I had this in my sketchbook, with roughs for all the characters and the script scribbled in. I even wrote, “Watters0n-style word balloons”. I didn’t go with that in the end, I did freehand balloons which I don’t particularly like. It’s odd that when I am thinking of a specific thing, I’ll refer to another artist’s style. It’s just easier that way.
The observant of you will notice that Watterson’s balloon style is set inside closed panel borders, where I leave my panel borders open in the text balloons to tie together the white space. Clearly, I was referring to a “half-Watterson.” Great. Now I’m inventing terms. Comic illustrating: The new skateboarding?