Lynn's Comments: The arrival of the pizza guy did two things: it gave credence to the gravity of the weather conditions and it allowed me to enjoy the sign on his car.
Lynn's Comments: I had my son in the early 70s. They took him away and washed him and I didn't get to hold him for a long time. Five years later when I had my daughter, things had changed. I held her immediately. They didn't take her to be weighed and checked out until we had been with her for over an hour. That was a wonderful experience. That was the way it should be done!
Lynn's Comments: This is where I used alliteration as a punch line. When writing a short story, I had to produce some daily "wit" even if there was nothing to hang it on. "I think they're all creepth!!"—"I think they’re all curious." I tied up the 4 panels as best I could with these almost rhyming comments.
Lynn's Comments: This was a segue into the introduction of the teacher in a wheelchair. I had wanted to show someone in a chair for a while, but didn’t know how or when to do it. Strange, since we all know someone who is disabled. Miss Edwards became a favourite character, but again, I had little space in which to feature one of Elizabeth's teachers.
Lynn's Comments: Miss Edwards' character gave me the opportunity to talk to and seek out the advice of people who used a wheelchair. It was a wonderful education!
Lynn's Comments: This comment was from an encounter I had with one of the people I met at "Wheelchair Rugby." I learned that it's rude for an able-bodied person to lean or sit on a wheelchair while talking to the occupant because the chair is effectively part of the user's body. I also learned that sitting down to talk to someone who is in a chair is a sign of respect and consideration. These are things I should have known instinctively, but did not. This was a wonderful education!
Lynn's Comments: This suggests the kind of home Gordon comes from. I knew myself what his life was like. I never got to show the readers more than just a glimpse of it.
Lynn's Comments: This really raised a lot of questions from readers. I got calls from interviewers wanting to know where I was going with it and how much detail I was going to go into.
Lynn's Comments: This strip left readers wondering and imagining what was happening behind those closed doors. Not showing anything more was a good thing—it kept the strip from becoming too negative, and it gave readers the opportunity to think about what goes on in their own neighbourhoods. You can suspect something is happening, but you might never know for sure.
Lynn's Comments: Following this revelation, I received many letters. Readers were not as interested in asking me about the life of the character in the strip but in telling me about their own abusive experiences. Stories like this brought me, personally, closer to my readers than I had ever been before.
Lynn's Comments: Looking at these last 2 days worth of strips, I see that I've used the word "ready" 7 times. If I was checking the work of a student, I'd point this out right away as an error in the script!
Lynn's Comments: This was done at the time when my parents were leaving their house of many, many years. My mother had more plastic containers than anyone you can imagine.
Lynn's Comments: My parents never did sell their house and move to a smaller place. By the time they were thinking of this, Mom was too sick to move and Dad wanted her to stay in their old, familiar surroundings. What happened in the strip is what should have happened; how their last years should have been. I was able to hold onto both of them just a little longer in my make-believe comic strip world.
Lynn's Comments: This story was suggested by my son. He said, "Why don't you ever do anything about zits?" I remember getting one on my nose and being so upset and not wanting to go anywhere! So, I did this story with his approval and input.