Making of "That's Bait"

I think about this a lot when scrolling through Facebook.  SO MANY stories I come across are purely to start comment wars and feed the algorithm.  The authors don't care, they just want that delicious engagement.  It's gross and I can see what they're doing and still fall for it!

J didn't really get this one when I showed him the script.  It happens to him too, but not to the extent that he would think to do a comic about it.  Perhaps it's just our slightly different humors at play, but it could also be this is more of a women, or even mom, problem.

I'd originally planned to include some headlines in the comic, so I spent a week collecting the ridiculous ones I came across.  There were loads more about sensitive topics, (honestly, most of them were that!) but I only wanted the funny ones.  (I shortened some while writing them down)

Mom Lets Her Baby Lick Dirty Shopping Carts In Hopes Of Boosting His Immune System

Vegan Mom Says Eating Dirt And Rocks Is Good For Her Son

People online can't agree about the correct name for ice pops

Mom called irresponsible for letting toddler cook dinner

This Bridezillas demands left guests speechless

Wear each other's wisdom teeth as necklaces

This mom says all women should clean

Baby Names

Moms dream of a bright pink house is upsetting the neighbors

Man not giving up seat for pregnant lady

People are divided about moms tough lesson for her daughter

Bride has bouquet of doughnuts

The next thing I did was UNFOLLOW all the pages that were spitting out this trash! :)

All comics start out being animated in my head, which I reverse engineer to be storyboards.  Sometimes they don't fit neatly on the page, or I realize the timing is off and I need to rethink.  That ALL happened in this comic!

After a bunch of messing around I settled on:

- Less words (more chance it will be read)
- Remove women/mom references to make it more inclusive
- Hide Dad Cat until the very end, allowing comic to be shorter AND have spray panel more intriguing.
- Improve pacing by adding 2nd panel of her getting "sucked in"
- Slope panels on 2nd row to accommodate spray bottle
- Make Dad Cat more sympathetic and less judgy

What you can't see here is the INSANE number of times I rewrote that 1st speech bubble.  It's still a bit clunky, but it was the best I could do.  I wanted to make sure the anger was directed at the AUTHORS of clickbait, rather than the commenters.