Fans of For Better or For Worse, Lynn Johnston's semi-autobiographical family strip, have been waiting with bated breath to find out if the rumors that the strip would end in 2007 were true. Well, we've received word from Lynn Johnston, and the news is good!
Although Johnston will begin to lighten her workload in September (around the time the strip turns 28), she will continue to produce FBOFW on a daily basis as an old/new hybrid. The focus of the strip will shift from Elly and John Patterson, the stars of the comic strip since it began in 1979, to their son, Mike, and his family. After the transition, FBOFW will be a unique mix: new strips featuring Mike and family, with guest appearances by the rest of the FBOFW cast, plus previously published strips/scenes with new lead-in panels, and in some cases, retouched art.
The hybrid strip offers the best of both worlds; it will enable Johnston to cut back on the daily grind (who wouldn't need some rest after producing nearly three decades-worth of daily comics?), but will still give fans their Patterson family fix.
There will be one more difference, and it's a big one if you're a fan of FBOFW's realistic treatment of time: The characters will no longer age. Johnston says the gradual aging of the characters was not planned when the strip began, and after 30 years, she's ready to freeze the Pattersons at their current ages.
With all of these changes on the horizon, it will be a different FBOFW that ends 2007. But knowing that Lynn Johnston will still be treating us to daily doses of FBOFW in 2008 and beyond is cause for celebration.
Click here to read the full FBOFW press release.
This is my favorite comic. I'm not a youngster either. I'm 74 years young.
I'm so happy to know this won't end. Good luck to Ms. Johnson.
Posted by: Antonie Might | January 24, 2007 at 10:00 PM
Thank god, this strip was and still is a travesty.
Posted by: Lewis Hardbone | January 25, 2007 at 02:29 AM
This is my favorite comic strip of all time. I really hate to see the characters not age. It's the most interesting part of any comic strip. I can't imagine enjoying it so much if the focus is on Mike & his family. They are boring. I really would like to see Elizabeth end up with someone new. Warren & Anthony just don't cut it. What about April? She'll get tired of the band and will grow further than any of the kids. I'll still read it until I tire of the usual "Family Circle" bit. I love this comic strip as is!!
Posted by: AC | January 25, 2007 at 02:16 PM
I'm sad to say it won't be the same enjoyable comic strip without the characters aging. Elizabeth is the most interesting. Will there be justice for her attacker? Will she finally find the one and only? What about April? How can she grow if she remains in high school? Mike and his family are not that cute.
Posted by: kelly b. | January 25, 2007 at 03:27 PM
Please continue to age your charactors or stop the strip completely. I was saddened to hear that your strip was slated to end, but then was relieved to hear that you were going to continue them in the hybrid fashion. Until I read you are going to stop aging them.
This sets you apart from Foxtrot, Heart of the City, etc.
I'm sure you can find plenty of interesting things for Mike, Dee and the kids. Just age them. Please.
Posted by: MS | January 26, 2007 at 11:40 AM
I had obviously missed something when the FBOFW changes were first announced so this was totally crushing when I read about it this morning. I'm with those who would prefer a "last strip" ending. Mike and family are not the characters that involve me - other than I was really concerned about him saving his laptop from the attic. (Only a writer could understand how essential that was.) Too many other facets of the Pattersons' lives would be needed for me to maintain my devotion to the strip - the first one I've read for years and the first one I linked with online when I moved to a tiny town with no daily paper. I cannot imagine caring much about an ageless Michael and family strip. Better to end with a bang than fade out with a whimper.
Posted by: Ann | January 27, 2007 at 10:03 AM
About aging, I wonder if those who market comic strips got go Lynn Johnston. This is like the mad rush for plastic surgery to stave off aging with the possible complications of surgery, or the need to diet to the point of pathology like those with anorexia nervosa. Lets be real about life. At least the modeling industry in Spain recently got it right with no models allowed who are less than a dress size 8.
Posted by: Fresno Dude | January 27, 2007 at 02:49 PM
The charm of the strip, I thought, was growing old with the characters. Please, I think the idea of freezing the ages and doing this entire old/new idea is terrible. Either kill off the entire strip (give us resolution and closure) or find an artist to carry on your work. Tom Wilson found someone to carry on Ziggy (his son!) and Pat Brady found a new artist for Rose Is Rose...you can do it, too.
FBOFW is my favorite strip. I even have the DVDs from the TV show...but this is just terrible.
Posted by: O-Dizzle | January 27, 2007 at 03:25 PM
Such sad news to hear the ages of characters will be frozen. We have all grown with all the characters as we have all moved from specific stages in our own lives. I've been reading the strip for over 20+ years and can identify with the teen-age children situations, to new children in the family situations to even family pets who pass on (just re-reading about Farley in these blogs makes me remember the pointedness of the cartoon strip as being family personal.)
Instread of freezing the ages of the characters and moving the center to the Michael and family situation, it would be better to end the strip. Do a count-down about a month and a half before the strip could be ended and devote a certain timeframe to each main character of where they are going in their life to satisfy the readers to a positive end. The auxiliary characters could each have a "closure" timeframe, too. Then, as the final week could approach, all the characters could meet for a "cartoon strip" farewell and sign off with their ages frozen. End of cartoon. Closure for your fans. Life moves on.
Posted by: Susan V. | January 27, 2007 at 05:38 PM
Oh no! First Boondocks, then FoxTrot, now FBOFW? What next, Stone Soup and Zits decide to call it a day? Has anyone else noticed how awful most of today's comic strips are? None of them make me smile and laugh and love their characters as much as FBOFW and the others that I mentioned. These are classics that show real people in real-life situations, minus the political correctness garbage that has invaded the comics pages lately.
Anyway, I too am disappointed in the focus being shifted over to Michael and Deanna Patterson's family, I find them much duller than Elizabeth's storyline.
I'm probably in the minority when I say that I don't want Anthony to hook up with Elizabeth.
Posted by: Blah | January 27, 2007 at 11:05 PM
I hope that you reconsider changing the format of this comic. I find it a delight to have watched the family grow and change with time and face real problems that we all face.
Posted by: Irene | January 28, 2007 at 04:03 PM
Focusing on the most boring family members and stopping the aging process will just make this strip an updated version of "Family Circus".
Posted by: Julie Peterson | January 29, 2007 at 12:35 AM
@wai: Right on. Lynn should just end it now. Go out like Seinfeld, not like Simpsons (will someday).
Posted by: Patrick Farrell | January 29, 2007 at 03:04 PM
Oh, how disappointing. I mean, I would have been shocked beyond words to find out it was quitting (so soon after Foxtrot!), but to focus on Michael and his family without aging them? Oh, groan.
I think Anthony is an idiot, but seeing how Elizabeth has chosen and has lived her life, that's probably who she'll end up with. She has made some really dumb choices, so I'm afraid that's who she'll end up with.
Much, much better to have some resolution to Elizabeth, grandpa, Michael's family and hope for the future for April and end it now. I won't continue reading, that's for sure. Michael's family is NOT the family to concentrate on! Why did she make this decision, I wonder?
M
Posted by: mom2twoboys | January 30, 2007 at 03:07 AM
I realize it's tempting to keep the series going and appreciate the effort involved. But I too would prefer that Lynn just end it, perhaps with a combination of one of the first strips featuring Elly, Michael and baby Lizzie (perhaps struggling with the washing machine or chasing a naked toddler out into the street), and a new one showing Deanna going through the exact same situation.
Posted by: Stooges Woman :-) | January 31, 2007 at 12:20 PM
No more aging?
A strip centered entirely around Michael's "forever young" family?
Gag me.
The fact that the characters in FBOFW aged, grew, and changed was what made the strip, IMO. We grew alongside the characters and could relate to them.
No one can relate to one-off gags about a blessed writer and his one-dimensional brood.
Posted by: Never teh Bride | January 31, 2007 at 06:14 PM
She had a good run, though I agree with some of the others, who don't find Mike and his family very interesting.
It seems that it's alot of the same jokes being "modernized" to fit Mike's family....
Regardless, I hope there is closure with Elizabeth, I'm rooting for Anthony, and I always though that having Elizabeth in a relationship with a new child, would allow for even more material to be written. *shrug*
Ah well, it was good while it lasted...but I will miss my dose of FBorFW and Foxtrot.
~Jen
Posted by: Jenny | January 31, 2007 at 08:51 PM
I'm thoroghly disappointed that the aging will stop. Too bad.
Posted by: Steve | February 01, 2007 at 08:02 AM
If Ms. Johnston is unable to continue the strip as it has been due to needing a deserved rest, she should wrap it up the end of the year with a breakdown on what happens to the characters, and not discontinue the aging process and switch the family focus. The charm and delight was seeing the family grow up and change. Why not go to a Sunday only strip?
Posted by: Andree | February 01, 2007 at 10:55 AM
I've been especially disappointed with Lynne's recent decision to pull Elizabeth away from her most interesting relationship ever (with Paul), projecting a message that intercultural relationships don't work -- apples with apples, oranges with oranges. Her interest in diversity stops at the Patterson family door. They are a pretty homogenous bunch. Lynne often has drawn comparisons between Anthony and John; it's obvious she's inclined to put Elizabeth and Anthony together. Too bad it's such a boring conclusion to her story - Elizabeth deserves better. Maybe Anthony will at least be redrawn without his dumb mustache.
I can imagine Lynne is ready to move on from FBoFW after 28 years, but I'm disappointed that she is not simply ending the comic strip, but instead has decided to stop the strip in time and focus on Mike and his family. I picture a lot of future strips will be like the gently-humored, "feel good" strips she runs on Sundays. These strips are not why most fans read FBoFW and why it has been so popular all these years. The telanovella-like story lines set it a part from other comics on the page.
Posted by: rhh | February 05, 2007 at 10:24 PM
Ugh, Anthoney seems like a squarer version of Ned Flanders.
I wish Lynn would just put away her pens instead of ruining the uniqueness of FBOFW.
Posted by: No Please Not Anthony | February 09, 2007 at 12:45 AM
For the last 10 years or so I have been reading your strip. I don't always get to it regularly, but when I can I, I do. I want to thank you; your strip is a breath of fresh air. I feel that I know the characters, that they are somehow friends and that their lives are important and connected to mine. I have sometimes even forgotten that the characters are fictional and really just exist on paper--somehow that is the gift you have given to the rest of us. I know the thought of change is a bit hard on us, still I have full confidence that we will all be OK...Mostly, I want to say Well Done and Thank you for your wonderful gift to the rest of us.
Posted by: Gwen DeYoung | February 25, 2007 at 01:26 PM
Thank you Mrs. Johnston for years of a great comic. I am delighted to have this opportunity to thank you - I feel that you are serving the world well in illustrating the true journeys and changes we go through in this life - such as Jim's stroke and the aftermath, Elizabeth's facing her attacker in court with the support of her friend, and subsequent romance troubles, the family adjusting to living together after the fire, etc. You are really providing a service and I really enjoy the humanness of your "family." What ever direction you take the strip in the future, I just want to acknowledge that and say a heartfelt "thank you!"
Posted by: Lydia | March 25, 2007 at 06:56 PM
I am heartbroken, FBOFW has been my favorite forever it seems and now my daily newspaper has dropped it along with others., I am going to cancel my newspaper and subscribe to another because of it. I have to find out what happens with Elizabeth and Anthony, I think they are a good match, he is very sensitive like her father. Gloria
Posted by: Gloria | July 21, 2007 at 11:42 AM
They still make this strip? Last storyline I remember was when Farley died, but then, I don't read the papers much anymore. Lyn Johnston's been putting this thing out for 30 years... not everyone's a Charles Schultz who can work and work until death... Lyn deserves some time off. At least she's going to still be doing some original material. As for the aging controversy, well it seems like it would just be too difficult to do anymore. Would you rather this strip end up like Gasoline Alley?
Posted by: Kid Z | August 17, 2007 at 10:23 AM