This might be a stupid question for some but I'm new to the whole fiction writing thing and I'm not sure.
It seems to be a common "tool" though, giving your story a main character "the protagonist" I'm asking because I'm in the writing stage of creating a GN
and I don't really have a main character, more of a main cast of characters.

So basically, is a main character necessary for a story to be interesting?
Discuss =)

also I hope there wasn't a similar thread about this already, I didn't find any.

It's not necessary. There are very good stories with main characters and not just one particular character. The first thing that pops into my head is "Happiness" - it's a movie, but it works on that exact principle. All characters are important, they are all a part of a bigger story. "'Magnolia" also works like that. In comics - Chris Ware's latest comics concentrate on several characters, "Garage Band" by Gipi, the "Dungeon" series, "Superf*ckers" by James Kochalka, "BPRD" by Mike Mignola, "100%" By Paul Pope, "Pluto" by Naoki Urasawa and of course let's not forget stuff like "X-Men" and "JLA". So yeah, in different genres and styles, all over the world this is a pretty common thing. Don't worry about it, just do your comic the way you want to do it.

One thing to think about is that even if you go with an ensemble cast, the story is still being filtered through a narrator. The narrator might seem like an omniscient one, like a wandering camera if you will (I am thinking of the opening of Wings of Desire, for example), but your choice of what you communicate to the reader is still going to be given a flavor of who the story is coming through. In Wings of Desire, you eventually realize that the "wandering camera" is really an angel who wishes to become mortal and that realization makes the viewer understand why the director chose which scenes to show. Once you put in a thought bubble or a flashback, you have chosen which of the characters in your scene is the narrator.

One trick with an ensemble cast is to rotate main characters every chapter.

Often, a main character will eventually tell you, the writer, that he or she has been the main character all along. Not much you can do about it at that point -- other than kill that character off

The example that comes to mind of an ensemble cast where there really is no main character is the original Law and Order TV series. The story isn't about the characters at all, but rather about that episode's criminal case; we almost never see any of the characters at home or outside their duties as specifically regards that case. This is the major reason why characters can come and go over time and the show can remain successful.

Obviously this can be done and done well, but it's very challenging, because the protagonist is a very helpful tool of storytelling, and you're giving that up if you go this route. Most ensemble pieces still have a point of view character, thought this character may change from chapter to chapter (Band of Brothers comes to mind).

You can also have a main character - the protagonist or antagonist - who does have a major impact on the story as it unfolds, but we (as the readers) may not actually see or or hear from this main character.

The Usual Suspects is a good example of this.

Throughout the movie, we follow an ensemble group of criminals who have the apparent misfortune of stealing from one of the underworlds most feared and ruthless kingpins - Keyser Söze.

Keyser Söze's reputation is such that he has achieved an almost mythical status amongst criminals and law-enforcement agents alike. Nobody knows what Keyser Söze looks like, where he is, or what he does - but everyone is afraid of him, and what he can do.

Verbal Kent: "Who is Keyser Söze? He's supposed to be Turkish. Some say his father was German. Nobody believed he was real. Nobody ever saw him or knew anybody that ever worked directly for him, but to hear Kobayashi tell it, anybody could have worked for Soze. You never knew. That was his power. The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist."

The only contact with Keyser Söze is his intermediary, the lawyer Kobayashi. It isn't until the end of the film that we actually realize just who Keyser Söze is.

As viewers we follow the misadventures of the criminals as they are coerced into helping Keyser Söze - reluctantly at first, and then through outright intimidation and it quickly becomes apparent that Keyser Söze has the means to track down and eliminate the people our cornered criminals actually care about.

Kobayashi: "Get your rest, gentlemen. The boat will be ready for you on Friday. If I see you or any of your friends before then, Miss Finneran will find herself the victim of a most gruesome violation before she dies. As will your father, Mr. Hockney. And your Uncle Randall in Arizona, Mr. Kint. I might only castrate Mr. McManus's nephew, David. Do I make myself clear?"

I know this is an old topic but it has surfaced in my new series of novels... Writing Voice.

I used to think the voice was just another word for Point Of View (POV) but I recently had it explained to me in a way that shows that this is not the case. POV might change from scene to scene (one character is the main focus of one scene then switching to an entirely differnt character in a different scene) But the voice of the story could be told by one solid character doing the entire narrative of the book. Or the book being show through their eyes. It becomes their story, and makes it easier for us to connect with that said character.

In my series, Dale Pennington is a pilot in Korea during the war, and literally runs into Shinerique Exandrov during a dogfight (ever tried to research MiG15 and Sabre ejection seats? whew) anyway, the story is to progress in the first book of how Exandrov and Pennington become friends and how Pennington starts a new covert CIA Division based on Exandrov's induction into Spetsnaz.

Division M is the focus of the entire series, but from Pennington in book one, to Maria his niece in book two, through several other characters, we get to meet each of these characters in a way that I would not have been able to show from strictly the original main characters whole view. Rich Sabre was the prodigy of the unit and would have been the natural progression to follow the Nikita styled approach to this kind of story.

But I wanted to see Division M through all of their eyes. Why they hated it, why they loved it, why they had to leave, why they had to stay, why they would die for it...

Now the Neighbor's Basement was based on the entire story being the four main kids as the heros, and doctor Barnhauer as the antagonist

My Stage series was written entirely in Renna Brey's perspective except for the third book which was barely even related to Blown Pageant until the end when Selena mentors the main character during the last pinch point and into the second plot point.

Anyway, what ever POV you choose, the voice is very important, and I would assume it would be even more so for a GN as we are drawing this character too...

Especially when you're talking about an espionage or mystery story where what the character knows is EVERYTHING, switching character views is very problematic. It can be managed if you restrict it to different books or chapters, but it still requires a lot of finesse.

You're right though in that the Voice of the piece is not necessarily the same as the point of view. If you're using a first-person narrative, then the Voice changes every time you change the viewpoint character. However, if you use a third-person narrative, then even if the viewpoint character changes, it's possible for the Voice of the narration to remain consistent.

Because the a substantial part of the narrative in a comic is visual rather than explicit, the issue of the Voice of the narrative is less explicit than in prose and can sometimes be overlooked. But eventually I think it's still as basic a problem, that you have to work out before you really start writing.

Good Point.

It is one of many things that we have to decide before we even begin to pen the story much less ink it. I have recently had my hand slapped by one of my readers (my written work as my GN is basically still one page one) has pointed out that scenes need to be written as far into the scene as possible. "Don't piddle around" was the slap. My character was drifting from one topic to another and leaving too much one the table at one time. And too much filler as well.

Let's not forget though that it is possible to have many main characters. Most of our super hero genres from X-men to Gunslinger Girl are focused on many different characters but never switch the voice or POV in the middle of a scene. Another thing that I was yelled at for a few years ago, is I would take an omniscient 3rd person POV and tell what each character was thinking. Number one I was killing the story, and number two I could have added so much to the story by describing the body language instead of actually saying the thoughts as if they said them out loud.

It is really hard to write a story with no protagonist because people automatically latch onto characters.
Think about the xmen: everyone has their favorite member who they want to know more about. Sure, it could start off like there's no protagonist, but eventually people only care about Wolverine and Cyclops. You could say the same thing happened with Lost, where Jack became steadily knto the 'this story revolves around this one character ' role.
So, is it absolutely essential that no character weighs more on the narrative? Or will your story be stronger with a slightly more focused character?

There are plenty of stories out there that have more than one 'main character' and there is nothing wrong with doing that. I think switching between the characters' point of view is easier with a graphic novel because you have a visual representation of who you're currently following. With written novels, you have to make sure your reader understands whose head you're currently in or who you're following. I've read plenty of books where I get lost with who I'm following in whichever chapter I'm currently reading!

I think the Wheel of Time series does a very good job of dealing with a cast of main characters. Admittedly, Rand is probably the chief character due to who he is, but I always found myself latching onto Perrin.

Terry Pratchett also has a cast of main characters in his series and does a very good job of making each set of books have its own voice while tying it into the series as a whole.