Monday, June 20th 2005 - [328]Old Photographs (13 of 18)
Kimberly
journal
Brisbane
Dire

Original Commentary

Quick geography recap pt 2. Winter is in December, placing Hippedown in the Northern Hemisphere. I had considered having it be in the Southern Hemisphere, perhaps in the vicinity of New Zealand.

I had also toyed with the idea of placing it in islands around Britain, like Guernsey or the Isle of Man - but that would have involved a rather large amount of research for very little reward. Anyone who got the reference would undoubtedly be able to point out how I'd done things wrong. I'm not deliberately trying to make this geographically vague, but I don't think there's any wisdom to be gained by giving it a definite location on a map.

This story was originally slated to be a bonus story in YSIF 2, but it got pushed back. I think that it's too important to be a bonus story; it tells you things about Kimberly and her father that would otherwise have been unknown - Terrence

Modern Commentary
That's the thing about bonus stories. On one hand, you want to give your best work to paying customers. On the other hand, you want to make sure that the vital details are shown to everyone. This wasn't something we could put behind a paywall, only known to a small percentage of our readers.- Terrence

Tuesday, June 21st 2005 - [329]Old Photographs (14 of 18)
Kimberly
Minerva Theater
Caleb
Goliath
journal

Original Commentary

For those of you who have not read Unlike Minerva, the guy on the center stage is Caleb and the guy looming in the last panel is Goliath. Terrence's response to today's comic was "Sad girl in show"... if you don't get the reference, then me explaining it won't help.

Caleb was (and I suppose is) a Vaudeville "Jack-of-all-trades" sort of performer... here he's trying to do all those trades at once.- Isabel

Modern Commentary
So, "sad girl in snow" was a Megatokyo thing. Megatokyo was a very popular webcomic at the time. During its (relatively frequent) sketch days, that was what usually got drawn.

Kimberly is in the Minerva Theatre, where Unlike Minerva (the prequel series) took place. A lost soul could find a worse place to drift into.

This is a series wrap for Goliath, who I wish I had found a better place for. As you can see, he knew she was there but wasn't about to kick her out. He's kind of a softy that way. - Terrence

Wednesday, June 22nd 2005 - [330]Old Photographs (15 of 18)
Kimberly
Minerva Theater
journal

Original Commentary

I think the disgruntled performer looks a bit like Todd. Isabel says it's because he looks angry at the world. But now Kimberly is firmly in the city of Hippedown, which is good - the hardest part to write was moving her between cities; her motivation for doing so was tweaked significantly as this got written. If I had it all to do again, I probably would have had her grow up in Hippedown, but I said that she went to high school somewhere else back in Unlike Minerva - Terrence

Modern Commentary
They took Brisbane on as a performer and he was quite bad at it. I'm not sure how bad that kid had to be to get rejected.

I like the look of concern on Brisbane's face in that first panel. - Terrence

Thursday, June 23rd 2005 - [331]Old Photographs (16 of 18)
Kimberly
Minerva Theater
salesperson
journal
Continuity Reference: Portable Trapdoor

Original Commentary

It's been really weird drawing things from the Unlike Minerva perspective again, trying to remember the old color scheme and the basic layouts to things. It's also weird drawing Kimberly's hair in that little braid again, and that little booth. The coffeehouse was loosely based on the one that Emily and Sofia (Brisbane's sister) meet at near the end of Unlike Minerva. However, I didn't other going to look back at it so I think the only similarities is the color for the background. If anyone asks, they redesigned the place between then and the current comic.

Kimberly got the same room that Brisbane will later get, so we can tell that she left a while before he came. Kimberly does eventually get use that trapdoor, on Brisbane - Isabel

Modern Commentary
The portable trapdoor was a recurring thing in Unlike Minerva. Unlike Minerva was a very different comic than You Say it First; it just happened to involve the same characters.

Unlike Minerva operated on cartoon logic. There are times when things don't make sense, but we keep moving fast enough that reality can't catch up before the punchline. So we had the portable trapdoor. The general idea was borrowed from any number of cartoons, including The Yellow Submarine.

It was kind of an in-joke between us precisely because it couldn't possibly work in YSiF. The logic was different. - Terrence

Friday, June 24th 2005 - [332]Old Photographs (17 of 18)
Kimberly
Brisbane
Minerva Theater
journal

Original Commentary

I went back to the very first Unlike Minerva comic for the color scheme, before realizing that Brisbane wasn't shown wearing his traditional ascot and high-collar shirt. One of the things I like about YSIF instead of UM is that since I'm the only artist, I can dress the characters however I want. They had set outfits, so people could tell who was who. I, personally, do not miss the days when other people drew Unlike Minerva - Isabel

Modern Commentary
So, March 15th 1999 is about when Unlike Minerva started. The first time. It ran for half a year before I rebooted the whole thing with Kimberly in it.

The pre-reboot original run of Unlike Minerva was a weird, snarling mess that made fun of everything at once in its own barely-coherent way. There are some decent jokes there, but if anything works its because of heroic efforts by the many artists I worked with.

I rebooted the comic and took most of that out of continuity, so the question of "when did Brisbane arrive at the Minerva Theatre" has a complex answer.- Terrence

Sunday, June 26th 2005 - [333]Old Photographs (18 of 18)
Brisbane
Kimberly

Original Commentary

Brisbane's questions will be answered...at a different time. Although I doubt that book will be found in the same place twice - Isabel

Modern Commentary
Brisbane has been in the walk-in closet for, like, ten minutes. That's got to be at least a little suspicious.

As importantly, I'm not sure they ever found that colander.- Terrence

 
You Say it First  is © Terrence Marks and Isabel Marks, 2004-2013.
You Say it First has been on the web since February 2004 concluded in January 2013.