Lynn's Comments: When I'm working, I will make the same faces as the characters I'm drawing. It was funny for the kids to watch me--especially if the face I was drawing was screaming or just plain mad!
paper: Browse The Strips
Friday, January 18, 2013
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Lynn's Comments: In Vancouver during the 50's, there was a popular children's radio show called, "Kiddie's Carnival." It was done in a small studio with a live audience, which you could be part of by writing into the program and asking for tickets. It was first write, first serve. My mom managed to score two of them. Not only did she and I have tickets, but we were told that I would get to be one of the children allowed to say "hello" on Kiddie's Carnival radio!
It was an exciting day. I had never been in a radio station before and when it was my turn to go up to the microphone, I was terrified. The host was reassuring. He moved the big silver microphone right under my nose and said, "Lynn, it's your turn to say hello! Who would you like to say hello to today?" Meanwhile, my dad was at work. He had the radio on and everyone in Shores Jewellery was listening. Sweating and shaking, I leaned into the mic. and said, "Hello, Grandma and Grandpa!" Dad was crushed. He had expected me to say hello to him. I wasn't thinking. I just blurted out the first thing that came to mind. When he got home later that evening, it was clear that I had let him down. Mom thought it was nice that I had thought of her parents, though, and decided to call them and ask what they thought of the broadcast. Sadly, they hadn't been listening. To this day, I think about that missed opportunity and I wish that I'd acknowledged the one person to whom it really mattered.
It was an exciting day. I had never been in a radio station before and when it was my turn to go up to the microphone, I was terrified. The host was reassuring. He moved the big silver microphone right under my nose and said, "Lynn, it's your turn to say hello! Who would you like to say hello to today?" Meanwhile, my dad was at work. He had the radio on and everyone in Shores Jewellery was listening. Sweating and shaking, I leaned into the mic. and said, "Hello, Grandma and Grandpa!" Dad was crushed. He had expected me to say hello to him. I wasn't thinking. I just blurted out the first thing that came to mind. When he got home later that evening, it was clear that I had let him down. Mom thought it was nice that I had thought of her parents, though, and decided to call them and ask what they thought of the broadcast. Sadly, they hadn't been listening. To this day, I think about that missed opportunity and I wish that I'd acknowledged the one person to whom it really mattered.
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Lynn's Comments: The other day I watched a young mother guiding her son around the grocery store. She was letting him do all the shopping. She asked him what ingredients he would buy if he was going to make chili and what would make a nice salad. The child was about four years old and right into the project. This was a shopping trip just for him. He had to think about what he was buying and why. He was told about the cost, how one kind of bathroom tissue might be a better value for the family than another. He made decisions about desserts and treats and whether one kind of bread would be more nutritious than another. I was so impressed with this young woman's insight, patience, and ingenuity that I had to compliment her. She just said, "He was interested, so I thought it was time." As I watched her continue to the checkout counter, I wished I'd had her good sense when I was shepherding my little ones!
Thursday, September 12, 2013
Lynn's Comments: Artificial cigarettes were newly on the market when I did this strip. As a non-smoker, I was fascinated by the idea. Could a placebo smoke really take the place of the real thing? Friends and family were eagerly testing this possibility, but couldn't get past the image of the pacifier to take it seriously!
Sunday, May 4, 2014
Lynn's Comments: Aside from getting out the message that chaos always happened when I needed to think, I did owe a letter to my aunt Bessie. This was a way to tell her I was thinking about her and get some work out at the same time. Unfortunately, Bessie never read the paper the day this was released, but I did write the letter I owed her!
Monday, June 30, 2014
Lynn's Comments: "Train of blank" was not mine. Somebody said it somewhere years ago and it stuck in my head. What a great line!--Isn't it strange that you can remember some insignificant little line like this, but forget your licence plate, your passwords and your PIN?
Wednesday, July 2, 2014
Lynn's Comments: This strip was done well before the advent of electronic readers and iPads. It's interesting to see that we continue to wonder how the printed page will survive, and if books as we know them will still be the pleasure they once were--and the best gift ever.
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Tuesday, February 17, 2015
Lynn's Comments: When this strip appeared, I was criticized for stereotyping the Enjo family: they were Asian, therefore they were intellectuals. It was interesting to note that the complaints didn't come from people of Asian descent!
Monday, February 23, 2015
Lynn's Comments: My mom (who was good at business and bookkeeping) tried repeatedly to explain simple math to me. I was never able to get it. Years later, my husband, who was also frustrated by my aversion to math said, "The reason you don't like numbers is because they make SENSE!!!" At the time, I was making a good living, daydreaming and making stuff up, so I took this as a compliment!
Friday, March 6, 2015
Lynn's Comments: Here again is the old chestnut where someone working outside the home has no idea how much work it is to manage a home and family. Every Friday, I look after my grandchildren. Laura is 3, Ryan is 1. Not wanting them to sit in front of the television for long, I try to have things for them to do--and it's a real effort. It takes time to interest them in toys, give them meals and snacks, keep them safe and keep them clean. You can do nothing else and if you try, you only get annoyed and resentful. Parenting is definitely a full time job! After a full day of serious grannying, I am glad to see these beautiful children go home with mom and, I wonder how I managed to run a home and do a comic strip at the same time!
Sunday, March 22, 2015
Monday, June 15, 2015
Lynn's Comments: I sent in this strip knowing it wasn't one of my best. Again, the pressure of a relentless deadline will often result in an "OK, it's done, I'm sending it!" situation. For someone trying to analyze this for its humour (and there are people who do this kind of thing), what I was trying to do was to contrast Lizzie's English language gaffes with something which has meaning. HUH? Anyway, it didn't work. This is where a storyline (rather than gag-a-day) helps because the audience, by following a series, might overlook one lousy strip! Did I make that clear? No? Uhhhh--OK--NEXT!!!
Monday, December 14, 2015
Sunday, January 3, 2016
Lynn's Comments: My son, Aaron, really did stick his tongue to the school flagpole. A frantic teacher called me and I ran to the school in time to see one of the staff trying to pour hot coffee down the flagpole to warm it up. Another said to just pull him off, so I worked at his tongue, which was stretched like an elastic, and his teacher pulled him. With an "OUCH!" he was finally free. I thought he'd be upset, but Aaron was quite proud. When he'd stopped nursing his sore tongue, he happily pointed to the pole where a number of small, fuzzy spots marked battles with other frozen tongues. "Here's Cathy, and here's Bryan, and here's--" I guess it's a rite of passage: every kid has to see if the warning has merit--and every generation discovers that it does.
Sunday, March 13, 2016
Lynn's Comments: When this strip ran, people all over the continent made paper hugs to send to loved ones all over the world. They sent me letters and photographs of the hugs they made and of the people who received them. This was a strip I didn't think was anything special. I never knew when a simple drawing I did might be seriously taken to heart.
Sunday, April 10, 2016
Saturday October 8, 2016
Lynn's Comments: Truth is stranger than friction. I'm not the first to say that, but it's worth saying just the same!
Monday October 17, 2016
Lynn's Comments: My job sometimes required me to work all hours; weekends, evenings, and sometimes, holidays. Even though Kate and Aaron understood what it meant to be working on a deadline, they often wished I'd break away from my drafting table and be mom for a while.
Friday December 16, 2016
Lynn's Comments: Hard to translate and often just plain bad, puns were the spark that kept my fire burning!
Sunday January 1, 2017
Lynn's Comments: Yes, this is from my childhood, then from my children's childhoods...and I'm still writing letters on everyone's behalf! Mind you, they email more than I do. I still send hard copy. Maybe that's what's hard about it.
Sunday January 8, 2017
Lynn's Comments: We called it a wreck room. I believe in calling a mess, a mess.
Monday September 25, 2017
Tuesday January 2, 2018
Lynn's Comments: My parents insisted we thank (in writing) everyone who sent us a gift. At the time, we thought it was a miserable waste of our time. Now, I know it was an investment in the relationship between myself and the kind person who had been thoughtful enough to send a gift.
Thursday April 12, 2018
Friday July 13, 2018
Monday November 4, 2019
