It's official: Elizabeth and Anthony are married at last, and Iris makes a poignant and beautiful statement about the words that have summed up 30 years of comic strips that truly fit the title of the strip.
I can remember, so long ago now, when the river was raging, and little April toddled down to those treacherous banks. She toppled toward the water at the end of one daily strip, and the next day I had a doctor's appointment for a biopsy of a suspicious lump.
I knew more about the dangers April faced than I did about my own, back then, and I remember meeting the receptionist at the doctor's office. "How are you today?" she asked brightly. "I'm okay, but I'm a little worried about April," was my reply. "She's okay!" came the immediate reply, "Farley saved her!"
And just like that, I was fine. Really. So long as that little fictional toddler was okay, things were fine, though I mourned Farley's passing.
Lynn Johnston did an outstanding job with her cartoon strip, her drawing becoming more detailed and impressive with every passing year, her characters dealing with the good and the bad -- the best and the worst -- and for a family strip, Johnston was still fearless in facing life. Characters were not always cartoon-sweet, like Michael and Deanna's slovenly housemates, and storylines mirrored challenges, such as Lawrence's coming out with his sexuality. Those were the "headline" moments.
What I remember even better were the moments of quiet honesty. There was a Sunday strip where child-Lizzie cut her foot while playing at the beach. Brother Michael, despite the endless teasing and tormet he lavished on his baby sister, was immediately concerned. He demanded to know how something like that could happen -- how could people leave broken glass on a beach where little children played? And I had a feeling that Johnston's cartoon reprimand of all those careless litterbugs would have more impact than a thousand "Do No Litter" signs.
So, I cried today when I read the farewell message below this final strip of "For Better of For Worse." We go forward now, without the Pattersons beside us. They will have the privilege of starting over again, reliving it all with a few improvements here and there from their creator. I wouldn't mind doing that, too, actually.
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Comments: 32
Faith, I didn't know about Johnston's personal life! When did her marriage end? I can imagine how painful that must have been, after so many years, whether or not your livelihood was based upon marriage vows and fictionalizing your family. Ouch.
I know of at least one instance where the man figured it out before it was too late, so perhaps there's hope, eh? Young and pretty is nice, but nothing compares to longevity, dedication, and loyalty.
But, the ones who can't get past surface beauty and appreciate depth of commitment and shared history will learn which is the real treasure the hard way.
I remember when some US newspapers refused to publish it for a time because one of the children was gay.
The comic strip handled the situation far better, more lovingly, than the champions of "family values".
I read that after her marriage broke up, she started drawing John Patterson with a pot belly, as a dig to her fanatically health conscious ex.
For Better or For Worse begins again on September the 1st with new material, new art and new enthusiasm! Without the need to visit all of the auxiliary characters, I can concentrate once again on the insular little Patterson household. I have the children all to myself again. I can do spot gags and silly stuff. I can fix what I don’t like about my early work as I add and subtract…redraw and just improve everything.
So it ain't over!
For Better or For Worse begins again on September the 1st with new material, new art and new enthusiasm! Without the need to visit all of the auxiliary characters, I can concentrate once again on the insular little Patterson household. I have the children all to myself again. I can do spot gags and silly stuff. I can fix what I don't like about my early work as I add and subtract...redraw and just improve everything.
The crazy part is drawing the way I used to draw!! I practised, using the first two books, copying as if I was trying to draw someone else's work, not my own! It's taken some time to simulate the earlier work, but it's coming and because it's a simpler style with less detail in the background, I can comfortably do all the art myself without the need for another illustrator.
This makes the process faster and because I'll be including some of the classics, I'll be able to take some much needed time off!
I expected to find a return to my old style of drawing a bit stressful, but it's been easy! I also expected to find it hard to rip into the belief that I was a young mom again with two small kids...but this is really fun!!! I'm so enjoying the loose style, the freedom to play with the younger Pattersons again and the less complicated cast of characters. Mixing the classic and new strips, is both challenging and rewarding as I improve the work I started with. Who gets to do this??? I consider it a real privilege to be able to work on the beginning again and I hope you'll enjoy what I do. One way or another you'll let me know - and I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Lynn Johnston
Humph!
Seriously -- I did apologize, as opposed to simply deleting the comment. I wanted to make the statement that I knew it was unfair to say that.
Nothing constant but change, right?
I remember them, and I always read them when I had the chance, but I'd lost touch with everyone. I didn't even know the names of the people you were talking about.
All that's my bad 'cause I could have found them and probably should for several of my favorite comics.
Its amazing how something written on paper to amuse day after day, line by line, can touch us and connect with us, how they can become a part of our lives, even help us mark the time in the events of our own lives. I'm glad that it's not the end for Lynn Johnston. Clearly, many people were touched by her or she would never have lasted so long. Even the end of her marriage didn't stop her (and one must marvel at the foolishness of an ex abandoning a wife who can make a thousand subtle statements in her comics if she chooses to).
But I do understand wanting to make a change once in a while, start relatively fresh.
Good for her. And thank you, Dannielle, for reminding me how much I'd enjoyed this and letting me know about the end of an era. For better or worse.
Interestingly enough, television was not a unifying medium, as all we had access to was BBC programming, which only US-PBS viewers were familiar with, (for the most part,) and in our little hometown PBS was very hard to tune in. (Pre-Cable era... when television was a free entertainment, not a 24/7 presence people pay for every month.)
I outgrew Peanuts pretty soon after we returned to the US, but I will never outgrown FBOFW, and I re-read my Calvin & Hobbes collections often.
On superficiality, I think both men and women do quite well, but in different ways. This thing about the younger woman is a stupid evolutionary instinct that so many men are unable or unwilling to override, but there's a corresponding superficiality, from the same source, on the part of the young women who go for older men because of their money, career, resources, influence, etc. (A friend of my husband's in college killed himself when his girlfriend left him for an older rich guy...) Of course, not all relationships with an age difference are like this--some are based on real love. But yeah, overall, people are often superficial.
There are also, I have heard, women who tire of their husbands and move on.
In most cases, I have always suspected that media-fed expectations were key to this dissatisfaction. "Don't settle for less!" "You deserve more!" That sort of belief.
The messages urge us to move on, start anew, discard and replace. Very little that I have seen celebrates the joys of shared personal history, endurance and perseverance, and forgiveness -- but those who have cleared the hurdles and gotten to the other side can attest to their worth.
I'm going to miss all those Patterson's!
I also share her perspective superficiality having no gender. And I think sometimes, people just tire of someone, or couples grow in different directions, and moving on is wise and not at all superficial.
But that's not the topic. Sorry. This is a sweet and entertaining tribute to the comic strip, Dannielle.
I posted an article somewhere around here about Women and Social Movements, as a tie-in to the class I'm taking. I've actually been waiting to hear back from the professor about this, because I told her I think studying history by gender is invalid.
I can see where we'd study it as a means to test how a law or a policy or government impacted society -- look at subsets of the population and compare and contrast the findings. But, to study Women's History is, to me, as unwise as omitting women and studying only the men. I don't like the concept of splitting history this way -- and it is precisely because of the generalizations that are made in order to do so.
I know a transgendered person. This person is not unique to the 21st century, and it would be interesting to try and go back and explore, looking for transgendered individuals in history and how they fared. But without the larger picture of history, the story has lost most of its power. All people should be included, all the time.
And yet, as I so clearly demonstrated with my first stupid comment up there, we all make generalizations. They must have their uses, too.
But thank you -- getting back to the comic strip. I felt better giving Lynn Johnston and her comic family a nice farewell. They really were comics at their best.
Calvin and Hobbes was one of my all time favorites. I still miss them.
I always enjoyed FBOFW particularly because it seemed so true-to-life, yet not a soap opera theme. Johnston captured what I was not given opportunity to share with my own kids at the early ages, so in a way she was therapy for the time I was not getting to share in their day-to-day lives.
Still, 'Calvin and Hobbes' is at the top of my list, along with 'Tumbleweeds'.
Other favorites are "Rose is Rose", and the one with the teenage son who hangs out with a classmate named Pierce, who has lots of piercings. It hits on a lot of common ground.
as for her husband leaving her for a younger woman, i guess we shouldn't throw stones without knowing the whole story. i have a friend who left his wife of 20 years for a younger woman. what only a few of us knew is that his wife had been having an affair for years. he fell in love with this younger woman for her brain, heart and spirit, not her age. she was not a home-wrecker or a bombshell, just an average working woman who happened to be born many years after him and who made him very happy.