sunday: Browse The Strips

Sunday May 21, 2017

Lynn's Comments: Another embarrassing home truth. I did this, and felt like an idiot afterwards. Fortunately, we lived in the countryside–a good distance away from our neighbours. What made the strip work was the thought: "What if?" What if I had done that in a tightly knit, urban community? "What if?" was a muse I regularly relied on!

Sunday June 4, 2017

Lynn's Comments: I had a lot of fun making up ads and slogans. Perhaps I would have done that for real had I remained in commercial art and advertising. Names of cereals, beauty products and cleaning agents were fun to dream up, and now and then I'd laugh out loud when I inked the drawings. Interestingly, some of the real ads for real products today, often sound like satire. Maybe there are too many products and not enough names to go around!

Sunday June 18, 2017

Lynn's Comments: I recently found a birthday card I’d made for my mother. She'd saved it in a photo album, something I hadn't opened for years. I had forgotten about the card. It said, "When you're very mad at me, you're awful for a mother, But even if I had a choice, I wouldn't want another." I think I was 8 when I made the card. She and I didn't get along well and I wondered why she’d kept it. I think I was trying to rewrite history here. The strip often had a sweetness to it that wasn't part of my own childhood experience.

Sunday June 25, 2017

Lynn's Comments: My first husband used to watch all kinds of sports on TV. It didn't matter what else was going on or what time it was, if there was a game on TV, he’d be lying on the couch watching it. I once suggested screwing legs onto him and turning him into a couch–that way he’d be useful. He didn't respond. He was too busy watching television.

Sunday July 9, 2017

Lynn's Comments: We never had a dog when we were kids, though my dad, my brother, and I all wanted one. Mom put her foot down knowing a pet would be another thing she would be responsible for. She said no to a dog, and she ruled the roost. Nonetheless, we dreamed that someday, we'd be able to have this kind of close and loving relationship with a dog. Neither my dad nor my brother ever adopted a puppy, but I did. My first dog was Farley; an old English sheepdog, purchased by my first husband, Doug Franks, and I on a Sunday afternoon drive into the Ontario countryside. He later became the character "Farley" in FBorFW. My next dog was "Willy": a sweet little black Spaniel. Katie picked him out of a pet store window and declared him "family" since he had such big feet. Willy became my pet and constant companion. My mom knew what she was talking about when she said a dog would become her responsibility. Willy was certainly mine, but it was a responsibility that brought me 8 years of fun, activity and genuine pleasure.

Sunday July 23, 2017

Lynn's Comments: Puns were a favourite punch line. They were untranslatable, however, which made it difficult for my syndicate to sell my work to non-English-speaking countries. I knew that word play limited my sales, but if I could come up with a good pun, I figured it was worth the loss.

Sunday July 30, 2017

Lynn's Comments: I had a lot of fun making up funny lyrics to these imaginary tunes…but readers focused on their objection to the word "crud". Today, this word would be conservative. How times have changed.

Sunday August 6, 2017

Lynn's Comments: King-sized beds were invented for a reason. Our bedtime habits truly establish our tolerance threshold. If you are OK with your partner’s sack-time etiquette (or lack thereof)…then you might be destined for a long lasting relationship. If not, you are doomed. King-sized beds and separate bathrooms have been touted as saving graces. I wouldn't have dreamed of separate bathrooms until this luxury presented itself in my most recent living space. Yes…give me a home where the buffalo roam, but make the privy a two-holer!

The strip you see here was inspired by a friend of mine. He once complained to me about his wife’s ability to swipe all the blankets in her sleep: she would roll toward him, tucking the blanket under her side. Then she would clutch the top of the remaining blanket and roll the other way, pulling everything with her. He called it "The Russell roll." (Russell is her maiden name). I thought it would make a great strip…but this is how the muse made it turn out.

Sunday August 13, 2017

Lynn's Comments: I have had yard sales. I have helped with yard sales. I now know they are far more trouble than they are worth. Still, the fun factor makes them a good idea anyway. One year, I joined the "5-Mile yard sale"; an event, that happened every three years or so on the 5-mile stretch of Macpherson Drive in Corbeil, Ontario. The word would go out and everyone on this country road would bring their stuff to the end of their driveway. This made for a great 5-mile walk as we perused each other’s cast-off clothing, kitchen gadgets, car parts, and other effluvia. I had my own pile of junk to sell, and found myself rooted to my post. When I told my kids they could keep what they earned by selling their unwanted toys, they volunteered to take over while I bumbled off down the road in search of treasure.

I came home with a purse. When my husband saw the purse he laughed. He said all we were doing that day was exchanging junk! This was true. I told him that on my hike down the road, I had seen an old blue tractor for sale. He lit up. A few minutes later, he came back on the tractor as happy as a clam. I asked what he was going to do with a tractor. We had property, but weren't farming or mowing it. He didn't know. The thing is…he had always wanted to own a tractor. The moral of this story is: if your husband buys a tractor (that he doesn't need) at a yard sale, you are free to buy whatever you darn well please from then on. A short while later, I came home with a puppy. Game on!

Sunday August 27, 2017

Lynn's Comments: Occasionally, I would use the strip for a personal rant. I got my point across to my family in a way that was, perhaps, more palatable than the real thing. Not to say that I didn't rant about this for real. I did. The best part of putting real feelings out there…was the response I got from readers who said how true it was. Some said they had given this strip to the guilty parties to show their frustration. I had put their and my feelings in print. Somehow, seeing a situation on the comics page legitimized it.

Sunday September 3, 2017

Lynn's Comments: When my daughter reads this now, she'll laugh out loud–she and I can spend a full day in a good mall and wish we had more time!

Sunday October 8, 2017

Lynn's Comments: After he graduated from high school, Aaron moved to Vancouver. With plans to study broadcasting, he couldn't wait to go. He left home with confidence and an attitude that said, "Goodbye, no horse town!" A few weeks after he’d settled in to his apartment he was sharing with a friend, I got a phone call from my liberated son; "Hey Mom…everything’s fine, I just need you to send me something. It’s um…well…uh…could you please send me my, um, …teddy?"

Sunday November 5, 2017

Lynn's Comments: Wordplay like this made my work difficult to translate, so it was not seen in foreign language newspapers. This problem was pointed out to me on several occasions. Still, I couldn't resist having fun with English.

Sunday November 26, 2017

Lynn's Comments: Our dog Willy would wait until we had finished eating before he dug into his kibble. If there was the smallest chance of leftovers, he wanted to be sure he had room. I did this strip with compassion and understanding—I wouldn't want to eat the same thing everyday either!

Sunday December 3, 2017

Lynn's Comments: Living in small towns meant that we got to know the medical folks pretty well. Meeting a doctor at a party, who had just given me a physical check-up, was a challenge at first. Then, like everyone else…I just got used to it!