Original Commentary

I bet you're wondering too... (what else can I say? It's a lead-in) - Terrence

Modern Commentary
And sometimes everything just flows together.

I mean, on one hand you would have thought it would come up before, but this is really the kind of thing that we absolutely can't do offscreen. - Terrence

Original Commentary

Sydney had been mentioned before (on the Unlike Minerva cast page) but this is the first time we've seen anything of him - that's him on the left, in the first panel. It's also the first time he's been assigned a definite gender - previously, Sydney was just listed as "sibling" - Terrence

I would've done this in greyscale or sepia tones, but it's a two-week arc, and I wouldn't want to keep the comic grey for that long, especially after Lola's arc. That was one week, so it's not so bad, but two weeks would be too much - Isabel

Modern Commentary
Sydney had been mentioned in the documentation since before Unlike Minerva began, but this is the first time he's actually shown up. He was mentioned (but not shown) on the cast page, which is more than I can say for some folks who were actually in the comic.

I thought it was important and funny that they all be named after cities. I was inspired by things like Thimble Theatre (which starred Olive Oyl, Ham Gravy, and Castor Oyl at the start) and other similar old comics. - Terrence

Original Commentary

Yes, we're retroactively putting Brisbane into college - originally, he showed up at the Minerva Theatre when he was about 20. He's consistantly been about two years younger than me. But there wasn't enough material in Unlike Minerva to cover four years of actual time - it was paced very slowly; an afternoon may unfold over two or three months of comics. So now he's about 25 and let's just say that he showed up at the Minerva Theatre when he was about 22 and spent two years there. Hopefully, the timeline should be stable from here on out - Terrence

Modern Commentary
I mean, the timeline's always a little fuzzy. Namir Deiter moves in real time. In You Say it First, time moves when we tell it to, so you can't just say that Unlike Minerva began in 1999 and now it's six years later, therefore six years had passed.

Hmm. Kimberly went from asking if he graduated at the top of his class to being surprised that he went to college. Her opinion of Brisbane is all over the place.- Terrence

Original Commentary

Liberal Arts majors and the difficulty of finding a job with one...that seems to be a recurring theme in our work. What does this mean? Well, Brisbane was well-read at one point. All I'm saying for now - Terrence

Modern Commentary
I'm a history major, myself. Now I work in IT. The main thing I picked up during my time in college wasn't names and dates of battles or anything like that. It was the ability to to read and synthesize new information quickly, and cross-reference it. That's been astoundingly useful.

Also, is that "You had an ex-girlfriend who you never mention?" or "There's another woman who found you attractive?" or "Is there someone out there I need to worry about?" in the last panel? A bit of all three. - Terrence

Original Commentary

Yes, that was Brandie in the previous two comics. Note the low-cut blouse and the look she's giving him...We were discussing this arc while driving home from San Francisco. Isabel asked me what her name should be. I couldn't come up with anything, so I just started reading off the names of shops we were passing. Fortunately, we came across something very suitable before we got to the interstate. - Terrence

Modern Commentary
That drive through San Francisco that we mentioned in the old commentary, it must have been the time we had a booth at APE, the Alternative Press Expo. We didn't really fit into the scene and didn't have a good time there.

Anyhow, I trust the art (which shows that the putting-on-of-moves is unwelcome) more than I trust the narration here. - Terrence

Original Commentary

Brisbane grew out his hair (into those duck tails) at the beginning of You Say It First. If he doesn't have them, you know it's a flashback. Why does Brisbane's narration change from square panels in the previous comics to round bubbles in this one? It's late and we're really tired - Terrence

Modern Commentary
To continue from yesterday, We didn't really fit into the scene at APE and didn't have a good time there. We got to meet some cool people but just felt out of place.
I mean, we never had a great elevator pitch for the comics. They're about lore, not vibes. I still can't get better than "It started as this kind of riff on Jack Benny and went afield from there". I've described You Say it First as "business adventure" but I'm not sure that's really a thing.

Marketing is what it is. I've stopped trying to find the magic words to make people understand the comic. There were at least two different booths nearby at APE whose signage involved crucified teddy bears. As I said, we didn't really fit the scene.

Anyhow, I trust the art (which shows that the putting-on-of-moves is unwelcome) more than I trust the narration here. - Terrence