socks: Browse The Strips
Sunday, April 13, 1980
Sunday, March 8, 1981
Sunday, September 27, 1981
Saturday, October 10, 1981
Saturday, February 13, 1982
Thursday, April 28, 1983
Saturday, February 25, 1984
Sunday, April 15, 1984
Sunday, September 16, 1984
Monday, September 23, 1985
Friday, March 21, 1986
Wednesday, December 3, 1986
Friday, May 1, 1987
Wednesday, October 5, 1988
Sunday, February 5, 1989
Tuesday, December 27, 1994
Friday, June 2, 1995
Monday, September 22, 1997
Sunday, November 16, 1997
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Lynn's Comments: This quote I will call an "Aaronism". My son regularly deflected a well rehearsed tirade because he had better one-liners than I did.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Lynn's Comments: I don't know who came up with this disgusting, yet satisfying little prank... my brother or me. I think I'll take the credit. Mom was a stickler, as I've said, for cleanliness. Long before the clinical admonishment to wash our hands as often as possible, Mom inspected our digits with surgical scrutiny. She once told me that her mother fired a maid because she said that making bread was a good way to clean her nails! Mom regularly washed walls, countertops, baseboards and knobs to make sure we were as germ free as possible. Naturally, it was our prerogative to return these surfaces to their germ-laden norm.
The long socks we wore bore the remnants of rubber, road salt, floorboards and feet by day's end and smelled wonderfully wicked. I remember pulling up my dirty socks, rolling them down my leg and thinking, as the end popped off my foot, that it looked a lot like a fetid kind of hat. When these "hats" didn't do much for my dolls, I decided to put them on the doorknobs- to the great annoyance of mother, who refused to touch them, much less turn the handle. Her British admonishments were worth hearing. "Dreadful, dreadful, dreadful!" and "You miserable recalcitrant!" and "This is the very LIMIT!" made us giggle behind our hands. I look back at it all now and wonder how she put up with us... perhaps it's because, despite her militant need for order and discipline, she had a really good sense of humour.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Lynn's Comments: They say that "normal" means different things to different people. For us, normal morphed from one reality into another as the kids grew and changed and became individuals. When they were little, reality was toys - everywhere. Later, it was friends - everywhere - and the sounds of sports, music and video games. Normal didn't become tidy and organized and quiet until they both moved out. Then, normal meant projects and travel and missing them.
I went to visit friends of my daughter's recently. Brooke and Matthew have twin daughters, six months old. The girls are just starting to toddle and their small living room is strewn with blankets and toys. Brooke apologized for the mess. I said, "Don't worry, relax - I understand. You have two little kids! ...This is normal!!!"
Monday, February 7, 2011
Lynn's Comments: For some reason, we lost a week of dailies. We looked in the archives, pulled out old negatives and checked the collection books--and still, six days out of this year were missing. After an exhaustive search, Kevin called and asked me to draw up a new week of dailies to fill in the space and keep the year's work on track. This is the week! I tried to do a series of spot gags that could be placed anywhere and ideas regarding kids vs. grown ups quickly came to mind. I introduced this by having Mike hog-tie Elizabeth (something I loved to do to my kids!) which meant he was bored and would soon be under the watchful eye of his mother.
It was fun to do. I haven't had to produce new FBorFW material for a while, and I was surprised by how easy it was to get back into the routine. The trouble is--what used to take me a few hours now takes me a few days, and I was glad to have it "in the can" and off to the syndicate.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Lynn's Comments: This year, I will be the same age as Charles Schulz was when I first met him. Cathy Guisewite ("Cathy") and I met "Sparky" Schulz in Washington. We teased him, singing "Will you still need me, will you still feed me--when I'm sixty four?" It was 1986. In 2011, it's my turn to be sixty four...and I'm looking at life through entirely different lenses!
Sparky and I both enjoyed drawing the dogs in our strips. Snoopy was a magical fantasy character who could do almost anything, while Farley was just a regular mutt. These cartoon drawings were alive to us and eventually both Farley and Snoopy became frontrunners in our work. If they did not appear regularly, our readers would ask "why?" so it was important for us to invent ways to showcase them as often as possible.
Farley allowed me to explore the goofy visual humor that a family pet provides. He was a pleasure to draw and when we had the opportunity to animate him, he was hilarious. Watching other artists "become" Farley as they made him scratch and roll, shake off dust, bark and run wildly in circles is something that makes me laugh every time I think about it.
I am so grateful for my friendship with Sparky and for having known Bill Melendez, who animated Snoopy and all the Peanuts characters. I keep in touch with Judy Sladky, who is the magic behind Snoopy On Ice, and as a friend of Jeannie Schulz, Sparky's widow, I will soon be speaking at the Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa with Jan Eliot, who does "Stone Soup". This will connect me again to friends in the industry and remind me once more...that I'm a very "lucky dog!"
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Lynn's Comments: I was happy with this punchline. In cartooning, a phrase like "turning over a new leaf" usually leads to a smart reply. You can also change the words: "A nerd in the hand is worth two in the bush". I always caution new cartoonists against using a familiar quote unless they are planning to use it in a zinger in the last panel.
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Lynn's Comments: I had a couple of friends who were latchkey kids. Their parents worked and after work, they'd spend time at the bar before going home. Both girls were the guardians of younger siblings. They literally raised their brothers and sisters because their parents were never home. I remember being jealous of my friends' freedom. We played "house." We'd put the little ones to bed and pretend we were grownups. For me, it was a wonderful game...but later, I could go home and be a kid again.
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Lynn's Comments: When I look at this now, I smile. I was not yet forty, but I could see myself aging. Every wrinkle was worrisome. The tiniest hint of an eye bag sent me looking for creams. We had been married for a few years and I was wearing some pretty tattered nightgowns. I didn't care much about looking good when I went to bed... as long as the face looked good in the morning.
Now that I'm 65, I have given up on the face, but I wear pretty nightgowns--I seem to be doing things in reverse!
Now that I'm 65, I have given up on the face, but I wear pretty nightgowns--I seem to be doing things in reverse!