Making of "Party Time"

I think this at some kids parties. I wish I could say ALL of them, but sadly, sometimes my kids ARE the worst ones there -but I take comfort that it's not as often as I'd expect! :)

I'd been wondering how to deliver this joke for a while. Drawing the craziness of a kids party seemed impossible, so I played around with it being set when Fran gets home with the kids. Joel would see her frazzled and ask how it was and she'd describe all the awful things the kids were doing, to which he'd say "That sounds horrible!" and she'd joyfully reply "No it was wonderful! Because it wasn't OUR kids doing it!"

It was a bit meh, but I kept going to kids parties and thinking about it. I started writing down some of things kids were doing: fighting, popping the balloons, getting dangerously close to the cake before it's cake time... etc etc! So many good ideas! I started being tempted to draw it instead of saying it -but how to make it doable without a ton of character designs and backgrounds?!

The break came when I decided to have the party come to Fran! If I only had a small window into the action I could give the idea of a huge manic party, without me having to draw it all!

Next came figuring out what animals the kids were. I used to linework from a previous comic for the kids in the first panel. I figured a wolf teasing a pig by stealing something would be a good visual. At first it was a present, but the wrapping made it overly busy so I made it a party hat instead.

I added wings to the screaming kid in panel 2 and they became a bird. The kid blowing the party blower reminded me of Pingu, so he became a penguin.

I wanted a kid taking a bite out of the cake, but also didn't want them facing away, so I started to draw a big biting face from the side. It reminded me of a snake, so things escalated from a bite to swallowing the cake whole! Clothes on snakes is always challenging, so a tutu seemed like a good (and funny!) solution.

The last kid popping the balloon needed claws, but couldn't be a cat, because people unfamiliar with the comic would assume that's her kid. I researched other clawed animals and an armadillo won!

I thought the hardest part was behind me, but coloring everything proved a much bigger challenge than it normally was! I colored Fran and the background first, taking cues from a previous trip to this kind of establishment. That was fine, but now I needed the kids to pop! Primary colors were out because they'd be lost in the background, so I was restricted to white, browns and secondary colors. It took some time, but I picked my way through the color puzzle!

I was tempted to draw a bonus panel of her eating the cupcake she'd been hit with, but the humor of it really needed to be animated for the full effect. Just her eating it isn't nearly as funny in her pealing it off her sweater and stuffing it in her mouth! I was also out of time after how long everything took to color, but know that that is what happened next! (: