Cliff Comic- Our Father, who art in Heaven (Patreon)

I live to make you all cry.

I love complicated parent relationships. I think everyone's parents fuck up somewhere, and it doesn't necessarily make them bad parents. Cliff's dad wasn't so bad tempered before he was disabled, but not being able to work was a huge hit to his pride, and he didn't take it well. He didn't want to teach Cliff his job, and honestly Cliff didn't want to learn it, either. I think Cliff tried to be good, he did understand that his dad was angry because he was in pain and frustrated, but...it didn't really make it hurt less when he lashed out. I think for Cliff running away to the city was a breath of fresh air from the oppressive mood at home. He'd come back and try again, multiple times, but they were always at odds. His dad eventually committed suicide, and Cliff, obviously feeling terrible, went home to try and pick up the pieces.

[edit-Cliff's dad says wrong handed because Cliff is left handed, there used to be a stigma around it- he's also clumsy bc of adhd]

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Including some of the script, I... am not very professional with it, I've never worked with an editor so I've never needed it to be good for anyone but me. I often make little changes as I put it into the page. I Did split it into what I thought would work out as a page, though, that's something you get a knack for with time and practice. I remember starting out and not knowing how many speech bubbles I could fit on a page. Turns out I'm on the low end and don't like to fit too many in, but I'm quite minimal with my dialogue and prefer to tell more with the art, so it works out.

I also rarely include movement or expression, I think...they kind of move in my head without needing to put it in writing. I knew when Cliff said 'what, you're gonna do the whole room like that, are you?' he'd be sulking leaning against the wall and his dad would be shaking with effort, leaning on something for stability. (I don't always know what they're doing though, and work it out when I sketch) If I was working with an editor I'd need to spell it out more I reckon.

(You can also see I made the first two panels above nicer because I wanted to share it on here when I got ill around christmas and had to stop, my usual sketch quality is very loose.)

As always I cannot thank you all enough for supporting my non adult work too, it's like a dream. I'm very excited to get to the next comic, I've been working on lots of small moments but I think it's time to move the plot along between Cliff & Eugene >:). If you'd like to read this one again, I think it fits well with how their relationship is now, as it's evolving to be more intimate. I skipped way ahead when I made it, and I've been working back up to it for almost a year!