By the second year of Robot Friday, I had finally nailed down my process, templates, and techniques - at least enough to produce comics consistently. Not every strip was great, of course. I was still finding my voice in the writing, and the art was very much a work in progress, but I was building momentum. And on the timeline of a budding cartoonist, that was a big win!

During year two, I also felt confident enough to start experimenting with color. I was still struggling with keeping the characters' designs consistent from day to day, but I saw color as one area where I could improve immediately. I realized that beyond just making the comic more visually appealing, color could be a tool for expressing emotion and setting the tone from strip to strip.

I made an early decision: I would keep the character colors flat - no shading, no highlights - since adding those would only slow down production without adding much value for the reader. Instead, I used background colors and props to subtly enhance the mood and storytelling. If the characters were angry, I'd use bold reds in the background. If they were sad or reflective, I'd opt for softer, cooler tones. Color works like music in a movie - it influences the audience on a subliminal level, making them feel more than just what's written in the dialogue.

Alongside this color experiment, I also started redesigning characters as I improved my cartooning skills - and even added new ones. Enter Karen.

Karen is not just a character in Robot Friday - she's a very real person in my life. In fact, she's my wife. We met while working in broadcast television, and once we started dating I decided to add her to the comic. After all, I'd already included most of the other people in my life - so why not?

However, I didn't want Karen to be Thomas's love interest - or anyone's love interest, for that matter. Instead, I saw an opportunity to expand the world of Robot Friday by giving the gang a central place to hang out. That's how The Cocoa Bean was born - a coffee shop where Karen wasn't just an employee but the creator and owner of the entire brand.

Here's something I've learned about writing: most of the time, you don't know what shape your story will take until you start adding new elements - big or small. When I introduced The Cocoa Bean, that single change unlocked a whole new part of the Robot Friday universe. It led to Karen's backstory - how she built the brand in college and later sold the license to a corporate giant. That, in turn, revealed her business-savvy personality, which then opened up a whole new world of stories, problems, and adventures.

Sometimes, the smallest additions change everything.

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