The inspiration for this came from a quote in the latest FBorFW newsletter--Lynn giving a status update on the much [un]awaited Farley plushie:
The hold up, now is: the plush material we wanted for the body is no longer available and the new fabric, though really nice is fluffier, which changes the shape of Farley's face. The last sample they sent was so close! I took a pair of thinning shears to the cheeks and muzzle and soon, Farley began to emerge. I was quite happy with the results and asked if they could reproduce the look I came up with. They are amazing, so I'm sure we'll have a good likeness with the next sample. This process is time consuming, but it's like doing a portrait in plush...which is quite a challenge! I always learn a lot when I work on a project that's not pen and paper!!
For some reason, Lynn taking the thinning shears to that unsuspecting plush toy gives me the heebies a bit.
The inspiration for this came from a quote in the latest FBorFW newsletter--Lynn giving a status update on the much [un]awaited Farley plushie: 
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It's too bad that she isn't learning the right things from this debacle; as we've all noticed, she could have unleashed this horror on the world months ago if she's taken the time to do it right. Also, it's so like Elly to prefer an ideal that only exists inside her head to the genuine article. If she could, she'd live in a dollhouse and have the mannequins say and do what sh wants them to.
I remember seeing Lynn talk about how she and her daughter once made all the strip-related items she sold. Her constant rejection of the Farley plushie, tells me that this may have ruined Lynn in merchandising things like this. Somehow I get the feeling that after Lynn finally gets a plushie she likes, she will have lost money in the process.
Somehow I get the feeling that after Lynn finally gets a plushie she likes, she will have lost money in the process.
Lynn: See what I did here, with the thinning shears? That's what I want you to replicate.
Manufacturer: Hm. Oh, I know; instead of that, how about we make them the way we just did, and you trim down each one individually before shipping it out to customers?
Lynn (blinking rapidly: Um... Okay!
If she could, she'd live in a dollhouse and have the mannequins say and do what sh wants them to.
She so would--and it enrages her that those around her refuse to behave like her imaginary mannequins.
Hehehe, the "good" Farley.
Poor Real Farley, Elly doesn't think he's good. She probably prefers the plush one because he doesn't shed or go to the bathroom in the house.
B-but...Farley was more HER dog than anyone else! Lynn SAID so!
It doesn't matter that she never once SHOWED so! She has only thirty seconds a day after all! You're just a bunch of meanie picky-faces!
She probably prefers the plush one because he doesn't shed or go to the bathroom in the house.
Yup. That's what makes plush Farley such a good, good boy, as far as Elly is concerned. ;)
It doesn't matter that she never once SHOWED so! She has only thirty seconds a day after all! You're just a bunch of meanie picky-faces!
Heh. It's kind of tempting to set up a companion blog to this--"Cawffee Squawk"--and post comments defending every little thing Elly does. :)
Jesus. Obsessive-compulsive much, Lynn?
Jesus. Obsessive-compulsive much, Lynn?
I know! And not even the fun kind of OCD. ;)
Until the final panel I was terrified that the plushie didn't exist and crazy Elly was about to take the thinning shears to a real dog! As with her furious expression when she went to brush Farley on Sunday in the other-FOOBAR, er, the actual strip, I can imagine her taking thinning shears to Farley just as I can imagine her beating him with a hairbrush.
forworse, it's kind of surprising that, after John and Elly gratuitously shaved Farley after the skunk incident, Elly didn't insist upon keeping him that way. Less maintenance.
OK, wait a second. I think there are lots of legitimate criticisms that can be levelled at Lynn Johnston, particularly over plot direction over the last few years, and April, I love what you're doing with that on FOOBAR. But Farley the comic-strip dog (independent of whatever real dog Lynn had in real life) is her creation. If the plushie Farley came out and looked different from the comic-strip Farley, you'd be all over her for retconning Farley for a buck. Why not at least wait and see what the end product looks like before jumping on her for this. Maybe the sample Farley was wrong, and what she did made it better -- or just the reverse. But wait and see before criticizing.
Robert, I confess that I generally dislike the idea of having a Farley plush toy at all--or the book, or the "fun with Farley" section at the official site. The whole Cult of Farley, as I see it, wouldn't exist if LJ had just let him die a natural death. People who barely thought about him decided they lurve him when Elly's negligence (leaving the gate unsecured when she knew April had been using a stick to open it; ignoring April in favor of obsessing over her vacation slides) led to his wearing himself out rescuing April. (And don't even get me started on all the "April killed Farley" nonsense!)
So, I admit Lynn probably can't win with me no matter what she does with her Farley plush. (Though I do imagine her being rather OCD-ish about her prototypes, and the prospect of Lynn with thinning shears does frighten me more than rational thought can explain.)
The other thing I wanted to play with in this Foobar was the idea of Elly preferring her inert plushie Farley to the real Farley, who rolls in stinky stuff, goes to the bathroom, sheds, and just generally gives martyr-Elly more work to do. I can't help thinking this is analogous to LJ preferring her pen-and-ink dog to any real dog (as she pretty much spelled out when she did her recent interview with George Stroumboulopoulos).
Didn't Lynn claim in one of the anniversary collections that some years after Farley's inspiration "Went to live on a farm" that her family adopted a cute black-furred dog with "An endearing habit of nudging people's palms with his nose"?
Of course, apparently the main thing this sweet, cute habit did was give Lynn the idea to do a strip where Farley nudges John's palm with his nose, John spills coffee, then John screams bloody murder at poor bewildered Farley.
Hee-hee! Verbally abusing animals is almost as fun as physical abuse, eh Lynn?
Didn't Lynn claim in one of the anniversary collections that some years after Farley's inspiration "Went to live on a farm" that her family adopted a cute black-furred dog with "An endearing habit of nudging people's palms with his nose"?
Sounds familiar.
Hee-hee! Verbally abusing animals is almost as fun as physical abuse, eh Lynn?
Probably her only dilemma is trying to decide which is more hi-larious. And of course she has a legion of fans who jump in to defend her if someone questions the humor of these strips.
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