Chesca Hause
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Making of "The Halloween Costume"
🕑 Added 2020-10-28 19:15:40 +0000 UTCA few years ago my eldest declared he was going to be Blue Power Ranger for Halloween. I eagerly replied "But ORANGE is your favorite color! What about ORANGE Power Ranger?!" He was very excited.
Of course, it was then I remembered there is no Orange Power Ranger. Terrified of having to make a costume myself, I spent the next few days talking about HOW COOL Blue Power Ranger was. Luckily for me, he took the bait and we had a happy little Blue Power Ranger that Halloween.
Since then, I'd always wanted to make that story into a comic -BUT, now there IS an Orange Power Ranger. He's not terribly popular and a costume for a small kid would probably still be tough to come by, but he exists, so the joke was dead.
These days 6yo has gone off Power Rangers and prefers to invent his own insane characters; "Dark Shadow" this and "Magic Ninja" that! I would love to be as brave as Fran and make him a costume, but I'm not particularly skilled in this area and I know it would turn into a disaster. This is another reason I love Fran being a cat not just a cartoon me! She can make choices that I would not and we can all watch the resulting catastrophe from a safe distance! :)
I often leave whacky described things to the readers imagination, but I decided it would be fun to show the costume this time. I made a word salad of all the names 6yo uses and tried to use them all in a sketch:
I originally had Fran and Vince just talking in the 1st panel, but it was a bit boring visually and I wanted something that screamed "Halloween Comic"! The angles were hard to get right, but I did her carving a pumpkin.
For the last panel, I made sure I used fabric colors and shapes from the costume. Right at the very end, (actually AFTER posting here!) I realized I'd added the desklight in a stupid place. The light being cast didn't fit and it was interfering with the moonlight coming in from the window. I thought about leaving it, but I knew I'd never be able to see anything but that mistake, so I moved everything around and was much happier with the final placement.
