This cartoon began as a series of drawings I did for my son, James, when he was 3 years old. I was in the process of redrawing the entire story of Robert McCloskey's "Make Way for Ducklings" using dromedary camels instead of ducks. A friend walked by my office, where I had a few of the pages on display, and off-handedly said, "How about 'Make Way for Dumplings’?" Bingo.
I modeled the wait staff from the children's book "The Story About Ping."