Phil: Browse The Strips

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Lynn's Comments: The good thing about having two characters together in a situation like this is that the dialogue can be much more fun. You can be more creative when there are two takes on a subject. A glowering last statement is much more effective if it's delivered to an individual and not to an empty space.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Lynn's Comments: My brothers' smoking was always a bone of contention. He was still puffing when I did this strip and I was still trying to get him to stop. I don't think he ever blew up the kiddie pool, but he did play the trumpet professionally and I wondered how his lungs held out!

Friday, June 24, 2011

Lynn's Comments: My brother was not living with me at the same time Farley did. This was all part of the creative process. Having the dog, the brother, two kids and a husband all under one roof appealed to me as a cartoonist. Had I really shared my space with this lot, I think I would have been the one to run away from home!

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Lynn's Comments: This is a situation where a really bad and insensitive "joke" can be nicely covered up by putting it within the strip, not completing the sentence and using a friendlier punch line!

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Lynn's Comments: Here it is; the truth about Farley and the family car. When I did travel with canine, I put a metal barrier between the hatch back compartment and the rest of the vehicle. This meant that baby and I could inhabit the space safely and without dander. The one time I left Farley in the car sans restrictions, he not only covered the windows with spittle, he jumped on the doorframe and locked himself inside.

Monday, July 4, 2011

Lynn's Comments: Alan was always trying to quit. This and a serious lack of funds kept him without a reliable supply of smokes. He might say I'm making this up...but I do remember him sifting through the household refuse looking for salvageable butts. This is clear in my memory because despite my objection to smoking, I truly felt sorry for him!

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Lynn's Comments: Al and I tried smoking as kids. Our parents rolled their own, using a long rubber contraption that made five smokes at a time. I became pretty adept at the art. You had to pack just the right amount of tobacco into the trough, wet the paper slightly and roll the mix so that the long uncut cigarette was even and perfectly smooth. The cigs were then cut with a razor blade. It was easy to pinch an entire roll of five. All our chums were becoming smokers, but even though it was the ultimate in cool, I just didn't like the taste, the smell or the awful feeling afterwards.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Lynn's Comments: I moved Connie and Phil together and apart. Having been a single parent and knowing my brother so well, I imagined what their thoughts, conversations and mannerisms would be like. I was writing and drawing this from Northern Manitoba, and Alan lived in Southern Ontario. He would read the story six weeks after I'd submitted it - and, to his great credit, he never seriously objected to my taking such liberties with a character that everyone knew was "him"!

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Lynn's Comments: As a newly single mom, I dated men long before I was ready to enter into another relationship. Still reeling from deceit and divorce, I'd tell my suitor details of the past - things I should have kept to myself. I figure it takes about three years for the dust to settle after a marriage break up - but when you're young, insecure and lonely you just don't have time!

Friday, July 8, 2011

Lynn's Comments: It was scenarios like this which drove my readers crazy. I learned quickly that if you annoy folks and make them wonder what in heck was going on - they'd be sure to tune in the next day!

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Lynn's Comments: I think this was one of my favourite lines. We all "game-play". At least that's what we call the back and forth tug of war that eventually establishes who we are in a relationship and where each of us stands. Although I consider myself a straight shooter, I've indulged in these wars of wit and worry, too. At 64, I'm happy now to be at an age where I can smell the manure and decide whether it's worth digging into or should be left to mellow in the grass!!

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Lynn's Comments: We didn't have a bonfire in the backyard, but we did have deck chairs, flashlights and food. Dad played the guitar. He knew every camp and military ditty by heart and at this tender age, my brother and I thought he was absolutely wonderful. He was!

Monday, July 18, 2011

Lynn's Comments: When Alan came to visit us in Lynn Lake, he brought his trumpet. He travels with it everywhere and it was great for my kids to be able to hear him practice and to talk about his career. He and I grew up in a house full of music; something I have missed for a long time. I played 6 and 12 string guitar. Dad also taught me the button accordion! Alan played mandolin and trumpet and, to some extent, Dad played them all. To hear a melody come from an instrument played by someone you know is both healing and inspiring. Healing because no matter what we did to upset each other, the music we played put us into a space where we forgot our differences and became one. Inspiring because the competition between us to play better and to try new things kept both Alan and I close to our instruments and to our dad as well.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Lynn's Comments: Ahh...the angst and the misery of romance. Most songs are inspired by either the discovery or the painful loss of amour. What else but a song can allow you to holler with sorrow or delight? We've all been in a triangle of some sort - jealous, helpless, confused...and this story allowed me to wallow in it all!

Friday, July 22, 2011

Lynn's Comments: In reality, we left our house in the care of neighbours and family and took off for what we hoped would be an easy and enjoyable two weeks away from home. Planning and packing should have been the most difficult part of the exodus; add the excitement of children and you've got a busy day ahead of you. Like a canoe in the rapids with nowhere to go but the flow, our trip had begun .

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Lynn's Comments: I never did leave my brother alone in the house with Farley, but if I had, he would likely have talked to him like this. As kids, we'd never had a dog. We had budgie birds, turtles and a chameleon, but nothing big and fun and responsive. It took us awhile before either of us was comfortable with a dog. Where do they like to be scratched? How do you handle one? We tended to talk to them as if they were other adults - and come to think of it, other dog owners talk to their dogs like this, too!

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Lynn's Comments: After living in my garage for more than a year, my brother, Alan got a job with the Stratford Festival Theatre and moved to Stratford, Ontario. My room mate, Fran, moved to Calgary to continue her studies and I was suddenly alone in the house. I helped Alan move to his new apartment and wished him well. Although I was happy to have the place to myself again, I missed their company terribly.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Lynn's Comments: I was a bit jealous of Alan. He was still living in the land of the free. His friends were unmarried guys who travelled and partied and had few responsibilities other than coming up with rent and food money and I wished I could be as unrestricted as they were. Meanwhile, he was wishing he had a little more stability and thought I had the right idea. The grass was always greener somewhere else, it seemed.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Lynn's Comments: I don't remember if Alan was seeing someone in Dundas when he left for Stratford. My efforts to pry had never been too successful. I looked forward to visiting him and seeing him perform at the Festival Theatre. I didn't show this in the strip, but one of his jobs was to appear in a green velvet Edwardian suit and play the herald trumpet from an outdoor balcony!

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Lynn's Comments: As this strip was going to press, my brother Alan had started to go out with a lovely lady named Joan. I had been so close to guessing details about his relationships in the strip that when he saw this, he asked me not to have Phil and Georgia get married until after he married Joan!

Friday, November 11, 2011

Lynn's Comments: Joan (aka "Georgia") came into my brother's life when my kids were in elementary school. Because we were living in such a remote area, they didn't see a lot of Uncle Al, and didn't have the opportunity to observe his relationships. I did! Knowing he would read all the strips which alluded to him, I openly needled him, hoping he would spill the beans and let me in on his plans for the future. He didn't...until he was prepared to see it in the paper!

Friday, December 30, 2011

Lynn's Comments: The pharmacist hosted the first New Year's Eve party we ever attended in Lynn Lake. Because the liquor store was in the pharmacy, libation flowed. It didn't take long before my husband was leaning dangerously. Fearing we'd make a scene in front of the town's professionals, I insisted we walk home. As we shuffled the six blocks between houses, we heard a truck behind us. It was the pharmacist and all the guys from the party. They were hanging out the windows... wildly cheering us on!

Monday, February 20, 2012

Lynn's Comments: My brother, Alan, moved from my home in Dundas to Hamilton and eventually to Stratford, Ontario--where he was principal trumpet for the Stratford Festival Theatre. In the strip, "Phil" only moved once and I never specified to where.

Friday, February 24, 2012

Lynn's Comments: Alan's ordeal with the vegetarians did not end with the fridge and the juicer. He remembers giving them a list and some money for groceries.... and all they brought home was carrots! It wasn't long before he was making plans to move again.

Monday, May 14, 2012

Lynn's Comments: Alan would often call my kids "short one," which I thought was charming. One day on a business trip, I got into an elevator with a woman and her young son. I looked down at him and said, "Hiya, short one!" His mom immediately berated me for saying cruel things to a child who had an illness and was abnormally small for his age. AAAUGH!

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Lynn's Comments: The comment "What you need is a wife," never used to bother me. I didn't think of it as sexist. For the most part, we are more organized; we like to keep things clean and tidy. Today, however, I'm more likely to take the side of the independent woman and say, "What you need is discipline, pride, and self control!" After his marriage, by the way, my brother became extremely tidy!

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Lynn's Comments: Parents of young children can easily carry on two conversations at once. While showing a toddler that you are there and paying attention to them, you can also listen to and process adult communication. This is not something a non-parent can tolerate and now that I'm well past coddling a toddler, I can't stand it either!