Making of "Left Out"

I had the idea of a skunk at a horror movie night a while ago, but I kept batting it around to see if I could make it better. I tried adding more elements, could they get out gas masks? Should there be other animals that have fear responses, like that lizard that shoots out blood? Should it be a horror movie at all that's scaring her?! I kept going around and around, but always came back to smiling my first idea, so I decided to just go for it!

I wanted to leave the skunk reveal to the end, so I hid the tail and dyed her hair pink. The hair started feeling distracting though, plus it made her "less sensitive" seeming somehow, like she'd be the kind of person down for horror movies, so I changed it back to white.

The dog couple were perfect because they're F&J's besties and the animal traditionally sprayed by skunks. It was going to be too busy to include both dogs in the background of panel 1, so I had Bunny standing. I figured she could have sat down during panel 2!

I started out with the skunk's name as Edna. The more I thought about it though, the less right it seemed. I googled "delicate girl names" and went through a list. There were quite a few candidates, but Flora stood out because it means flower. A skunk being named after a flower was funny to me and it was only after posting I was reminded of Flower in Bambi! Funny to think whoever came up with that name must have had a similar thought process!

I wanted Joel and Fran to be doing some sort of host stuff in the kitchen. I had Joel using a bottle opener on a beer originally, but when finding a reference photo from exactly the right angle proved difficult I decided to just make it a twist top -they usually are anyway now and I didn't want people calling him a wuss! :)

The very last thing to do was come up with the horror movie cover. I brainstormed a few ideas of funny things animals might be scared off, before realizing I'd already drawn the answer -the Hoo-Man from Specter Halloween!  I love a good call-back and I could just bring the linework in and color it horror poster style!