beach: Browse The Strips

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Lynn's Comments: Ever seen one of those conveyor-belt style toasters? The kind they have at breakfast buffets? You fire a slice of bread onto a moving belt, and by the time you've plopped a wad of scrambled eggs onto your plate, the bread has moved past a heating element and has reappeared as toast. This is an efficient and practical way to manage a hungry crowd of people, all bent on getting what they want, when they want it. Going to Barbados rather reminded me of the conveyor belt toaster. White folks get off the planes, head for the beach and return to the airport tanned and toasted. Not much different than a breakfast buffet. Strange, isn't it, that many of us (white folks) equate a tanned skin with health, style and attractiveness...and yet we've maligned and criticized for centuries folks who are born with a natural tan! Makes me wonder.... how can we be so stupid and so smug at the same time?!

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Lynn's Comments: Cartoonists are discouraged from using comic strips as a platform for preaching reform - but every now and then, something really gets under your skin and you simply have to write about it. For me, littering is a red flag. If I ruled the world all convicted litterists would receive a stiff fine, a broom and a dustpan. They would be sentenced to cleaning the community streets, parks and beaches for as long as it took to reform them - and even then, they would be on parole. When Katie cut her foot on a broken beer bottle at the beach one weekend, I penned this Sunday page - and the response was immediate. I received a lot of mail from folks who feel the same way I do - and it occurred to me: with so many people angry, frustrated and disgusted by littering, why do we still have so darned much of it??!!

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Lynn's Comments: Strips about littering were always well received. This one was made into a poster and was put up at a lake in Saskatchewan. It was also a limited edition print, which was given to volunteers who helped to clean up local beaches.

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Lynn's Comments: Here is another strip that got me into hot water. Removing Michael's towel while he was changing was a reportable offense! The problem with a static image is the subtle elements, which would otherwise explain things, are not there. You can't show subtle things like eye movement, shrugs, knowing smiles, and reassuring gestures. The artist knows the situation is all in fun, but the audience does not. What should be funny is therefore sometimes misinterpreted.

As kids, we would change on the beach under our towels so fast that even the swiftest voyeur was unable to catch us in the buff. We'd yell out "I'm changing!!" just to goad someone into pulling off our towels. That's what kids do! Anyway, this ran and I knew as I saw it in print that I would soon be getting more mail. I learned another lesson... but then again, this job is all "towel and error!"

Sunday, July 5, 2015

Lynn's Comments: One year my dad insisted we all go on a camping trip into the BC interior. He was an amateur rockhound who loved to gold pan, and his plan was to follow the route of the gold rush to Barkerville and back.

Before we left, both he and my mom made sure we kids had everything we needed. They packed, repacked, checked, and double-checked our suitcases, and told us that if we forgot anything, we'd be out in the bush where there were no stores, we would have to live without it. Off we went in our old 1959 Chev, with a pile of supplies and suitcases lashed to the top of the car.

After a long day of driving, we finally came to our first stop; a swampy, mosquito-infested campground just north of the town of Hope. The sun had dropped below the mountains. Mom reminded Alan and I that there was nothing around us for miles, and to make sure we had everything we needed for a night in the woods--just as Dad discovered he'd forgotten the tent poles.