Here it is....

Click to enlarge.

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.  :)

Elly, Connie, and Anne have coffee

Click to enlarge.

Anne, post-warp

Click to enlarge.

Catching up with Connie and Lawrence

Click to enlarge.

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!

Farewell, 1981

Click to enlarge.

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."

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

Click to enlarge.

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

Click to enlarge

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.

Will the real story please stand up?

Click to enlarge.

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.

'Allo, 'Allo

Click to enlarge.

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

Click to enlarge.

The limits of gratitude

 

Click to enlarge.

...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

 

Click to enlarge.

Memory and Distortion

 

Click to enlarge

I guess we'll have some Michael/Lawrence stuff to get through before the big reveal of Connie's fugly new look in the strip.  Getting just a bit ahead of things.

Tertiary-Character Theatre

 

Click to enlarge

The curly-haired woman is supposed to be the hostess who seated Connie in the reprint strip that ran this past Friday.  The woman talking to her is a waitress I made up.  :)

More Montreal

 

Click to enlarge.

This is meant as more of a follow-up to the strip I expect to see reprinted on Saturday.  In case you are not familiar with the Mrs. Beasley doll, here's what she looks like:

I expect you can see the resemblance with Connie.

Connie's thought bubbles, continued

 

Click to enlarge.

This is supposed to be what happens right after the strip that originally ran on 2/16/1981 (to find it at the search catalog enter the text follow it in the "punchline" search field).  I am gambling on Lynn reprinting this strip, but I've been wrong about these things before and expect to be again.

The moment before

 

Click to enlarge.

Elly thinks about using her journal to prevent a hair don't, but not a broken leg

Click to enlarge.

Here we go....

Click to enlarge.

....Of course, in the original run, Lynn never actually showed the mystery door-answering "girl" in the strips.

Ceci n'est pas une pipe

Click to enlarge.