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For Better or For Worse

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For Better or For Worse
The Patterson family, the center focus of For Better or For Worse
Author(s)Lynn Johnston
Websitehttp://www.fborfw.com
Current status/scheduleRunning
Launch dateSeptember 9 1979
Syndicate(s)Universal Press Syndicate (1979-1997, 2004-present)
United Feature Syndicate (1997-2004)
Publisher(s)Andrews McMeel Publishing
Genre(s)Humour, Family, Drama

For Better or For Worse is a comic strip by Lynn Johnston that began in September 1979. The strip is set in the fictitious Toronto-area suburban town of Milborough, Ontario; it chronicles the lives of a Canadian family and their friends. It is seen in over 2,000 newspapers[1] throughout Canada, the United States and about 20 other countries, and is translated into eight languages from its native English.[citation needed]

The title is a reference to the marriage service in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer:

...to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health...

A "signature element"[1] of FBorFW during the first 28 years of the strip's existence was that the characters aged in "real time".[2] The strip will end the real-time aspect sometime in 2008. [3] Beginning on September 3, 2007[4], For Better or For Worse changed to a format featuring a mixture of new, old and retouched work, which allowed Johnston to "keep alive her partly autobiographical comic while not having to devote as much time to it."[1]

Johnston's work on the comic strip earned her a Reuben Award in 1985 and made her a "nominated finalist" for a Pulitzer Prize in editorial cartooning in 1994.[5] The strip led the Friends of Lulu to add Johnston to the Women Cartoonists Hall of Fame in 2002.[6]

Characters

Main article: For Better or For Worse characters

Original characters

The strip originally focused on four people:

  • John Patterson, dentist, father, and husband to protagonist Elly. Over time we see him develop interests in cars and model railroads.
  • Elly Patterson, a married stay-at-home mother of two. Restless, Elly tried night classes, writing columns for a small local paper, and periodically filling in as a dental assistant in John's office before landing a job in a library. Nearing menopause, Elly was surprised to learn she was pregnant with their daughter April. After the library job ended, Elly began working in a book store which she and John eventually bought and expanded to include toys and hobby supplies (such as model railroads).
  • Michael Patterson, a rambunctious and curious preschooler. Michael is now a freelance writer, married to his childhood crush Deanna and father to Meredith and Robin. Meredith and Robin's childhoods are now a feature in the strips.
  • Elizabeth Patterson began the strip as a toddler and is now a teacher.

As John and Elly's children grew older, the strip began to focus on neighbours and friends as well, creating an ever-changing roster of characters.

The comic's main characters were initially based upon Lynn Johnston's real family, but Johnston has made significant changes.[7] [8] When her children were younger, she asked their permission before depicting events from their lives;[9] and she only once used a "serious" story from their lives, when Michael and Josef photographed an accident before Michael realized he knew the victim.[10] When Johnston had the urge to have another child, she settled on creating a new daughter (April Patterson) for the strip.[11]

Johnston has made some retroactive continuity changes to adjust a few characters' ages since the earliest years of the strip.[12]

Key storylines

Main article: History of For Better or For Worse

In the comic's quarter century, the strip has featured a variety of storylines, as the characters and their friends age. These include Elly's return to the paid work force, John's mid-life crisis, the birth of a friend's six-fingered daughter, friends' divorces, the coming out of Michael's best friend Lawrence Poirier, child abuse (perpetrated by Gordon's alcoholic parents), the death of Elly's mother Marian Richards, and Elizabeth's experience with sexual harassment and assault at the hands of a co-worker.

The strip has also strived to present a relatively diverse and culturally sensitive portrayal. Although the Pattersons themselves are a fairly typical middle class white anglophone family, there have been recurring characters of many different backgrounds, including Caribbean, Asian, Latin American, Franco-Ontarian and First Nations cultures. Elizabeth's favourite high school teacher, who inspired her to study education herself, was paraplegic.

Other issues are also addressed. During her second year at university, Elizabeth moved in with her boyfriend, Eric Chamberlain, insisting that she would maintain her own bedroom. Elizabeth later broke up with Eric when she found out he was cheating on her. Storylines sometimes concern the Pattersons dealing with difficult acquaintances such as Thérèse, the ex-wife of Elizabeth's friend Anthony, who resents Elizabeth's presence, or Deanna's squabbling parents, Wilfred and Mira Sobinski.

Farley's death

File:Fbofw april and farley.png
John tries to pull April and Farley in from the fast-moving creek.

Since the comic happens in "real time," it eventually became apparent that the Patterson's first Old English Sheepdog, Farley, was starting to get fairly old. When he was fourteen years old, Farley saved April from drowning in a stream near the Patterson home. Farley could not take the shock of the cold water or the exertion of saving April, and died of a heart attack. Farley's son Edgar later became the Patterson's new family dog.

The death provoked a lot of reaction from fans. "People's emotions were kind of raw," said Johnston of the time. "I received 2,500 letters, about one-third negative. I didn't expect the response to be so great. The letters were open and emotional and honest and personal, full of stories and love."[13] The story line was published at the same time as the Oklahoma City bombing[13] and these strips were used by some parents and church groups to try and explain the concept of death to children.[citation needed]

When Johnston told fellow cartoonist Charles M. Schulz that Farley was going to die, Schulz "threatened to have Snoopy hit by a truck if Johnston went though with the plan"[14]. As a result, Johnston kept the timing of Farley's death a secret from Schulz.[14]

The official FBorFW website has a section dedicated to Farley; this includes the strips depicting his heroism and death, plus a selection of "Farley's Spirit" strips.[15]

Johnston has allowed the Ontario Veterinary Medical Association (OVMA) to use Farley's name and likeness for the "Farley Foundation", a charity established by OVMA to subsidize the cost of veterinary care for pets of low income seniors and persons with disabilities in Ontario.[16]

Lawrence comes out

File:Fbofw lawrence is gay.png
Lawrence's mother Connie takes issue with her son coming out.

In recent years, the strip has tackled other sensitive issues. In 1993, Lawrence Poirier's coming out generated controversy [17], with readers opposed to homosexuality threatening to cancel newspaper subscriptions. Over 100 newspapers ran replacement strips or cancelled the comic.[18] Three years later Lawrence introduced his boyfriend, giving rise to another, though smaller, uproar. In 2001, when Michael chose Lawrence to be best man at his wedding to Deanna, Johnston ran two sets of comic strips– one for readers who had not been allowed to read the earlier coming-out story.

Explaining her decision to have Lawrence come out as gay, Johnston said that she had found the character, one of Michael's closest friends, gradually "harder and harder to bring... into the picture." Based on the fact the Pattersons were an average family in an average neighbourhood, she felt it only natural to introduce this element in Lawrence's character, and have the characters deal with the situation. After two years of development, Johnston contacted her editor, Lee Salem. Salem advised Johnston send the strips well ahead of time so that he could review the plot and suggest any necessary changes. So long as there was no offensive material, and Johnston was fully aware of what she was doing, Universal Press would support the action. Johnston's personal reflections on Lawrence, an excerpt from the comic collection "It's the Thought That Counts...", are included on the strip's official webpage. [19]

One result of the storyline was that Johnston was made a jury-selected "nominated finalist" for the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning in 1994. The Pulitzer board said the strip "sensitively depicted a youth's disclosure of his homosexuality and its effect on his family and friends."[5]

Milborough and Mtigwaki

The fictional suburban town of Milborough is located near Barrie, Ontario, Canada. On the FBorFW website, Milborough is described as being about a 45 minute drive from Toronto and resembling Newmarket or Etobicoke. [1] The family's house is located on Sharon Park Drive.

Mtigwaki is a fictional Ojibway community in Northern Ontario near Lake Nipigon, where Elizabeth Patterson taught from 2004 to 2006.[20]

While living in an apartment in Mtigwaki, Elizabeth took in a stray kitten, whom she named "Shiimsa," an Ojibway word meaning "little animal friend." Shiimsa has had her share of mischievous escapades.

2007 format changes

Johnston had planned to retire in the fall of 2007[21] but in January 2007, it was announced that Johnston would be tweaking the format of FBorFW in September 2007: storylines would now focus primarily on the "second generation" family of one of the original children; scenes and artwork from older strips would be reused in new contexts; and the characters would stop aging. Johnston announced that the changes are to provide more time for travel and to help with health problems, including a neurological condition (dystonia) she controls with medication.[1]

In September 2007, it was revealed that Lynn Johnston and her second husband, Rod, are separated and will probably divorce. In the Kansas City Star, Johnston is quoted as saying,

[...] I have a new life. My husband and I have separated. I am now free to do just about anything I want to do. We still communicate. We still have children in common. It’s a positive thing for both of us. And I just see so many things in the future.

But when asked if this would be a storyline for the strip, Johnston replied, "No, not a chance. I only want to live through this once."[22] Johnston currently plans to create more new strips.[23]

Criticism

Johnston herself has observed, à propos of an increasing difficulty in keeping story lines germane to the experience of young families, "I have to admit that I'm not in a place where I can do this," Johnston says. "I'm past the point where I can remember what it's like to be a young mother."[24]

In an interview shortly after Lawrence came out, Johnston contrasted the reader response for it with the responses she'd received previously:

I have not slept, I have not eaten, I’ve lost 10 pounds, I’ve lost 19 papers, I’ve lost many readers. It was not something I did for joy, or something I did for publicity. I did not say, “Damn the detractors” and go ahead, intending to upset the editors. I did it because it was a story I really, fully believed in, and when you write a story that is perhaps a controversial one, you have to expect to take the heat....
I've had a pretty easy life as a cartoonist, and that's part of the problem for me. I get letters now and then that complain about the way I do things, and I generally think, "Get a life!" If you don't like the way I punctuate my sentences, tell me what else is interesting in your life. And most other people say, "I love your work, you're on my refrigerator, my dog is just like yours," and so on.
So I was bathed in this wonderful, warm glow of acceptance for so long [...] But then you get letters from people who say, "Do you realize that all serial killers are homosexual?" [25]

Johnston's irascibility was more extensively noted in a Lunch with Jan Wong column in the Globe and Mail[26].

Bibliography

Strip collections

These collections contains reprints of the comic almost as it appeared in the daily newspapers. They are listed in chronological order; each book spans about a year in time. They lag approximately two years behind the strips' original publication. For example, "She's Turning Into One Of Them!" was published in 2006, containing strips dealing with April's 13th birthday in 2004 (publication date shown in parentheses). These books are available from the official "For Better or For Worse" web site:

Retrospectives

These books include a 'retrospect' section, the year of most recently printed comic strips, and usually some autobiographical and/or "behind the scenes" information. In particular The Lives Behind the Lines has biographies of all the major and many minor characters, including information not otherwise explored in the strip.

  • A Look Inside ... For Better or For Worse: The 10th Anniversary Collection (1989)
  • It's the Thought That Counts... Fifteenth Anniversary Collection (1994)
  • Remembering Farley: A Tribute to the Life of Our Favorite Cartoon Dog (1996)
  • The Lives Behind the Lines: 20 Years of For Better or For Worse (1999)
  • All About April: Our Little Girl Grows Up! (2001)
  • Suddenly Silver: 25 Years of For Better or For Worse (2004)

Little books

These "little books" combine character illustrations from the strip with inspirational text or verse.

  • Isn't He Beautiful? (text by Andie Parton) (2000)
  • Isn't She Beautiful? (text by Andie Parton) (2000)
  • Wags and Kisses (text by Andie Parton) (2001)
  • A Perfect Christmas (text by Andie Parton) (2001)
  • Graduation: Just the Beginning! (text by Andie Parton) (2003)

Gift books

Gift books are similar to little books, but are in a larger format.

Other

  • David, We're Pregnant! (1972)
  • Hi Mom! Hi Dad! (1975)
  • Do They Ever Grow Up? (1980)
  • Am I Too Big To Hug? (1992)
  • Leaving Home: Survival of the Hippest (text by Andie Parton) (2003)
  • Laugh 'n' Learn Spanish : Featuring the #1 Comic Strip "For Better or For Worse" (with Brenda Wegmann) (2003)

The first three books in this section collect cartoons by Johnston from before the strip began.

Animated series and specials

In 1985, Atkinson Film-Arts of Ottawa, in association with the CTV network, produced an animated special based on For Better or for Worse entitled The Bestest Present. In the United States, it was first broadcast on HBO, and in later years, on The Disney Channel.

Beginning in 1992, another Ottawa-based studio, Lacewood Productions, produced six more specials, also for CTV. In the United States, these were seen on The Disney Channel. According to Lynn Johnston, the set designs (for instance, for the Pattersons' house) which these and subsequent TV programs required led her to develop a much more sophisticated background style in the comic strips, with the layouts of homes and even towns consistent from story to story.

The six specials produced by Lacewood were:

  • The Last Camping Trip
  • A Christmas Angel
  • The Good-for-Nothing
  • A Valentine from the Heart
  • The Babe Magnet (a.k.a. The Sweet Deal)
  • A Storm in April

In 2000, Ottawa's Funbag Animation produced a new animated series for cable TV network Teletoon. Featuring introductions by Lynn Johnston herself, the show looked at three related storylines from three different eras of the strip--the 1980s, the 1990s, and the 2000s.

The series consisted of 2 Seasons comprised of 8 episodes per season. On March 23, 2004, Koch Vision released the complete series on DVD for the very first time.

Exhibits

In 2001, Visual Arts Brampton's Artway Gallery exhibited Johnston's work.

References

  1. ^ a b c d Popular Cartoon Will Stay On — As Old/New Hybrid, a Universal Press Syndicate news release
  2. ^ Although some other comic strips feature aging, including Gasoline Alley, Doonesbury, Funky Winkerbean, Baby Blues, and Jump Start, they are usually not aged contemporaneously with the strip.
  3. ^ http://www.fborfw.com/behind_the_scenes/hybrid/
  4. ^ New Phase of Popular Comic Strip "For Better or For Worse" Begins, a Universal Press Syndicate news release
  5. ^ a b The Pulitzer Prize Nominated Finalists Retrieved 10 October 2007.
  6. ^ Past Lulu Awards Winners from the Friends of Lulu website
  7. ^ Aaron Johnston wrote: "[T]he strip, though based in part on our family and our personalities during the early years, mostly comes from Lynn's own imagination. ... I think that in the late '80s and early 90s there was a real split ... [i]nstead of being a reflection of our family, they truly became Lynn's own imaginary family with a life all their own." - Suddenly Silver: Celebrating 25 Years of For Better or For Worse
  8. ^ "Elizabeth is me at the age of two melting crayons on the radiator; Michael is me at the age of six feeling jealousy and rage at the coddling of a younger sibling." - from A Look Inside For Better or For Worse: The 10th Anniversary Collection by Lynn Johnston.
  9. ^ Aaron Johnston relates being asked for permission to use his experiences with wearing glasses in the strip in Suddenly Silver. Aaron "dreaded" Michael getting glasses, and suggested that Elizabeth get them instead.
  10. ^ Tobin, Suzanne (Friday, October 8). "Comics: Meet the Artist". Washingon Post. Retrieved 2007-06-30. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  11. ^ Described by Johnston in All About April
  12. ^ For example, Elizabeth was a baby when the strip started in 1979, but according to current continuity, she was born in 1981.
  13. ^ a b Neutering Edgar, Gina Spadafori
  14. ^ a b Good Grief! Author Describes Bio of Charles M. Schulz — And Oldest Son Offers Critique from the Editor & Publisher website
  15. ^ Remembering Farley on the "For Better or For Worse" official website.
  16. ^ official website for the Farley Foundation
  17. ^ Discussed in compilation books and the 1993 Slate interview
  18. ^ Zucco, Tom. "Comic controversy", St. Petersburg Times, Sept. 4, 2001. Johnston's web site says that about 40 newspapers ran replacement strips.
  19. ^ Official website
  20. ^ More information about Mtigwaki and how it was created is available on the official website.
  21. ^ For Better or For Worse comic winding down, CTV News, Sept 24, 2007
  22. ^ Lynn Johnston’s ‘For Better or for Worse’ will continue in flashback form, Kansas City Star, Sept 6, 2007
  23. ^ End of Marriage Leads to New Content in Revamped Strip , Editor & Publisher, Sept 7, 2007.
  24. ^ http://www.lynnlake.ca/A_Place_to_Remember_13.html Retrieved 12 October 2006.
  25. ^ Slate / Hogan's Alley Interview
  26. ^ Reprinted in Jan Wong, Lunch With Jan Wong, Bantam, (June, 2001), trade paperback, ISBN 0-385-25982-4
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