John: Browse The Strips

Monday January 4, 2021

Lynn's Comments: I clearly remember sucking my thumb. I think I did this until I was in grade one. I remember the feel and the taste and the comfort. The good thing about thumbs (I thought at the time) is that they are permanently attached and always available.

Monday January 25, 2021

Lynn's Comments: They say that each car has a "face." By the way the lights are placed and the grill is shaped, a car can have a real personality. One of the Volkswagens was designed to have such a visible face that eyelashes were created just to augment the illusion! I noticed recently that the new Lexus has a face...it looks surprisingly like a boss I once had. If I owned a Lexus, I'd call it "Mitch."

Tuesday January 26, 2021

Lynn's Comments: My daughter saved up for her first car. She was so excited about buying one. She had a used car picked out and was ready to negotiate the price, but the salesman kept referring to her dad. Eventually, her dad told the salesman to talk to the actual buyer! Kate took the reins and negotiated a great deal. It was a high five for all of us!

Friday February 12, 2021

Lynn's Comments: The way to write a story, using one statement a day, is to include valuable information in dialogue that is crafted as a joke. Here, we get the joke about the hat, but it's connected to Gordon's gloves. He needn't have left his gloves at the Patterson house, but by having this happen, I was both confirming that Elly had intervened and that Gordon liked being in the Patterson home. This works as ongoing information without having to delve into the difficult storyline again.

Sunday March 14, 2021

Lynn's Comments: I really got myself into trouble with this one. In the second panel, "checking pockets" was something that used to be done during a regular check-up. This involved using a probe to explore the depth of the tissue holding each tooth. The tiny spaces at the front, back and sides of each tooth are called "pockets." A healthy tooth has shallow pockets, meaning there is substantial tissue holding the tooth and the bone has not receded. "Long in the tooth" is when the bone recedes, the gum does as well, and the tooth root begins to show. I knew dentists and their staff would get the joke, but the general public might not... so I added the note, "a dental joke." It was not accepted as such. I did this strip for the sheer joy of the punchline, which was a dreadful pun. I was proud of it. The number of irate dental folks who wrote to tell me that checking pockets was NOT a joke, but a serious procedure and I should know better than to make fun of it. Well, excuuuuuse me!!! I was also on the carpet for suggesting that not all assistants wear gloves. In fact, at the time this strip was written (early '90s), wearing gloves was only just becoming a medical requirement. Yup. I apologized and explained my way through the letters, but the slap stung. This has been a long-winded explanation, but I'm glad to get it off my jest!