Farley: Browse The Strips

Monday, December 19, 2011

Lynn's Comments: Getting the kids ready for tree cutting trip took almost as much time as the event itself. Bundling them into layer after layer of winter duds followed by a drive out into the bush was a challenge. Follow this with a tiring search for the right tree and you have a cold and hungry family ready to take down the first semi suitable shrub in the area.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Lynn's Comments: The annual trek into the bush to get our Christmas tree was a Lynn Lake ritual. The trouble was that the good trees were only visible in the summer. You'd have to tag the tree and hope someone else didn't cut it down before you did! December temperatures would often dip below -39C so you had to know where you were going and take your tree fast - before you froze to the spot where you were standing. A frozen trunk wasn't always the easiest thing to chop or saw through, either!

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Lynn's Comments: A good tree, harvested by hand, was something to celebrate. In this strip, Farley is giving the yuletide conifer a canine style christening - another event which never happened, but should have!

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Lynn's Comments: After all of the preparations and expense; after the cards and the phone calls and the waiting for the clan to gather, the actual day of celebration seemed to be over in a flash. After getting the kids to sleep and the kitchen cleaned up I remember falling into bed dead tired, buzzing from too much food, company and excitement. Still, the sleep that came after everything was over was a deep and satisfying one- knowing I had a whole year to prepare for the next Christmas!

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Lynn's Comments: Every so often, I'd realize that I had not featured Farley in the strip for a while, so I'd find a way to write him in. Although I never slept with any of my pets, this is how I imagined sharing my space with a character like Farley.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Lynn's Comments: To end a dispute between Kate and Aaron, I did divide the kitchen table so that each child had their own side. I then divided the couch and Aaron himself divided the living room. This bit of biblical rectitude resulted in a deep interest in equality. Both kids then wanted to divide the house, the hallways, and the stairwell into "what's yours" and "what's mine".

The task was not a small one, but they were determined. It gave them something to do together and the price of a roll of masking tape was a small price to pay for silence. I decided to use this in a Sunday strip. The thought that they might even have tried to divide the dog had me smiling for days!

Friday, March 16, 2012

Lynn's Comments: This strip a favourite. Folks who came home from a hard day's work to see their dog happily lolling on the living room carpet in the warmth of the sun let me know that this strip was on target. Forgetting that a dog's life is really a kind of captivity...we do tend to envy them. The one time I was glad NOT to be a pampered pet was when I opened a can of dog food and watched ol' Farley gulping mystery meat from a grubby plastic bowl.

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Lynn's Comments: Farley had great wide hairy feet and every time he came indoors, I wiped them as best I could--knowing that dirt would come in anyway and I'd just have to deal with it. When my kids came in carrying the same amount of flotsam, however, I bounced around pointing at the inevitable grime and water, telling them in no uncertain terms that they had to be more careful and considerate and bla, bla, bla.... Maybe we're so much more patient with them because dogs can't talk back!

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Lynn's Comments: This is from my own recollection as a teenaged babysitter; I'd have to be a disciplinarian, but I was too young to be taken seriously, so I had to play two roles: the friendly big kid, and the tough cop who'd turn the kid in to the authorities if they didn't shape up. It wasn't an easy job sometimes and I earned every cent I made.

Monday, May 7, 2012

Lynn's Comments: Living on my own and working freelance meant that I was always very short of cash. One of the things I hated most was asking my clients for the money they owed me. I did all the right stuff; I had a proper billing system and a business license. All I needed was to be paid on time. It amazed me when people who could well afford to pay, made me wait for weeks--sometimes months...or didn't pay at all. I had to become more assertive, but it was hard!

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Lynn's Comments: This scenario has been a cartoon staple for years. Even though we all try not to duplicate something we've likely seen before, there is always the need to do it your own way, using your own characters. The thing is to try and do it better than the last guy! I didn't succeed in doing this better than Doug Wright ("Nipper") for example, but simply drawing one more mess was enough to make me do this old chestnut one more time. My kids never did make me breakfast in bed--it's not something I like. I did hear from moms who enjoyed it, though--and I emphasize the past tense!

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Lynn's Comments: Janice was going to be a regular character in FBorFW. I was looking forward to having a rough and tumble girl down the block who would be an even match for the boys. She was named for a tough kid I knew growing up, and I hoped to explore some of my more daring exploits through her. I imagined Mike and Lawrence battling Janice and other "enemies" in an ongoing quest for neighbourhood supremacy. Sadly, Janice soon disappeared. Perhaps she came on too strong. Perhaps I bowed to reader criticism. Either way, I lost a neat character and some potentially good story lines.

Monday, June 4, 2012

Lynn's Comments: The tap on the side of the house I grew up in, should have broken with the punishment it received. Alan and I filled balloons, hung buckets, and tied skipping ropes to it. We also drank from it--right from the spout. Mom managed at least to prevent one thing by telling us snake eggs were in the water and would grow in our stomachs if we didn't use a glass!

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Lynn's Comments: Farley, at this time, had been given to another family. He was now living on a farm himself, and I wondered how long it had taken him to adjust. His new family must have shaved off his long, thick fur, because he was a dog who loved to roll in everything awful and then trail it into the house!

Friday, June 29, 2012

Lynn's Comments: The real Farley never saw the insides of a kennel. He was always billeted with friends, and I, in turn, looked after their pets.

Saturday, June 30, 2012

Lynn's Comments: The kennel you see here was based on the kennel we (much later) put our spaniel, Willy, in. Situations, which were based on reality, didn't appear in a chronological order. I relied on ideas and imagery, which came from the disorganized mess that is memory!

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Lynn's Comments: Yes, this was another opportunity for readers to reprimand me for not being a responsible dog owner. Still, one has to wonder: even with all of their good intentions, did these people never have something like this happen? "He who is without sin," and all that? I always wanted to say, "Folks, it's a cartoon dog!" When you make a published statement every day, and you tell it like it is...be prepared to be told off!

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Lynn's Comments: Farley was long gone when this was drawn. I relied on my friends' pooches for dog related input, and they were always keen to keep me up to date regarding kennels, shots, skunk encounters, and table manners. There was also a vet in the family to keep me in the know!

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Lynn's Comments: This was me. I remember tying knots in the curtains, jumping on the couch, melting crayons on the radiator, peeling the wallpaper, and dropping toys into the biff. I don't think I was doing these things to be destructive as much as I needed stuff to do. We didn't have a TV, mom worked all the time doing laundry, canning, cleaning, and making meals. And when she wasn't doing housework, she sewed for us and did repairs and alterations for the dry cleaners down the street. She tried all kinds of things to keep us occupied. It's just that we needed constant attention and she wasn't superhuman. She did the best she could. Rainy weather often kept us indoors even in summertime, so it would be interesting for me to poll some of my fellow North Vancouverites to see if they too were as full of mischief as we were.

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Lynn's Comments: Farley had always been a healthy pooch, but since dogs suffer like we do from illnesses and accidents, I thought it was time to explore a story about going to the vet.

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Lynn's Comments: The original Farley really did love chewing gum. I discovered his penchant for gum when I saw him take some out of a wastebasket, work the Kleenex off it, and continue to chew for some time without swallowing. I had never seen a dog do this before, so Farley's gum chewing became a bit of a party trick. He particularly liked Juicy Fruit--even if it had been previously enjoyed. The thing was to make sure I was there when he spat it out, or I'd have a surprise on my foot later on.

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Lynn's Comments: I rarely saw my parents kissing. Sometimes they held hands but it was a discreet show of affection--which was quickly over if someone drew attention to it. Still, they were very romantic. They thought about each other and did things for each other easily and naturally. They were husband and wife, but they were also the best of friends. I often made fun of the two of them and their mushy ways, but in the end, I wish for all the world I could have had a marriage like theirs.

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!