Original Commentary

And this is the Robert/Jane comic. It's kind of more just Robert solo. But he's progressed from "embarrassed that he might let people down" to "afraid to make decisions because he might let people down". It's easier to illustrate that way. Personally? Can't stand tomatoes. - Terrence

Modern Commentary
Again, it's easy for me to say that this shows how everything moves because I know how it all moves. Hopefully you do too. But I think this storyline covers too much stuff to really focus in one place. This is who Robert is when left with any kind of decision.

I suppose it's more of a reminder than an introduction. And reminders are important. It's easy to put a comic down for a few weeks and lose track of what's what- Terrence

Original Commentary

The Robert/Sofia interaction comic, despite the fact that they don't actually interact with each other. It'd be fun to get those two talking to each other, but this is neither the time nor place for either to do anything too interesting.

Modern Commentary
This - Robert's inability to make a decision due to worry and internalized guilt - is what gets reiterated. And it looks like maybe Robert's just hung up about lunch.

And why would Jane write that down? She could write anything on the ticket and Robert would't call her on it...- Terrence

Original Commentary

Is this the Brisbane/Jane comic? Technically. But the waitress/customer role heavily limits their interaction. Both Jane and Sofia are a lot more alive outside of their jobs - it's a personality trait they share. They're also both complex characters and no matter what I do with them I'd leave a lot out. I'm glad I was able to get Jane's coffeemancy into this arc, though. Isabel helped me a lot with the punchline on this one - Terrence

Modern Commentary
I don't have anything to say about this one. I mean, it fits the "rules" for this storyline but Jane and Brisbane didn't really interact much. They were civil to each other, I'm sure but I don't think they had memorable scenes together.

And Jane being at work limits what does. She's a lot more herself when she's not just taking orders. - Terrence

Original Commentary

Again, form is abandoned in favor of function. I'd done a Robert/Jane comic previously. I think in the original notes this was slated to be a Jake/Sofia comic. It'd be fun to have them interact for a week or so, but you can't really capture the essence of the way they relate to each other in three panels (No, it's not a "relationship" in that sense), especially since we've never seen them interact before. Anyhow, I wrote Brisbane's line at the beginning of the week and had been looking for a chance to use it to emphasize Robert's personality - Terrence

Modern Commentary
Yeah, glad I didn't try to do a comic showing how Jake and Sofia interact. I never had much for them. A Ms Taylor/Brent comic would've been funnier. But that would've involved either Ms Taylor coming to visit or take-your-pet-to-work-day - Terrence

Original Commentary

The Jane/Sofia comic. Again, they'd be interesting to see together outside of work. Or in an alternate universe where they both had jobs they liked - Terrence

Modern Commentary
In a real restaurant, Sofia wouldn't come out because she'd have a dozen things cooking at any given time. Here, it's pretty slow and she could easily disappear for five or ten minutes before it mattered. - Terrence

Original Commentary

I was, originally, going to have one of the lounge guys sitting on a throne made of toasters, but that was far too silly an idea and not really suited to the tone of this strip. Mainly because when I wrote that scene, I just put in shorthand "Lounge guys doing something that would make Kimberly not want to have anything to do with them" and that was the first thing I could come up with. I think the second thing, as you see here, is much better. Anyhow, this explains a bit about why Brisbane does this. This is the "Three Lounge Guys interact with everyone" comic, officially, but I'm sure they'll show up some more - Terrence

Modern Commentary
And even in the "show what everybody is all about" storyline, David shows up but doesn't have any lines... - Terrence