Monthly Archives: April 2024
Lynn's Comments: The story is starting to build here with the suggestion that April is very unhappy to have been excluded from the cruise ship holiday.
Tuesday April 2, 2024
Wednesday April 3, 2024
Thursday April 4, 2024
Lynn's Comments: The Patterson house overlooks a sizeable ravine. At the bottom is a river which, due to the spring rain, has become deep and dangerous.
Friday April 5, 2024
Saturday April 6, 2024
Lynn's Comments: I was roundly criticized for showing April down at the river unsupervised...but these things happen—even when families are vigilant and responsible.
Sunday April 7, 2024
Lynn's Comments: My rule for a birthday party was to allow my kids to invite the number of friends his/her age was. If Aaron was 5, he could invite 5 friends. This worked well until they were teenagers and the numbers soared. Teenagers were easier to clean up after. I'd always get them to help.
Monday April 8, 2024
Lynn's Comments: This illustration was hard to draw. I was very emotional when I did it. I could see the outcome immediately, but readers had to wait for 24 hours to find out what happened next.
Tuesday April 9, 2024
Wednesday April 10, 2024
Thursday April 11, 2024
Friday April 12, 2024
Saturday April 13, 2024
Lynn's Comments: I had written and drawn this episode eight weeks before it appeared in the paper. Even so, it was a bit of a rollercoaster for me to see it unfold in the paper day by day.
Sunday April 14, 2024
Monday April 15, 2024
Tuesday April 16, 2024
Wednesday April 17, 2024
Lynn's Comments: Tragically, the day this strip was originally published was also the date of the Oklahoma bombing. There was no way to halt or change this story and it ran at a time when North America was in shock and people's hearts were breaking.
Thursday April 18, 2024
Lynn's Comments: On one hand, this story was running at the worst time possible. On the other hand, teachers in Edmonton were using it to teach young children about the dangers of playing in the local creeks—so dangerous in springtime.
Friday April 19, 2024
Lynn's Comments: Farley left the comic strip at a ripe old age and as a hero. It was a fitting end to a great character.
Saturday April 20, 2024
Sunday April 21, 2024
Lynn's Comments: Because some papers only carried the colour Sunday page, the story of Farley's passing had to happen, almost separately, on the Sunday page as well. This meant having to craft dialogue that covered all of the important points without going into the details of the story. For the papers that carried both the daily and the Sunday page, it was important to show a reasonable flow of information without writing too much! Normally, I didn't continue a storyline into the weekend because of this conundrum, but in this case, I had no choice. Readers who only had access to the Sunday page needed to know what had happened during the week.
Monday April 22, 2024
Lynn's Comments: When this story originally appeared, my friend Charles Schulz was furious. He couldn't believe that Farley had been allowed to die. He called me and said, "That stupid little girl! What was she doing down at the river in the first place? That stupid little girl!" He actually blamed April and not me!
Tuesday April 23, 2024
Wednesday April 24, 2024
Thursday April 25, 2024
Lynn's Comments: I always enjoyed putting Ruth, my mom-in-law, in the strip. (Her second name was Carrie.) I tried to get a good likeness and used photographs until I could draw her fairly well. She was my right and left hand when the kids were small. I was so lucky to have had her in my life.
Friday April 26, 2024
Saturday April 27, 2024
Sunday April 28, 2024
Lynn's Comments: Some readers made fun of this idea—that Farley lived on in a spiritual form...but others were comforted by this Sunday page. The death of the Patterson family dog was an emotional story and I wanted it to end on a positive note.