Mother of all Tigres is one of my favorite episodes, because it offered the most interesting set of challenges yet.
It was Nickelodeon's first on screen family break up, which presented a whole host of hurdles.
Lots of kids come from divorced families, but the last thing we wanted to do was remind kids of the pain of their parents divorce.
It was also the introduction of Manny's Mom, Maria, who we needed to establish as a likable character - even though she essentially abandons her husband and child to pursue a career as a musician in the very first sequence we see her in. Not the best first impression a character can make!
So, for the walking out sequence, shorter seemed better. After two days, I boiled it down to six panels. Even at that it seemed like a pretty bitter pill to take - so it's immediately followed with gags - Granpapi bouncing in on a tiny donkey, and his blimp crashed into a hamburger stand. - to take your mind off it.
As for making Maria likable - half of the work was done by Sandra Equihua's super appealing character design. I mangled her pretty bad in my drawings, but on TV it's really hard to take your eyes off Maria! The other half was done by the superb storyboarding Of Eddie Trigueros, whose great acting and funny drawings really made her come to life.
