I’m glad we did this scene while Erica was still with us, because she definitely had the fashion instinct needed to make this dress work. After struggling with fashion in Penny and Aggie, I’ve learned to respect that instinct. It would have been tempting to ramp up Frigg’s discomfort for comedy here, but the period dress we were using as inspiration wasn’t as confining as corsets became later, and the red hues seem like they suit her taste as well as any formal dress possibly could (which isn’t much). Check out that surly curtsy in panel 2.

Micholuszek and Franzington owe their unique names to Phil; he originally called the former “Micholevschzek” before conceding a little to ease-of-spelling. My original names for them were “Corby” and “Randy,” after Le Corbusier and Ayn Rand. If we’d codified the “title/name” scheme for gnome names at this point, maybe we would’ve called them “Maker Mich” and “Forger Franz.” That’d hint at their criminal leanings while still seeming respectable.

Phil might not have gone with that, though, because he fretted a lot over how “typically gnomish” to make these two. His original tack was that they’d be even more assimilated into mainstream Gastonian culture than Embraisch’Nj; hints of that idea remain in their pretentious clothing and their actions independent of Gnometown. Phil wasn’t even on board with their fast-talking at first, feeling that should be a Bandit-specific trait. But since we hadn’t seen any gnomes other than Bandit at this point, it felt wrong not to be establishing the culture by giving them some obvious commonalities with her.