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."