Original Commentary

It's been getting much colder lately which has been making it hard to sleep- neither Terrence or myself are on our ball. After this last arc, neither of us have been feeling like writing... fortunately Terrence came up with this comic.

While I was drawing it (around 3 or 4 am), Terrence asked me to track down a comic that aired a while back that mentioned that one of them (either Richard or Sinclair) never got the memos and he wanted to make sure he got who's who right. In the end, it didn't matter as the brothers did not refer to each other by name in the older comic. -Isabel

Modern Commentary
To clarify, Richard does not have a doctor's note about reading business memos. He's trying to set up a joke and doing a bad job of it.

I'm not sure where Richard was going with that, but I can't imagine it being worth the journey.- Terrence

Original Commentary

Terrence was a little apprehensive of this comics's punch line... but I think it works, and tells you a bit about Robert's relationship, not only with Jane, but Robert's relationship with Jake. They seem to have a strange love/hate friendship, where the two enjoy each other's company if only to complain either to or about the other.

We talked a bit about what is going to go on in this arc... unfortunately nothing is written as of yet- but we have a direction, always a good way to start. -Isabel

Modern Commentary
And a scene change to explain what the memo was about, because Richard and Sinclair weren't going to get to a clear and relevant point any time soon.

To explain, "because I have seniority" means "because Jane is more likely to show up on Christmas than any of her coworkers". That's the thing about being dependable - people start to depend on you. - Terrence

Original Commentary

As some of you may remember, Brisbane once kept all the real memos away from Miz Taylor, as he was fixing them up so they would not be so cruel and rude. Unfortunately it seems after the coup attempt by Dan (a long time Lemon Tech. employee and one of Mr. Taylor's old friends) Miz. Taylor has become wise to Brisbane's tricks. Unfortunately for them, it seems. -Isabel

Modern Commentary
As a note, if your boss does something nice for you - directly or for the whole team - thank them. Encourage the behavior you want to see more of.

Not that Ms. Taylor is being reasonable here. I wonder if Brisbane accidentally deleted the "Thanks for the bonus, happy holidays" emails that folks sent to Ms. Taylor.

But anyhow, here's Brisbane coming in, halfway to asking why the company president sent out a message without running it by him first. That's so Brisbane - Terrence

Original Commentary

This was one of the few gag ideas I had for this arc... the idea of Miz Taylor goofing what she referred to her ex-husband as was both cute and hopeful to me... maybe a bit too hopeful, but hope is in high supply, so I don't mind.

Originally, in the middle panel, Brisbane's mouth was open, as if speaking. It turned out that there was no line in there, and with the way the scene worked, it would look off if his mouth was open. So I digitally changed it. Poor Miz and Mr. Taylor... actually, poor everyone involved. -Isabel

Modern Commentary
That's how the writing goes sometimes. Come up with a gag, then try to figure out what can get you there and where it takes you... - Terrence

Original Commentary

Brisbane and Kimberly are at their work places in this comic (Brisbane's being the office in front of Miz. Taylor's room and Kimberly's being that cramped room they all squeeze into despite the fact that the rest of the building is empty).

We still need to see that contract that the lot of them signed after The Troublesome trouble of Miz Taylor... hopefully sometime after the new year. -Isabel

Modern Commentary
Is it stretching the definition of "leadership issues" past any reasonable point?

Yes. Definitely. But there's no easy way to challenge that.

Brisbane will fight to try to help everybody a little. Kimberly would rather wait until the stakes are higher and she's more prepared. She isn't about to do this over a hundred bucks.

But Brisbane will, because he thinks it's the right thing to do and because maybe one of the guys in shipping was counting on that money - Terrence

Original Commentary

This comic was meant to be a little one-shot intermission, especially since Terrence was really sick all weekend. Because of this, he didn't get a chance to write comics."Christmas with the Taylors" will resume on Monday. Merry Christmas. -Isabel

Modern Commentary
I like these little out-of-continuity Sundays. Newspaper comics will do that because some papers will only carry the Sunday comic or the weekday comics - Terrence