Most of my ideas are about people telling stories and how people talk. I love the contrast between how people think and how they choose to speak. A school is a perfect place for me. People are talking a lot. Plus there are all sorts of do’s and don’ts that people have to obey. People dealing with rules and expectations — it’s funny. I have to fight the urge to mimic my friends and family. I’ve always done half-assed impressions. I love thinking about how people talk, pause and breathe and how all of that relates to what’s really going on in their noodles.

So in creating the main characters I used some basic mannerisms and tones of friends’ voices. Then I put those voices into different bodies and lives. The voices for The Prof. Bros. come from guys that look and behave nothing like them. The Baby Cakes voice is a deeper, more affected version of an old co-worker. She probably wouldn’t recognize herself in him.

(…)

I write the script first. Then I record it. Then I draw it. Then I put the two together.

I heard Mike Judge once say, “Everything I’ve done, the voices came before the drawing…except for Beavis and Butthead.

Neely Links:

• Creased Comics
• Wizard People, Dear Reader