Elizabeth: Browse The Strips

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Lynn's Comments: When scratch and sniff first appeared in books and magazines and other fun places, I thought it had great cartoon potential. Imagined a dog sending another dog a greeting card, which was, naturally, scratch and sniff.

Thursday, December 3, 2015

Lynn's Comments: My mom made bread every two weeks. Being a kid, I figured I was missing something by not having store-bought Wonder Bread, and eagerly traded my school lunch with friends. The weird thing about the commercial bread was that you could press it flat and fold it up like cardboard. It tasted like cardboard too unless you put lots of margarine on it. (Few families could afford butter.) One of my friends made his own lunch every day, and the things he found to press between slices of bread varied from garlic cloves to dill pickles to just plain sugar.

Sometimes I traded with him, sometimes I didn't, but I was always envious of his store bought bread and the way he was allowed to make his lunch any way he wanted to. What we didn't know about each other was that my mom couldn't afford to buy commercially made bread, and his mom went to work before he got up. He had to dress himself and his brother, make both their lunches, walk his brother to a neighbour's house, and then get himself to school. With nutritious meals to look forward to and a mom who was home to look after me, I was the lucky one.

Saturday, December 5, 2015

Lynn's Comments: For some reason, I loved this strip. I had it framed and it hung on my studio wall for many years. In September when we moved, I took the strip out of the frame. It had yellowed badly. I put it away in my personal file, and when I find a place to put it, I'll have it framed again. I have no explanation for keeping it separate. I just did!

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Lynn's Comments: I used to wonder as I sat on Santa's knee, why sometimes he had a false beard and sometimes he had a real one. My dad had the answer; he said that sometimes mice got into Santa's beard, so he'd shave it off. This meant wearing a false one until it grew back--which made sense to me at the time.

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Lynn's Comments: Katie did exactly this while I was shopping in a department store. With too much to carry and deadlines to meet, I ran from the store wondering how long it would take for the management to discover her handiwork.

Saturday, December 12, 2015

Lynn's Comments: Every year, my mom dutifully sent us fresh holly from the tree in her backyard. Christmas wasn't Christmas, in her opinion, if there was no fresh holly. She also wanted me to miss North Vancouver in the hope that I would eventually come home. This year, we will celebrate the holidays with real west coast holly, and my parents will be here in spirit to enjoy it with us.

Sunday, December 13, 2015

Lynn's Comments: This was me. I loved to sharpen my pencils until the tips were like needles. Some pencils shredded and broke, and others were perfect. I recently bought a sharpener, which gives me the same sharpening satisfaction as the old school sharpeners did. The brand name is "Sharp Tank."

--You're welcome!

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Lynn's Comments: When the first Cabbage Patch dolls came out, I was caught up in the frenzy like everyone else. I managed to score one for my daughter just before Christmas, but then my sister-in-law called to say there were no dolls available in Winnipeg until after Christmas, and could I find just two more. Word came that a shipment of dolls was to arrive at a local store in North Bay, and it would be first come first serve. I ran to the store and stood in line hoping to get a doll that wasn't too ugly. They were ALL ugly! I bought two blonde C-dolls, and mailed them off to Manitoba just in time for the great glut of Christmas. Apparently, I had saved the day. Looking back, it's hard to believe that such a strange looking doll could have made such an impact, and that I waited crazily in line for two of them! This series of strips was my "revenge."

Sunday, December 20, 2015

Lynn's Comments: I remember this feeling. I remember going to bed and wishing so hard that it was Christmas, my teeth ached. I still love Christmas--but nowadays, it comes too fast!

Friday, December 25, 2015

Lynn's Comments: This was me exactly; standing in the early hours of the morning staring at all the gifts under the tree and wishing they were all for me. I wonder when greed changed to giving? Somewhere between the ages of 5 and 15, I became someone who thinks about others. Whenever it was, I'm grateful.

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.

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Lynn's Comments: Bringing Lawrence and his mother back into the strip was a good idea. They were already part of the Pattersons' extended family and I didn't want to lose them! I came up with a plausible scenario; something that would allow them to come back to the neighbourhood, and the result was a much needed boost to the storylines.

Thursday, December 31, 2015

Lynn's Comments: Little things stay in your memory, for example, I remember when my mother and dad finally allowed me to drink out of real glass. I felt so grown up. It was as though they were saying, in a significant way, "We trust you."

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.

Thursday, January 14, 2016

Lynn's Comments: Talking about a parent who is no longer a part of the family is really difficult. My first husband was never there for my son. Over the years this has all been resolved, but when Aaron was young, it was important to talk openly and honestly about what had happened without prejudice and without assigning blame. I used to wonder when I'd feel like a grown up. Handling this issue made me grow up fast.

Sunday, January 17, 2016

Lynn's Comments: I went to visit Farley Mowat not long after the movie "Never Cry Wolf" had been released. It was based on a book Farley had written about his experience in Canada's north where, as a naturalist, he lived with wolves to see if they truly were the menace man believes them to be. He lived the way they live. He ate what they ate. In one scene, he is eating raw, wild mice; one of the most memorable parts of the movie. When I asked Farley if he really DID eat mice, he smiled and said, "My dear, I'm a writer. If something didn't happen, it SHOULD have."

This is the long way of telling you that what Elizabeth is doing in this Sunday strip never happened but it should have. Watching Katie open and pour a can of apple juice, I thought: If she'd made multiple openings, the scene might just have gone just like this.

Sunday, January 24, 2016

Lynn's Comments: Strips like this allowed me to vent to the fullest: to really let my feelings out. It was great to write, wonderful to draw, and then joyfully sent to the syndicate. When it was finally released in the papers, I had a chance to feel good all over again! I knew that letters would come from moms all over the place telling me I was right on track. Yeah. The strip, sometimes based on fantasy, made real life easier for me.

Monday, January 25, 2016

Lynn's Comments: There were several Mrs. Bairds who thought this lady was named for her. One was a friend of my father's. Another was a neighbour we had in North Vancouver. When I needed a name, this one popped up, and I have no idea where it came from!