Elizabeth: Browse The Strips

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Lynn's Comments: The story about the glass angel was a sort of feel-good Christmas story. It eventually became the outline for an animated special called The Christmas Angel.

Friday, December 21, 2012

Lynn's Comments: The real Farley didn't care much for candy, but he did like to chew stuff. Knowing he was not allowed near the Christmas tree, he would sneak across the floor like a stalking cat. Then, when he thought we weren't looking, he'd bite chunks off the candy canes and spit them out. I bought plastic candy canes to replace the real ones, and these later (when we no longer had a pet) became part of a family tradition: when Aaron and Katie helped decorate the tree, the candy canes were plastic but on Christmas morning, they "magically" became real!

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Lynn's Comments: Once in a while, I would put a bit of religion into Christmas and Easter strips to prove that I DID know the reason for the celebration and to assuage the readers who thought I was far too focused on the commercial aspects. I could guarantee three kinds of mail when a strip like this was released: One came from the Christian right, who asked that much more focus be put on ecclesiastical issues; one from the atheists, who felt that I was pushing religion down their throats; and finally the moderates, who appreciated the occasional reminder that festivals like this deserve a nod to the deity for whom the chocolate was fashioned and the bells were tolled. Again, I tried to answer every letter I received. Even if I disagreed with someone's philosophy, I certainly appreciated the time they took to write to me.

Monday, December 24, 2012

Lynn's Comments: My bed had a white headboard and, for as long as I can remember, a violet, flowered bedspread. I would turn it into a vehicle, a flying carpet, or a tent in the wilderness -- and with each incarnation came a different position for sleeping. I used the pillow for everything from a headrest and chest protector to a dashboard and helmet. The blankets could be a cloak, a tent, or a capsule in outer space. In my bed, my imagination went wild, which was good thing ... because I was sent to my room a lot!

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Lynn's Comments: Wherever Aaron was playing, Katie wanted to be, too. With their big difference in ages, she was considered a pest. The boys would holler for assistance and I'd rescue them from the fumbling hands of a little kid. I would then have to find something special for Katie to do so she wouldn't feel left out. I often wondered if her gravitation to the boys' bombs and light sabres wasn't a neat ploy to get 100% of Mom's attention!

Saturday, December 29, 2012

Lynn's Comments: My kids used to beg to stay up until midnight, and if there was no party planned, we'd say yes--hoping they'd pass out well before the ball descended the post in Times Square. More than once they woke us up to tell us the New Year had come.

Monday, December 31, 2012

Lynn's Comments: I remember waking up on the morning of January first hoping to see something new--anything that would tell me that a new year had begun. This is when I became interested in calendars. My first calendar was courtesy of the BC dairy farmers who sent one to all their customers. It had a cow on the top, and stapled to the base were the twelve months of the year--ready to be written on and torn away. I must have been around six because I could write well and I remember making notes on each month--like a grown up.

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Lynn's Comments: Whenever I see those ads on TV about muscle pain, I immediately think about how I feel the day after I've exercised. Stiff, sore, aching. I know I deserve the way I feel--that's it's evidence of my sloth; it's my body telling me it's getting slack. Things are beginning to atrophy. This health alert worries me and I resolve to do more in the way of moving about. I promise to eat less, walk more, and to get to a gym at least once a year!

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Lynn's Comments: The path from our front door to the driveway on Tally-Ho Road was perhaps 25 feet long, but it seemed much longer when you shovelled it. When I did this strip, we were all living in Northern Ontario, but shovelling snow is the same wherever you are. No matter how often you create a clean space, within minutes something always manages to fill it in.

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Lynn's Comments: One of the things I resented about working from home was the inability to get away from housekeeping. I was jealous of friends who would dress well, leave for work, and enter an environment devoid of kids, dish detergent, and the omnipresent whiff of laundry. I thought it would be wonderful to have a separate space to call my own, and to have adult conversation when I needed a break from it all. Interestingly, the friends whose work-space I envied, thought I was the one who had it made.

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Lynn's Comments: Working at home meant that I could wear anything. I was usually in jeans and a sweater when my day began. After a few years of this kind of garb, I began to envy the ladies who actually dressed up for work: whose wardrobe was current and whose appearance was groomed. When I told them I wished I had an excuse like they did to get gussied up and look professional, they did say they envied me the freedom I had. I still got them to admit, however, that it does lift one's mood to be dressed up and looking GOOD once in awhile!

Thursday, January 31, 2013

Lynn's Comments: The changes in my studio space and the hiring of new staff made work-related gags easier to do. Now, I was dealing with a group of people, my job had become a real business, and we had an established routine. In the strip it would not have made sense to have Elly suddenly confronting a situation like this herself, so I gave her a part-time, more believable job. The only thing about this strip that was true was--we really were all mothers!

Friday, February 1, 2013

Lynn's Comments: My mother-in-law was one of the primary school teachers in Lynn Lake, which meant she had to teach her own kids. They complained that she was harder on them than she was on everyone else!

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Lynn's Comments: The kids were never far away--I used to listen to their banter as they made up games, created forts in the living room, and played house. I was impressed by their ability to fantasize. I remembered my own childhood, when a mud pie tasted like the real thing, and if you rolled up in a blanket, you could fly. Even though we seemed to be "in a world of our own," we were still aware of our immediate environment.

Aaron, Katie and Aaron's friend, Roy, were playing one day, and some of their dialogue disturbed me--they were talking about bombs, murder, divorce, and other things they had heard about on television. This had to be absorbed, of course, and dealt with as much as any other experience outside of Sesame Street and Saturday morning cartoons. I worried that I was not talking to my kids enough. Later, when Roy had gone home, I asked them about their conversations, their ideas, and their perceptions. I felt good about being there to answer questions and explain some facts. In return, Aaron asked me if life was the same for me when I was a kid and I had to say that it was--we just didn't hear or see as much as they do now. We were far more protected from negative realities. When I think about it, we were really naive, and for that, I'm somewhat grateful!

I now have a grandchild. I see kids as young as two, happily using computers, eBooks, and iPads and I wonder how much more the babies of today are learning...too soon, too fast.

Friday, February 8, 2013

Lynn's Comments: We gave Aaron a key to the house, hoping he wouldn't lose it. He did. The key was as much of a concern to him as his glasses, which he hated to wear. He lost them, he broke them, and he left them at home. The frustration his glasses caused was part of the reason why they never appeared in the strip! When he was finally old enough for contacts, he was overjoyed. Now that I too have to wear glasses, I can see how hard it was for an active, conservative kid to accept them.

Saturday, February 9, 2013

Lynn's Comments: Expressions like "nose out of joint" are a natural lead in to a punchline. Any time I work with blossoming cartoonists, I discourage them from using an expression like this unless they plan to take advantage of it. As a reader, I expect a smart comeback and I am disappointed when the expression is left to die on the vine!

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Lynn's Comments: In Vancouver during the 50's, there was a popular children's radio show called, "Kiddie's Carnival." It was done in a small studio with a live audience, which you could be part of by writing into the program and asking for tickets. It was first write, first serve. My mom managed to score two of them. Not only did she and I have tickets, but we were told that I would get to be one of the children allowed to say "hello" on Kiddie's Carnival radio!

It was an exciting day. I had never been in a radio station before and when it was my turn to go up to the microphone, I was terrified. The host was reassuring. He moved the big silver microphone right under my nose and said, "Lynn, it's your turn to say hello! Who would you like to say hello to today?" Meanwhile, my dad was at work. He had the radio on and everyone in Shores Jewellery was listening. Sweating and shaking, I leaned into the mic. and said, "Hello, Grandma and Grandpa!" Dad was crushed. He had expected me to say hello to him. I wasn't thinking. I just blurted out the first thing that came to mind. When he got home later that evening, it was clear that I had let him down. Mom thought it was nice that I had thought of her parents, though, and decided to call them and ask what they thought of the broadcast. Sadly, they hadn't been listening. To this day, I think about that missed opportunity and I wish that I'd acknowledged the one person to whom it really mattered.

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Lynn's Comments: There was a law in our house: if you didn't like what was on your plate, it didn't matter--you had to eat it all. This rule was enforced unless we were too sick to sit there or were absent altogether! My brother, Alan, was always trying to escape the likes of cold creamed peas, canned corned beef, or liver in gravy. He would hide a wad in his pockets or the cuffs of his pants and, convincingly full, would leave the table.

Once he was being so gross at dinnertime, he was sent to his room to eat. He went happily and returned minutes later with a suspiciously empty plate. He said he had eaten everything, but there was evidence to the contrary; the gravy was scraped to the side of the plate and the toilet had just been flushed. With her hands on her hips, Mom accused him of lying, but he stuck to his story. It was his word against the gravy. She gave him "the glare" but he stared her down. Mom dragged Alan to the biff. She wanted to scope out the scene of the crime but found nothing to pin on him. The gravy trail was the only real evidence; the one thing that could trip him up. With Alan's ear between her thumb and forefingers, she marched him brusquely back into the kitchen to resume her interrogation...and found our dad happily washing the dishes. The accused's plate was clean. From that day on, the rule was altered to allow for differences in tastes and appetites. Once again, Alan had defied our mom, and Dad was a hero. Until then, even HE had to eat stuff he hated!

Friday, March 1, 2013

Lynn's Comments: Here is another strip that got me into hot water. Readers thought John had actually KICKED the dog in panel two! What I had tried to show was John putting his foot under Farley's rump and moving him. I would never have shown someone kicking a dog! This taught me to never draw an action unless I could draw it well! .

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Lynn's Comments: Remember eating snow and believing it tasted like ice cream? If you don't, you didn't grow up in a northern climate! The only snow we didn't eat was yellow!