Making of "Tragedy"

A possum joke has been on the cards for a while.  I knew once I did it I wouldn't be able to do another one, so I had to get it right!  I wanted something about the mom faking her death to get out of childcare responsibilities -so she'd turn up to playdates and dramatically die.  The problem was the setup was huge!  Lots of scene setting panels and other moms to react with concern while Fran (who is sick of it) berates the "dead" possum.  Eventually I landed on this comic idea instead.  It had less moving parts and was so fast that people might not catch on to the playing possum joke until the end (I like jokes you have to think about a bit).

Possums have a lot of conflicting features to draw.  Their mouths are wide, but pointy, their eyes are small, but somehow also large?!  I did the best I could looking at reference pictures and hoped the colors would do the heavy lifting.  Looking back at the sketches now, I kind of wish I'd stuck with my first sketch where they look more sad -but maybe that wasn't as funny as them all standing together like an army?  I'm not quite sure.

I initially had the comic longer to allow for the "knock knock" and Fran going to open the door, but those 2 panels seemed redundant.  I realized as long as she was obviously opening the front door, I could add the "knock knock" and jump straight into the story.  I stole the linework from Doorbell and arranged my little possum army -which was not easy with the little ears popping up everywhere!  Arranging them hanging all over Fran was much more fun!

I don't know why I called the possum mom Janet, it just seemed to fit.  I threw a swear in to make it clear Fran was absolutely done with this shit.  Something about it being a regular occurrence, but Fran still initially being upset for Janet made me laugh.

I colored the possums and realized they didn't look possumy enough!  They are SO hard to draw -especially the babies!  Are their ears big or small?!  Pink or black?!  Somehow ...BOTH?!

How I had them was technically more accurate, but they looked like rats and i was imperative they were recognizable as possums!  I went in and changed all their ears and made the markings clearer.  Somehow less accurate = more accurate?  Cartoons are weird.

I was excited to see favorable the response to this one.  I really do need to do more animal joke comics!