We met again the next day so that I could watch him work. During this second interview, in his apartment in Burbank, Calif., that also serves as his studio, he shared a digital file that showed the creation of one of his three-panel strips.

The strip was published on Jan. 16, a few days after the false ballistic missile alert issued by the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency. That was an event ripe for spoofing by “Terminal Lance,” but the video was more interesting for what it showed of how he works — a process that becomes more understandable with the video’s help.

Uriarte draws all of his comics by hand, using digital devices and software. The file he shared compresses the work of about one hour into 43 seconds.

“Essentially what you are seeing in the video is that I have already written the joke, and I am working out how the panels flow together and look,” he said.

This begins with a very rough layer in blue pencil. “I work super rough, I don’t draw tight,” Uriarte said. “Then I go over it in ink. Once the drawing is done I take it to another app on the iPad to type the text in. That’s why you don’t see the text in this sketch.”