A Look Inside...For Better or For Worse: Browse The Strips

Sunday, March 13, 2016

Lynn's Comments: When this strip ran, people all over the continent made paper hugs to send to loved ones all over the world. They sent me letters and photographs of the hugs they made and of the people who received them. This was a strip I didn't think was anything special. I never knew when a simple drawing I did might be seriously taken to heart.

Sunday, March 27, 2016

Lynn's Comments: When I was a kid, my mother was the staunch churchgoer. Dad, my brother and I could hardly stay awake during the services. In order to keep us from fooling around in our seats, Dad would bring big, round, white peppermints, which came in a squeaky plastic wrapper. Try as he might, he could not keep the peppermints a secret; everyone from the folks in the rows around us to the minister himself could hear the telltale sound of the wrapper. Mom would be furious. Dad would be shrugging with feigned embarrassment, and we, with a bulge in our cheek, would simply smile. To this day, when I hear the squeak of a particular kind of plastic wrapper, I am rocketed back in time to the hard pews, the cedar smell, and the sleep-inducing drone of a sermon at St. John's Anglican Church. Thanks, Dad, for the peppermints!

Sunday, May 1, 2016

Lynn's Comments: This was one of those self-flagellating strips, which said in print something I had been thinking: I often missed important conversations because I was focused on something less relevant. In this strip, I've drawn Katie's favourite jacket--one I destroyed by putting in the dryer! There is also mention of my friend, Margie Palmer. Whenever I could, I'd put a friend's name in the paper to let them know I was thinking of them. This proved to be a lot of fun and even connected me to friends with whom I'd lost touch.

Sunday, May 22, 2016

Lynn's Comments: This Sunday page was hastily written as soon as I got home from the car wash. It was a funny incident, but thoroughly annoying as well. I was always happy to vent into the strip whenever something like this happened!

Sunday, June 12, 2016

Lynn's Comments: I put a lot of private, embarrassing truths into the strip. I often wonder if identifying all these faults and making fun of them made me a better person. If not, it surely made me more aware!

Sunday, June 26, 2016

Lynn's Comments: This was, and likely still is, a contentious issue. By opening the door to conversation on the topic of "when does life begin?" I was rattling a few cages. Knowing I was treading on thin ice, I made sure the punch line was innocuous, but I got the angry mail anyway. In the end, I was glad I had drawn this strip. It was something we were talking to our kids about and I knew other parents were struggling with this question as well. This shows you how much freedom I was given by my syndicate and many editors to write and say things that were sensitive and not easily mentioned in a comic strip.

Sunday, July 31, 2016

Lynn's Comments: Once, at the Winnipeg Airport, Aaron, who had been given a plastic squirt gun, decided to aim at the guard as we went through security. We were all immediately taken to a secure area and searched. Everything was opened, screened, examined and set aside. We were questioned, and sternly let go just before our flight boarded. We thought the guards had been a bit extreme. After all, it was just a toy squirt gun. Still, we made sure our kids never had weaponry of any kind when we went through security.

Sunday, August 21, 2016

Lynn's Comments: Some Sunday strips were so true, they were painful. This was me. This was my husband. He did try to help, but I actually prevented him from doing so. In drawing this strip, I hoped other wives would see themselves. I think some did!

Sunday October 9, 2016

Lynn's Comments: Another true story. The fact that this happened to me more than once suggests a rather startling lack of intuition. A night-light was installed around the same time as the offending male trained himself to kindly put down the seat.

Sunday October 16, 2016

Lynn's Comments: The thing that attracted me to my husband, Rod, was his wonderful sense of humour. Once again, a true to life incident became a Sunday page. I can still hear the clerk in the hardware store laughing!

Sunday October 23, 2016

Lynn's Comments: When you are writing material for a comic strip or for any other dialogue, be it a stage play or even stand-up comedy, you create a situation in which there is sentiment, a reason to question, observe or pontificate. Then you write a possible exchange of views as you see here. Sometimes the exchange is within yourself, but there is always a path to the punch line. In writing with the voice of a child, I wrote a question I thought would be realistic using the right turn of phrase. With luck and a little guidance from the "muse," I got a funny response. On days when the writing goes well, you feel like a genius. On days when the writing goes badly, you feel like a jerk. The roller coaster of this job sure made life interesting!

Sunday October 30, 2016

Lynn's Comments: This Sunday page wasn't a brilliant piece of writing, but the visual fun of the yell, the swipe, and the "WHACK," made it worth sending in.

Sunday December 4, 2016

Lynn's Comments: My mom always had the sheers drawn. Heaven forbid that anyone should see into the front window of our little house on 5th Street. If we wanted to look out the window, my brother and I would kneel on the couch, press our faces to the glass, and see what we could through the sheers: the white, almost transparent drapery, which smelled of dust and cigarettes. I hated them. As a kid, I thought the curtains should always be open. Surprisingly, when I had a house of my own, I too was determined to have the curtains closed for privacy. This Sunday strip was, again, a true story!

Sunday January 1, 2017

Lynn's Comments: Yes, this is from my childhood, then from my children's childhoods...and I'm still writing letters on everyone's behalf! Mind you, they email more than I do. I still send hard copy. Maybe that's what's hard about it.

Sunday February 5, 2017

Lynn's Comments: This is the story of my life. As a non-sleeper, I am often reading or doing my mail in the middle of the night. Oddly enough, when I have an early morning deadline, I manage to sleep so soundly that I am comatose when the alarm goes off. Strange stuff!

Sunday March 5, 2017

Lynn's Comments: Man, I was happy with this punch line. Now and then a great one comes along, and when it does, you kinda look around to thank the spirit that handed it to you. I rather think the line came from a famous player–someone who played hard but played fair. I wonder who it was.

Sunday March 19, 2017

Lynn's Comments: This strip began with the Garfield pin. We had gone to visit Jim Davis (creator of Garfield) and his family, and had returned with some treasures–one of which was a tiny Garfield pin. I can't remember if I ever told Jim that the pin had been lost and found, and that a Sunday page had been the result. Thanks, Jim!

Sunday March 26, 2017

Lynn's Comments: Yes, this is another actual conversation; an actual situation. Really, the strip saved each one of us from time to time. Having an outlet for our normal confrontations was absolutely wonderful!