Original Commentary

Richard and Sinclair are not identical twins, a fact that has been mentioned a few times within the comic (and also in these commentaries, I'd hope). Despite this, when I was drawing this comic, I drew one brother (Richard, since he was the brother you saw more of) and then drew lines across the paper to indicate where Sinclair's face (or otherwise) should go to make an mirrored image. Of course, it's not a completely flipped drawing- when I tried doing that it looked pretty bad (either because I was doing a bad job at it, or I did a really good job and the image looked horrible flipped). I'm sure they perform in a similar fashion (only Sinclair would not be behind his brother sightly... which happened due to sizing and panels and other things I had complete power over yet did nothing to change). -Isabel

Modern Commentary
Of course Kimberly doesn't have old playbills. She travels light and isn't sentimental about many things. We may have some from the few plays and performances we attended, Isabel and I, but for Kimberly it's just unsold junk and as "collectible" as yesterday's newspaper. - Terrence

Original Commentary

Al is Al Fletcher, the loud guy from shipping. He was probably there to complain about how they've run out of sugar for the coffee or something. I wasn't too sure about the punch line when I wrote it, but Isabel likes it so we kept it. Alternate line for Brisbane in the third panel - "No, that wasn't what he said at all - Oh". - Terrence

Modern Commentary
I'm sure we'll mention it in comics and commentary soon, but the reason for the whole thing - Brisbane not being able to perform with Peter, Brisbane not being mentioned in the playbill - is because Kimberly was mad at him at the time. She'd rather not start a conversation with "Remember that dumb fight we had a few years ago? Turns out it has actual consequences" - Terrence

Original Commentary

The size, shape and color of Brisbane's box of possessions has changed quite a bit since we first saw it... honestly I can't recall when we first saw it. I know it showed up back in the first You Say it First comics, but it may in fact be older than that... when it comes to Unlike Minerva, the memories are foggy, and usually unpleasant. -Isabel

Modern Commentary
That last line is all Isabel's. And I'm glad she added it.

But you can tell Kimberly's flustered. She didn't even have a proper cover story. She could have, like, sent Brisbane out to the store to get something or told him to see a movie.- Terrence

Original Commentary
Is this the end of Brisbane's cardboard box of worldly possessions? Only time will tell - Isabel

Modern Commentary
Unlike Kimberly (no pun intended), Brisbane likes having and collecting things.

Unfortunately, living in a spare room at a vaudeville theatre kinda put a damper on that so he doesn't have nearly as many old keepsakes as he'd prefer - Terrence

Original Commentary
Isabel and I both were talking about this and wound up separately writing pretty much this exact same comic. I had considered changing the punchline to "What about Dr. Marvello? I heard he's good at finding lost items.", which kind of requires you to know that his particular brand of powerful oriental magic is about 90% juggling - Terrence

Modern Commentary
Ah, Dr. Marvello. Named after the Klaatu song. I had plans to name a whole bunch of stuff after Klaatu songs, especially from their significantly less popular third and fourth albums. I hadn't even heard those albums, since it was in the time before music streaming. I just figured that references would bring people in and make the comic popular.

It didn't help. Nobody cares about those albums. And even if anybody did, why would they stick around? People can always spot a phony. - Terrence

Original Commentary
I had a lot of problems visualizing this comic... although I'm sure the throbbing headache that was getting worse by the day, didn't help. I believe Sofia's line in panel one was Kimberly's... but I kind of like the idea of Brent just popping in and being cute.. of course, the difference is rather subtle.

Kimberly is not a big fan of Brent... when he's living in their home. Now that she only has to deal with him in small increments, she's ok with him. -Isabel

Modern Commentary
Brent appearance! Or a filler comic while I figure out who else Kimberly is going to visit. Or both! - Terrence

Original Commentary
A bit of background on what happened between Brisbane, Kimberly and "Peter and Brisbane's musical fun time show" could be found at Unlike Minerva. Now, it's been a long, loooong time since I've read UM, and I'm trying really, really hard to block most of it for my own mental health (not because of the comic itself, but because of other things going on around them), but from what I can remember, Kimberly... did something... with contracts... to keep Brisbane from performing, and in the end she was Peter's manager and Brisbane could not perform with him. I don't know- chances are I wasn't even drawing that week. But I'm not bitter... I'm sort of salty. -Isabel

Modern Commentary
The Unlike Minerva plotline was ten years in the past and perhaps I should have left it in the past.

I just wanted to do a tenth anniversary storyline. I usually find those kind of things a bit self-congratulatory when other people do them but hopefully I'm different. (I'm not) - Terrence