Monday, June 13th 2005 - [322]Old Photographs (7 of 18)
Original Commentary
And the beauty of it is that Brisbane can never ask Kimberly who Edward was, without her finding out that we went and read her diary. So, reader, who was Edward? Just one of her father's friends. He owned a truck. That's pretty much it. But Brisbane will never know...And yes, that warehouse background was the one Isabel made for AIW, the film con in Spare Parts - Terrence
Modern Commentary
Who is Edward indeed? If you're moving around large quantities of bulky stuff, you need a guy with a truck. And maybe we'd need a guy with a truck in the future.
And because we don't know every single person in Kimberly's past, y'know? She had friends and business associates and customers. She had a life before she met Brisbane.
Also, note that box of Plastic Baby Bibs. Probably a bunch of Toucan Joe prototypes. - Terrence Tuesday, June 14th 2005 - [323]Old Photographs (8 of 18)
Original Commentary
Yes, this was the summer Kimberly grew her hair out. And her stock of items is mostly household things. She just happened upon the cosmetics first.
Modern Commentary
Kimberly learned quick, in part because she had to.
So, what did Mr. Taylor think of this? Did he have any plans for this stuff?
He definitely didn't want to just lose the stuff; it might come in handy some day and he was hoping to trade up. But he didn't. He just cut it loose. He was just as happy to not pay storage costs.
But mainly, he didn't think he had any right to blame Kimberly for doing what she had to do. - Terrence Wednesday, June 15th 2005 - [324]Old Photographs (9 of 18)
Original Commentary
If this were an RPG, Kimberly would have a 30% rating in "Understand Financial Documents". A professional accountant would probably have about a 70% rating. But Kimberly can get by, usually- Terrence
Modern Commentary
That's basically what Mr. Taylor did. He helped direct investments towards small businesses to help them grow. And he put in his own money.
This is the kind of field where you may fail 70% or 90% of the time, but when it pays off it pays off big. Hopefully.
Kimberly is mainly reading over the sales reports in the hope that she can find money, or at least understand where the money went. It's one of those nervous energy plans. - Terrence Thursday, June 16th 2005 - [325]Old Photographs (10 of 18)
Original Commentary
So why is Kimberly looking through the want ads even though she "gave up"... well, I doubt Kimberly would fully give anything up- look at the job she did on giving up selling things. She more than likely just told herself she was giving up, but kept looking just in case.
The first panel's picture was to show just why Kimberly needed to sell things off, it wasn't just because she wanted to sell things for the extra dough.-Isabel Modern Commentary
I don't have much to add. I really like how Isabel fleshed out Kimberly's bacckstory here. I'd had some general ideas of the shape of things, and Isabel did the heavy lifting to turn that into a storyline. It really humanizes her. - Terrence Friday, June 17th 2005 - [326]Old Photographs (11 of 18)
Original Commentary
When I was lettering this comic, I tried to work in something extra. Kimberly decided she needed $1500 until her father got back, but was embarassed and wound up asking him for $750, leaving her angry at herself and very short on cash. But I couldn't get it to flow into where the third panel ends, so I didn't - Terrence
Modern Commentary
Funny how her dad went from paying fo the apartment to...not. I'm not sure what his plan was when he left in June, but it involved having a lot more money by September. And no matter how careful she was with the money back in June, it would've been gone by now. - Terrence Sunday, June 19th 2005 - [327]Old Photographs (12 of 18)
Original Commentary
Quick geography recap. The island (and country) is named Hippedown. As is the capital city, where the Minerva Theatre is located. Kimberly is from Caix-upon-Kindness, (which is located by the Kindness River [pronounced with a short "i"]), which is on the other side of the same island. So why is she taking a boat? Because the roads between the cities aren't in great conditions and long-distance travel by bus can be unpleasant. Most of the inter-city travel on the island is done by boat, because most cities are on the coast and the interior doesn't have much in the way of infrastructure. And yes, that's the second month-long gap in Kimberly's journal in as many days. Brisbane isn't skipping pages; they just don't have entries. There's a story behind those as well. And this wasn't written with the intention of never showing Kimberly's father. It just worked out that way. The sky is grey to show the coldness. In the first draft Isabel wrote, it was going to be snowing, but she decided that "sad bunnygirl in snow" wasn't how Kimberly was. And with the exception of the first panel, she's not writing as she's doing things. She wrote the entries for the last three panels while on the boat, of course. There's more to explain here, actually. But I'll save that for tomorrow - Terrence Modern Commentary
It is unfair for Kimberly to blame herself. Her dad just kinda wished her luck and left her on her own. He's been difficult to get a hold of.
I'm sure she smiled and said she was doing fine (but didn't mean it); he smiled and said he'd send money when he could (but also didn't mean it).
Even if Kimberly could've been more direct about how bad her situation was, it's still not her fault. Dude knows how much the rent is and how much he's given her and what kind of shortfall there was. - Terrence
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