Making of "Accept Cookie"

I was driving the kids home the other day and giving them some "afterschool" pep-talk type thing about something. I thought I was doing pretty well, but I guess it must have been boring because 7yo pipes up with "SKIP CUTSCENE!" The little shit! 😂 I laughed (and probably called him a little shit!) and said that would be a good one for a comic. They both immediately got excited (as they often do when I credit them with stumbling on "a good one") and started brainstorming ideas -well, 10yo started brainstorming ideas. 7yo just kept saying "skip cutscene" again to try to elicit another laugh! 10yo was very passionate about there being an animated button shown, like a quick-time event. I wasn't so sure that was the direction I wanted, but I wrote it all down.

"Skip Cutscene" seemed a little advanced for Cooper, so I started writing it coming from Vince instead, but it just didn't sit right. Poor Vince get's all the "shitty kid" lines and I worry it's making him too unlikable. I gave it back to Coop and reasoned maybe he'd picked it up from watching the others game? I thought it would be funny if Coop pressed Joel's face like the skip button, but needed a bit more setup. I asked J for advice and he suggested pairing it with a funny thing our eldest had said once. In the middle of one of J's pep-talks he'd just randomly said "Pause your talking. I need to poo." and walked off!

At the start of the video you can see me roughing out that comic, but I donno. I just wasn't feeling it! It was very accurate to our family dynamic, but I felt Vince being so polite would come off as insincere if you don't know the real kid (he's VERY law abiding when it concerns his brother following the rules!) In the end I scrapped the whole thing and started over -I'll leave the "pause your talking" for another day!

I brainstormed some things Joel could be saying to Coop, some sort of positive parenting line, but it was making the setup too bulky and I have so many comics with Joel and Coop talking, I worried this wouldn't be very visually interesting. I turned my thinking towards a nice thing Joel could be doing that Coop might want to jump ahead on and the cookie came to mind! Having Joel be doing something nice that wouldn't even take that long was even funnier -plus Coop eating a cookie that's nearly as big as him would check the "visually interesting" box!

I would have loved to have Coop bopping Joel in the face as he "pressed the button" but I couldn't figure out how to make him reach without there being more force behind it than intended! Instead I realized I could bring in 10yo's idea about including the button! It wasn't animated, but I think it adds to the humor and it made him happy! :)