Good Grief!

[gridlore]

For Better of For Worse, a comic I grew up with, ended its run of original strips today! The story of the Patterson family, starting with John and Ellie raising their two young kids, went from being a typical comic strip to an epic set of story arcs as everyone grew. What did they cover? Deaths of loved ones, coming out as gay to friends and family, love, loss, rape, losing a beloved pet, finding yourself, redemption, late in life children and even later marriages, cross-generational issues, people with learning disabilities, First Nations issues, jerky boyfriends, jealous wives, good and bad in-laws, and everything else that makes up a life. Lynn Johnston always said she'd end the strip when Michael, the elder Patterson child, had kids about the age he and Elizabeth (known as Lizard Breath to old-time fans) were when the strip started. Well, we've reached that point, and the final arc, uniting Elizabeth and her rediscovered flame Anthony in marriage, was perfect.

The word is she's going to run the entire thing over again, updating the art, but I don't think I'll read it. First of all, it's like watching a mystery for the second time. Secondly, we have too many old comics cluttering up the increasingly competitive pages. I wish people would realize that there is no law requiring them to run Peanuts. Bring in some good, fresh stuff like Pearls Before Swine

Comments

[jarlsberg71.livejournal.com]

that seems lame, and I'm a huge fan of Lynn Johnston.

I think it's funny how of all the issues she confronted with her strip, you never mentioned Farley or Edgar ;)

When I had to put my last dog down, the book "Remembering Farley" really made my loss a little easier to take.

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

I did mention "losing a beloved pet" up there. Lynn has said the death of Farley was the second largest loss of papers she ever experienced. Number one was when Lawrence came out.

[jarlsberg71.livejournal.com]

oh I stupidly glossed right over it.