Saying goodbye to Lynn Johnston and the Patterson's

Syndicated in more than 2,000 newspapers, collected in 35 bestselling books and adapted into six animated specials (and a popular animated series), Lynn Johnston’s For Better or For Worse is one of the greatest success stories in the history of Canadian comics. Now, after nearly 30 years of writing and drawing the domestic drama about the ever-expanding Patterson clan, the Corbeil, Ont.-based cartoonist is winding down the final storyline of her enduring strip....(more)

During that time, loyal readers of FBorFW have witnessed Elly’s return to the workforce after being a stay-at-home mom, John’s mid-life crisis, the coming out of Michael’s friend Lawrence, and the death of Farley, the Patterson’s family dog — which was so contentious, Peanuts creator Charles Schulz threatened to have Snoopy hit by a bus if Johnston didn’t bring the prized pooch back to life.

Lynn Johnston gave this great quote when asked about her desicion to handle the retirement of her strip, different from two other great comic strip writers whom I adore greatly.

Q: Traditionally, cartoonists who wanted to retire from the daily grind of newspaper strips had two options: hand their creation over to another cartoonist [what’s called a “legacy strip”] or quit and take the strip down with you, the choice of Bill Watterson (Calvin and Hobbes) and Gary Larson (The Far Side). Why not follow their lead?




A: Initially that was my plan, and I had sort of speculated on what type of work would fill that space, because that little piece of real estate in the newspaper is a pretty coveted one. Then when Universal Press [her syndicate] said that they felt there was real opportunity to run the older strips, I thought about it and decided that their argument was a good one. Because there were many, many papers that did not pick up the strip in the first 10 years, so in a lot of markets those first 10 years were never seen.
But then there were other editors, like at the Toronto Star, the Vancouver Sun, the Chicago Tribune, who have been wonderful supporters right from Day 1, and I didn’t want to sell those editors the same material without adding something new. So that was my thinking. It would not only give me the satisfaction of still being in touch with the characters, but I would also be providing some new material for the editors and readers.

"FBorFW" is as Canadaian as maple syrup and held in the same esteem as Wayne Gretzky. We love you, Lynn and the Patterson's will sadly be missed.

Later,
Kenaz