Jeff Wilson's first published book
History
The Avridge Farm started out as an idea that went through many changes. The form it took was actually the crystallization of Jeff Wilson's own experiences, growing up on a Central Ontario farm and suggestions made by Lynn Johnston, creator of For Better Or Worse.
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FLATT'S FARM - Comic feature ran in the Durham Chronicle, Markdale Standard, Grey-Bruce TV Facts, Barrie Banner-Advance and MacMaster Silhouette between 1989 and 1995. With a nod to Russell Myers' "Broom Hilda", the strip is set in a mystical, idyllic farm setting, where the absurd, inane and hilarious occur daily. Fred Flatt, a curmudgeonly single farmer working his land, is oblivious to the varying degrees of dysfunction exhibited by his livestock. Horace, the farm's wisecracking, ne'er-do-well workhorse rarely leaves a reclining position beneath his tree. Pighetti, the idealistic, dim-witted pig’s sense of occasion is the only thing worse than his body odour. Brewster, the anxiety-addled Rooster, is tortured daily by his one task: crowing at dawn. And a nameless bovine party girl is always in pursuit of the unwitting and self-absorbed Horace. The Apple Corps strip-within-a-strip is a TV show that draws in some of the Flatt's Farm cast; it features them preparing for an unnamed military exercise. But the series ends abruptly end when Brewster turns off his television set.
THE AVRIDGE FARM COMPANION- Comic feature which ran from 1989 to 1995 in the Barrie Banner Advance, Dundalk Herald, Flesherton Advance, Durham Citizen, Haldimand Press, Wainwright (Alberta) Star Chronicle, Owen Sound Sun Times, Farm & Country, Voice Of The Farmer, Gay Lea News. It still appears in the Middlesex Banner and Creemore Echo. Setting - Leaving the city life with wife and young family in tow, Irv Avridge returns to his childhood home to help his widowed mother run the family farm. Main Characters: Irv Avridge: Unlikely heir to the farm. Loveable, but ineffectual farmer. Mike Avridge: Irv's cityborn wife, who juggles parenting, adjusting to farm life and a career. Mary (Mom) Avridge: Kindly and rustic. Quick with advice, or a home-cooked meal. Jimmy: Irv and Mike's son. All the vibrance of youth and a keg of dynamite in search of a fuse. Amy: The Avridge's orphaned foster child, who contrasts her loud, brash sock puppet, Hoseanna. Herm Osgoode: The terminally laid-back neighbour with a prodigious gift of gab. The Animals: Long-suffering dependents of their all-too-human stewards, of whom they have much to say…that is if we're willing to listen. The unnamed farm store clerk, who really seems to have Irv's number….credit card and etc.
THE AVRIDGE FARM COMPANION-Book II The second volume of uncoloured Sundays of Jeff Wilson's "Avridge Farm" comic feature. The unique format of strips were a good exhibit of Wilson's keen sense of comic timing for the genre. Wilson's gag writing and drawing prowess took his Sundays to a level well beyond the strip's limited readership of the time.
