Making of "Over"
Added 2023-03-15 15:20:59 +0000 UTCJ bought the kids some walkie talkies for Christmas -well, SANTA did, as they were in their stockings. They were these crap little ones that claimed to be "The Worlds Smallest Walkie Talkies" -just something J -err SANTA!- grabbed on his way out of Barnes and Noble. They didn't work very well, but still produced the above result; kids standing next to each other, marveling at how they could hear the other talk.
If you watch the animation above you can see how the script changed. I started off focused on tricking the reader into thinking they were in other rooms, only revealing at the end that they hadn't moved. Something was off though and I eventually realized that with the dramatic lighting, it could be misread that the kids had gone away and come back. I moved all the stuff about hearing each other to the last panel, which reinforced the joke and gave me the opportunity to have them saying sillier stuff to each other!
I ran through a few options for Vincent's code name. Our 8yo often picks what he considered to be "cool" names. All the classics like dark, shadow, ninja, death, dragon, kick, chop! J suggested the "army stuff, bootie butt" line. With Cooper no longer needing to be delighted about hearing Vince in panel 3, I made him look more "cool" too. For his codename, I remembered something my youngest had said when he was little, which ended up as this comic.
Since posting this comic and hearing everyone's fond memories of walkie talkies, I got the kids some "not the worlds smallest" ones that actually WORK and they've been having a blast!
