Original Commentary
And now we're back to our regularly scheduled high stakes business drama. Once again, there was no name given to the client in the original script. I wanted to go for something like "Mr. Balding", but Terrence outranked me and changed it to this. -Isabel
Spare names are generally pulled from whatever I'm listening to at the time. I spent about twenty minutes trying to find a way to name him after the guys in The Human Expression and failing. Thomas Morgan Robertson happens to be Thomas Dolby's real name (because calling the company "Dolby" would be a bit iffy). The name got changed a bit because as a call out to Steve Morgen (of the band Morgen, seriously underrated) - Terrence

Modern Commentary
This company isn't entirely unlike Bic or Gilette or Yamaha or Samsung. It's not meant to be a specific one of those, but the general idea. Large company with an extensive line of mostly unrelated products. - Terrence

Original Commentary
Kimberly's eyes in panel two were drawn at a side glance, which made no sense to me. But, at the time of doing the pencil work, it seemed to make sense. During the inking process I took a risk and changed the way the eyes were looking. Once again, not perfect, but lots better than the alternative. -Isabel

The original name of the scent was going to be "blue" but I needed it to be clear that it was blue-scented, not blue-colored. How does blue cherry smell different than red cherry? No idea - Terrence

Modern Commentary
Kimberly jinxed it by saying she was totally prepared.

I'm 80% sure that scented sample cards are a real thing and I did the research on this. - Terrence

Original Commentary
What more can you really say in a situation like this? At first Terrence was trying to think of something better for Kimberly to say in panel three, but decided a shocked "okay" really was the only thing she could get out. -Isabel

Modern Commentary
Yeah, Kimberly has a basic idea what their costs and margins are. She's prepared.

But the decision has already been made. She's just being informed. - Terrence

Original Commentary
Can you tell she's trying to crush a pen from the visuals? probably not... I still can't fully envision someone crushing a pen. But, it works thanks to her dialog. -Isabel

Modern Commentary
I like the idea of Kimberly grabbing the Robertson Pen from her desk, trying to snap it out of frustration, and failing. That's rather a lot for two panels, though. I wish I had thought more about how long it would take to convey that action.

The script called for a customer service smile in panel 1, but there's no point to it. Nobody here is happy with this; why pretend? - Terrence

Original Commentary
After last time, I wanted there to be a meeting where they were 100% prepared, and it didn't matter. I had originally considered having the "big client leaves" be a separate storyline. Then I realized it'd be a lot more interesting if it happened about now. So here we are, in the middle of business adventure.-Terrence

Modern Commentary
This is inspired by Walmart, who can make up a large enough portion of a company's business that they can exert a significant influence. Vlasic was, famously, in a situation a few years back where they were selling a gallon of pickles for $3 there. This was more-or-less at cost, cannibalized their business, and took up most of their production capacity. But also, they couldn't afford to lose Walmart as a retailer. - Terrence

Original Commentary
I have to wonder which parent Kimberly's stubbornness came from... both Mr. and Mrs. Taylor can be a bit pig-headed, but even this would baffle them. Well... maybe not her father, at first. But I'm sure inexperience and a need to prove herself is definitely at play here. I'm a little surprised she hasn't just crawled under the desk to hide at all during this. -Isabel

Modern Commentary
Brisbane proposes a reasonable solution, Kimberly tells him why it won't work. Sometimes when they do this, it's banter. This time, it's serious. - Terrence