Original Commentary
I have to admit, I drew the comic out before having a script. Terrence gave me a line he wanted to be used in the Sunday, but as I decided to save it for the next day, not sure how long this conversation would last. Unfortunately, that line didn't make it to today's comic, but that just means I can save it for another day.

I had talked to Terrence about which one of the two were funnier, he said Brisbane, when she isn't trying. Kimberly, when she is. He also said Kimberly is the straight man type, but usually gets all the good lines. I have to agree- I had it written that way as well, but was willing (and could easily) flip the script if needed. Although it does feel more natural this way- Kimberly is more of a smart ass. -Isabel

Modern Commentary
I mean, comedy wrestling is a thing. Wrestling is inherently ridiculous and there's nothing wrong with playing into it.

This is one of my favorite kind of comics, where we talk about who the characters are and how they'd react to something. Admittedly, it only works if you already know who's who and what they're like, but if it works it works - Terrence

Original Commentary
So far, Kimberly managed to negotiate herself $5 up, but she's $20 down. In the original script, it was going to be $15 for a ticket, but since Kimberly got $20 for travel expenses, I upped the amount a bit (and added some exposition to the last panel as well) - Isabel

Modern Commentary
This is why you talk to your spouse... - Terrence

Wednesday, April 1st 2009 - [1452]Minervacon (17 of 49)

Recommended Reading: "Namir Deiter")

Original Commentary
For commentary on the swapped version, please see the bottom of this page. Also, as of the 04/02, the order these comics will appear in will be swapped.

The April First NDU 2009 Swap I came out with the ideal to swap the main page's designs for April Fools around midnight on the 31th. Instantly the visual of Joan and Gabby in bed popped into my head. I had to do it, especially considering these "disorienting, but won't piss you off too much" style pranks usually come to me around April 5th . Terrence, the wonderful coder on demand he is, got a code set up on the sites to swap them at midnight April 1st [edit- and it turned out to be broken because he only double checked YSIF, which made a once fun project turn maddening], so that was the easier part (at least for me- he still had to code the thing XD). Then came my part, who to put in who's shoes. You Say it First was pretty easy. Joan and Gabby make pretty good stand-ins for Kimberly and Brisbane, although I did have brief second thoughts, as Charles and Tipper would play the parts more accurately. But the idea was out-awsomed. Namir Deiter took a little more thinking, but not too much- there are only so many females that I could chose from, and really only one per character who could pull it off. Jane looks like a smaller nosed, heavy set version of Gabby as it is, and Tipper and Kimberly both have that long hair- and Sofia and Joan are both red-heads (and possibly crazy- which has nothing to do with their hair color). The awkwardness of the YSIF characters makes it just a little funnier- Gabby and Joan look almost too comfortable in bed together. Ok, now that we have our mis-mashed cast....

The process: There were a few ways to have done this. I could either draw one comic and photoshop the different heads onto them. This would have made Gabby/Jane/Brisbane a little difficult, but it could have happened. I could have drawn both versions free hand, but that would have taken a lot more time and the comics would not have looked as similar as they did, two strikes against it. So in the end, I went with a way that was a little bit of both versions.

Step one was draw and ink the alternate character versions of the comics. I picked them first because, even though I had started them very early in the day, if by off chance I didn't get the real versions done tonight, I wanted something up at midnight exactly and of the two it was more important. Although I think it would have been less difficult turning Tipper into Kimberly, but oh well. I did not ink the outsides with the larger pen to make the tracing easier.

From there, the original and a blank were taped onto a light box where I sketched and inked the new heads, and inked everything else that just needed to be traced. I had to make several small changes (Gabby is thinner than Jane and Brisbane's chest is no where as large as Gabby's, much to Gabby's happiness) but for the most part I kept them as exact as I could. Here are some photos I took mid-way and at the end of the process, the traced ones look so clean compared to the originals (in the YSIF comic, you can see a bit of a camera angle I had tried but gave up on).

PS- The first hour things were broken. Fortunately, I was able to get them more-or-less fixed.

Modern Commentary
The Namir Deiter counterpart is available here - Terrence

Original Commentary
And with this comic, my short writing stint within Minervacon has ended. Hopefully this will be the last one and we'll get to the show soon. Brisbane's line in panel three is that same line I was supposed to have used last Sunday. It got it's turn, as the last word, even. Congrats Brisbane. -Isabel

Modern Commentary
If you're a performer of any kind, going out and promoting it is half the job. If you're a band starting out, it's good if you can play well but you'll get farther if you can convince all your friends to show up at your gigs.

They didn't try to invite Robert; it's kind of a class reunion and he wasn't part of the class. They didn't try to invite Emily because she might show up if they did- Terrence

Original Commentary
This is one of those comics that was written at the very beginning of it. I know Brisbane got married in a rental tuxedo. If the continuity police show up, Brisbane decided to buy one after the ribbing his brother gave him - Terrence

Modern Commentary
When you wear a tuxedo to a vaudeville event, people don't think "He must be a rich man who attends fancy events. I bet he goes to the opera and exclusive dinner clubs". They think "I wonder if his magic act is any good" - Terrence

Original Commentary
Brisbane hasn't worn one of those since he got a job at Lemon Technology. It kind of signaled the shift between Unlike Minerva and You Say it First. Back when I went to DragonCon in 2000, I wore an ascot in the hopes that people would recognize me. I'm not sure anyone did - Terrence

Modern Commentary
He's left that part of his life behind...but if somebody wanted to come up to him and tell him that they saw his act and liked parts of it, he's not against that... - Terrence

Original Commentary
Is it a reunion or a convention? Kind of both. I've skipped the opening ceremonies because I just needed to establish that they're there and why they have free time. Also, I've never been to one and have no idea what they're like.
This is based, in part, on the way I watched old Hanna-Barbera cartoons, like Captain Caveman every day for a year, back when I was a kid. Then I looked it up years later and find out there were only twenty episodes - Terrence

Modern Commentary
That blond wolf in the background of the second panel - I'm pretty sure that's a cameo. I want to say Tyler, but it's been a little while and I'm not sure anymore. Hopefully I can find out for sure before this commentary runs. If you're reading this, I didn't. - Terrence