For Better or For Worse
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
|
For Better or For Worse ("FBorFW") is a comic strip by Lynn Johnston that began in September 1979. 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, to love and to cherish, till death us do part.
Set in the fictitious Toronto-area suburban town of Milborough, Ontario, the strip chronicles the lives of a Canadian family and their friends. In contrast to most other comic strips, the characters in FBorFW undergo aging in real time. Although some other comic strips feature aging characters[1], they are usually not aged contemporaneously with the strip. Johnston has made some retroactive continuity changes to adjust a few characters' ages since the earliest years of the strip. [2]
The comic's main characters were initially based upon Lynn Johnston's real family, but Johnston has made significant changes.[3] [4] When her children were younger, she asked their permission before depicting events from their lives;[5] and she only once used a "serious" story from their lives. [6] When Johnston had the urge to have another child, she settled on creating a new daughter (April Patterson) for the strip.[7]
Johnston has announced that she intends to end the series in fall 2007 upon completion of her current contract.[8][9]. In a November 2006 interview [3], Johnston said that characters in the strip will stop aging as of September 2007, and that the strip will continue as a mix of rerun classic strips and new material.
Contents |
[edit] 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 harried 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.
- Elizabeth Patterson began the strip as a toddler and is now a teacher.
As the John & Elly's children grew older, the strip began to focus on neighbours and friends as well, creating an ever-changing roster of characters.
We have begun to see the early childhood of Michael's offspring, 4-year-old Meredith/Merrie and her 2-year-old baby brother Robin and how it contrasts to their father and their aunt's childhood, in that as Michael coped with being an older brother to Elizabeth, whereas now Meredith/Merrie is the older sibling to Robin.
[edit] Key Storylines
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 a wheelchair user. Lawrence's sexuality, as well, fits into this context, as Johnston has always strived to make the strip as reflective of real life as possible.[citation needed]
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.
[edit] Farley's death
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. Very few comics permit the death of main characters, but in FBorFW the realism demands it. "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."[10] The story line was published at the same time as the Oklahoma City bombing[10] and these strips were used by some parents and church groups to try and explain the concept of death to children.[citation needed]
The official FBorFW website has a section dedicated to Farley [11] This includes the strips depicting his heroism and death, plus a selection of "Farley's Spirit" strips (See External links)
[edit] Lawrence Comes Out
In recent years, the strip has tackled other sensitive issues. In 1993, Lawrence Poirier's coming out generated controversy [12], with some readers threatening to cancel newspaper subscriptions. About 100[citation needed] newspapers ran replacement strips or cancelled the comic. 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. [13]
[edit] Milborough and Mtigwaki
The fictional town of Milborough is located near Barrie, Ontario. Deanna described the drive up to the Pattersons' house as a two-hour drive up Yonge Street. However on the For Better or For Worse website, Milborough is described as being about a 45 minute drive from Toronto and resembling Newmarket or Etobicoke. [4]
Mtigwaki is a fictional Ojibway community in Northern Ontario near Lake Nipigon, where Elizabeth Patterson taught from 2004 to 2006.[14]
[edit] Criticism
 |
This section does not cite its references or sources. Please help improve this article by introducing appropriate citations. (help, get involved!) This article has been tagged since October 2006. |
For Better or For Worse has been criticized by some since its start in 1979. Originally, some readers complained that the strip was an idealized look at a typical suburban family and that the lack of different races and important issues harmed the comic.
In the past fifteen years, however, some readers have taken a totally different view of the situations addressed in For Better or For Worse and some have said that Lynn Johnston's inclusion of minorities and controversial issues has eroded the characters and story.
Some also suggest that the introduction of a third child in the Patterson family after Johnston's own children were grown resulted in a loss of freshness and authenticity. 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."[15]
Another criticism is that the use of characters who are one-dimensional, obvious "bad guys" (Thérèse Caine, Kortney Krelbutz, Mira Sobinski) undermines the strip's realism.
[edit] Johnston's Comments on Criticism
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?" [16]
Johnston's acknowledgement that her brother-in-law is gay and that she was abused as a child can be seen as a response to those who accuse her of including controversial issues merely to be politically correct.
Johnston's irascibility was more extensively noted in a Lunch with Jan Wong column in the Globe and Mail[17]).
[edit] Distribution
The strip is now seen in over 2,000 newspapers throughout Canada, the United States and about 20 other countries, and is translated into eight languages from its native English. The strip is notable for attaining popularity in the United States notwithstanding its use of British/Canadian spelling (e.g. favourite vs. favorite) and, within limits, matter-of-fact references to things that are different in Canada from the U.S. (e.g. school grade numbers, metric measurements). For example, both Mike and Liz attended high school through grade 13 (a curriculum level which existed in Ontario at the time, but which has since been abolished in real life). Furthermore, Johnston had Michael study in London, Ontario, which she intended as a practical joke to confuse ignorant readers into thinking that Michael was studying in the United Kingdom until they learned of the Canadian city."[18]. Additional references include the characters talking about writing a "cheque" (instead of the American-usage "check") and attending "university" instead of "college." This is remarkable in that American syndicators have historically shunned foreign strips that did not make concessions to the U.S. market. An American interviewer elaborated further: "In their nameless southern Ontario town, the leaves fall off the trees in October, the same month as Thanksgiving, and Nov. 11 is called Remembrance Day, not Veterans Day. There is always snow on the ground after Christmas."[19] On the other hand, references which U.S. readers might find obscure are avoided: during a story line involving litigation, for example, a witness gives "depositions" rather than attending "discoveries," and Johnston generally uses U.S. spelling.
[edit] Bibliography
[edit] Strip Collections
These books, generally published once a year, contains reprints of the comic almost as it appeared in the daily newspapers. Each book span about a year in time, and list in chronological order with title. (publication date in parenthesis)
- I've Got the One-more-Washload Blues... (1981)
- Is This "One of Those Days," Daddy? (1982)
- "It Must Be Nice to Be Little" (1983)
- Just One More Hug (1984)
- The Last Straw (1985)
- Keep the Home Fries Burning (1986)
- It's All Downhill from Here (1987)
- Pushing 40 (1988)
- A Look Inside ... For Better or For Worse: The 10th Anniversary Collection (1989) *
- If This is a Lecture, How Long Will It Be? (1990)
- What, Me Pregnant? (1991)
- Things Are Looking Up... (1992)
- "These Goes My Baby!" (1993)
- It's the Thoughts That Counts... Fifteenth Anniversary Collection (1994) *
- Starting from Scratch (1995)
- Love Just Screws Everything Up (1996)
- Growing Like a Weed (1997)
- Middle Age Spread (1998)
- Sunshine and Shadow (1999)
- The Big 5-0 (2000)
- Graduation: A Time for Change (2001)
- Family Business (2002)
- With This Ring (2003a)
- Reality Check (2003b)
- Striking a Chord (2005)
- Never Wink at a Worried Woman (2005)
- She's Turning Into One of Them! (2006)
Titles with (*) also contain a 'retrospect' section, in addition to the year of most recently printed comic strips.
[edit] 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 Thoughts 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
- Suddenly Silver: 25 Year of For Better or For Worse
[edit] Gift Books
- I Love My Grandpa
- So You're Going to Be a Grandma!
- Isn't He Beautiful?
- Isn't She Beautiful?
- Wags and Kisses
- A Perfect Christmas
- Graduation: Just the Beginning!
[edit] Other
- David, We're Pregnant!
- Hi Mom! Hi Dad!
- Do They Ever Grow Up?
- Leaving Home (With Andie Parton)
- Am I Too Big To Hug? (1992)
- Laugh 'n' Learn Spanish : Featuring the #1 Comic Strip "For Better or For Worse" (with Brenda Wegmann)
[edit] Animated series and specials
In the late 1980s, CTV produced an animated special starring the Patterson family, called A Christmas Angel. The special soon became a fairly long-running series of mini-movies. Also, the set designs (for instance, for the Pattersons' house) which these and subsequent TV programs required led Johnston to a much more sophisticated background style in the comic strips, with the layouts of homes and even towns consistent from story to story.
- A Christmas Angel (1989)
- The Bestest Christmas Present (1990)
- The Babe Magnet (1991)
- The Good-for-Nothing (1992)
- The Last Camping Trip (1992)
- FBorFW: Home for the Holidays (1995)
- For Better or For Worse: The Family Album (TV Series 1994-2000)
In 1994 and 1999 Teletoon, a cable-TV cartoon channel, had Ottawa's Funbag Animation create an animated series. Featuring introductions by Lynn Johnston herself, the show looked at three related storylines from three different eras of the strip--the 1980's, the 1990's, and the 2000's.
[edit] Exhibits
In 2001, Visual Arts Brampton's Artway Gallery exhibited Johnston's work.
[edit] References
- ^ (see e.g., Gasoline Alley, Doonesbury, Funky Winkerbean)
- ^ For example, Elizabeth was a baby when the strip started in 1979, but according to current continuity, she was born in 1981.
- ^ 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
- ^ "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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Michael and Josef photographed an accident before Michael realized he knew the victim (Deanna). From a "Meet the Artist" online chat on the Washingon Post website.
- ^ Described by Johnston in All About April
- ^ [1]
- ^ [2]
- ^ a b Neutering Edgar, Gina Spadafori
- ^ Remembering Farley on the For Better or For Worse Official website.
- ^ Discussed in compliation books and the 1993 Slate interview
- ^ Official website
- ^ More information about Mtigwaki and how it was created is available on the official website.
- ^ http://www.lynnlake.ca/A_Place_to_Remember_13.html Retrieved 12 October 2006.
- ^ Slate / Hogan's Alley Interview
- ^ Reprinted in Jan Wong, Lunch With Jan Wong, Bantam, (June, 2001), trade paperback, ISBN 0-385-25982-4
- ^ Pg. 94, The Lives Behind the Lines: 20 Years of For Better or For Worse, Lynn Johnston, Andrews McMeel Publishing., 1.
- ^ http://www.lynnlake.ca/A_Place_to_Remember_13.html Retrieved 12 October 2006.
[edit] See Also
[edit] External links
- For Better or For Worse, official website
- For Better or For Worse: Strip Fix, the current comic strip
- goComics: For Better or For Worse
- Ned Tanner, official website
- Remembering Farley on the For Better or For Worse Official website.
- Spirit Magazine, a publication of the Special Olympics, ran an article in 2005 on the inspiration for Shannon Lake: Johnston's niece Stephanie Haskins. A copy is available on the official For Better or For Worse website.
