shelves: Browse The Strips
Wednesday, January 11, 1995
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Lynn's Comments: This quote was right from the dentist's mouth. My husband told me that in university there was so much going on in his residence, he went to the library to sleep!
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Lynn's Comments: In order to inject a bit of jealousy between my two main characters, I showed John firing off a definite ogle in the direction of Elly's shapely co-worker, Sue. I planned to take this farther and have something of a relationship evolve between John and Sue resulting in a serious exchange amongst all three. As in other attempts to show some "straying from the fold," I lost my nerve and never continued with the storyline.
Thursday, March 28, 2013
Lynn's Comments: The punch line here came from my experience with McMaster University. When I was first hired as a medical artist, everyone was working in temporary facilities as we waited for the new medical centre to be finished. We all had direct contact with the doctors, for whom we were working, and information was easily transferred from the physician to us to the drawing board. Later, when we moved into the new building and the department expanded, supervisors were hired to supervise supervisors, and direct access to the doctors became impossible. Suddenly the artists were trying to get information through a chain of command, which naturally resulted in misunderstandings and mistakes. Going directly to a surgeon to find out exactly how to interpret a procedure was discouraged. What was once a straightforward process became... well,... like trying to take seeds out of a watermelon with rubber gloves on! In frustration, I became the class clown again; a jokester--it was the only way I could survive the assistants who were assistants to assistants!
Saturday, May 25, 2013
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!
Friday, December 6, 2013
Lynn's Comments: Katie was much too big, but she insisted on riding in the shopping cart baby seat. I told her repeatedly that it wasn't a good idea, but I gave in. As soon as she was settled, she was stuck. I told her to be patient, that we'd get her out when I paid for the groceries. She wailed. The man at the meat counter came out from behind the showcase and lifted Kate's upper half while I pushed her feet. We extracted her without injury. I said nothing. I didn't have to!
Thursday, February 27, 2014
Lynn's Comments: Several librarians wrote to me to protest this storyline. Seems there are too many deserving people working in libraries with the right credentials to give an opportunity like this to a volunteer.
Monday, April 28, 2014
Lynn's Comments: The library where Elly volunteered was based on the library in Dundas, Ontario, where I went with Aaron to borrow toys and books and to take in the free events put on for kids. There were readings, films, children's shows, and an annual yard sale--the profits from which went to buy the toys we all borrowed and appreciated so much. That library was a resource and a refuge, and even though these images were sparse in detail, I felt I was "there" when I drew them!
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Lynn's Comments: My folks taught us to appreciate money. Anything over and above the weekly allowance had to be earned. There were always small chores assigned--easy enough to be completed, yet significant enough to be helpful. We were genuinely pleased with ourselves for finishing a job and excited about the payment afterwards. The next lesson was to make sure the money was well spent. With the corner store a short bike-ride away, that part of the lesson took a bit longer to sink in.
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
Lynn's Comments: For the new release of this strip, the dialogue was changed to read, "Hey, guys, what's short and round--" I knew I would still get negative mail but perhaps fewer complaints than when it was first printed. People don't want to see derogatory remarks of any kind, even if it's exactly what two little boys would say. I could have deleted the strip, but I rather liked the gag!
Sunday, July 27, 2014
Lynn's Comments: I'd occasionally buy the National Enquirer if I recognized the celebrity on the cover--and cared! I did, however, buy the News of the World regularly. Who could resist headlines like the ones I had fun with in this strip?! The stories were so wonderfully preposterous, I secretly wished I was one of their writers. A few years before this fine rag went belly up, I read a headline that was very similar to "Octogenarian gives birth to triplets" (panel three), and I hoped it had come from this strip!
Monday, November 17, 2014
Monday, May 25, 2015
Lynn's Comments: I always enjoyed the opportunity to pop a bit of rhyme into the text of FBFW. I love to read and write poetry, and am partial to poetry that rhymes. A comic strip, like the dialogue in a play, has to have a cadence: a rhythm so as to move the audience smoothly along. Excessive commentary, even a single word out of place, can take you out of the moment and weaken the punch line. ie:
"What do you call a dog with no legs? --. It doesn't matter. He won't come anyway."
(This works.)
"What would you call a dog if it didn't have any legs" --It doesn't matter because he wouldn't come if you called him anyway!"
(This one you stumble over.)
It takes time to learn how to write with an economy of words; to be able to engage your audience thoroughly and not waste precious seconds on "roadblocks." More after dinner speeches should be written this way!
"What do you call a dog with no legs? --. It doesn't matter. He won't come anyway."
(This works.)
"What would you call a dog if it didn't have any legs" --It doesn't matter because he wouldn't come if you called him anyway!"
(This one you stumble over.)
It takes time to learn how to write with an economy of words; to be able to engage your audience thoroughly and not waste precious seconds on "roadblocks." More after dinner speeches should be written this way!
Wednesday, May 27, 2015
Lynn's Comments: Any time I have done a presentation and felt that I had screwed up terribly, I think about the times when I have had to cover for someone else. After I leave the stage, my head spinning with "Why did I say that?" or "How could I have forgotten such an important point?," I simply say to myself, "Well, at least I showed up!"
Monday, September 7, 2015
Lynn's Comments: When the Dundas Valley Journal ran my cartoons, I was thrilled. It didn't take long, however, for me to wish for a larger space and a bit more money. They paid me $10.00 a gag, and when I asked for $15, they stopped buying.
Tuesday, September 8, 2015
Lynn's Comments: As one of the few female syndicated cartoonists, I was often asked how I was treated by the men in the profession. Like every other woman, I'd been targeted (by a few people) with the usual crap and I learned to live with it. My revenge was to do a better job than my detractors.
Monday, November 2, 2015
Lynn's Comments: One thing I have never been good at is small talk at big parties. Some folks can rip into a crowd and have a great time chatting about trends, politics, and the weather--I'm more likely to say hello to the folks I need to talk to, then head for my hotel room and bed.
Tuesday, November 3, 2015
Lynn's Comments: This was one of the strips I really didn't like. I tried to literally make this man "talk in circles," but I wasn't happy with the result. Sometimes when I was on a tight deadline, I'd let something like this go through.
Sunday, January 10, 2016
Lynn's Comments: I went to visit Mike Peters (Mother Goose and Grimm) in Florida. He had a "NordicTrack" in his rec room and it was covered with coats and other clothing. I asked him if he ever used it and he said, "Of course!" and he pointed, theatrically to the elaborate clothes rack it had become. That was the inspiration for this strip.
Tuesday July 3, 2018
Lynn's Comments: Say goodbye to a tidy living room…for 8 years past the youngest child’s birth. When time goes by and you finally have a tidy house, you miss the chaos!
Saturday July 14, 2018
Lynn's Comments: It isn't that my children grew up too fast…I grew OLD too fast!
Sunday July 29, 2018
Lynn's Comments: My partner hates to shop for clothing. If I am lucky enough to steer him into a men’s wear store, I have to be careful not to be too enthusiastic, too desperate or too demanding. A few weeks ago, we were successfully collecting things for him to wear on a Mexican vacation. Miserable, he had tried on shorts, shirts and two pairs of light pants. Some of these were going to work!
As I waited outside the changing room, I could hear him mumbling about the music. It was the awful boomf-boomf you hear everywhere; the kind with a wailing auto-tuned voice and repeated lyrics, repeated percussion. Suddenly, he burst out of the cubicle and sprinted for the exit door. I ran after him with the clothing and he told me to leave it all behind. "What’s wrong?" I hollered as he headed for the car. "I can't stand the music any longer!" he cried. "It’s driving me crazy!"
It had been driving me crazy, too. As we drove away without our purchase, I wondered who in the world chooses that awful music, and if anyone had done a study on the economic loss to retail shops, bars and restaurants since this stuff began to "stream"!
As I waited outside the changing room, I could hear him mumbling about the music. It was the awful boomf-boomf you hear everywhere; the kind with a wailing auto-tuned voice and repeated lyrics, repeated percussion. Suddenly, he burst out of the cubicle and sprinted for the exit door. I ran after him with the clothing and he told me to leave it all behind. "What’s wrong?" I hollered as he headed for the car. "I can't stand the music any longer!" he cried. "It’s driving me crazy!"
It had been driving me crazy, too. As we drove away without our purchase, I wondered who in the world chooses that awful music, and if anyone had done a study on the economic loss to retail shops, bars and restaurants since this stuff began to "stream"!
Sunday November 25, 2018
Sunday September 8, 2019
Lynn's Comments: When copiers became commonplace, everyone squashed and copied their faces…and other personal things, as well. In one office at McMaster University, where a large copier was in constant use, I saw the distinct form of a cat pressed onto the plate glass surface. There were no photocopies left at the scene and there was no cat on the premises. The outcome of the caper was not known, but people did look for scratch marks on the arms of workers in the area.
Sunday December 8, 2019
Lynn's Comments: Every now and then I did a serious and reflective punch line. I had to. This wouldn’t have been a realistic look inside the home of a North American family if the characters took their good health and good fortune for granted. Not everyone has the luxury of being able to buy groceries like this!
Sunday May 3, 2020
Lynn's Comments: Remember the movie "The Fly"? I’m talking about the old original (1958). Remember how the buzzing sound happened whenever The Fly was coming? There was buzzing...but the monster never flew!
Sunday May 31, 2020
Lynn's Comments: The scenarios that took place in grocery stores and pharmacies were fun to draw, but the artists who helped to ink and colour the backgrounds for me hated them—there were just too many little details.
Tuesday September 15, 2020
Tuesday March 23, 2021
