Original Commentary

I had actually written up this entire arc some time early last week before I knew what the final donation total was. Fortunately for me I wrote this week in the six day schedule, so that means I don't have to chop up the Sunday comic. Hooray for donators!

I really like how panels one and three came out, especially panel 3. Brisbane looks a little too tense in that middle panel, but oh well. The artist is never fully content with their work.

Maybe Brisbane really was extremely nervous about letting his feelings be known to Kimberly to a point of feeling ill... maybe I don't know him as well as my pen does. Oh well either way- at the end of the day I'm still writing my husband's characters and can never fully feel them to be my own.

So Brisbane finally shows his true colors as a good old fashioned romantic. Maybe that'll teach Kimberly to put him in these awkward situations more often.

Does Brisbane love Kimberly? By this point of time I really hope the answer is obvious. If not, then let's hope the answer is obvious to Kimberly. -Isabel

Modern Commentary
Neither Brisbane nor Kimberly have a lot of relationship experience. We don't see everything in Kimberly's past, but the timeline we have doesn't leave a lot of room for a serious boyfriend.

So it's good to be sure that they are - for right now - on the same page about where things might go in the future. They don't have a lot of experience here and aren't sure they can trust their instincts. - Terrence

Original Commentary

Yes, it's more of a "we're heading in the direction of marriage" than a proposal and engagement. And they each have things they want to do before they get married. And five years is about their comfort zone right now. They're revealing their cards to each other, but slowly. And yes, despite neither of them having much anything, Kimberly's first thought is a prenuptual agreement. No, that's not what she's excited about. If her parents hadn't had one, their divorce would've been considerably less pleasant; her mother and father are both the type of people who get very acrimonious over money. Kimberly would just rather have that all hammered out when they're calm than when they're angry. This may be mentioned in a comic in the future - Terrence

Modern Commentary
I'm pretty sure they never did get a prenuptual agreement. They both had a minority stake in the company when they got married, so it would have made sense.

Also, they'd need to find two good lawyers; in most states (and in Hippedown), both parties need to have their own lawyer since each spouse has their own interests.

It's kind of strange that this is where Kimberly's mind goes but it's very Kimberly.

I'm not sure what past-commentary Terrence was thinking about the Taylors' divorce. It was indeed contentious. The prenuptual agreement provided a starting point for negotiations but a lot had changed between the beginning of their marriage and the end. - Terrence

Original Commentary

Yes, Brisbane thinks they should get to know each other better first, as he's mentioned before. Kimberly, however, is more direct. So is Kimberly caught up in the moment or had she planned "the next five minutes"? A little of both. If he had answered differently, the night wouldn't have been the same. But she had probably given a little thought to what might happen if he gave a good answer - Terrence

Modern Commentary
Man, that's a good moment to end this particular comic on.

Brisbane is at a disadvantage here. He's only now seeing that their relationship might move from serious to serious. Kimberly had considered that they might have sex tonight if things went well. And things are going - at this very moment- better than she could have anticipated. - Terrence

Original Commentary

Originally, Kimberly had a line in the second panel, asking if Brisbane wore boxers or briefs. That got cut, not for content, but because I felt that her mouth was shown to be otherwise engaged. And I think the kiss gets her point across well enough. The first two panels were essentially as we had them before the rewrite. It was the third panel and everything for a week after that needed to be done just right - Terrence

Modern Commentary
Brisbane has trust issues for a variety of reasons (Brandie and Kimberly, mainly).

I'm a bit out of the loop currently but during the 1990s and 2000s, it was very common for your manga/anime protagonist to be simultaneously attracted to and afraid of women. Brisbane has always been influenced by that, and things are about to go from abstract to concrete very soon. - Terrence

Original Commentary

Unfortunately, there's not very much that we can say about this comic - Isabel wrote it, she's written most-all of this arc. A few minor adjustments during the lettering process, which were just clarification, emphasis, and shortening. I believe that Kimberly and Brisbane's feelings on things have been adequately explained by this and previous comics. No real story behind it; Isabel and I had been talking it over for a while and she finally wrote it down - Terrence

Modern Commentary
Oh, wow. The first "I love you" in this comic. Brisbane said it first.

Man, I wasn't expecting it to happen this early in the comic's run.

Relationship milestones don't come quickly or easily. That's why they're milestones. And for these two, sex is definitely a milestone.

Is Kimberly overreacting? Yes. More than a little. But here she is putting herself out there, directly. There's a reason why their relationship has progressed via plausibly-deniable baby steps. She loves Brisbane but she's hidden it behind a whole lot of teasing and maybe-I'm-just-kidding-unless.

Here she is trying to move things several steps forward. She has advanced beyond her cover and is vulnerable... - Terrence

Original Commentary

Thought of the day: What do you think of Brisbane's decision? And would you think the same thing if their roles (or genders) were reversed? - Terrence

Modern Commentary
Yeah, we hadn't initially planned on Lola being Kimberly's mother figure but it worked out that way. She needs someone to talk to and Kimberly is in an adverserial relationship with pretty much everybody else she knows.

Ok, not Richard and Sinclair. But I wouldn't go to either of them for relationship advice. Is Richard dating Veronica at this point? I don't think so, but Kimberly doesn't know a lot about their personal lives either. - Terrence