Monday, August 29th 2005 - [388]Kimberly's bad week (13 of 36)
kimberly
Richard
Late
Angry
Meeting
Sinclair
There's an echo in here...

Original Commentary

In the original script, Kimberly's final complaint was not being able to find matching socks. Isabel draws the characters without shoes, so that line didn't work. I still think of them as shoe-wearing people, deep down - Terrence

Modern Commentary
So who's actually in charge of the department? None of them, at least right now. It's chaos. They don't know what they're doing.

Anyhow, the lesson is don't just start yelling at someone. You don't know what they're going through. Kimberly's already having a bad week - see the title of this chapter - and they just made it worse. - Terrence

Tuesday, August 30th 2005 - [389]Kimberly's bad week (14 of 36)
Kimberly
Lunch
Park
Tuna and Carrots

Original Commentary

Not Kimberly's day, is it? And personally, I can't stand vegetables in tuna, be they onions or celery or, well, anything besides tuna and mayonnaise - Terrence

Modern Commentary
I mean, she could've eaten lunch in the break room. Not enough time to walk to the Executive Lounge and back, since she's already behind on her work. But sometimes you need solitude and the local park is a good enough place for it.

But carrots in tuna is inexcusable. - Terrence

Wednesday, August 31st 2005 - [390]Kimberly's bad week (15 of 36)
New Character
Kimberly
Lunch
Brent
Tuna and Carrots
Nom

Original Commentary

Isabel added the "otherwise this place will be crawling with strays". I'm glad she did. It reinforces and explains Kimberly's opinion of animals - she's not against them, but she has no fondness for feral ones. Isabel and I couldn't agree on whether it should be "one sandwich" or "one stray" in the last line, so we compromised. And yes, she got that hot dog from a street vendor just off-panel - Terrence

Modern Commentary
Brants! Our oddly-colored cat/rabbit animals. Furry comics can run into this problem - if rabbits and hedgehogs and cats are people, then isn't it weird if there's also rabbits and hedgehogs and cats who aren't people?

There have been a lot of folks with a lot of different solutions to this over the years. Ours is to introduce an entirely new species of animal that's clearly Just Pets.

Brant colorations are named after fruits. This little guy is a cactus brant.

That expression in the second panel is Brant for "Hello. I am cute. I am going to take your sandwich". - Terrence

Thursday, September 1st 2005 - [391]Kimberly's bad week (16 of 36)
Kimberly
Brent
Stalker

Original Commentary

Isabel and I both had ideas for what would happen next. Chronology dictates that hers comes first. Mine had her back at work - Terrence

Personally, I felt that a slower transition was needed, to make the tone a bit creepier - Isabel

Modern Commentary
And the walk back to the office! Kimberly's in a slightly better mood now. Nothing else wrong has happened and the hot dogs in the park are pretty good. - Terrence

Friday, September 2nd 2005 - [392]Kimberly's bad week (17 of 36)
Kimberly
Richard
Sales and Marketing

Original Commentary

Niemgi: T- "the allen report"- did you get that from that "That's our Rosie" 60's parody episode?
UnlikeMinerva: No.  From Gracie Allen
UnlikeMinerva: I needed a name and it was right there.
UnlikeMinerva: But it makes a good in-joke your way
Niemgi: Oooh- ok cool- I have commentary then ^^
UnlikeMinerva: ^_^

"That's our Rosie" is of course in reference to the TV show Roseanne. -Isabel

Modern Commentary
Man, Roseanne doesn't hit the same in 2023, now that Roseanne Barr got herself fired for an ongoing pattern of racism, conspiracy theories, and general unpleasantness.

"That's Our Rosie" was an I Love Lucy parody that was part of the episode "The Fifties Show" in season 8, when the show was getting weird but was still good.

Anyhow, the stage directions in panel 2 for Richard are "He thinks he's being helpful" - Terrence

Sunday, September 4th 2005 - [393]Kimberly's bad week (18 of 36)
Kimberly
Brent
cute
stray
Resistance is futile

Original Commentary
I spent a while trying to write a scene where Kimberly checks her e-mail to find that Richard had mis-read their instructions - the Allen report was due next week and needed different information, so Kimberly would have to re-do it. Then I re-read the previous comic and realized that I wrote out the part where Richard told Kimberly that she had to get the report done tonight. Originally, Richard was going to tell her that she needed to do it tonight, then he'd leave because he didn't know enough to help her. But that got cut because it made him seem like too much of a jerk and didn't lead to a good punchline. So because I changed yesterday's comic, I had to change today's comic. Works out better this way - Terrence

I am really enjoying drawing this creature, just looking cute. It's a good thing You Say it First isn't popular enough to have a keychain line, because this little guy would be one of the first - Isabel

Modern Commentary
I mean, seriously, if social media had been a thing back in 2005 we might've just pivoted to All Brants, All The Time. Show them in all their various color patterns, doing cute brant things.- 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.