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.  :)

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."

Whispered conversation between strips

 

Click to enlarge.

Based on the strip I thought would be reprinted today

Click to enlarge.

So, this is based on the strip that originally ran on 1/30/1981.  Lynn ran a new-run yesterday--I'm not sure if I'll just end up a day out of synch or just generally scrod.  Anyway, if you'd like to find the strip I referenced, search the strip catalog at the foob site using decision-makers of the future in your punchline search.

Probably a guarantee that we have Anne-and-Elly new-runs.

Click to enlarge.

This strip is meant to follow up on the one that originally ran on January 28, 1981.  Yesterday's reprint originally ran on January 27, 1981.  So I suppose I am virtually guaranteeing that we will actually get new-run filler that continues Elly and Anne's coffee talk.  ::sigh::

In the likely event that this happens, you can find the strip I was referencing by doing a punchline search at the official foob site's search catalog, using the phrase spitballs in the dictionary.

Oh, and I know I'm having Lawrence dwell on the broken-leg thing.  He really doesn't want to break it again.

Ceci n'est pas une pipe

Click to enlarge.

Hope this was worth the wait....

Click to enlarge.

Here it is!  I hand-lettered to save a step and get this up faster.  Hope it's reasonably readable.  In the last panel, I know I should have done a Lynn-style longshot to get both Lawrence and April all the way into the frame, but for some reason, I was amused by the idea of only being able to see the top of Lawrence's head.

So, yeah--extended-play format with lots of extra exposition.  :)

About that sitter...

Click to enlarge.

Okay, so I am jumping back a bit in my time sequence for this one.  Chronologically, this comes before the NYE strip I ran on Friday, 1/1/10.

Lawrence overhears

An Awful Awareness

Connie and Anne discuss Elly again

Ugh. So my mobo died and I had to replace my computer. I'm now running a shiny new laptop w/Windows 7, but now I've got Gimp instead of PaintShop Pro, so I've got some getting used to.... that's why the text size is a lil off....

Edit: Oops... I only just realized I used the wrong font for this. That's something I can't blame on Gimp--I do have the foob font installed.

Is it Elly's usual abnormality or even worse abnormality?

Lawrence and Mike... The rest of their conversation

Mike's strange behavio[u]r