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.  :)

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.

'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.  :)

Tertiary-Character Theatre

 

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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

 

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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.

Here we go....

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

Ceci n'est pas une pipe

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Hope this was worth the wait....

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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.  :)

Happy foob year!

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I love jazz!  I grew up with it.  So it really bugs me when Elly and Lynn show their usual disrespect for it.  (For a prime example, go to the "strip catalog" part of the foob site and enter "discordant" as your keyword search.)  So I wanted to show some respect and imagine that Phil and his band would be playing this:

Notice how Miles Davis makes no "tattica" sounds with his trumpet. ;)

The conversation before the gobsmack

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I'd heard that today's official foob would feature Mike, Phil, and an Elly gobsmack.  I wanted to make a reference to that, but not seeing the strip, I had no way to know what Mike and Phil would be wearing--hence the wardrobe change Phil suggests in the last panel.

Recycled art for a recycled story arc

So, Lynn appears to be doing another iteration of the Phil-Connie storyline that she did prematurely during Christmas 2008/New Year's 2009 and seemed to wrap up back in February.  Then she probably realized she has to bring them together again if she wants to reprint the "Connie chases after Phil by going to Montreal" arc.  So in honor of that SNAFUiness is a repeat of the January 2, 2009 art, but with shiny new dialogue.

Lawrence overhears

Phil also hates shopping for Elly

How many of us could resist the urge to mess with Elly's head?