For Better, For Worse, For Hybrid
Posted: Thursday, January 11, 2007 12:44 PM by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper
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Comic strips
I know I'm not the only fan of Lynn Johnston's "For Better or For Worse" comic strip out there. We've talked here before about how the cartoonist had discussed ending the strip or at least cutting back, and now she's finally announced how she's going to do it -- and to my knowledge, it's a way that hasn't been tried by a cartoonist before.
Johnston told Editor & Publisher that she's planning a hybrid strip -- some strips will be new, but in those strips, her characters will never age. However old they are now is how old they will be as long as the strip is drawn. This is how many strips are normally, but Johnston was one of the few cartoonists out there who let her kids grow up and have kids of their own, who let her adult characters go gray, lose their parents, retire. Readers have watched Patterson kids Michael, Elizabeth and April grow from babyhood into young adults. No more: We won't be seeing Elly and John move into a nursing home, Michael and Deanna's kids start dating, April graduate from high school.
I presume this is good news for fans of Grandpa Jim, the World War II vet who's still recovering from a stroke...after all, if time freezes in the strip, he can stick around till the bitter end.
Johnston won't provide just new content, though. Here's where the "hybrid" part comes in. She'll introduce old strips into the lineup -- she might tinker with the art or the color, but these will be plotlines we've read before. Instead of just dumping them in randomly, though, Johnston will use plot tricks to introduce the old strips -- the E&P article mentions she might feature Michael looking at old photos or scrapbooks.
As I commented on my personal Weblog, this new plan for the strip reminds me of the sitcoms where Claire Huxtable or whoever sits down on the couch and rubs her chin and says “When Theo got in trouble, it seems like it was just yesterday…” and someone puts in one of those wobbly fade-outs and whee! We’re off to a clip show! But don't get me wrong, I'll take it: I'd like to see the strip continue even in a slightly different form.
"FBOFW" drives me crazy on a regular basis, but in a good way, like your old college roommate who keeps doing bozo things but still has a good heart. I'm still irked that Johnston seems to want to push Liz back together with old flame Anthony (known, variously, as "Granthony," "Creepthony" and other names). Anthony's first marriage was a truly weird disaster -- he and his cold fish wife essentially cut a deal where she'd have a baby but never love or care for it -- and Liz has long been the feistiest, most independent woman in the "FBOFW" world.
I don't like the idea of her losing that personality and settling for a childhood crush who's made some creepily bad decisions, and I'm not alone. The Toronto Star has another article about the upcoming "For Better or For Worse" changes, and the newspaper paired it with a poll asking readers which man Liz should be with. Both of the other men in her life recently -- Warren, the helicopter pilot, and Paul, the cop, are beating out Anthony among those readers. Johnston seems to be carefully stacking the deck against Paul, though -- her current storyline seems to have him cheating on Liz.
Yes, it's just a comic strip, but give Johnston credit: She's created a family that feels so alive that readers actively take sides and campaign for their favorites. They're her characters, but they feel like they belong to us.
