Aww, that’s nice for Jekyll. He had, like, six whole panels to experience uncomplicated joy at his success before immediately being dragged back into a stress vortex.

This moment is directly inspired by real events. In the outline, Jekyll learns that the Exhibition was a small success, that they made just enough to scrape by for another year and would need to immediately start planning for the next Exhibition. But then, between that and the first draft, something happened in my life—maybe the book deal?—where a piece of unbelievably good news translated almost immediately into a mountain of work almost too intense to comprehend. I suspect this is a common truth, at least where career is concerned: success is, almost by necessity, accompanied by a whole of stuff to do.

Also there’s a, uh, very minor Fun Home reference (specifically the musical version) in the dialogue here.