Lynn Johnston

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Lynn Franks Johnston
Born: May 28, 1947
Collingwood, Ontario
Occupation: Canadian Cartoonist

Lynn Johnston (born May 28, 1947) is a cartoonist, well known for her comic strip For Better or For Worse, and was the first female cartoonist to win the prestigious Reuben Award.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Born Lynn Ridgway in Collingwood, Ontario, she was raised in North Vancouver, British Columbia. She attended the Vancouver School of Art with hopes of making a living as an artist. After working briefly in animation, she married in 1969, and moved back to Ontario, where she worked as a medical artist at McMaster University for five years.

While expecting her first child, she drew single-panel cartoons for the ceiling of her obstetrician's office. Those drawings were published in her first book entitled David We're Pregnant, which was published in 1973. After her divorce, she did free-lance commercial and medical art in a greenhouse which was converted into a studio. Hi Mom! Hi Dad!, a sequel to David, was published in 1975. Shortly thereafter she met and married dental student Rod Johnston - and acquired the name Lynn Johnston. [1]

[edit] For Better or For Worse

In 1978, Johnston, her second husband Rod Johnston, and their two children relocated to Lynn Lake, Manitoba. She was asked by Universal Press Syndicate if she was interested in doing a comic strip. As a result, she sent off twenty copies of a strip called The Johnstons. The syndicate approved of the initial strips and offered her a contract. After a six-month "work-up" period, the strip first appeared in newspapers throughout Canada under the title For Better or For Worse.

Many story lines draw from her family's real-life experiences. Her main characters are named after the middle names of her husband and children. Elly is modeled after a friend who died when Johnston was young. Her brother-in-law, Ralph Johnston, inspired the controversial story about Lawrence's coming out. Johnston's niece, Stephanie, is developmentally handicapped and her experience is shared in recent story lines on the integration of developmentally handicapped students in April's class.

Since the 1990s, Johnston has been notably forthcoming in her discussion of the abuse dealt by her mother,[2] her first husband,[3] and being unprepared to be a mother to her son Aaron.[4] - topics which have also been reflected in the strip.

Johnston now resides in the Northern Ontario town of Corbeil. [5] Johnston was close friends with Charles M. Schulz, creator of Peanuts. She also is friends with Bill Watterson, creator of Calvin and Hobbes.[citation needed] Her daughter, Katie, is an art student living in BC, and her son, Aaron, works in the television industry in Vancouver, BC.

[edit] See also

[edit] Selected Bibliography

  • David We're Pregnant, 1973
  • Hi Mom! Hi Dad!, 1975
  • Do They Ever Grow Up?
  • Leaving Home (With Andie Parton)
  • See For Better or For Worse for compilations of the comic strip

[edit] Awards and honours

[edit] References

  1. ^ Official site and Johnston's For Better or For Worse retrospectives.
  2. ^ "I haven’t told many people this because my parents were still alive and I didn’t want to reveal it ... It’s hard to describe. On the one hand, she beat the living crap out of me. On the other hand, though, she was bright and witty and well read. Neither of my parents ever stopped encouraging my brother and me from pursuing our creativity." - Slate interview retrieved 12 October 2006
  3. ^ "I went for these guys who treated me like shit, and I married one of them! The guys who treated me badly were the funny guys, and I always went for the guys with the sense of humor.... My husband would say things to me like my mother did, “You’re fat and ugly.” And he treated me like garbage. His girlfriends would call him at home, and when I would pick up the phone, they would giggle at me.... I married a guy who treated me very badly, but I was happy. I was miserable, so I was happy." - Slate interview retrieved 12 October 2006.
  4. ^ "I didn’t know how to raise a child. And I wasn’t close to my parents, and because I was too proud to go to my parents for help, I mistreated that little baby.... I was exactly like my mother in that sense." - Slate interview retrieved 12 October 2006
  5. ^ FBoFW official website

[edit] External links

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