Making of "Try It On"

I'm going to blow your mind right now, and say that this punchline happened, but not the way you think! It was actually my husband and our youngest!

I decided to make it Vincent because Cooper is a bit too young for this delivery. I think in the real event he was just acting a bit grumpy, but to sell the ending I upped the complaining. Honestly that bit is more based on ME as a kid! I HATED clothes shopping and would really kick up a stink about it! I turned J into Fran because going boring clothes shopping with your mom is more of a trope.

With the script and "actors" down, I had to figure out how to sell it visually. After roughing it out, I flipped the first 2 panels to accommodate Fran's speech bubble in panel 1, because it looked weird reading backward to her bubble and face. It didn't end up mattering because I moved her bubble to panel 2 where it seemed more natural.

I googled "woman trying on clothes in mirror" and used this as a jumping off point for Vincent's final pose:

I needed Fran to react at the end, but I wasn't sure how and I was having trouble fitting her in. The breakthrough came when I realized I could have her inbetween Vincent and his reflection -that way the reader could see her full face, but she could also be looking at him.

Vincent often does big screams, so when I was coming in for neat pencils I decided to change the tone of him in the first panel to be a bit more drippy -again channeling Little-Me clothes shopping! I referenced a Fran head from a much earlier comic that was inspired by Calvin screaming -I just love that big gaping maw!

One thing I didn't anticipate was the arguments over the t-shirt color! I picked what I thought was a pretty standard blue, but with my purple shadows on top it does make it a little confusing what color it actually is!