Phil: Browse The Strips

Saturday, April 16, 2016

Lynn's Comments: My brother's anxious phone calls leading up to his wedding day, were hilarious. He wasn't unsure, he was just overwhelmed. Having been a musician all his life, he'd been a very independent guy. Marriage was going to change everything!

Thursday, June 16, 2016

Lynn's Comments: One of my husband's favourite lines was, "It's best to be honest. And, once you've faked honesty, you've got it made!"

Friday, June 17, 2016

Lynn's Comments: This happened--but it was my dad who was caught smoking on the porch. He was dying of lung cancer at the time.

Friday, August 5, 2016

Lynn's Comments: Within the story of the dumpster, I had to blend the serious commitment of Phil and Georgia's wedding. This kind of challenge made writing and drawing the strip pure fun.

Monday, August 8, 2016

Lynn's Comments: Kevin O'Grady spent the entire day aware of how badly he smelled of the dumpster. If things like this weren't so funny, we'd never get through life!

Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Lynn's Comments: My daughter, Katie and her husband, Lane, were married under a tree at English Bay in Vancouver. There were four of us in attendance, thus avoiding the dreaded wedding speech!

Sunday April 16, 2017

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.

Friday June 23, 2017

Lynn's Comments: Here’s where Annie’s husband, Steve, had a small role. Until now, he had just been a shadowy figure. I’d alluded to his infidelity, but had never gone into that story. It was a rather daunting one, and I wasn't ready. I did, however, see him as a bit of a hoarder, so when the Pattersons did their renovation, he was there to salvage their cast-off materials. At the time, I could see Annie and Steve’s garage crammed with stuff and all of the ensuing family squabbles it might cause. I imagined all of the interesting side stories this would generate…but in the end, I had only one statement a day to work with and my readers spent less than 30 seconds reading it! I never developed the "hoarder" side of next-door neighbour, Steve. There wasn't time.

Wednesday March 21, 2018

Lynn's Comments: In a TV sit-com, you can get away with changing a character with a haircut or a hair colour because the character is a real person. In a comic strip, the art often reflects an artist’s style to the point where hair, posture, and even clothing are used to clearly identify the character. Charles Schulz once told me, "If it wasn't for hair and clothing, all my characters would look alike!" He drew them all in his own unique style.

Thursday March 22, 2018

Lynn's Comments: This is true. There was a coffee house on Davie Street in Vancouver where I tried to be a folk singer! Many of us did. In the 60s, music and entertainment were everywhere. If you could sing and strum a guitar, there was always a place where you could play—for free. One night at The Bunkhouse, I opened for Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. I was awful and they were very kind. My career, thankfully, went in another direction!

Friday March 23, 2018

Lynn's Comments: I think this was an actual conversation between my brother Alan and I. He became a professional musician. He has just retired—he played the trumpet for over 50 years.

Saturday March 24, 2018

Lynn's Comments: Strolling across the parking lot at Canadian Tire today, my partner Paul and I were talking about our past and how much fun we'd had. We wondered about the new generation of kids, and it occurred to us that right now, is THEIR "good old days!"

Wednesday July 18, 2018

Lynn's Comments: When I was a teenager, The Pacific National Exhibition grounds were a short bike ride away. My friends and I would ride over the Second Narrows Bridge and around the bend to where we could see the big arc of the rollercoaster. We'd go to the park even when the fair wasn't on, and without too much in the way of security, we could roam around quite freely. One time, there was an opening in the fence around the roller coaster, so we went under the huge track and looked up at what was, for its day, one of the scariest rides in Canada. We looked at the way the ride had been engineered and how the struts had been anchored to the ground. This was exciting. The best part of our adventure was finding stuff that people had lost while they were on the ride. I found a hat, glasses, some loose change and a toy or two…but the funniest find of all was a set of dentures. We could only imagine the anger and frustration of the person who got off the ride…without their teeth!

Friday July 20, 2018

Lynn's Comments: These drawings were done with all of the sounds, sights, rides and disappointment I could remember. The only thing I ever won at an arcade was a big box of chocolates. Crazy with excitement, my friend Marian and I opened them up on the bus on the way home. Inside we found the dusty, grey, broken remains of what must have been the oldest chocolates in the world. Oh well, we did get a story out of it, which in the end, is better than a first prize after all!

Saturday July 28, 2018

Lynn's Comments: My first husband had Phil’s philosophy. We saved and saved for the down payment on a house and when we were ready to buy, he suddenly wanted to spend it on a sailboat. We bought the house.