Here’s where the real story starts!
This comic was technically done for a school project, for which one of our only real criteria was that it relate to “metamorphosis”. “Metamorphosis” would be a bad title for a Softies episode so it’s called “The Animorphosis”. I still like that title honestly.
This is the first page that I ever tested in color, in a file which I’ve attached. Looking at the color version, it’s even more obvious how closely this page mirrors the actual, published page 501. While episode five does purposefully lift some content from this 0th episode (hence the half-pun title “The Pilot”), I didn’t realize how closely I had duplicated my previous work until after it was done… it’s pretty uncanny, at least to me. It’s an interesting side-by-side for how much the art has changed, though, so much so that I just put them side by side for you.
At least I didn’t accidentally copy a published page. Even then, Charles Schulz did that at least a couple times, so I should be okay.