First, hello to anybody who’s here because they heard about this comic at Katsucon! …there’s gotta at least ONE of you, right?

With that out of the way, this page was a bit of a roller-coaster to work out. The whole Running-Around-the-Sub-Basement sequence had too many characters for its own good, so I knew that adding. Layla to the action meant SOMEONE had to stay behind The Zombie kids were the obvious choice, since they’re the hardest to work into a page not specifically written around them. But there was a problem: how to explain Tabitha leaving them behind NOW when she already brought them along on the LAST jaunt? It was pretty frustrating for a while.

Then I came up with the reason seen here, and suddenly I could wait to draw it. I absolutely LOVE how this turned out. we get to see a whole new side of Tabitha’s personality, Bridget and Alphonse get to be even cuter than usual, and we even get another brief glimpse of what a big softie Layla is underneath it all! Heck, even the art exceeded expectations! You should have seen me Sunday night, watching the Super Bowl, surrounded by dude eating spicy food and talking about manly things, all the while trying not to dissolve into a blubbering mess over how adorable the zombie kids are in the second panel. Heck, even now I just wanna reach into the computer and hug ’em.

And don’t forget! Tune in Sunday for an extra bonus Birthday page!

(Historical Notes: Okay, THIS is the Tabitha we all know and love.  This is somehow the first page where we actually see Tabitha interacting directly with Bridget and Alphonse, rather than just sort of having them along as her sidekicks, and that level of interaction obviously brings out all of her Mommy Instinct.  Also, Layla’s reaction comes across a lot different now that we’ve established more about the relationship with HER Mom.  I wish I could brag that I did that on purpose.)