A family portrait/group character sheet for the comic, from when I decided to expand the cast. I’m not going to lie, me reading a lot more family-oriented strips like BABY BLUES definitely influenced this decision, because I wanted to try and work with that dynamic.
I’m gonna be honest, this is a pretty blatant riff of a “Calvin and Hobbes” joke that focuses on a similar setup between Calvin and his dad over being outdoors. I didn’t realize it at first when I wrote this strip, but I was about 2/3 of the way done when I remembered it. Visually a good strip, but not the best-written thing.
A more formalized version of something else. I initially did this joke as a semi-formal “Waffles” sequel that I posted on my blog, something I didn’t really intend to be a formal comic. However, I liked it so much then that I thought about bringing “Waffles” back after that, oddly enough, which led me to redo this particular strip and consider bringing the father character into the fold more often.
An attempt to do a horizontal Sunday-style comic. Obviously not in color, but vaguely emulating the more-than-four-panel, straight-across layout that I’d consider “standard” for Sunday comic strips.