Elly: Browse The Strips

Saturday, January 31, 2015

Lynn's Comments: This part of the story was entirely made up. This is what's fun about a comic strip storyline--the possibilities are endless. This is where the ability to fantasize comes in: a fantasy could take me completely away from reality--to places I didn't even know I could go!

Sunday, February 1, 2015

Lynn's Comments: I am someone who procrastinates until stuff HAS to be done. In order to force myself to do ironing, say, I give myself a deadline--I have learned from the strip that deadlines provide the pressure I need to produce. I'll invite friends for dinner at 6:00 on Saturday, for example, so I'll definitely have the kitchen clean by the time they get here. I'll promise someone an article of clothing, and then I HAVE to go through my closet. I'll have a garden party to force myself to weed my garden, and on it goes. This strip was done when I was in a panic. I had procrastinated for so long that I was late; my editor expected to get this strip several days beforehand, and if I didn't get it done ASAP, I'd be fined for missing my deadline. I wondered what in the world I would do for this Sunday page--and it hit me! Why not write about procrastination!

Friday, February 6, 2015

Lynn's Comments: Around this time, we did have a ceiling redone, and I marvelled at the artistry our man of the plaster was capable of. He had been doing this for over 30 years, and it was wonderful to watch him work. I have often admired the ease by which people pour cement, for example, or frame a window: cutting the wood to perfect lengths and fitting it into place with precision. So often we dismiss talent like this, but just try to do it yourself! It won't take long before you're wishing you'd made the right decision and called the guy with the skill!

Sunday, February 8, 2015

Lynn's Comments: This is me. This is my teenage room, and my way of doing things. Some strips I did from memory, and with renewed respect for my mother.

Monday, February 9, 2015

Lynn's Comments: Dental practices generally employ a lot of women. Women go on maternity leave, and at times, will have to leave the practice in order to follow a husband who has been relocated elsewhere. We were always thinking about staff: how to replace someone, or how to cope when a very well trained assistant, for example, had to take time off. It was a challenge, but it also introduced us to new and talented people who became part of our extended family.

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Lynn's Comments: My little grandson will be a year old when this strip runs. He has just started to walk, and is curious about everything. Whatever he can grasp, goes into his mouth. If a cupboard can be opened, he'll be into it. He has a very small attention span, which is great because he can be easily distracted. He is also teething and wants to be with us (attached) a great deal of the time. I had forgotten how much work the one year old was. I have a lot of stamina and I put time aside just for him, but I can hardly keep up. Our daycare provider is an angel many times over! She gives my daughter and me the freedom to work in the studio, which in turn gives baby Ryan the freedom to be himself. It's all good!

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Lynn's Comments: When we first arrived in Lynn Lake, we had no front desk person for the clinic and no chair-side assistant. With Aaron in kindergarten and my mom-in-law willing to look after Katie, I thought I might be able to work with Rod part-time while he trained someone else.

Friday, February 13, 2015

Lynn's Comments: I had assisted Rod when he was in dental school. There was a free clinic in the evenings, and students got extra experience if they volunteered to work on patients after class for free. Spouses often accompanied the students--just so they could spend some time together. University took a toll on relationships. With this bit of training under my belt, I believed I could fill in for a while in our new clinic.

Sunday, February 15, 2015

Lynn's Comments: My friend and graphic guru, Kevin Strang, has a dog named Oden. Oden is a large, lovable yellow lab with a sweet disposition. Oden likes squeaky toys--especially rubber chickens, of which he has several. He doesn't bite through them, he squeezes them carefully, enjoying the sound they make with obvious pleasure. He squeezes them in a way that kind of communicates his thoughts. Rapid squeaks suggest playfulness, longer sighing squeaks, thoughtfulness--loud defined squeaks mean boredom has set in or a snack is required. It's funny. I often go to see Kevin and we'll sit in his studio working out a colour scheme for a calendar or an illustration. Oden will sit beside my chair and squeak his rubber chickens to his heart's delight. Kevin will likely not be reading this so I can tell you that as much as I love his dog and as funny as I think the chickens are--I often wish that the *#@**&%$* squeaking would STOPPPPP!!!!!

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!

Sunday, February 22, 2015

Lynn's Comments: I have always loved making up names on things like cereal boxes. In art school, one of the things we had to do for commercial design was to come up with an entire cereal box--from the size to the ingredients to the illustration on the cover. This meant we had to figure out how much space we needed for type (in two official languages): brand name, logos, contents, weight, nutritional value, and directions. Packaging is a whole industry of its own, so this was a really good exercise. The cereal I came up with was "Sugar Soggs." The art showed a kid eating some gruesome candy-coated gruel. It was okay, but the best design was done by one of the guys in the class; he called his cereal "Uncle Brian's Grumpies." On the cover was a grimacing caricature of the instructor, whose name was Brian, and the ingredients he made up were hilarious. In terms of funny, he had me beat by a mile. Neither of us got a good mark because we hadn't taken the project seriously. It seemed to us that despite the prof's objections, cartoons do sell!

Later, when I worked for Standard Engravers, a packaging firm in Hamilton, Ontario, I was given the opportunity to design a giveaway on a cereal box. I thought this would be neat, until I was given a space about 2 inches square on the bottom right corner. This was a real challenge--and that's good. If you give a cartoonist or graphic artist a blank page and say "draw something," they have to think for a while. Give them a tiny, awkward space, and suddenly the ideas come out of the blue. A great example of this is Sergio Aragones' "marginals"--the tiny cartoons that tumble around the page borders in Mad magazine. When he suggested he be hired to do these, he was told that he'd run out of ideas. Some 45 years later, he's still producing them, and each one is wonderfully different.

For the small corner space on the cereal box, I designed finger puppets, pencil toppers, decals, and "spinners" (a top made from paper). It was fun. I thought this could be a surprisingly satisfying career, but things went in other directions. I still get to work on cereal boxes but in a different way!

Thursday, February 26, 2015

Lynn's Comments: I actually looked forward to working in the clinic. It wasn't the passing of instruments that appealed to me as much as it was dealing with the patients. I really enjoyed putting them at ease and explaining the procedures. This later influenced my decision to learn Spanish and travel with the Medical Missions to Peru. Explaining an otherwise worrisome situation to anxious patients and seeing them relax with a smile, made my task a joy. It was one of the most rewarding things I have ever done.

Friday, February 27, 2015

Lynn's Comments: Fortunately for Alan, he was never a patient. My mother, however, allowed me to practice on her. I remember her under the gas, which was a lot of fun. I had never seen her so relaxed and funny.

Sunday, March 1, 2015

Lynn's Comments: Saying thanks was something I tried to hammer into my kids and now, my grandchildren. It's a simple word, takes no time to say and it means so much to the person who has done you a good service. Sadly it's something not heard enough. The other thing we should hear more often are the words "I'm sorry".

Monday, March 2, 2015

Lynn's Comments: I had no idea how important it is for a horn player to maintain his/her teeth and mouth so as not to disturb the embouchure they have worked so hard to perfect. When my brother came to the clinic to have some work done on his front teeth, he was very nervous, hoping there would be no change.

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Lynn's Comments: I learned that "anticipation" was essential to four-handed dentistry--as it is to anything complicated and delicate requiring more than one person's skills. As a dental assistant, I had to know a procedure well enough to be able to anticipate the instrument or materials required before they were needed and to have them ready at precisely the right time. I also had to know when to suction, how to cut and fit those rubber thingies they use to keep stuff from falling into your mouth and to be able to prepare the gelatinous goo used to make moulds.

Needless to say, as an untrained wife of the dentist, I made a number of annoying mistakes. Fortunately we didn't bark at each other over the head of a patient, whose trust we had to maintain. Nowadays, I don't think untrained assistants are allowed to help "chairside" unless the dentist is working with the Medical Missionaries in a third world country and there is no choice! I've done that, too.

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Lynn's Comments: This very situation brought my assisting career to an end. Dentistry is a fiddly business with many frustrating procedures. When my husband sharply asked for an instrument or for suction, I expected a polite "thanks" for my efforts, but he just carried on. His brusque manner wasn't personal--I just took it the wrong way!

Thursday, March 5, 2015

Lynn's Comments: When we moved to North Bay and set up a new clinic, we had two refrigerators--the one with the sandwiches was in the dining area.

Friday, March 6, 2015

Lynn's Comments: Here again is the old chestnut where someone working outside the home has no idea how much work it is to manage a home and family. Every Friday, I look after my grandchildren. Laura is 3, Ryan is 1. Not wanting them to sit in front of the television for long, I try to have things for them to do--and it's a real effort. It takes time to interest them in toys, give them meals and snacks, keep them safe and keep them clean. You can do nothing else and if you try, you only get annoyed and resentful. Parenting is definitely a full time job! After a full day of serious grannying, I am glad to see these beautiful children go home with mom and, I wonder how I managed to run a home and do a comic strip at the same time!

Saturday, March 7, 2015

Lynn's Comments: During the few times I worked as my husband's dental assistant, I was fortunate to have two wonderful parents in law, living a mere 5 minute walk away (from both the clinic and the house). Ruth and Tom's home was set up for children and the care was constant as we moved the kids from one house to the other. At the end of the day, we might stay at "Ruth's" for dinner or we'd pick up the kids and come home--exhausted. Either way, it was "mom" who put on the grub!

Sunday, March 8, 2015

Lynn's Comments: I am a militant shopper sometimes. I sneer at able-bodied folks who park in the handicap zone, grumble when they squeeze all the tomatoes, and will audibly sigh if there's a long checkout line and some bozo decides to redeem a wad of coupons. On a busy weekend outside my favourite grocery store, someone had parked across the ramp. Shoppers couldn't get to the parking lot without heaving their carts over the curb. The situation I drew in this strip was based on this incident, but it has a different ending.

I waited a minute, wondering how long this inconsiderate person would be. He certainly had to know that he'd blocked everyone's path. I had a couple of choice comments to make like, "Couldn't get any closer, hum?" or "The parking lot's THAT way!" Soon the doors opened and an elderly man appeared. He was helping a woman who was pushing a small, half-filled shopping cart. He smiled at me as he held her steady and eased her forward. "My wife had a stroke," he said, "this is her first time outdoors since she managed to walk again and she wanted to shop for groceries." I opened the passenger door and kept the cart from rolling forward as he lovingly helped her into the car. I then handed him their grocery bags as he loaded them into the trunk. He explained that he'd moved the car closer to the door for her and was sorry for the inconvenience. He thanked me sincerely as he worked himself into the driver's seat. As they drove away I thought to myself, "Thank heavens I didn't say anything!" It was another lesson; a good story--and I guess I didn't have the courage to tell it the way it was!

Saturday, March 14, 2015

Lynn's Comments: The strip was starting to realistically show a family's weaknesses as well as its strengths, which I think made it more believable. I was trying to show real life: What happened to me and to the character, Michael, happens all the time. In an ideal world, I guess someone should be there to chaperone a child at all times, but like me, Mike was a responsible kid who was capable of helping out. Sometimes we could all use an extra hand to help make ends meet!