For Better or For Worse is a Canadian comic strip by Lynn Johnston that originally ran from 1979 to 2008, chronicling the lives of the Patterson family and their friends, in the town of Milborough, a fictional suburb of Toronto, Ontario. For Better or For Worse is still rerun in over 2,000 newspapersPopular Cartoon Will Stay On — As Old/New Hybrid, a Universal Press Syndicate news release throughout Canada, the U.S., Mexico, and around 20 other countries.
History and background Johnston's strip began in September 1979 and ended its original daily black-and-white run on August 30, 2008, with a postscript epilogue (as a full-colour Sunday strip) running the next day. Starting on September 1, 2008, the strip began retelling its original story, using a mixture of straight reruns and retouched strips with altered dialogue. This new format was dropped after less than two years, and in July 2010, the strip switched entirely to reruns (with some minor alterations). The strips seen in papers in 2016 were from 1987.
A signature element of For Better or For Worse during its original run was that the characters aged in real time.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. The strip's title is a reference to the marriage service found in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer as well as in the wedding ceremonies of other faith traditions:
...to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health...
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.The Pulitzer Prize Nominated Finalists Retrieved 10 October 2007. The strip led the Friends of Lulu to add Johnston to the Women Cartoonists Hall of Fame in 2002.Past Lulu Awards Winners from the Friends of Lulu website The same year, Will Eisner called For Better or For Worse "the best strip around", saying, "It's humane, human, it has humor to it, and good artwork."Eisner/Miller, Dark Horse Books, 2005, p.222
Characters
Original characters The strip focuses on a family, the Pattersons:
Elly Patterson (née Richards) is a stressed yet loving wife and mother of three. 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 April. After the library job ended, Elly began working in a bookstore that she and John eventually bought and expanded to include toys and hobby supplies (such as model railroads). She then sold the store to her friend and began retirement. John Patterson is the husband of the strip's protagonist Elly. A mild-mannered dentist and loyal family man who is a big kid at heart. Over time he develops interests in cars and model railroads, even going so far as to try and run them through the house and back to his workshop. Michael Patterson started in the strip as a rambunctious preschooler, then grew into a sullen teenager and a mature young man. Michael became a freelance writer, married his childhood crush Deanna Sobinski, and is a father to Meredith and Robin. Elizabeth Patterson started in the strip as a bratty and demanding toddler, then grew into a cute little girl, an awkward preadolescent, and a confident, bright young woman. When the strip ends, she is a teacher who has just married her ex-boyfriend Anthony Caine and become stepmother to his daughter, Françoise. Elizabeth gave birth to a son, James Allen Caine, whom she and her husband named in honour of her grandfather.
In 1991, a third child was born: April Patterson is the youngest, so named because she was born on April Fool's Day, 1991. She nearly drowned during a spring flood when she was four years old: the family sheepdog, Farley, lost his life saving her. She developed over the years into a bright tomboy who was a talented musician with a love of animals. When the series ends, she is about to go off to university to study veterinary medicine.
As John and Elly's children grow older, the strip starts to focus on neighbours and friends as well, creating an ever-changing roster of characters.
The comic's main characters were initially based upon Johnston's real family, but Johnston made significant changes.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. When her children were younger, she asked their permission before depicting events from their lives;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. 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. Unlike Deanna, the real-life victim did not survive. Johnston says that she dealt with the bad news of her own infertility by creating a new child (April) for the strip.Described by Johnston in All About April
Key storylines The fictional suburban town of Milborough is near Lake Simcoe. On the For Better or For Worse website, Milborough is said to be about a 45-minute to one-hour drive from Toronto and resemble Newmarket or Etobicoke, and a location map places it on Highway 12 near Cannington and Beaverton in the northernmost part of Durham Region. The family's house is on Sharon Park Drive.
Otherwise, the Canadian aspects of the strip's setting are presented subtly in details such as the presence of institutions such as Canada Post and practices such as the family buying milk in milk bags, a common packaging in Ontario. One major exception is having Michael take his post-secondary education in London, Ontario, a midsize city 300 km west of Toronto. Johnston chose that setting considering a native of Ontario could choose it with its major educational institutions such as Fanshawe College and the University of Western Ontario, while it would allow Michael some distance from his parents yet still be within driving distance for vacations and summer breaks. Johnston also intended that story turn partially as a prank, anticipating ignorant readers assuming that Michael was studying in London, England, and enjoying imagining their embarrassment when the regional geography is explained to them. Johnston later confessed it had backfired on her and she had been fooled along with her targeted crowd when she got a congratulatory letter from Texas along with an earlier strip showing Michael in a cowboy hat, saying the Lone Star State would be a great place to tend to his education. Johnston jokingly remarked she got a taste of her own medicine and realization she did not know all regional geography, due to the other community of the same name. For their part, the citizenry of London, Ontario, welcomed their city's inclusion in the strip, including an official welcome from the University of Western Ontario when Michael switched to that institution.
In its quarter century, the strip featured various storylines, as the characters and their friends aged. These include Elly's return to the paid work force ("The Last Straw"), John's midlife crisis, the birth of a friend's six-fingered daughter ("Keep The Home Fries Burning"), Elizabeth wearing glasses ("What, Me Pregnant"), friends' divorces and relocations to distant towns, the coming out of Michael's best friend Lawrence Poirier ("There Goes My Baby"), child abuse (by Gordon's alcoholic parents), the death of Elly's mother Marian Richards ("Sunshine and Shadow"), and Elizabeth's experience with sexual harassment and assault by a co-worker ("Home Sweat Home").
The strip has a multiracial cast intended to reflect Canada's demographics. While the Pattersons are a white English-speaking family, there have been recurring characters of diverse backgrounds, including African-Caribbean, Asian, Latin American, Franco-Ontarian and First Nations ethnicities. 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 college, Elizabeth moves in with her boyfriend, Eric Chamberlain, but promises not to cohabit. Elizabeth later breaks up with Eric when she finds out he is cheating on her. The Pattersons deal with difficult acquaintances such as Thérèse, the ex-wife of Elizabeth's friend Anthony, who resents Elizabeth's presence, or the helicopter parenting of Deanna's mother, Mira Sobinski.
Farley's death Since the comic happens in real time, the Pattersons' first Old English Sheepdog, Farley, begins to get old. When he is 14 years old (April 18, 1995), Farley saves four-year-old April from drowning in a stream near the Patterson home. Farley cannot take the shock of the cold water or the exertion of saving April and dies of a heart attack after getting April to shore.
The death provoked a lot of reaction from fans. "People's emotions were kind of raw," Johnston said. "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."Neutering Edgar, Gina Spadafori
When Johnston told fellow cartoonist (and close friend) Charles M. Schulz that Farley was going to die, Schulz jokingly "threatened to have Snoopy hit by a truck if Johnston went through with the plan".Good Grief! Author Describes Bio of Charles M. Schulz — And Oldest Son Offers Critique from the Editor & Publisher website In the end, Johnston kept the timing of Farley's death a secret from Schulz.
For Better or For Worse'''s website has a section dedicated to Farley that includes the strips depicting his heroism and death, plus a selection of "Farley's Spirit" strips.Remembering Farley on the "For Better or For Worse" official website. Farley was named after Canadian author Farley Mowat, a longtime friend of Johnston.
Johnston has allowed the Ontario Veterinary Medical Association (OVMA) to use Farley's name and likeness for the "Farley Foundation", a charity it established to subsidize the cost of veterinary care for pets of low-income seniors and people with disabilities in Ontario.
Lawrence comes out
Michael Boncoeur, a friend of Johnston's, was murdered in Toronto in 1991."Police hunt former CBC comic's killer". Vancouver Sun, March 27, 1991. Although the murder was not due to Boncoeur's homosexuality, there were some homophobic attitudes in the media coverage of it, and Johnston felt that a gay character should be brought into the strip to help combat anti-gay stereotypes and discrimination.Pam Becker, "Drawing from life". Chicago Tribune, December 17, 2004.