''[[The Invisibles]]'' after himself, and certainly seems to ''believe'' that he and the character enjoyed some sort of mystical link, pointing to the fact that he suffered a collapsed lung during the time period when the character was recovering from a gunshot wound. Why, yes, Grant Morrison ''is'' a very strange man...

* Jack Knight, [[The DCU]]'s ''[[Starman (comics)|Starman]]'', was blatantly and unabashedly a dual creator avatar. The first volume's introduction has a third party writer note that Jack ''is'' writer James Robinson and that he bears a strong resemblance to artist and designer Tony Harris.

* [[Warren Ellis]] does this quite a bit; sometimes the avatar's a writer, sometimes not. Pete Wisdom both in ''[[Excalibur (Comic Book)|Excalibur]]'', and later in ''Ultimate Human''. Curzon, the British detective in his run on ''[[The Mighty Thor]]''. Spider Jerusalem in ''[[Transmetropolitan]]''. The Wildstorm Universe has at least two: ''[[Planetary]]'' has Elijah Snow, and ''[[The Authority]]'' has Jenny Sparks.

* Bryan Talbot has multiple facets of himself in ''[[Alice In Sunderland]]''.

* The [[Fantastic Four (Comic Book)|Fantastic Four]] rented their original home base from a landlord who clearly wasn't [[Jack Kirby]] at all...

* [[Stan Lee]] once admitted that of all his characters, he identified most with his most popular character, [[Spider-Man]], and even that he had modeled Spidey's way of talking on his own.

** He also mentioned in an interview that his own traits were the basis of Reed Richards' tendency to over-explain everything (and subsequently get yelled at). Now look back on all Ben and Reed's interactions in the Lee-Kirby issues of the [[Fantastic Four (Comic Book)|Fantastic Four]]...

** He also has an in-canon avatar called The One Above All.

*** Then you might say it's [[Fridge Brilliance|subconscious]].

* In the DC [[Elseworlds]] miniseries ''[[JLA: Act of God]]'' ([[Brought Down to Normal|where all powered heroes lose their abilities]] in what is essentially a 3-part love letter to [[Batman]]), it becomes quite blatant that the [[Martian Manhunter]] is an avatar for author Doug Moench. He rants about how the heroes "deserved" to lose their powers, even himself (despite technically not having powers at all since his abilities are natural functions of his race), then raves about the coolness of all things Batman.

** Also bearing a strong resemblance to Gerber is Paul Same, the introverted artist neighbor from ''[[Howard the Duck (comics)|Howard the Duck]]''.

* [[Judd Winick]] may have done this with Max Lord in the beginning of ''Justice League: Generation Lost #15''. Lord's plan includes killing [[Wonder Woman]] and turning the Amazons against the world, starting a human-vs-metahuman war. However, this is impossible due to the complete rewrite of Wonder Woman's character and backstory at the hands of [[J. Michael Straczynski]]. It's easy to see Lord's ranting in this issue and picture Winick's frustration as to how the hell he's supposed to make this story work now.

* According to Steve Moncuse, Inspector Gill of ''[[Fish Police (comics)|Fish Police]]'' is heavily based on himself.

 

* In ''[[The Official Fanfiction University of Middle-Earth]]'', Miss Cam is a stand-in for Camilla Sandman.

* ''[[The Incredibles]]: [[Rise of the Galeforces]]'' gives us one of the few Author Avatars who actually influences the plot. See that teenage boy over there in the corner? The one who is eventually revealed to be {{spoiler|Stratogale's half brother by way of [[Portal (series)|Aperture Science and Technology]]}}? That's basically the author with the ability to transform into a genetically engineered [[Ptero-Soarer]].

* Hypnos Technicion and {{spoiler|agent of the Triad}}, Daneel Randt from the ''[[Tamers Forever Series]]'', although he's a rare example of a [[Self Insert]] that ''doesn't'' hog the spotlight and rather, serves as more of a [[Mr. Exposition]] character

* From ''[[Magica Madoka Veneficus Puella]]'' comes EnBey. He is a major factor in the universe's backstory, as he was the one who initiated the [[Puella Magi Madoka Magica|Incubators']] civil war in the first place.

* 111SAMUSRIDLEY4EVA2006 included herself as a character in her story ''Metroid High School''. Without changing the name in any way.

{{quote|One day Samus and Ridley and her frends Ted, Mandy, Robbie, 111SAMUSRIDLEY4EVA2006, Helen, and Tio Juan were at a sleepover.}}

 

== Films ==

** Stan Lee found himself in ''[[Fantastic Four (film)|Fantastic Four]] 2: Rise of the Silver Surfer'', [[Your Costume Needs Work|trying to get into the wedding but the doorman not believing he was really Stan Lee.]]

*** Which was inspired by the comics version of the wedding from ''Fantastic Four'' Annual #3, where Stan and [[Jack Kirby]] were thrown out of the wedding.

** [[Stan Lee]] also wrote a special comic in which he appeared alongside with the main Marvel heroes and each one of them expressed dislike for him. You have to admit, Stan the Man's great at poking fun at himself.

** In an episode of the animated series of ''Spider-Man'', Spider-Man travels to a parallel universe and hangs out with Stan Lee for a few minutes, taking him webslinging (something Stan admitted to always wanting to try).

* [[Alfred Hitchcock]] used to famously turn up in his films in cameos. He even guiltily looks at the camera in ''[[Marnie]]''.

** ''[[Dogma]]'' is his character's least invasive role, where he utters maybe five words the entire movie, though he does still help out with Jay a fair bit.

{{quote|'''Silent Bob''': [[Refuge in Audacity|No]] [[Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade|tickets!]]}}

** Oddly, he acted more like his Real Life self in the movie ''Vulgar'', which he neither wrote nor directed.

** Kevin Smith's "Silent Bob" moment in which he possibly comes the VERY closest to ever being the real Kevin Smith was during the climax of ''[[Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back]]'', in which he launches into a shockingly knowledgeable diatribe about the legal transference rights of intellectual properties.

** They also appeared in ''[[Hercules (1997 film)|Hercules]]'', ''[[Treasure Planet]]'' (as robots), and ''[[The Princess and the Frog]]''. Possibly others.

* One gets the sense that [[Tim Burton]] is the main character in many of his own movies. Maybe the most obvious was [[Edward Scissorhands]], whose main character was a messy-haired [[Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette]] with a macabre look about him who had trouble fitting in. This goes double if played by [[Johnny Depp]]- one Hollywood producer explained that "Basically, Johnny Depp is playing Tim Burton in all his movies." Depp actually agreed.

* ''[[Adaptation]]'' invokes this in one of the many ways in recurses in on itself.

* Quite common in [[Woody Allen]]'s films. Even among the films Allen doesn't act in.

* [[David Cronenberg]]'s adaptation of ''[[Naked Lunch]]'' and [[Steven Soderbergh]]'s ''Kafka'' feature thoroughly fictionalized versions of [[William S. Burroughs]] and [[Franz Kafka]] respectively as their protagonists, while combining elements from both their lives and their works.

* [[M. Night Shyamalan]] has cast himself in very small speaking roles in all of his films for simple [[Creator Cameo]]s but then in ''[[Lady in the Water]]'', Shyamalan cast himself as a writer whose work would "change the world"—a part coming much too close to a [[Marty Stu]] for many viewers.

** [[Poison Oak Epileptic Trees|He's gonna be]] [[Avatar: The Last Airbender|the Cabbage Man!]]

** [[The Happening|"Why you eyein' my cabbages?"]]

 

== Literature ==

* [[Older Than Print]]: [[Geoffrey Chaucer|Chaucer]] shows up as one of the pilgrims in ''[[The Canterbury Tales]]'', and is the only one to get two stories out. The first is horrible, the second is applauded.

* [[Agatha Christie]] used the character of mystery writer Ariadne Oliver as an Author Avatar in several of her novels. Oliver's comments about her detective creation, a vegetarian Finn, give some interesting insight into how Christie felt about [[Hercule Poirot]].

* Johannes Kepler wrote a story about a student of Tycho Brahe travelling to the moon called the ''Somnium''. Kepler himself was a student of Tycho Brahe.

* In Leo Tolstoy's novel ''[[Anna Karenina]]'', the character of Konstantin Dmitrievitch Levin is an Author Avatar: Tolstoy and his wife courted using the "letters game" that Levin and Kitty used in the novel. Also, Levin's musings on philosophy reflects Tolstoy's own internal debates at the time, and his idea of economic reforms that could be enacted to improve the Russian Empire's agricultural efficiencies were those suggested by Levin.

** Just about any work by Tolstoy will have one. He has ''two'' in ''[[War and Peace]]''.

** Critics allege that practically every Heinlein protagonist falls into one of three categories: Heinlein, naive-younger-Heinlein, or cynical-older-Heinlein. This works, as long as you're willing to ignore a few major personality differences in each case (e.g. Heinlein's optimistic patriotism vs Lazarus' pessimistic self interest).

*** One troper met him once in the late 1970s and asked him of any character in any of his stories was really him. His reply? "Igli" (from ''[[Glory Road (novel)|Glory Road]]'').

* Gringoire in [[Victor Hugo]]'s ''[[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (novel)|The Hunchback of Notre Dame]]''.

** And Marius Pontmercy in ''[[Les Misérables (novel)|Les Misérables]]''.

* Stephen Dedalus, the protagonist of [[James Joyce]]'s ''[[A Portrait of the Artist As A Young Man]]'' and a major character in ''[[Ulysses]]'', is a rather obvious Author Avatar—just look at book's title.

* [[Ayn Rand]] admitted that Dominique Francon in ''[[The Fountainhead]]'' was her Author Avatar.

** ''[[Word of God]]'' has admitted she is The Fishwife in Galt's Gulch in ''[[Atlas Shrugged]]''.

* [[The Woobie|Werther]], the main character of the epistolary novel ''[[The Sorrows of Young Werther]]'', serves as [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]]'s author avatar. Except for the {{spoiler|suicide}}, which was in fact based on the life of one of Goethe's friends.

** Later in life, Goethe actually tried to distance himself from the book—he had grown to dislike his earlier romanticism, and was embarrassed about the way he'd publicized his young love for Charlotte. To his ire, it remained one of his best-known works.

* [[Oscar Wilde]], not wanting to be simple about it, is all three of the leads in ''[[The Picture of Dorian Gray]]'', or so he claimed.

* Sal Paradise from Jack Kerouac's ''On The Road''.

** In the "scroll" draft of the book, ''all'' the characters corresponded to Kerouac's real life colleagues. For example, Neal Cassady became Dean Moriarty; Allen Ginsberg became Carlo Marx.

* Esther Greenwood, the protagonist of ''[[The Bell Jar]]'', is [[Sylvia Plath]]. Essentially every aspect of Esther from her appearance, talent for writing, bad luck with hypocrite boyfriends to her mental breakdown, suicide attempts, and subsequent hospitalization can be traced back to Plath herself in some way.

** Which takes a deliciously meta twist when Esther starts a draft of an account of her experiences, which is obviously ''The Bell Jar'' in a nascent form.

* A particularly dismal example shows up in ''[[Moscow Petushki]]''. Despite all the comedy, it's depressing when you realize that the real-life Venedikt Erofeev was, like the fictional one, living a miserable life that was unlikely to get better anytime soon.

* The protagonist of ''[[Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas]]'' is actually named Raoul Duke, not [[Hunter S. Thompson]]...

*** Raoul Duke is a character Thompson created and used all throughout his work. Duke is the person behind the Sports Desk, representing the Sports Journalist in Thompson. There are various Thompson articles written out of the perspective of Duke or articles in which Thompson references the person Raoul Duke and his actions. Of course the reader knows that Thompson and Duke are in fact one and the same person, and Thompson plays with that without ever openly admitting it is so, for example with the message from Thompson to Duke. Anyway, the protagonist of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is clearly Duke, not Thompson.

* Author [[Clive Cussler]] makes appearances in most [[NUMA Series|Dirk Pitt]] novels. The character usually has something named Periwinkle with him (a boat, a car, or in one case a donkey) and tends to act as a very small [[Deus Ex Machina]] to get Dirk out of whatever jam he's currently in (typically by simply providing him with transportation from point A to point B.) He'll often dole out small bits of wisdom, advice or insight as well. No matter how many times Dirk meets him Clive always seems familiar but Dirk fails to place him.

** The funny part is that Dirk Pitt is already a [[Marty Stu]].

* Jeanette Winterson's novel ''Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit'', in which the narrator is named Jeanette, has a lot of autobiographical elements.

* [[Ray Bradbury]] does this in three of his books—the unnamed narrator of ''Death is a Lonely Business'', ''A Graveyard for Lunatics'', and ''Let's All Kill Constance'' is almost certainly him. He's not the driving force behind the action, and is really just there to get it all down on paper.

* Diana Tregarde, the occult detective heroine of three [[Mercedes Lackey]] novels: ''Burning Water'', ''Children of the Night'' and ''Jinx High''. Played straight in that Diana is, like Lackey, a novelist (though of romance novels rather than fantasy), a practicing neopagan, has delivered more than one [[Author Tract]] on behalf of Lackey's philosophy, and shares (according to reports) many of Lackey's own personality traits; subverted, ironically, by real life, in that Lackey found herself so often having to insist to fans with a less-than-firm grasp of reality that she herself was ''not'' a magically powerful occult guardian who fought hidden supernatural menaces that it contributed to her eventually abandoning the series. (The primary reason she moved on was simply that the books weren't making very much money, but the fan weirdness certainly influenced the decision.)

** Lackey is quite fond of this trope, actually; the most notable other example is Herald-Chronicler Myste from the ''[[Heralds of Valdemar]]'' (a little more obvious when you know that Mercedes Lackey's nickname is "Misty").

** Lewis appears as himself, more or less, in the opening chapter of ''[[Perelandra]]'', the middle book of his [[The Space Trilogy|Space Trilogy]], and in the disputed "Dark Tower" fragment. (One faction believes "The Dark Tower," published posthumously, wasn't actually written by Lewis.)

** He also appears, more briefly, in the other two books of the Space Trilogy. In "Out of the Silent Planet," he describes how he learned of Ransom's adventures when he contacted Ransom to ask a philological question. In "That Hideous Strength," he describes his visit to the scene of the story, before the plot began.

* [[Robert Rankin]] has inserted himself in at least one of the Pooley/O'Malley books, writing in a bar, with the characters complaining about him; in other books there are characters that darkly refer to "Rankin" in poking fun at his shameless [[Running Gag]]s. Then again, considering the fact that his books have thoroughly demolished the [[No Fourth Wall|fourth wall]], it's actually an indication of his ''restraint'' in not doing it more often.

* ''[[Inheritance Cycle]]'': by the author's own admission, series protagonist Eragon was initially written as a reflection of himself [[Author Appeal|doing the things he would like to do]], but Eragon has become more of his own character as the series has progressed.

* [http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/6206/stephaniemeyer.jpg Bella Swan] in ''[[Twilight (novel)|Twilight]]''.

** Also Melanie Stryder in her second novel, ''The Host''. She just spoonerized the name.

* Douglas Coupland plays a part in his novel ''jPod'', in which all the main characters are fans of his earlier works. As it turns out, he's a "sociopathic shit" who steals the main character's friends and colleagues (even his mom), and tricks him into handing over his laptop on which the entire novel is based, spam mail, porn collection, and other stuff included.

* Possibly (according to several fan theories) Pseudonymous Bosch in ''[[Secret Series|The Name of This Book Is Secret]]'' and ''If You're Reading This, It's Too Late''.

** Basically proven in the fourth book, when {{spoiler|Max-Ernest sees himself in the mirror as the author...kind of.}} He also likes chocolate as much as him, so...yeah.

* Children's picture book ''We're Off To Look For Aliens'' contains an obvious [[Author Stand In]] who writes a [[Show Within a Show|Book Within A Book]] that you can actually read, as it's ''physically'' a Book Within A Book featuring an obvious [[Author Stand In]]. {{spoiler|In a [[Twist Ending]], the Book Within A Book is a true story.}}

* [[Kurt Vonnegut]] invented a sci-fi author character, Kilgore Trout, who was [[wikipedia:Theodore Sturgeon|originally based on another real person]], but later developed into his own avatar for purposes of self-deprecation...or self-abuse.

** Vonnegut also appears [[As Himself|directly]] in ''Breakfast of Champions'', where he tries to free his characters from his writing while still writing their lives in real time. He personally apologizes to Kilgore Trout on this occasion.

** Not sure why it's funny for a Russian series written by a Russian author for Russian readers to be popular in Russia. I'd also dispute it as an Author Avatar example, the character is not named after the pen name, but rather the books are presented a fictional autobiography. The last book in the original series explains to the readers why it was necessary that they should read it and love it.

* A.P. (Alan Patrick) Herbert's "Albert Haddock", defendant in numerous preposterous law cases in ''Misleading Cases In The Common Law''. According to Herbert, Haddock's middle name was probably Percival.

** [[Epileptic Trees]] time: Meet [http://www.pjfarmer.com/secret/Immortal/Burroughing.htm Matthew Nicholas Carter], the previously unnamed [[Literary Agent Hypothesis|Watson to Burroughs's Doyle]], who stayed with Burroughs in Tarzana for a while, and who the characters knew was partly responsible for the books.

* [[Stephen King]] does this in ''[[The Dark Tower]]'' books. He writes himself in a warts-and-all snapshot of his life, including his alcoholism and his now-famours car crash injury. The main characters of the books {{spoiler|rescue him after the accident, convince him to quit drinking and basically convince him he's God}}.

** A whole folder here could be devoted to Stephen King's author avatars. One of his more interesting variations is ''[[The Tommyknockers]]'', where both the male and female leads are authors with similarities to their creator (he's an alcoholic, she's a successful writer of genre fiction).

** In ''[[The Dark Half]]'' we have Thad Beaumont, to an extent. King has written (and still does, occasionally) under the pseudonym of [[Richard Bachman]], and he treats Bachman like a separate person, even giving him a separate biography in Bachman novels. He wrote ''The Dark Half'' partly to explore that idea in a literal sense.

* The protagonists of many of L. E. Modesitt, Jr's science fiction novels are often conspicuously alike (if still well-written): ex-military (usually Spec Ops) men in their 30s and 40s who went on to study economics, sociology, or marketing (usually some semi-futuristic version of one or more of those), often with a doctorate, with strong ideas about social justice and often environmentalism. They then get thrown into situations and calamities that require both [[Genius Bruiser|brains and brawn]] to solve, their field of specialization being the key to figure out who to hurt. Oh, and hey, Modesitt is ex-Navy and has worked as a market researcher and as an environmental consultant and...hey, wait a minute...

* [[Philip K. Dick]] narrates as himself in the novel ''[[VALIS]]'' and its posthumously-published predecessor ''Radio Free Albemuth'', both of which are based around the strange visions he himself had in early 1974 which he believed may have been from God. In both novels, however, the visions happen to a separate Author Avatar character (Horselover Fat in ''VALIS'', and Nicholas Brady in ''Radio Free Albemuth'') rather than to Dick himself.

** Another ''Valis'' character, Philip Dick, probably deserves a mention.

* According to some sources, the Dodo in ''[[Alice in Wonderland]]'' (Charles Dodgson had a stutter, and would introduce himself as "Do-do-dodgson") and the White Knight in ''Through The Looking Glass''.

** Other sources point out that Dodgson actually stammered, and so would not have repeated syllables.

* [[Michael Crichton]] does this on occasion. Ian Malcolm seemed to serve as his mouthpiece for the middle and end of ''[[Jurassic Park]]''.

* There's a meta-example in ''[[Jim Springman and the Realm of Glory]]''. When the protagonists' entire town gets absorbed into a fantasy book, one of their ideas is to contact the author by finding her Author Avatar. {{spoiler|Turn's out her avatar's the [[Evil Is Cool|villain]], not the hero like they'd suspected.}}

* [[The Bible|Mark]] appears in his own gospel as a man who got his cloak ripped off and ran away naked from the soldiers who arrested Jesus—at least that's what some literary scholars believe. There are multiple and varied opinions about the character in question.

* It's never stated in the stories, but [[Isaac Asimov]] has said that the narrator in his ''Azazel'' short stories is meant to be himself. Though all he does in the stories is get insulted by and act as [[Straight Man]] to the man whose stories he's reporting.

* The protagonist and narrator of [[Bret Easton Ellis]]'s ''Lunar Park'' is a fictionalized suburbanite version of himself, cleverly named...uh, [[Bret Easton Ellis]]. He fears characters from his books are coming to life and murdering people. Naturally, it's completely fucked up. Could also qualify as [[As Himself]].

* Some people think the character of Slim from ''[[Of Mice and Men]]'' is [[John Steinbeck]]. It's a logical conclusion: He's God-like, helps move the plot on, and, of course, is nice. However, he is not a main plot point, more a device to explain what Lennie is like and help provide key [[Chekhov's Gun]]s to the plot, thus avoiding straying into [[Marty Stu]] territory.

* [[Stuck|Tre]] is, for nearly all intents and purposes, Lyle Terry. {{spoiler|He realizes this in the third act and quickly starts to get irritated with it.}}

* Lightweight political thriller author Steve Martini, a former attorney, writes a series starring Paul Madriani, an attorney.

* ''[[Don Quixote]]'': Cervantes dedicates some chapters of the first part of the novel to ''“The story of the Captive Captain”'', Ruy Pérez de Viedma, a Spanish captain who was prisoner of the Moors. Curiously, this man, like the Priest, claims to know some guy called “de Saavedra”.

* In ''[[An Elegy for the Still-living]]'' Jeremy Reinertson appears briefly to retrieve an umbrella, tell Francis a story, and generally wreak havoc with the fourth wall.

* ''[[The Railway Series]]'': The minor character referred to in the books only as "The thin clergyman" is in fact the Reverend Wilbert Awdry, author of the series. His companion, the fat clergyman, is Wilbert's friend the Rev. Teddy Boston.

* Skeeter in ''[[The Help]]'' is a blatant stand-in for the author, Kathryn Stockett. Kathryn Stockett wrote this book to discuss the plight of black maids in 1960s Missisippi. The book is about a white woman in the 1960s who writes a book (called ''The Help'' as well) about the plight of black maids in a Mississippi.

* ''Sisterhood'' series by [[Fern Michaels]]: Myra Rutledge and, later, Countess Anne "Annie" Ryland de Silva are almost certainly avatars of the author herself, due to them being at least middle-aged, owning dogs on Myra's part, both of them having a lot of money (Annie has more money than [[Bill Gates]], which is ridiculous, considering that [[Microsoft]] makes 90 billion dollars a year), and both of them seeing ghosts. One book in the series features a one-shot character named Marble Rose, who explains that her name comes from an imaginary friend she had, which is based off of the author herself and how she got ''her'' name!

* ''[[My Name Is Red]]'' has author Orhan Pamuk and his older brother Shevket appearing as minor characters. So too does his mother, Shekure, who's one of the most important characters.

* ''The Golden Ass'' is a novel by Lucius Apuleius, about a man named...oh wait....Lucius Apuleius.

 

== Live-Action TV ==

* [[J. Michael Straczynski]] appeared in the final episode of ''[[Babylon 5]]'', as the janitor cleaning the station and turning the lights off for the last time.

*** And the first name of one of the other main characters, Garibaldi's first name is Michael.

* Bill Lawrence is the janitor who tears down J.D.'s goodbye sign and gets the last word in the ''[[Scrubs]]'' finale.

** He also appears a few episodes earlier as the person who marries The Janitor to Lady, complete with a "We are gathered here in the presence of The Creator" line.

* Robert Hewitt Wolfe appeared on the 5th-season finale of ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'', bloodied and beaten, evacuating the station after a Dominion attack. The episode, "Call to Arms," was his last as a staff writer on the series.

** A large chunk of the writers appear in the series finale as patrons in Vic's when he sings "The Way You Look Tonight." Incidentally, a lot of the supporting cast also appeared out of makeup as extras in that scene. It was also the last day of filming and served as a goodbye, not just in-universe, but out-of-universe as well.

* Kurt in ''[[Glee]]'' is an avatar for Ryan Murphy's teenage self.

* [[Joss Whedon]], creator of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', originally created the character of Xander Harris to be the avatar for his teenage self. However, he has since said that as he developed the characters, Buffy took on the role of his avatar; which explains much, although he also asserts that this shift was largely subconscious on the part of the writers.

** On average, there is one "Joss" character per Whedon show. [[Firefly|Wash]] and [[Dollhouse|Topher]] fill these roles nicely, although knowing they are Author Avatars, it is a bit unsettling that {{spoiler|they both die.}}

* Patrick in ''[[Dead Set]]'' is basically a mouthpiece for the show's writer [[Charlie Brooker]], hugely exaggerated to the point of total disdain for absolutely everything. Joplin also acts like this to some extent; both he and Patrick use lines from Brooker's earlier work in his Screen Burn columns.

** Dan Ashcroft from ''[[Nathan Barley]]'' is another example from Brooker's work.

* [[Tina Fey]] is [[30 Rock|Liz Lemon]]. And Kate Holbrook from ''[[Baby Mama]]'' is [[Expy|Liz Lemon with a different name]].

* Chuck from ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' is at least ''something'' of an Author Avatar for creator Eric Kripke: a slight, mild-mannered, reserved fellow with a fairly high speaking voice who openly states, "Writing's ''hard''." Kripke himself added Chuck's drinking habit into the script (it's probably a fictionalized flaw, but it's interesting to note that the creator did ''not'' choose to idealize the character). This trope is played with somewhat by the fact that Sam and Dean found Chuck when they realized a series of "fictional" books entitled ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' actually described the protagonists' adventures in alarmingly accurate detail. When they tracked him down and confronted him, an angel informed them that he's actually a Prophet of the Lord, and his books are destined to become a new gospel. [[Hilarity Ensues|Meta humor ensues.]] It's suggested that Chuck has no marketable skills beyond [[Literary Agent Hypothesis|passing the protagonists' adventures off as fiction]]. However, the fifth season finale {{spoiler|has narration by Chuck, and at the end of the episode, Chuck smiles knowingly and disappears into thin air. One popular interpretation is that Chuck is actually the Judeo-Christian God [[Have You Seen My God?|who has been conspicuously absent throughout the series]].}}

* On ''[[WKRP in Cincinnati]]'' it's generally agreed that creator Hugh Wilson based the station's program director Andy Travis on himself (though he never actually worked in radio—his background was advertising).

** In ''[[Curb Your Enthusiasm]]'', where Larry David plays a [[As Himself|fictionalized version of himself]], he's annoyed, when Jason Alexander (who played George) refers to his character as an "idiot" and a "schmuck". Larry also tries to play George in the episode "Seinfeld", when he organizes a ''Seinfeld'' reunion show, but Alexander quits.

* Justin from ''[[Ugly Betty]]'' is an author avatar of Silvio Horta when he was younger/growing up/a teen.

* Cantus the Minstrel of ''[[Fraggle Rock]]'' fame was a rather blatant one for [[Jim Henson]]. Overlaps with [[Ink Suit Actor]] (Puppet Suit Actor?), because Jim Henson was Cantus' puppeteer, and he was even designed to look a bit like Henson.

* The writers of ''[[Gossip Girl]]'' have admitted that Dan is their author avatar. Which probably explains why he becomes more of a [[Creator's Pet]] each season.

* In the ''[[Community]]'' episode "[[Community/Recap/S2/E09 Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design|Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design]]" has Dean Pelton writing a novel. The protagonist is known as Dean Dangerous.

* Candace Bushnell is Carrie Bradshaw on ''[[Sex and the City]]''.

 

== Music ==

* [[Pink Floyd|Roger Waters]] is Pink in ''[[The Wall]]''. Pink also has a bit of Syd Barrett.

 

 

== Professional Wrestling ==

* Can also apply when wrestlers are allowed to essentially be themselves cranked [[Up to Eleven]] because the creative team fails to come up with a good character for them. [[Stone Cold Steve Austin]] and [[Dwayne Johnson|The Rock]] may be the biggest successes of this.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* [[Maid RPG]] author Ryo Kamiya features in the game's "examples of play" skits.

* [[Gary Gygax]] was infamous for this in almost all of his work.

 

== Theatre ==

* Tom Wingfield in ''[[The Glass Menagerie]]'' is the avatar of [[Tennessee Williams]]; similarly, Tom's physically disabled sister Laura is his mentally disabled sister Rose and Amanda is his mother.

* In the musical ''[[Rent]]'', the character of Mark, the filmmaker who narrates the story, is an avatar for the show's composer/lyricit, Jonathan Larson.

 

== Video Games ==

** Making this one of the few examples where an Author Avatar is there to [[Affectionate Parody|take the piss]] [[Self-Deprecation|out of the author in question]].

* Arguably done in ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro ni]]''. ''Turn of the Golden Witch'' provides highly questionable semi-example when [[Dimension Lord|Beatrice]], who more or less "wrote" the various murder scenarios solved in the series, writes herself into the story. ''End of the Golden Witch'' is a clearer example, the story's events basically boiling down to a villain's [[Mary Sue|self-insert fanfic.]]

* Nagase in ''[[The King of Fighters]] [[Alternate Continuity|Maximum Impact]]'' is a direct author avatar of producer Falcoon. Considering he's homosexual, [[Attractive Bent Gender|there are no]] [[Unfortunate Implications]] here.

** From the same series, protagonist Alba Meira [[Word of God|was designed as a "cooler" Falcon]]. No, I'm ''not'' making that up. It ''would'' explain why he has such blatantly overpowered moves such as a ''triple'' projectile and anti-air reversal...

* According to the ''[[Twisted Metal]]'' documentary that came with the [[PlayStation 2]] version of ''Twisted Metal: Head On'', co-creator David Jaffe said that Sweet Tooth and [[God of War (series)|Kratos]] represent his darkest personas.

{{quote|"Sweet Tooth is me, Kratos is me." -- '''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v{{=}}atGygbN5m7s David Jaffe]'''}}

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* Many webcomics do this. ''[[Bob and George]]'' most famously, seeing as its author is an entire cast of supporting characters, including an evil doppelganger version of himself, a shadowy version of himself, and not to mention all of his "Parties" consist out of Webcomic/Subcomic/Forum posters as Author characters, and his friend's Rick O'Shay's Author character being a tag along with random beer runs inside of the comic, not to mention Disgruntled Ferret showing up in his [[MS Paint Masterpieces]] subcomic etc. etc. etc.

* ''[[Books Don't Work Here]]'' has the author as the director and narrator but eventually makes an official Author Avatar {{spoiler|who gets [[Put on a Bus]].}}

* In ''[http://www.unionofheroes.com Union of Heroes]'' there are interludes between the end and the beginning of a new episode. The main character of most of these interludes is the photographed creator of the photocomic talking to the audience and providing them with making-off information.

* ''[[Sequential Art (webcomic)|Sequential Art]]'''s author uses a hamster avatar. Why? So his [[Sexy Secretary]] assistant can [[Victoria's Secret Compartment|give him rides in her cleavage,]] of course.

* Amber Williams of ''[[Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures|DMFA]]'' often appears one panel sight gags and [[Fourth Wall Mail Slot]] strips, always accompanied by the comic's "real" mascot, [[Cartoon Creature|Fluffy]].

* [[MSF High]]: Subverted. The Author Avatar, while in the back-story, and writing all of the RPG sourcebooks, has disappeared by the time the comic takes place.

* Tom, the author of Twokinds, has been known to appear in his comic, usually as a delivery boy of some sort.

* In ''[[Sonichu]]'', Chris-chan starts out as an Author Avatar character before steadily becoming more and more involved in his own series, moving on to [[Life Embellished]] as he depicts himself fighting against people who antagonize him in [[Real Life]], until he becomes a full-on [[God Mode Sue]] and, in fact, [[Self-Insert Fic|the central focus of the entire series]], with its title character [[Demoted to Extra]].

* The toy comic ''Adventures In Aaron's Room'' uses a knockoff [[Gosei Sentai Dairanger|Ryuranger]] figure, sometimes wielding a [[Final Fantasy VIII|gunblade]].

* Andy, of ''[[Casey and Andy]]'' is the author Andy Weir, while Casey is a long-time friend of the author who (oddly enough) really is named Casey. Andy Weir claims the weird inventions and insane activities of the characters really reflect some of the crazy things he and Casey really did. Presumably, dating [[Satan]] is not in that list of real activities.

"Andrew Hussie becomes aroused by fans of MS Paint Adventures. Way to break the 4th wall, numbskull!" }}

** ''Homestuck'' also now has ''reader'' avatars, in the form of uranianUmbra and undyingUmbrage. The former, according to Hussie, represents the "obnoxious" fans who get way too invested in the story and pester everyone around them to read the comic; the later is the opposite, a [[Fan Hater]] who can't stand the actual issues readers have pointed out (long waits between updates, long, difficult-to-read chatlogs).

* ''[[Shortpacked]]'' author/artist David Willis cast himself as [[Unlucky Everydude]] Ethan's nemesis in a Transformers wiki edit war.

* Pete, the writer of ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'', makes godlike appearances in filler strips. Shirt-Guy Tom (in charge of merchandising?) and Joe Sunday (colorist) also insert themselves when Pete is absent.

 

== Web Original ==

* Canadian-born, Catholic-raised computer geek Raimi Matthews from ''[[Broken Saints]]'' has elements of this.

* The toys the writers at [http://www.oafe.net/accessories.php OAFEnet] use to represent themselves are author avatars in the most literal sense, but also fit the definition of this trope when they show up in the comics with personalities based on the real people.

* Muranyl Kizrai of ''[[Chaos Fighters]]''. This is lampshaded when he noticed that the plot of ''Beyond The Earth'' is exactly the same with what he wrote a year before.

* Most of the early [[Legion of Net.Heroes]] members were "Writer Characters," loosely based on their creators' net personae. The LNH's leader [[Instant Awesome, Just Add Ninja|Ultimate Ninja]] was originally his author literally writing himself into the LNH world.

 

== Western Animation ==

* Brian/[[Seth MacFarlane]] in ''[[Family Guy]]'' has been drifting this way, slowly but surely. One telling sign is that MacFarlane, [[Man of a Thousand Voices|a great voice actor who does a lot of different major characters]], uses his natural speaking voice for Brian.

** As a strange use of the trope, [[Seth Green]]'s character Chris has twice been used as an Author Avatar, when ''[[Robot Chicken]]'' was mentioned on ''[[Family Guy]]''.

* ''[[South Park]]'' has Stan and Kyle as stand-ins for Trey and Matt, respectively. Or at least, that was the original idea; they have since said (half-jokingly) that they're each more like Cartman.

** Lisa Simpson serves as this in also being a great tool to swat strawmen conservatives/Christians/business people with. [[Soapbox Sadie|Although she acts as the straw (anything else) herself quite often.]] Groening has even admitted that Lisa is his favorite character and will do anything not to make her look bad. In fact during the commentary for "The Cartidge Family", Matt admitted, like Lisa, to absolutely hating guns and in fact ''nearly got into a fight with the crew''.

** The Very Tall Man from the episode "22 Short Films About Springfield" was a caricature of writer Ian Maxtone-Graham, who is also rather tall.

** So...''Author Avatars: The Last Airbenders''?

** To a certain extent, Aang and Zuko themselves are Author Avatars, sharing physical and personality traits with Mike and Bryan respectively (as well as being their favorite characters) and generally being the ones voicing [[An Aesop|the moral of the story]]. This is lampshaded in one Q&A segment when Mike has an Aang-style arrow painted on his head.

* While not explicitly seen on camera, the very end of the [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]] special ''[[Turtles Forever]]'' zooms out from a comic book into a live set clearly meant to symbolize the original apartment where Mirage Studios was informally created. There, the real life voices of Turtles creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird are heard commenting about their soon-to-be underground hit comic book with "I sure hope this thing sells" before the pair agree to head out and grab a slice of pizza.

* ''[[Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends]]'': According to [[Craig McCracken]], his mother noticed how similar Mac is to Craig as a child, making him an unintentional Author Avatar.

* [[Mickey Mouse]], for Walt Disney. This is partly what caused his Flanderization.

 

[[Category:Webcomic Tropes]]

[[Category:Wish Fulfillment]]