December 2010

I do think Mike & Dee's relationship could improve - and part of that would be stepping back a bit from attaching themselves to Mike's parents at the expense of Dee's.

As for Mira, I'd hope that seeing some of her daughter's family problems (with a few accompanying clue-by-4s courtesy of Wilf :) would help her, well, act better.

Not Quite Continued

I was originally thinking of letting that simmer and Mike having a version of this conversation after April had left on her trip, but sometimes the comments do get me to thinking, and it makes sense for it to come out now.

Back in Milborough

Late Spring 2010, Late Night...

I did a scary amount of quick & dirty select regions + colour erase fills to deal with lighting gradients.

Springtime for Foobville VII

I've been having some trouble with gradients in my photos of the pictures. Then I zap some of it if I have time, but it leaves more "fussy" parts a little grey

... and the closest thing I'll get to an "Easter" strip:

Springtime for Foobville V

a beginning?

I only realized a pancakes comment would fit just before I started drawing :-)

well this was supposed to be Saturday's...

... but I had GIMPing issues. So it was a quickly-drawn one:Just what Mira thinks can be done (since I hope it's clear she isn't talking about divorce) is almost ready for tomorrow.

continuing along

Special longer bit

I've usually done these as little "strips", and once I realized I had more than would go in a "strip", I plotted it out pretty much like a Sunday one:Still to be continued, but we'll see how long it takes me to get it done.

Update: ETA Thursday/ Friday. I know what will get said, just not with which *words*.

Mira presses on in conversation

[nar] Over coffee after shopping, Mira tries to talk to her daughter [/narration]Definitely to be continued...

And now for another parent-child pair

No, I don't know what I was thinking about Deanna's dress design. Except that I'd put in that there was draping, and I think I merged that with the prairie-dress style on the old Who's Who page.

and one more for Friday

This was slightly inspired by the non-canon letters.

Somebody should really stop me from snarking on the wedding-o-rama but not yet

Wouldn't a wedding denouement with the real consequences of the insane planning have been great?
Merrie and Francoise in tears over the ugly dresses, attendants carrying landscaping remnants of wilted bedding pansies and trimmed leaves, the inexpertly-altered dress falling apart in the middle of the vows...

I have really gotten into a MWF routine, haven't I?

I really noticed how much I've gotten into a MWF update routine after the holidays when I had a very full M-Tues this week. I had stuff figured out, but almost no drawing time. So this was supposed to lead into another little bit with Dee and Nora:
Which maybe I'll get to drawing tonight or tomorrow.

Jan 2010 at the pharmacy

24 Dec 2009: Nearing the endgame

[narration]While Iris offered Elly a cup of tea - so much more soothing than coffee, dear - others took stock of the situation.[/narration]I'm really not happy with my ability to light up the pics. I keep moving the lamps around, and never find a "minimal light gradient zone"

24 Dec 2009: another rare Wednesday installment

... in order to continue Deanna's conversation with her parents. It did look like something of a breakthrough was happening.

Well, maybe not quite the breakthrough they were hoping for.

Yes, this on-the-edge obsession of Deanna to make Mike a success is my tribute to the "small sewing school" future in the Strip of Destiny, which clearly wasn't going to work unless Mike could support the family himself. It hasn't occurred to Deanna that she might not feel work was such a drudgery if she weren't run ragged doing everything so that Mike is left free of all responsibilities except his muse.

Wilf clearly has his own ideas of the root of this obsession.

Either way, Deanna is doing everything, because while freelance writers complete projects on their own time, Mike has been given a ton with hard-to-schedule subjects. (Maybe he's annoyed people in the industry?) And it looks like Mike has neither been asked to nor has he figured out on his own to use the rest of his time wisely.

24 Dec 2009: Poor Wilf

So why do I keep making poor Wilf try to keep things from boiling over? Back in the apartment days, he was the only one of the older generation to do so. Deanna got upset with her mom at least once, and Wilf told Mira to cut it out at least once. Given where I've been going with Deanna's situation, that leaves just him.

There's a second part to this scene which I should get photographed and up tomorrow.

24 Dec 2009: somewhere in here, Elly must have gotten her coffee, right?

I expect somebody pried it away from Mira while Jim & Iris were getting settled. Possibly Mike while retreating from the kitchen - because it's not as if Mira's busybodyinsuggestions have been laid to rest.

Yes, Jim and Wilf have something of a Battle Of The Vests going. In my defense, they have both been shown to wear that clothing style.

UPDATE: I haven't been putting in people's names just to be sure they're IDed, have I? That's Liz, last seen in Nov 13's post (the first Christmas Eve strip). I try to make sure the dramatis personae is on the post labels.