Lamb Chop’s Revenge

Process

Mar 23

I love a good challenge to sharpen my skills while having the accountability of a deadline.

InkyGoodness hosted a 28 Day Comics Challenge in 2024 that brought in working art directors to set us briefs we could realistically expect to see out in the world of editorial comics.

One of those art directors was Kathy Lee of The New York Times Games. The brief was based on the daily “Connections” game (which I subsequently became obsessed with and made my way through the archive of 500+ boards).

She asked us to create “a 5-6 panel narrative comic based off one of the three provided boards that makes connections between at least 4 different words on the board.”

I chose the words Sheep, Puppet, Apartment, Mobile, Options, Shares, Likes, and Followers. (I didn’t have some grand intentions for including so many words. It’s just that when those juices get flowing…!)

The narrative I came up with was a female sheep (called a "ewe") making a puppet in her apartment. She takes pictures of the finished puppet with her mobile phone, then scrolls through the many photo options. She shares her favorite on social media, and the likes and comments roll in from the sheep’s followers.

Below, see the sketch I submitted, followed by color roughs.

When my brain sticks on something, it really holds on. Hence why I just had to incorporate “ewe” and “bleating” (the sound a sheep makes) somehow, even though it wasn’t necessary for the brief. I scratched the brain itch by adding in the last panel, which features both words. After incorporating “ewe” into the sheep’s social media handle, I added the Alanis Morissette poster to panel 3 to show that she is clearly a big fan.