It's the Thought That Counts: Browse The Strips

Sunday April 14, 2019

Lynn's Comments: I read somewhere that a composer looked at birds perched on wires and saw a musical pattern in the way they positioned themselves. He then set these patterns to music. Anyone know if this is true?

Sunday April 21, 2019

Lynn's Comments: Any opportunity to draw Farley at his scruffy best, gave me a thrill. I loved to draw him eating and scratching and burping and being thoroughly, happily disgusting. Not only was he great fun to draw, I had to “get into the spirit of the dog” in order to draw him well. Being Farley for a few hours was a happy, funny and relaxing time...and I have to say, he really was my favourite character!

Sunday May 19, 2019

Lynn's Comments: I try to make a comment about each of these cartoons but there are times when nothing comes to mind. Where ideas come from has always been a mystery. When I first joined the National Cartoonists Society and could finally talk face to face with cartoonists I'd admired for years, the thing we'd discuss most was: “where and how do you get your ideas?” If you have the gift, ideas come. Ideas come when you are on a deadline and have no choice but to produce something. Good or bad, the idea has to be written, drawn up and sent in. It's a real job.

I have no idea where the idea for this strip came from, except that it seemed like a good gag at the time—and if I was to do it again, I'd change the colour. I think it would look better if the word “Worse” was in turquoise and if Mike had a deep turquoise shirt! Otherwise, it still looks OK!

Sunday July 7, 2019

Lynn's Comments: This was done just as the helmet laws were getting serious. The youngest riders were all wearing them. Older kids defied their parents' warnings and went for "the wind in their hair."

A young boy we knew well was critically injured when he suddenly swerved across the street in front of his house— right into the path of an oncoming car. He was not wearing a helmet and hit his head on the edge of the sidewalk. He was raced to the hospital in critical condition. The driver was entirely blameless. The boy’s parents were given the awful choice of surgery, which would likely result is a seriously brain damaged child, or taking him off life support. His mom said, "Let’s give him a chance." The surgery and recovery are quite a story but he survived, and with time and lots of therapy, he grew up to be a healthy and productive young man. Ironically, one of the postoperative requirements was that he wear a helmet for awhile to protect his head. It was a happy ending to a nearly tragic accident and every kid in town afterwards wore a helmet when they rode their bikes.

Sunday July 21, 2019

Lynn's Comments: When this strip first ran, the girls asks the boys if they had change for a dollar because they needed to use a payphone. We updated the dialog not only to remove the payphone reference, but we also thought the girls should confront the boys about their behaviour!

Sunday August 11, 2019

Lynn's Comments: For years these kinds of cartoons (about wolf whistles and smart remarks directed at girls) were not considered in bad taste. In fact, this behavior was expected, and as a girl being whistled at by boys in a passing car (depending on the way it was done), I thought was funny and fun. Times have changed…and for the better.

Sunday August 18, 2019

Lynn's Comments: When I had done this cartoon and was looking at it in the paper, I realized I had missed the most important part of the joke. The sun should have been much more noticeable, and the last panel should have been a much more colourful sunset.

Sunday September 8, 2019

Lynn's Comments: When copiers became commonplace, everyone squashed and copied their faces…and other personal things, as well. In one office at McMaster University, where a large copier was in constant use, I saw the distinct form of a cat pressed onto the plate glass surface. There were no photocopies left at the scene and there was no cat on the premises. The outcome of the caper was not known, but people did look for scratch marks on the arms of workers in the area.

Sunday September 22, 2019

Lynn's Comments: This was done at a time when several people I knew were dealing with serious health problems. The "rainbow day" remark came from my dad. My parents lived in Hope, BC. Dad and I were coming home from visiting mom in the hospital and it was raining. Set in the Fraser River Valley, Hope is surrounded by mountains. When it rains, the slanting rays of the sun always seem to make a rainbow. Dad said, "Look, it's a rainbow day!" Since we had both been in tears, it was a lovely observation. I saved it for a later time when I could use it in the strip.

Sunday December 22, 2019

Lynn's Comments: This actually happened. We were about to go to a house party when we realized we'd left the kids with a sitter too many times. We had just started the car when we decided to go back into the house and be a family. It turned out to be a great evening.

Sunday February 9, 2020

Lynn's Comments: When I was about 8. I snuck out late at night to meet up with a pal in the lane behind our house. My friend Joanne suggested we go to her house. Her folks were away and just her sister was home–with her boyfriend. When we got there, the sister and boyfriend were on the couch busily "making out," so we decided to crawl behind the couch and scare them. Just as we got into position, Joanne stifled a laugh which alerted the romantic pair and they sprang into action. In seconds, they shoved the couch hard against the wall, pinning us both like roaches. We had nowhere to go. The threats of violence were serious. We fought hard, kicked our way to the end and squeezed out of the vice just as Joanne’s parents arrived home. Everything came to a halt. We had been saved. The amorous couple had not been discovered by the authorities and we still had all our limbs and hair. It was a close call and something I wanted to bring to the strip. Great memories!