Original Commentary

It's been really weird drawing things from the Unlike Minerva perspective again, trying to remember the old color scheme and the basic layouts to things. It's also weird drawing Kimberly's hair in that little braid again, and that little booth. The coffeehouse was loosely based on the one that Emily and Sofia (Brisbane's sister) meet at near the end of Unlike Minerva. However, I didn't other going to look back at it so I think the only similarities is the color for the background. If anyone asks, they redesigned the place between then and the current comic.

Kimberly got the same room that Brisbane will later get, so we can tell that she left a while before he came. Kimberly does eventually get use that trapdoor, on Brisbane - Isabel

Modern Commentary
The portable trapdoor was a recurring thing in Unlike Minerva. Unlike Minerva was a very different comic than You Say it First; it just happened to involve the same characters.

Unlike Minerva operated on cartoon logic. There are times when things don't make sense, but we keep moving fast enough that reality can't catch up before the punchline. So we had the portable trapdoor. The general idea was borrowed from any number of cartoons, including The Yellow Submarine.

It was kind of an in-joke between us precisely because it couldn't possibly work in YSiF. The logic was different. - Terrence