A word about the rainbow here. When I first started doing the “Year 2” strips, I knew I was going to be adding a second color and was really worried about this, since I had essentially no experience with doing color art generally (the “Year 1” strips are kinda cheats, since the hue, being monochromatic, is essentially just a value between black/white.) So I figured that it would be a good idea to make a rainbow be a central feature of one of the major locations of the Year 2 storyline–the classroom, with Betty separate from Mona/the family for really the first time in the strip–basically as a kind of in-world “test pattern.”
In retrospect, this was the worst idea, and I’m reminded of it every time I have to do a scene in that stupid classroom. Fortunately this is the last time probably!
(Uploaded February 29, 2016, LEAP DAY, for posterity)