Original Commentary

I'm not quite sure what Brisbane expected from all this... he knows his sister is a reckless hellion who would rather move on than conform (one of the reasons she "left" the boarding school in France). Why should a couple years have changed her much? Don't get my wrong... Sofia has changed quite a bit in the past few years, as has Brisbane. But, we cannot forget that old saying "the more things change, the more they stay the same". That can't be more true with these two. -Isabel

Modern Commentary
Sofia was probably going to keep this to herself until right before she moved out. Or maybe a week or two after. That way she wouldn't have to have a discussion about whether or not she ought to move out and would she be ok on her own.

But this gets her out of a lecture about how she needs to be more responsible, and that's always worth it - Terrence

Original Commentary

If you can't tell, Sofia is taking down luggage in that panel. Hmm... Brisbane looks like he's smiling in that middle panel. He really isn't... he has on one of those cartoonish worried mouths that seems to turn up more than down. Maybe it's a nervous smile... like he's not sure if he should hate himself or congratulate himself... either one works, really.

Sofia seems to know how to push Brisbane's buttons better than Kimberly. It makes sense if you think about it- she's been pressing them longer than Kimberly has. -Isabel

Modern Commentary
I mean, Brent was originally Brisbane's pet. Getting him to take care of Brent is easy.

Getting Brent to get along with Brisbane for five or six days is the hard part- Terrence

Original Commentary

Isabel asked me for the name of another island when she was writing this comic. No other islands have been mentioned previously, so I had to come up with something. I wanted it to end with "-idown", but everything I came up with either sounded ridiculous, looked like a failed pun, or both. So Isabel suggested Demidown and I like it - Terrence

Modern Commentary
Travel!

Sofia is on a boat in the second panel. That's a navigational buoy in the background. - Terrence

Original Commentary

I've been in way too many hotel rooms and know what a generic one would look like by memory. Yes, all those times were with my husband (get it out the gutter people XD).

There really isn't too much I can say without giving things away here, people... Sofia did come to this specific place at a specific time for a specific reason... it's all building up, sooner or later. -Isabel

Modern Commentary
Back in the day, we went to a couple conventions and traveled for the comic. That was a while ago. The con scene wasn't really for us and we both enjoyed being at home. It was great getting to meet fans and other creators, but regular travel just wasn't for us- Terrence

Original Commentary

A year or two ago, we went out to a vaudeville show, hosted by Harry Anderson (of Night Court fame). He did a trick where he'd fold a giant piece of paper into 16 pieces, and write numbers on all of them. They'd all add up in some way when he unfolded it - I forget exactly how, but it was really cool. Anyhow, that's the kind of trick that the gentleman on the stage is doing. What are the girls in the backgrounds doing? Standing around and looking pretty - Terrence

Modern Commentary
That was such a cool show that Isabel is talking about in the original commentary. It was great finally seeing an actual vaudeville show, eight years after I started doing a comic strip set in a vaudeville theatre - Terrence

Original Commentary

Yes, there are three men on that stage. I'll let you all guess which is which.

I wish I could think of a smoother transition from being on the stage to being out in the lobby... I should have included a scene with Sofia walking out- gah, of COURSE I think of it now... oh well, it still works on some level this way, I really, really hope.

Anyway... the whole feel of the community theatre is heavily based on my experiences seeing that Harry Anderson vaudeville show. One of the reasons I wanted to see that show, was because I wanted to experience a vaudeville show... I've been drawing UM for quite a few years and had no idea just what was involved with them. I'm glad I was able to, even a few years after UM finished. -Isabel

Modern Commentary
For those of you who haven't (recently) read Unlike Minerva, Caleb was one of the main characters there. He was originally a rival/antagonist for Brisbane and ended up being obsessed with Sofia.

He was an extremely talented performer - he could do just about anything - but he was entirely clueless regarding the outside world and women and most other things. - Terrence