Not quite sure where I picked up the idea of indicating word balloons but not actually showing the dialogue they presumably contain, but I rather like the riff, as it conveys a slightly different narrative feel than a “silent” page entirely devoid of word balloons that depicts conversations seen but not heard by the reader.

Panel 2 arguably would’ve worked a skosh better if I’d shown Crossword Mook’s wife and daughter facing to the left, in response to the right-facing neurosurgeon in panel 1. 

Slang side note: I’m vaguely surprised to hear variations of “skosh” nowadays—the term means “a little bit,” by the way, in case it’s foreign to you. For the longest time I thought “skosh” had much more limited regional usage as, for most of my life, I only ever heard my father and uncles use the term. They apparently picked up the slang while serving in the Army and, interestingly enough, “skosh” is thought to have originated during the post-WWII occupation of Japan, as it’s supposedly based on the Japanese word “sukoshi.” Oddly, though, I’ve started to hear “skosh” a bit more—nay, a “skosh” more!—in random usage over the last decade and a half or so. Mysterious!

-Adam Warren