Here it is....

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Erg. Since I'm not home, I had to use a different scanner, and it did some funky stuff to my image quality.  So, let's see.  I modeled the layout and also the first and third panels after the August 12, 2007 "cookout" strip, the one where Elly scares Robin by saying that she'll blow up if she eats ONE more thing, only to eat one more thing.  That's also what the final panel here refers to.  I was going to put more people and business in that first panel, but I realized I'd probably need an extra week if I did that!  So while Mike burns what's on the grill, everyone else is assembled inside, and they all come out a moment later!

Panel two has John speaking with Ted. That's Dee in the left, bottom corner of panel three and Uncle Phil on the right side. Liz is talking to Aunt Georgia in next panel.  Next are Abby Caine and April, then Greg Thomas with Steve Nichols, then Francie.  Anne Nichols is agreeing to cater Nick and Lawrence's wedding reception.  And finally we have Meredith reassuring Robin.

I'm reminded that certain little-used characters never really got a consistent look:  Ted, Steve, Greg, Nick, Anne.  In some strips, Nick looked like Anthony, in others he looked like Gord, and in some, he looked like their highly unlikely offspring.  Similarly, Greg strikes me in some places as a Gordo/Ted hybrid.

So, yeah.  This is it.  I just really wanted to close off with a sense that things are continuing.  Life is happening.  (Please imagine that a respectful time has elapsed between Elly going catatonic and Mike having a cookout.)

I have no plans to take this blog down, though probably in a couple of weeks, I will switch to screened comments.  With ARB, I noticed that a dormant blog becomes a comment-spam magnet.

Thanks to all of you who have visited this site.  I've had fun doing FOOBAR!

Edit:  I almost forgot to explain about Françoise.  She's quoting "Le Mythe de Sisyphe" by Albert Camus, where he concludes that one must imagine Sisyphus happy.  Sisyphus has resisted suicide and considers himself superior to his fate.  My silly way of lampooning how absurdly (ah, geddit?) advanced Francie has been portrayed in the strip.  :)

Ugh, please bear with me!

This is taking longer than I'd expected.  I'll update as soon as I can.  Sorry about that!  (I know, Lynn can consider me a total wimp.  Oh, well--I'm in such good company! :) )

Breather...

I need to take a little breather--the epilogue goes up Wednesday.

Inside the Pattertonic Head

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Well, howtheduck totally called this.  Yes, Elly, in her catatonic state, is thinking the reprints.  This is an image I've had in my mind for more than a year--ending* FOOBAR with Elly catatonic, John wondering what she's thinking about, and the last panel showing Elly with that day's reprint in her thought bubble.

I of course didn't know what reprint would be running on that day.  I think the one that this landed on is oddly appropriate.  It seems to fit in with the theme of never having appreciated what she had when she had it.  (Not that John was such a prize, but you know what I mean.)

*But I'm not quite ready to end--there will be some epiloguey goodness to follow.

Pattertonia

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The Story Not Written

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So, yeah, that's Deanna with Michael. I refuse to put her in the dreaded bowl haircut, but when I lengthen her hair, she looks disturbingly Aprilish. So--Dee. Not April.

Flat Stanley as Michael

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Maybe because of the way I drew the table, I couldn't get Michael not to look flat in panel one (and yes, I did erase, redraw, erase redraw).  Oh, well, maybe it's symbolic of the way Elly tried to steamroll him.  ;)

And Elly STILL unhinges that jaw!

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A Pattern?

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Elly's little chat with Liz

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How not to be like Elly

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Elly, Connie, and Anne have coffee

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John has a drink with Ted

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You know what I just realized?  John's hair in the second panel doesn't match the way I have it in the first and third panels.  I used one of the strips from the Settlenuptials as my reference for the second panel, and didn't think about the fact that John had his hair slicked back for the occasion.  No wonder I kept thinking he looked painfully Anthonyesque.  So, my wank is that there was a big gust of wind between panels one and two, and it settled down before panel three. 

A Little Party

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Eek, I never thought I'd do a Lynn-like teeny-tiny figures "longshot" frame.  But I wanted to get everyone in--and there you go.  Another homage!

The Nichols Boys in 2010

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The Anne Nichols liography has Christopher and Richard both living in Alberta.  Richard is a firelighter.

Where Dee finds herself upon returning to 2010

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This is an actual continuing education program for pharmacists.  :)

I hate to admit this, but I can kind of see Lynn's point about her not-changing-characters'-hair rule in the later years.  This is supposed to be Dee with her hair grown out from that awful bowl haircut Lynn stuck her with.  I referenced a couple of strips from December 1999, when Dee had just returned from Honduras and her hair was grown out a bit.  Only I thought her hair looked almost mullet-ish in those strips, so I tried tweaking it, and now she doesn't look like Dee.  ::sigh::  Let's just pretend she does!

Anne, post-warp

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Catching up with Connie and Lawrence

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Okay, so here is a conversation with my son, which took place the afternoon of Free Comic Book Day (this past Saturday), shortly  after we got our free comics:

Son:  What will you call your "FOOBAR" comic book?

Me:  I don't know--I hadn't though of making a "FOOBAR" comic book.  If I make one, what do you think I should call it?

Son:  I don't know, either.  Oh!  Elly Patterson Free-For-All!

Welcome to 2010

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Fear not--we'll also be checking in with other characters, and there will be more follow-up/aftermath.  This is pretty much the moment after the ::poof:: of the spell, in which we see where the characters find themselves (kind of like when your pre-empted TV show comes back "in progress").  :)

Farewell, 1981

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Some commenters here had such interesting ideas about Elly using her stated desire to do one more "Yammersons" strip as a pretext that would allow her to engage in subterfuge that I feel a bit bad that I didn't have anything like that planned.  I really did just have her doing one more strip to get her digs in before the move "Back to the Future."

Yammerson Frugality

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One for the time-road....

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There's a bit of a meta-joke here, since using my "Yammersons" template does allow me to churn them out quickly once I've written the script.  :)

The memories will remain

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"Oblivious" is such a poor excuse

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I know these two have been having this conversation for a small eternity--I'm almost in grad/zits/vacuuming territory here!  But...  just one two more strips devoted to this conversation, and then we'll mix things up a bit.

Non-perseverance

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Confrontation

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 Note:  I will be away on a work trip Thursday through Saturday this week, so my commenting is likely to be sporadic.  Never fear, though--Friday's strip is already uploaded and scheduled to self-post.  :)

Not detail-oriented

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It's Cliffhanger, hanging from a cliff, and that's why he's called Cliffhanger!

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Okay, so I decided that between panels one and two, Elly removes her Nizziepack, releases Nizzie, and removes her coat.  I am so done drawing the pack.  I was kind of baffled as to how exactly it's supposed to be constructed, and then I found that it's clearer here.

I realize that those are a couple of big, honking books in the last panel.  I was initially planning to make April larger in relation to them.  I'd considered erasing and resizing the books, but then I thought, "WWLD?"  And the answer was clear.  "No erasing!  No correcting!  No resizing!"  Hee.  :)

The end begins

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Whenever I need to draw Anne, I find myself staring in disbelief at the reference strips I'm using--that hair, that face--the floating heads and partially drawn features.  Poor Anne.

End game

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You'd think there'd be a "trains" pun here

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Punctuation translation

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Training Joe Yammerson

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John gets cranky in his strip

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Completely OT

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Will the real story please stand up?

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Of course, I am probably guaranteeing that LJ will make with a new-run that renders this invalid and impossible.  Oh, well...  We're to understand that the straight reprints are right around the corner.

That face

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Absent knowing where Lynn is going with the 'Allo-girl discussion between Elly and Anne, I give you a little riff on that face clench of overreaction Elly does.

Elly's non-passion

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Yeah, I know I made Elly's right hand disturbingly small and spindly.  I am pretending it's an intentional homage. ;)

"Elly Patterson likes hate!"

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Today's entry title comes from my son (age seven).  We had the following conversation:

"Why does Elly Patterson have 'hate' in her comic strip?"

"It's a running joke.  Emmy keeps not liking the way the conversation goes."

"Elly Patterson likes hate!  Elly Patterson likes 'hate' in her final panels!"

'Allo, 'Allo

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Lynn has written that the original inspiration for Connie was an art teacher of hers.  She didn't adore her--she ridiculed her by mimicking her and drawing caricatures of her.  I was going to have Connie allude to Elly filling a notebook with mean doodles of the art teacher, but canned that in favor of the 'Allo-girl reveal.  But here's the between-the-lines/panels bit:  Elly is lying in panel two.  :)

Shoe, other foot--Elly doesn't like

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Coffee or Tea

 

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Yammerfriends

 

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Re-thinking the old thoughts

 

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This strip is meant to pick up  from the "Mith Campbell! Michael Patterthon's bothering me" strip that originally came right after the "egg breath" strip.  I realize that this makes it highly likely that Lynn will insert some new-runs in between.

Edit:  Yay, I'm actually in sync with the reprints.

Prelude to a nightgown

 

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Two-fer

 

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Another longform strip filled with gooey exposition

 

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Chantal was one of the friends at the slumber party April had to celebrate her 10th birthday, in April of 2001.  I don't think she was seen before or since.  Chantal had the distinction of being the only girl who had kissed a boy, and the other girls pressed her to share every detail.  In case you are curious about looking up the strips at the strip catalog, they are ID numbers 8986 through 8991.  What strikes me about Chantal is that, to me, she looks kind of like a blonde version of April, though with a different nose.

Not only did I not mean to dress them up like waitstaff (white tops and black pants), I actually meant to match Mike and Lizzie's night clothes as shown in the current strips.  Oops.

A shout-out goes to forworse.  Her comment about the first babysitter shown in the strip--Karen--growing up to be Becky's mother got the wheels in my brain going about other babysitters growing up to be the mothers of April's peers.

Glasses being the ultimate disguise and all

 

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Don't worry--April is going to do some splainin' on Wednesday.

The Gander Can Cartoon, Too

 

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The limits of gratitude

 

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...Aaaaaand Lynn opted not to run the strip I'm referencing here.  Of course she did!  Grrr.  Anyway, it's ID #3973 at the foob catalog (using their "Search by ID Number" option).

Whispered conversation between strips

 

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