Original Commentary

Terrence, thank goodness, is the one writing this arc... it's one he has been talking about doing for a while now...so I'm glad he is, as I don't think I could come up with anything this week. He's been talking about this arc for a while now, so I'm happy that he's going forward with it.-Isabel

Modern Commentary
And a new arc begins!

And is there a showdown between Kimberly and her mom?

No. But it's not because Ms. Taylor didn't try.

Brisbane probably read about the new restaurant in the newspaper. He strikes me as the kind of guy who reads the entire Local section. They probably get the paper delivered to the office - Terrence

Original Commentary

I had to ask Terrence to rewrite this comic originally, the poor dear. I just wasn't understanding the conversation and he had to explain it to me a lot... now, I'm not very bright and he is, which might have been part of the problem... but if I didn't understand it as the artist, how can I draw it? So he dumbed it down for me. -Isabel

Modern Commentary
If I had to redo this comic, I would've cut a few details from the first panel. Kimberly is explaining things that Brisbane already knows that won't directly come in to play. If "Dennis Brown" is a reference to something, I've forgotten it.

But things aren't always linear and straightforward. That's how life is.

Kimberly caring about how the employees are doing and knowing their names and situations? That's Brisbane rubbing off on her - Terrence

Original Commentary

The new guy's name was originally going to be Patrick Joseph, from the High Llamas song "Birdies". It's the kind of name that sounds very good when sung, but when written out leaves you asking what his last name is. So his last name is Windsor. After Morris Windsor, of The Soft Boys- Terrence

Modern Commentary
The original description I had for Patrick was "[Patrick is a little taller than Brisbane, a little younger, thinner, and better-dressed. He has black hair. He has a smooth demeanor.]"

As you can see, I gave Isabel very little to work with in the way of concrete details. She's much better at that kind of thing than I am. - Terrence

Original Commentary

Yesterday, when I drew... yesterday's comic, I asked Terrence what Patrick was supposed to be. I didn't get an answer from him and didn't even hear about it from him till I had drawn the comic and inked it. He was alright with what I did with him... considering the only description I got for him was "black hair, dressed nicer than Brisbane". I could have made him a slug from that description... but as I write the comic to, and have a vague idea of just who he is and how he will interact with everyone... cooler heads prevailed. -Isabel

Modern Commentary
I'm glad that Isabel designed Patrick the way she did. He isn't a foil for Brisbane. He's a foil for Kimberly.

I'm glad he grew his hair out a bit, though - you'll see that in the near future. Gives him a proper rakish air. - Terrence

Original Commentary

I forget what the original plan for this was. I think it was Brisbane complaining about Ms. Taylor. It was basically a filler because the start of the tour requires a Sunday-sized comic. Then I thought to myself "You just introduced a new character. Show people a little about him". So here he is boasting offhandedly, about his money and his connections, and putting Brisbane (and Kimberly) down, pretty much by accident - Terrence

Modern Commentary
That's the thing about Patrick. He's not demeaning Brisbane out of meanness. He does it out of entitlement and thoughtlessness. Which is almost worse in a way - Terrence

Original Commentary

I had been kicking this idea around for a while and wasn't sure what to do with it. I didn't think I could get it down to three panels. Then I saw that Isabel had a 5-panel sunday for Namir Deiter and decided to use it. I'm not entirely sure how elevators or basements are built, and when I wrote this I hadn't really thought about which one of them was right. I'll be doing a bit more research, but I have a pretty good idea what happened - Terrence

Modern Commentary
Sometimes you need to get from point A ("A new guy starts work at Lemon Technology") and need to get to point B ("Dan explains the history of the company for the benefit of Brisbane, Patrick, and the reader").

I feel that I could have made the transition from A to B more graceful than "We need you to settle an argument about elevator trivia; Brisbane's pride is at stake". - Terrence