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.  :)

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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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. 

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."

'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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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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Meanwhile, back in Milborough

 

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I don't know about you, but I need a break from the trials and tribs of Connie "I need a may-unnn" Poirier.

Après

The Island of Miss Moreau

Since Lynn doesn't seem to be even trying to pretend her new-ruin/old-ruin continuity is in "the modern day," I used a WKRP-era pic of Loni Anderson as my reference photo for Miss Moreau.

Lawrence and Mike... The rest of their conversation

Every John's a Critic