Lynn Johnston's 35-minute whatsit
This is not a speech. It's stream of consciousness. (And this isn't a post, it's also stream of consciousness. I can't deal with listening to this huge long thing any other way.)
What on earth is this talk supposed to be about? It jumps from "Sparky" to "me me me."
Did Lynn get ANY of her ideas from her own brain? Cathy Guisewhite had to tell her not to call the characters "Johnston", and Lynn has a reason for every. Single. Name. Middle names, best friend who died of cancer for Elly (that is not the story I've seen before), etc.
Lynn is talking about imagining stories like it's some incredible weird thing that's very very rare. Like no one else imagines things or daydreams, it's only comic strip writers, and herself in particular.
Her only example of punchlines: someone storming off.
She claims there was one prostitute in Lynn Lake, who also drove a cab, and when the prostitute wasn't driving it the minister would to make a few bucks on the side. Whatever, Lynn, just whatever. Then she starts talking about how much she hated the place.
And now she's talking about her own childhood, and claiming her parents played games with each other and with her. She's griping that they didn't communicate, and talked around everything. Well that's the Pattersons right there.
What is this supposed to be about? Now she's telling some stupid story about a truck that I don't believe happened either.
Her father (she claims) showed her Keystone Kops movies in reverse and in slo-mo to show her how difficult and well-choreographed they were, how professional, basically. For some reason, she thinks this explains why she couldn't take art school seriously. I think she got that lesson backwards.
Now she's talking about drawing, something that could actually be interesting. However, she's saying things even I already know. If you move the mouth, you get a different expression. No, really? Wow, I am so enlightened.
"I get to draw Farley-the-dog again." Yep, she's pretending she's still drawing the comic strip.
"Farley Mowat looked exactly like this, and so did my ex-husband." Wow she's bitter. She claims Doug was a skirt-chaser and a drinker. I thought it wasn't going to be that bad, that she was just joking about how he was hairy, and then she claims you could light a fire on his breath. She seems to really enjoy talking about him, though.
She's so affectless when talking about her second divorce. Everything in her normal cheery tone, the same way she talks about absolutely everything else. And I can feel everyone in the audience going "wtf" and freezing up when she says she was married to John Patterson for 30 years.
"We [cartoonists] are always trying to get away with something." You are not "we", Lynn. She's so proud of herself for "getting away with" Nipissing and Ned.
WOAH. When talking about April, she says she wanted another baby but "I was married to one."
She says April was Katie all over again, and she loved bringing her back as a baby again. (April was Cathy Guisewhite's idea though.) And now she's whining about how it's hard to license her characters to sell stuff (like diapers) because they aged. Oh but her storylines were so much more interesting than anyone else's.
Farley dying AND having a heroic death: Beth's idea. So far, that's three big things that were thought of by someone else.
I hate when she links Farley dying to the Oklahoma city bombing.
Sparky Sparky Sparky Sparky SPARKY.
"We've all felt that way." I have no idea what feeling this is supposed to be. It's when she's talking about drawing Elly looking bad at night or in the morning. "Everybody has two housecoats." Er. I don't have any. My mom didn't have any. My grandmother had a couple. Where would one even buy a housecoat these days? She loved drawing Elly because she loved making her ugly.
Lynn Johnston has this amazing ability. Every time I see something she writes or hear her speak, I dislike her more.
What on earth is this talk supposed to be about? It jumps from "Sparky" to "me me me."
Did Lynn get ANY of her ideas from her own brain? Cathy Guisewhite had to tell her not to call the characters "Johnston", and Lynn has a reason for every. Single. Name. Middle names, best friend who died of cancer for Elly (that is not the story I've seen before), etc.
Lynn is talking about imagining stories like it's some incredible weird thing that's very very rare. Like no one else imagines things or daydreams, it's only comic strip writers, and herself in particular.
Her only example of punchlines: someone storming off.
She claims there was one prostitute in Lynn Lake, who also drove a cab, and when the prostitute wasn't driving it the minister would to make a few bucks on the side. Whatever, Lynn, just whatever. Then she starts talking about how much she hated the place.
And now she's talking about her own childhood, and claiming her parents played games with each other and with her. She's griping that they didn't communicate, and talked around everything. Well that's the Pattersons right there.
What is this supposed to be about? Now she's telling some stupid story about a truck that I don't believe happened either.
Her father (she claims) showed her Keystone Kops movies in reverse and in slo-mo to show her how difficult and well-choreographed they were, how professional, basically. For some reason, she thinks this explains why she couldn't take art school seriously. I think she got that lesson backwards.
Now she's talking about drawing, something that could actually be interesting. However, she's saying things even I already know. If you move the mouth, you get a different expression. No, really? Wow, I am so enlightened.
"I get to draw Farley-the-dog again." Yep, she's pretending she's still drawing the comic strip.
"Farley Mowat looked exactly like this, and so did my ex-husband." Wow she's bitter. She claims Doug was a skirt-chaser and a drinker. I thought it wasn't going to be that bad, that she was just joking about how he was hairy, and then she claims you could light a fire on his breath. She seems to really enjoy talking about him, though.
She's so affectless when talking about her second divorce. Everything in her normal cheery tone, the same way she talks about absolutely everything else. And I can feel everyone in the audience going "wtf" and freezing up when she says she was married to John Patterson for 30 years.
"We [cartoonists] are always trying to get away with something." You are not "we", Lynn. She's so proud of herself for "getting away with" Nipissing and Ned.
WOAH. When talking about April, she says she wanted another baby but "I was married to one."
She says April was Katie all over again, and she loved bringing her back as a baby again. (April was Cathy Guisewhite's idea though.) And now she's whining about how it's hard to license her characters to sell stuff (like diapers) because they aged. Oh but her storylines were so much more interesting than anyone else's.
Farley dying AND having a heroic death: Beth's idea. So far, that's three big things that were thought of by someone else.
I hate when she links Farley dying to the Oklahoma city bombing.
Sparky Sparky Sparky Sparky SPARKY.
"We've all felt that way." I have no idea what feeling this is supposed to be. It's when she's talking about drawing Elly looking bad at night or in the morning. "Everybody has two housecoats." Er. I don't have any. My mom didn't have any. My grandmother had a couple. Where would one even buy a housecoat these days? She loved drawing Elly because she loved making her ugly.
Lynn Johnston has this amazing ability. Every time I see something she writes or hear her speak, I dislike her more.