Brian: Browse The Strips

Friday, September 19, 2014

Lynn's Comments: I did get complaints about this one. People said I was stereotyping Asians as being intellectuals. Ironically, none of the complaints came from Asians.

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Lynn's Comments: I first started to "notice" boys when I was in 3rd grade. I had a real crush on Jimmy Thompson--he lived near me, and I'd walk home from school with him whenever I could. One day I told him a story about my grandfather (my dad's dad) and how he had been in a terrible accident at the shipyards, where he worked in Collingwood, Ontario. I said his head had been crushed and he had a metal plate put in where his skull had been removed. I said you could attach stuff to his head with magnets, and this got Jimmy's attention. He walked home with me--straight to my house where he demanded to see my mother. He said I'd been lying to him, and when he told her my story, she said, "you know, Jimmy, it's actually quite true." He was duly impressed and agreed to be my friend. I had learned that a good story was a great way to get attention--and I also learned that (for the most part) it had to be true!

Saturday, October 4, 2014

Lynn's Comments: Every time I did a Halloween strip, I based my ideas on what I remembered as a kid. Nobody bought costumes then--the kinds of disposable, commercial costumes just weren't available. Our get-ups were entirely original. I wonder how many folks still make their own stuff?

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Lynn's Comments: When I was a kid, my friends would come to my house to talk to my mother. She and I didn't always see eye to eye, so it surprised me when my friends considered her advice worth seeking. I accepted her relationship with them with admiration and jealousy: admiration for her, jealousy because I couldn't confide in her the way they did.

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Lynn's Comments: One of the best costumes my folks ever made for my brother was "the mad scientist." It consisted of a lab coat, an Einstein-style wig, a black moustache, pipe, and granny glasses. In the pockets of the coat Dad had placed severed fingers, a tube of fake blood, and a stethoscope. The bag Al carried was covered in mathematical formulae--a real nod to Dad's ability to do research. I don't recall what I wore that year, so--Al was a hit and I was a miss.

Monday, October 27, 2014

Lynn's Comments: Mike Peters (Mother Goose and Grimm) tells a story about how upset his girls would get if he embarrassed them in public. Now, Mike just can't help himself--he's a wonderfully theatrical guy with a prankster's edge. When one of his girls left her school lunch at home, he delivered it in person by leaping into her classroom dressed as Superman. This strip reminds me of that day, and how Marci still winces when she thinks of her dad in that costume.

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Lynn's Comments: Nope. Nobody in our family ever made a talking head on a table as a Halloween costume. This was another descent into the "writer's mind" where silly ideas lie. The prospect of sustaining such a monstrosity made me think about how a small group of boys would treat their experimental pal; whatever they did, it would be messy!

Monday, February 16, 2015

Lynn's Comments: My mother often said that she wished we would go to other people's houses and make a mess there for a change. It was true. Our friends always came over to our house. Maybe it was because Mom worked at home, and was kind enough to let everyone in. Maybe she permitted herself to be the local daycare provider so she would always know where we were. Other moms were at home, too, so it always bothered her that they never took their turn. They never offered. Maybe it's because she just never asked.

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Lynn's Comments: When this strip appeared, I was criticized for stereotyping the Enjo family: they were Asian, therefore they were intellectuals. It was interesting to note that the complaints didn't come from people of Asian descent!

Saturday, February 21, 2015

Lynn's Comments: I wanted Brian to be someone who felt a bit alienated by his intelligence. He would rather work on a school project than join in team sports or hang out at the corner with"the guys." Gordon was on the "outside"because he was mechanical. Academic subjects were a waste of time for someone who preferred to be under a car or taking apart a machine in his mother's kitchen. Michael was frustrated by his inability to concentrate. Even though he was a bright kid, he never achieved top marks in class--he was a dreamer! These three boys all felt inadequate for different reasons, and yet, they all had something in common: they lived in the same neighbourhood, and they got along with each other. Friendship ultimately overshadowed their differences.

Saturday, May 16, 2015

Lynn's Comments: I will soon be going to my high school reunion. We were a close-knit bunch, and several dedicated organizers make it possible for us to have a reunion every five years. It's great to see everyone once more. We all talk openly about how we teased each other, and how mean we sometimes were.

As kids growing up in "wartime housing" during the 50s, we all thought other families were better off than we were. Last reunion, in a moment of wine-fuelled honesty, I told my friend Ruby that I had been especially nice to her when I discovered she had a television set. At the time, few families could afford to buy a television and I told her how jealous I was. I said, "You were the envy of every kid from Fifth Street to Eighth!" Ruby smiled and said, "Lynn, my dad worked in a furniture store and the owner allowed him to borrow a television from time to time because he was such a good employee. We didn't own a television either!"

Monday, May 18, 2015

Lynn's Comments: I once asked a friend to stay for dinner without asking my mother first. I didn't know that we only had enough food for the four in our family. Not wanting to be rude to my friend, Mom agreed to set another place at the table, but she had to fry bread with the potatoes, then cut the meat up into small pieces and mix it with the gravy in order to accommodate an extra person. Later, she explained to me that we weren't always able to feed others, and I was never to ask if I could stay at someone else's house for dinner. Even if I was invited, she cautioned me to be aware that the other family might have not have as much as we had.

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Lynn's Comments: I had fun showing a family of Japanese descent serving Tacos for dinner. This is part of the fun of living in a country where culture and cuisine are shared easily and often.

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Lynn's Comments: This was based on our neighbours in Lynn Lake, who had an elaborate train set in their basement. When I saw it, I thought it belonged to their eldest son, but was surprised to discover that it was the dad who had set it up. This was long before my husband built a model train you could actually ride on! What is it with trains, anyway?

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Lynn's Comments: In the comic strip, Michael was old enough to understand what had happened and could talk about the adventure with his friends. At the time of the accident, however, our children were not aware of the seriousness of the situation. All they knew was that Daddy had gone for a trip and big planes had come to town to look for him.

Thursday, August 27, 2015

Lynn's Comments: I was told by a number of readers that I was stereotyping Brian (whose family background is Japanese) by making him a smart kid. The funny thing was that none of the complaints came from Japanese families! Is there such a thing as a complimentary insult?

Friday, August 28, 2015

Lynn's Comments: Wordplay is something I really love. The trouble is that gags like this will not translate easily into other languages. I have spoken to translators who must change the gag completely so that a punch line will make sense to their readers. A translator of comic art must therefore be a humourist and a wordsmith as well.

Monday, November 30, 2015

Lynn's Comments: Despite problems with his hips, Farley was a happy, healthy pooch who only seemed to avoid the stairs. I loved him because he was a real character--as close to a cartoon dog as one can get!

Sunday, December 27, 2015

Lynn's Comments: I kept my father-in-law's hard hat for a long time after he died. It was so much a part of him. For many years, he was an important part of my life, and I felt it kept him close by as long as I had it. Strange how something cold, plastic, and ordinary can have so much meaning. Divorce estranged me from his sons and his daughter. I returned his hard hat to them before I moved from Ontario. This strip was to honour the memory of Tom Johnston. He was one of a kind.

Sunday, January 3, 2016

Lynn's Comments: My son, Aaron, really did stick his tongue to the school flagpole. A frantic teacher called me and I ran to the school in time to see one of the staff trying to pour hot coffee down the flagpole to warm it up. Another said to just pull him off, so I worked at his tongue, which was stretched like an elastic, and his teacher pulled him. With an "OUCH!" he was finally free. I thought he'd be upset, but Aaron was quite proud. When he'd stopped nursing his sore tongue, he happily pointed to the pole where a number of small, fuzzy spots marked battles with other frozen tongues. "Here's Cathy, and here's Bryan, and here's--" I guess it's a rite of passage: every kid has to see if the warning has merit--and every generation discovers that it does.

Saturday, February 27, 2016

Lynn's Comments: Connie and Lawrence were characters I simply couldn't delete. For some reason, they were compelling and important. They "spoke to me." As I've said before, some characters allowed me to bring them to life, and others disappeared like smoke in a wind. I'll never understand why.

Monday, April 11, 2016

Lynn's Comments: This strip took me back in a flash to high school and the endless deadline-related assignments we had to do. Looking back, I realized how important it was to have to adhere to a time limit. I would never have been able to do THIS job if I hadn't learned some discipline then!