Book 1, Page 195

You read that right: issue eight is going to be a beach episode! A Pacific Northwest beach, so It’s going to have more trees than I have ever drawn.

Barry listed a few ideas for panel 2 in the script:

Panel 2

1988 colors, about two-thirds of the page.

They’re back at the same park we saw on page 163, and possibly at the same park bench. Lillian and Alicia are seated on the bench, both enjoying ice cream bars. Tammy stands nearby, with the mic in one hand, pointed at Lillian, and the other hand holding an ice cream bar shakily. It’s shaky because she’s got the loop of the dog’s brand new leash looped around her elbow, and the dog’s pulling on it. The dog is straining to get at a nearby cat; the cat, aware that it’s outside the leash’s range, is pretending not to see the dog.

Possible layout: cat in foreground

Another possibility: Forget the bench and cat. Do a long shot of them walking on the sidewalk in front of that churchy building and show off your building drawing chops.

Another possibility: Show them waiting on line at the ice cream truck.

Another possibility: Show them waiting on line at the ice cream truck, with the POV of being inside the truck looking out the service window towards our characters.

Another possibility: Forget the cat. Have Alicia picking up the dog so the dog can drink from the Benson Bubbler.

Do you like this dialog better as typeset transcript or as word balloons? I’m going back and forth.

TAMMY: Wait, Beach trip? Seriously?

LILLIAN: MmHmmm

Sometimes it's easier to make a bunch of quick sketches in Photoshop than it is to decide what to draw. I can even copy one sketch onto a new layer so I can try enlarging things or moving people around without losing the original drawing.

It’s a bittersweet experience to draw a period piece that takes place during one’s childhood. I looked up some pictures of 1980s Good Humor trucks and the sight of the menu mentally transported me back to the Hobart Street playground in Pittsburgh. (All the jungle gyms and swings were made of metal back then, none of this safety plastic and squishy floors! And boy did they get hot in the summer...) In all seriousness, there's something cozy about looking up everyday objects like dog food labels and remembering when those fonts just looked normal.

I'm really happy with the background in this scene. I feel like the empty lot and the apartment buildings with bars on the first-floor windows say something about the neighborhood even if the reader doesn't consciously notice it.

Cartoonist confession time: I somehow completely forgot about the trees when it was time to draw with actual pens on paper. I had lightly printed the digital drawing onto paper, so I don't know how this happened. Maybe I was wrapped up in trying to draw straight lines on the buildings and making them match the ones on page 163. Maybe I was distracted by excitement over making the deadline and getting to draw Alicia, Tammy and octogenarian Lillian for the first time in 2 years. Anyway, I thought I was completely done with the page and I realized, oh farts, there is supposed to be a line of trees there. The next day, I drew the trees on paper and used Photoshop to drop them in. I used an eraser tool where the trees are behind other objects. Was it worth it? Yes, that would have bugged me SO BADLY if I'd left the trees out!

Thanks, as always, for supporting me on Patreon. I hope you enjoyed this peek behind the scenes!