Lynn's Comments: Yes, this is another actual conversation; an actual situation. Really, the strip saved each one of us from time to time. Having an outlet for our normal confrontations was absolutely wonderful!
Lynn's Comments: A young neighbour once asked me to draw her portrait. Sharon was 10 and in the "almost ready to bloom" stage. I drew what I thought was a sweet and accurate portrait, but she was miserable after she saw it. She said I had made her look ugly! She didn't want the portrait, but her mom kept it anyway. Years later, she apologized for her rudeness. She had found the portrait in her mom’s papers, and when she saw it again as a young adult, she thought it was beautiful.
Lynn's Comments: Aaron made some wonderful friends during his short-lived hockey career. Truly the best part of the game was the camaraderie. I just wished the coaches and the parents weren't so determined to win!
Lynn's Comments: I did this for Aaron…to let him know that I put stuff off, too. What surprised me was the kids really did read my work, and sometimes they knew it was personal.
Lynn's Comments: Sometimes it’s hard to find something to say about these strips! This one is interesting only in that my colourist, Francie, and I had a discussion about the colour of the chocolate bunnies in panels 8 and 9. She wanted to make them brown chocolate. I said brown wouldn't show up in the packages, so to make them white. Well, as usual, readers sent their own thoughts, and Francie was right. I was surprised by the number of folks who had never heard of white chocolate, and those who had said it wasn't really chocolate at all. This was before the internet, so these were actual letters! Sometimes the simplest of subjects brought in the most mail.
Lynn's Comments: Old English Sheepdogs are a load of work. They pick up the great outdoors and bring it right into your living room. They are walking dust-mops. Even a daily brushing does little to keep the dirt at bay. Eventually, you sort of give up and learn to live with the mess. Like kids, it’s a good thing we love them!
Lynn's Comments: My husband and I rarely raised our voices to one another. This Sunday page actually came about after one of my friends in town told me this had happened to her. I never told her I was going to use the story in the strip, and she never approached me about it afterwards. Either she never read the strip or never associated the story with herself and her husband. Lucky for me!
Lynn's Comments: The first year it was my turn to host kids from the out of town hockey team, I prepared for mayhem. I bought kid-friendly food items, borrowed strong camping gear and restocked my first aid kit. I was going to hold up under pressure…after all, other moms did!
Lynn's Comments: We all hear complaints about young people; how disrespectful and inconsiderate, how noisy and unruly they can be. The kids who stayed with us for the hockey tournaments, however, were the easiest kids I'd ever had the pleasure to deal with! So the story running here was more about creating an interesting cartoon than it was about telling the truth!
Lynn's Comments: This is another story from the heart. My son had bunk beds in his room and my daughter just had a single bed. It was much easier for him to host a friend for the night than it was for her. When I let Aaron have a boys only all-nighter, it seemed as if Katie was being left out of everything. Sometimes, it’s hard to make things even, especially when a kid wants equality NOW!
Lynn's Comments: Every mom has heard this line…and every mom responds the same way. I got a lot of satisfaction out of drawing the expression on Elly’s face here, knowing it would be felt by so many!
Lynn's Comments: This little scenario was performed by yours truly to an unappreciative audience, several times. Yet, the concept of replacing the roll seemed to elude an otherwise capable crew. I took to putting the roll on the seat in full view with the hope that it would be correctly reinserted in the aperture created for it. Eventually, I gave up. You have to pick your battles, I guess, and in the scope of large family concerns, this was not on the radar. It pleases me no end now to see my kids in their own homes replacing their rolls with skill and dexterity. I guess you can teach by example after all.