Suddenly Silver: Browse The Strips

Friday, February 14, 2014

Lynn's Comments: My mom made the best cookies in the world. Her decorated sugar cookies could have won prizes for flavour and design. I haven't mastered her wonderful skill--because I just don't have the patience. Or, maybe it's just hard to see a work of art chewed up and swallowed!

Thursday, February 27, 2014

Lynn's Comments: Several librarians wrote to me to protest this storyline. Seems there are too many deserving people working in libraries with the right credentials to give an opportunity like this to a volunteer.

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Lynn's Comments: One time when I was packing to leave for a speaking engagement, Aaron looked at me and said, "Are you turning into Lynn Johnston AGAIN?!"

Saturday, March 8, 2014

Lynn's Comments: If nothing else, travelling gave me an opportunity to get out of the house--a house in which I often felt like a prisoner.

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Lynn's Comments: I do love checking into a clean, attractive hotel room--knowing that I don't have to wash the porcelain receptacles or change the sheets. When I was a busy mom, this was a luxury I craved!

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Lynn's Comments: This comes from a remark Aaron's grade two teacher made: "Kids always know their friends are coming back if their coats are still on the hallway hanger." One of the children had been ill, but the class was sure he'd be back--simply because something of his was still there for them to see. I thought this was a significant observation!

Monday, July 28, 2014

Lynn's Comments: This is another example of how a common turn of phrase like, "on and off relationship," can lead to a punch line. Unfortunately, colloquial expressions don't translate well, so my work was more popular in English language newspapers. This can be a problem for the syndicates' sales reps, so some cartoonists make their dialogue less complicated. Jim Davis, for example, makes sure that Garfield is easily translatable!

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Lynn's Comments: Having Connie and Lawrence move away was a big decision. Connie was a regular character--Elly's best friend, in fact. In losing these two familiar faces, I would have to rethink the dynamics of the neighbourhood, and create a new group of friends. I did this because I was juggling too many characters. I felt my work was getting stale and I needed a challenge.

Thursday, July 31, 2014

Lynn's Comments: I chose Thunder Bay as Connie's new destination because it's a nice place to live and a long way from southern Ontario, where Elly lived. I had also received an honorary degree from Thunder Bay's Lakehead University a short while before writing this story, and the city was still strong in my mind. I became a doctor of letters. WOW! After receiving the award, I called my mother to tell her, and she replied, "A doctor of letters? That's ridiculous! You haven't written to me for MONTHS!"

Friday, August 1, 2014

Lynn's Comments: This sentiment reflects the feeling I had when my women friends moved away from Lynn Lake. In this small town, good friends kept me sane. When my friend Nancy Lawn left for Edmonton, I told her I was happy for her, and I really was! I congratulated her husband on his promotion and transfer, and I earnestly wished them well. As they drove away, I waved and smiled until their car disappeared, and then I cried. I cried for all the good times we could have had. I cried for me.

Monday, December 8, 2014

Lynn's Comments: At this time, my parents lived in Hope, British Columbia. To get to North Bay was quite a haul: a two-hour drive to Vancouver, a flight to Toronto, and another to North Bay. With two kids, it was even more hassle for us to go to them. The few times we did get together for Christmas were much-celebrated events.

Friday, December 26, 2014

Lynn's Comments: It was fun to give Connie a new look. A big change in your life affects you mentally and physically, and it seemed to me that after ridding herself of the annoying Ted, Connie was renewed, refreshed, and recharged.

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Lynn's Comments: Sometimes the strip was confining. I had four panels, maybe 15 seconds a day to tell what became a pretty complicated story. I would have loved to explore Connie's blossoming relationship with Greg. I wanted to show more, write more, but I didn't have the time or the space. This meant that readers had to fill in some blanks for themselves! Maybe, with comic strips going to the internet, creators won't be confined by the "one window a day" method of storytelling that we had in the newspapers.

Thursday, January 15, 2015

Lynn's Comments: When my paternal grandmother came to stay with us for 6 months, I was 16 and very independent. My parents both worked, so it was my job to get the dinner on and Gram's appearance in the kitchen was "one too many cooks!" She had just lost her husband, was lonely and depressed, and my dad had invited her to stay. Having spent her adult lifetime looking after others, she naturally put herself to work--on my turf! From the day we set eyes on each other, we were rivals. Gram had my bedroom. I was sleeping in the basement in a "room" made of plywood boards and a curtain. I resented this terribly. I resented her teeth in a glass on my dresser and her clothes in my closet. I also resented being told what to do by someone other than my parents, and her criticism irritated me beyond belief.

One day I saw her fidgeting with the oven. It was a gas oven, and she wasn't familiar with the way the oven worked. When I tried to tell her how to do it, she barked at me to mind my own business, that she knew how to operate an oven, and to get out of her way. Figuring this would be a great opportunity to see what would actually happen if you lit the oven the wrong way, I crossed my arms, leaned against the doorway, and watched. First she turned on the gas. The oven door was closed. Interesting. Then she looked for a match. She found the matchbox on the wall and took out a match. She went to the stove, struck the match on one of the elements and opened the oven door. Well--Ka-BOOOOOMMMMMM!!!!!! The explosion blew Granny across the room. She wound up on the opposite side--sitting on the floor with her back against the cupboard doors. Her eyebrows were gone, and all the hairs on her chin were frizzled black. The best thing of all was the look on her face. Her mouth had formed a little "o." I was thinking, "Wow! So THAT's what happens!" It took a few seconds before I reached out to help her up, and a few more for us both to realize that she could have been very seriously hurt! With grateful relief, we hugged each other, and for the rest of her stay, we held a truce.

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Lynn's Comments: Aaron once actually climbed into a suitcase and asked my mom to take him to Vancouver with her. It was funny, and became a kind of game. Old suitcases, destined for the "nuisance grounds," were perfect to play with. He and his friends would slug each other around in a suitcase until the handles broke. This was before the advent of wheels--an excellent addition to unwieldy bags. Another example of obvious inventions--Why didn't I think of that?!

Sunday, April 5, 2015

Lynn's Comments: My dad loved to invent characters and to story tell. When he read a book to us, he read like a practiced thespian. He spoke with accents, changed the pitch of his voice, and made fairy tales come alive. When I did this strip, my dad had been gone for a number of years. I was able to bring him to life again by writing and drawing short vignettes like this one. It would have been just like Dad to call and pretend to be the Easter Bunny!

Thursday, April 9, 2015

Lynn's Comments: I remember telling my mother I was not a servant! As a mother and grandmother, I now know what a "servant" really is!

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Lynn's Comments: I was equally pleased to have my single panel cartoons accepted by our small local newspaper, "The Dundas Valley Journal." I was in my late 20s, a single mom, and at the time, working at a job I didn't enjoy. Seeing my cartoons published in a real paper with a real audience validated what I was doing and told me there was hope. I could see the possibility of making a living doing what I did best! In the FBorFW comic strips you see here, I substituted writing for drawing, but Elly is me--overwhelmed to see an open door in front of her--just waiting for her to go through.

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Lynn's Comments: I think what I was trying to say here is that a lot of published poetry is without rhyme. The poetry I like best is that which incorporates rhythm and rhyme--much like the lyrics of a song. I was also trying to say that when you do see your work in print, out there for an audience to read and remark on, it looks entirely different. It has significance, it means more than it did when you first read it to yourself and decided it was good enough to share. The combination of fear, pride and exhilaration compels you to do more, and to do it better. That's how success begins.

Sunday, May 31, 2015

Lynn's Comments: This was a scenario from home. My daughter, Katie, had, at the age of four, learned how to use a screwdriver, and had gone about my mother-in-law's house unscrewing things. Ruth tried to open a kitchen cupboard door and it came off in her hands along with the handle. We were both perplexed. How in the world had all the screws come loose? We looked about for Katie and found her outside in the driveway trying to take the license plates off my car!