Chesca Hause
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Making of "Ready to Tumble"
🕑 Added 2022-08-10 17:00:10 +0000 UTCThe kids were playfighting on our bed -which is pretty high. J walked in and 7yo (while getting repeated hit in the head with a pillow) cheerfully explained that they were playing "Idiots: Battle Arena", to which J replied "Looks like you're both winning" and left.
I wanted to up the ante for the comic -make them even MORE ridiculous! I immediately thought of the old British show "Gladiators" where two contestants would stand on pillars and try to knock each other off with giant q-tips:
I wanted the kids to look like that, but with random things they'd found around the house. I needed to make it look unsafe, but not dangerous, so all blunt weapons.
I showed J what I'd done, but he said they looked like they were having too good a time! The senseless, repetitive attack was vital to the joke. I moved them closer and had Cooper smacking Vince with the fly swatter, then gave Vince a more derpy expression. Once I had them figured out, I could just repeat the art, changing their expressions slightly in the 2nd panel.
Joel's expressions ended up being the tricky bit! Those ambiguous expressions are always hard to nail. I could easily do it if it was animated; a flash of deadpan, followed by a coy smile and delivery, but with a comic you only get 1 frame to tell a complicated emotional story. I leaned more deadpan initially, but J cautioned against him looking too grim while talking to the kids. He doesn't hate what they are doing, he just thinks it's dumb.
I was also having an issue with Joel looking like he was walking sideways. I can usually get away with their heads barely turning, but it looked weird here. I drew him slightly more in profile (an angle I'd never drawn before for him) and cheered him up. The emotion behind the punchline still isn't quite where I wanted it to be, but I'd rather err on the side of him being entertained than mad.
Comments
Chesca Hause
Hehe thank you! :)
Chesca Hause
Oh I hadn't noticed the title in the background! I was just looking for a good one of them with the q-tips! :) I do remember the American one -not sure which came first. The one I watched was definitely British -very strong accents! :) We even had Jet (one of the gladiators) come to our school!
Ayo
Every time I looked at the bonus panel meme I’ve laughed out loud 🤣 I probably went back to webtoon literally like 15 times throughout the week because Joel’s expression was so good 😄 I love it!!
The Mighty Oobu
Not British... American Gladiators. (It's also right there in the pic you added.) Loved that show as a kid.
