Early Winter 2010, shortly thereafter

Early Winter 2010

(To be continued...)

Continuing

Mildly Meta Monday

In which I acknowledge that I can't just dig up any old thread "just because" :)

A little later...

Back to the Foobery

Well, I've now had my chance to confirm once again that newborns are cute - and cuter in person than their photos. Also continued to cement my "weird aunt" rep by explaining to the toddler that a cartoon's floataway picnic basket was an exaggeration of Archimedes' principle to the point of misrepresentation.

And I finished up this sequence:

brief hiatus

Well, I thought after last week, I'd be on a nice little break, but I'm off to visit a new niece. A brief intro to the next bit: (so brief, I don't have the chance to get to the computer with GIMP update: GIMPed and re-uploaded). ETA for more: end of the week / weekend

We're Ba-aack...

So the sketchbook took a holiday, and got a couple of gifts. As in non-photo blue pencils and a thin liner pen. There were some experiments, one of which came out OK:
So this would be included as part of 25 December 2009. I should start Boxing Day tomorrow or Monday (yes, Liz' "people to meet" will be interesting, but not as drawn-out as the Christmas Eve arc).

I may or may not be able to do penwork regularly. One of the non-photo blues is waxy and hard to work with, so I effectively have to draw with the pen. The other draws more like a regular pencil, but isn't quite as non-photo in the results. Plus my liners are frustratingly unreliable - the lines feather - some of that stuff up there was overdrawn with a second pass of the pen, and the couch's outline is of unreliable thickness. In all, it's like drawing twice over... so there may be plenty of pencil-only episodes. But dang, the B&W contrast in the photo comes out nicely.

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: Yipes...

John does have his limits, although since Anthony was a bystander to Elly's mental slip (and it's sad that the good news for the day is that it's a short slip), it's not clear that this should mean anything about the long term Patterson-Blandthony relationship.

I really should have taken a ruler to that door jamb in the 3rd panel.

24 Dec 2009: I did say there were Events Which Must Still Happen, didn't I?

One thing about drawing in the dialogue instead of computer-editing it in... I realized I should have called it an "episode of Passive-Aggressive Family Theater".

BTW, this bit is on par for "musts" with Elly going delusional the day before. I wasn't sure how many explosions there would be, initially was just going to have Meredith avoid Elly rather than harangue her, toyed with having April really have that imagined-while-cooling-off argument with Elly (but she's not seven, and she got over "going off" when she came back home after running away) ... but Anthony on the invite list, with no warning to Liz was always in the cards.

24 Dec 2009: Not that I've forgotten about Wilf & Jim...

All this stuff has been going on over a period of a couple of hours - the Sobinskis were there while the turkey was being prepped, so at least a few hours before dinner. Much coffee should be being drunk, many cookies being eaten (and let's not forget the zucchini bread!), as well as cards being played. Along with Merrie and Robin playing or reading/ being read to. But because those things don't advance the "deal with the Christmas From Heck" story, they only get to be implied or happen in the background. So I put Merrie and Robin in the foreground to show some of what they're up to.

And I finally blocked out how the events which must still happen will make it into strips ... I think I actually will get through this comic-strip day before 24 Dec 2008 rolls around :-)

24 Dec 2009: Gather Them In (II)

... and given that it's about to be Turkey Day south of the 49th, it's doubtful that I will get anything else up this week.

24 Dec 2009: OK, So I Was Wrong

... I actually found time before supervising the night labs. This one wasn't complicated, anyhow. It's just setting up who is where well before Christmas Eve dinner.Plus, since they aren't over at the main action, I can always decide they changed before walking over. I don't even have to keep track of the clothes :-)

23 Dec 2009: Doctor's orders

Originally, I thought I'd have Dr. Walby say something like "Now, Merry Christmas" at the end. But I don't think she'd be that snippy.

We still have Patterson The Younger's household to return to before shifting to, uh, more on the 24th.

Ways to tell Emily Walby apart from April Patterson:


• Her bangs are longer


• Her hair is noticeably longer than chin-length, unlike April's


• She wears more "grown-up" clothes - the sweater on Dec 23 is pretty casual for her.


• Her face has prominent cheekbones and a blunt chin, unlike the oval "young Patterson" face

23 Dec 2009: A Law of Conservation of Foobery?

It's becoming interesting how the alterna-FOOB stories out there mainly differ by who is acting decently, and who, well, is being self-involved or a jerk.

I have Elly off the deep end, but getting help and Liz with a level head - but Mike is very self-involved. John is acting mostly reasonable; he at least won't ignore a major problem.

Other stories also have Elly (even more completely) living in a misremembered past, with John doing nothing and Mike being the decent one by taking in April, or John running off on April & Elly with Liz being completely self-involved. (Check out Foob of Destiny.)

I think there's a Law of Conservation of Foobishness. There was simply too much wrong with the final years of FOOB for all the characters to suddenly act like decent people. Somebody must act like a Foob.

Foob's Paradise may the only one with Liz acting reasonable, but keep in mind that it took me about 30 strips, two friends calling her out on her choices, a runaway sister and a ruined heirloom dress to achieve that.

This may not bode well for how much any other characters can change - I'm just saying :-)

Oct 27: Continuing right along...

Yes, it's Dec 23 when it all goes to heck in Milborough.

Not much to say. I added a line by the "comments" box sort of explaining OpenID to people I know (Hi, Mom! :-) who aren't used to it.

Oct 16: Christmas Festivities Continue

Zucchini bread's festive, right?

(& I'm having problems lighting up my pages uniformly for photos after moving a few lamps around, hence the background gradient.)

Oct 15

Real people get to do things...