For Better Or For Worse

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I used to dismiss FBOW because it was serialized and actually dealt with real life issues (like a pet rabbit dying), but once I gave it a chance, I found it to be quite funny and sharp.

― SLeeeter Kinney (Leee), Thursday, 22 April 2004 02:54 (twenty years ago) link

is it called "for better or worse" or "for better or for worse?" because i'm pretty sure i've seen it both ways in different papers.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Thursday, 22 April 2004 04:54 (twenty years ago) link

it's definitely had its moments - the sequence where lawrence came out in particular was very well done and not at all as "afterschool special" as i thought it'd be. i'd rate it above pretty much any other strip being run today (except doonesbury and zippy and boondocks on its non-strident days), but i stopped following it a long time ago - the pacing is so leisurely that it doesn't really hold my attention.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Thursday, 22 April 2004 05:58 (twenty years ago) link

D'oh! In my paper, it's "For Better Or For Worse."

― SLeeeter Kinney (Leee), Thursday, 22 April 2004 20:20 (twenty years ago) link

I think it's kind of cool that the characters aged with you. They had a baby and it didn't stay a baby forever. What is she, going to college or getting married now?

One of the few strips I remember showed the mom grocery shopping with the baby and a woman saying, "Look at the wittle girl! Are you a good girl? Is the good girl grocery shopping with her mommy?" Something like that. When the woman goes away, the girl says, "Some people can be so oddnoxious, mommy." I thought that was cute.

It all seemed too nice, though. Like 7th Heaven. I like to read about grittier stuff.

― Vermont Girl (Vermont Girl), Friday, 23 April 2004 11:48 (twenty years ago) link

What VG said. Very quaint, and a bit TOO true-to-life, in that there's a lot of bland stuff going on that wears me out. Also, there's some of the Family Circus "quotidian epiphany" thing happening - sitting around the kitchen table, thinking about life; driving to the hospital, thinking about death - which strikes my cynical self as forced and cloying.

― David R. (popshots75`), Friday, 23 April 2004 14:58 (twenty years ago) link

To quote the movie "Go":

'Then there's Family Circus, bottom right corner, just waiting to suck. It's the last things you read and it spoils everything you read before it.'

― Vermont Girl (Vermont Girl), Friday, 23 April 2004 16:40 (twenty years ago) link

The daughter is in college about to graduate and become a teacher, if we're talking about the same person.

― sLeeeter kinney (Leee), Friday, 23 April 2004 19:58 (twenty years ago) link

one year passes...

Let's talk about the latest arc. Or, my embarrassing litany of past handles and emails.

― Leeeeeeee (Leee), Monday, 15 August 2005 21:01 (eighteen years ago) link

man this strip is way cornier than i remembered!

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Monday, 15 August 2005 21:58 (eighteen years ago) link

Deanna totally went off the pill behind Michael's back to get pregnant with the first baby; Michael's going to lose his shit with his mother-in-law and punch her in the mouth one of these days; Elizabeth's stalker is going to come back with a gun and splatter Anthony (who will have left his loveless marriagae by this time); Gordon's going to lose his car empire and kill himself; the thievin' shop employee that Elly fired is going to sue the Pattersons into abject poverty; and April's going to be knocked up by the time she's 16.

I love this strip.

― Truckdrivin' Buddha (Rock Hardy), Monday, 15 August 2005 22:51 (eighteen years ago) link

Doesn't Anthony have a kid or two with his shrewing, ballbusting, controlling, hateful wife?

― Austin Still (Austin, Still), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 03:06 (eighteen years ago) link

'Cause I totally want to see the phrase "hate fuck" used on the comics page. And it ain't gonna happen in Rose is a Rose.

― Austin Still (Austin, Still), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 03:07 (eighteen years ago) link

this thread is hilarious.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 03:44 (eighteen years ago) link

I like it 'cause it's so Canadian.

― M. V. (M.V.), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 04:01 (eighteen years ago) link

I think Anthony only just got married ("just" being within the last year).

― Leeeeeeee (Leee), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 05:26 (eighteen years ago) link

Anthony is Michael's best friend, right?

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 12:52 (eighteen years ago) link

No, I think you mean Weed, whom he lived with before getting married and who is Michael's work partner (photographer to his writer.)

The official site has a rundown of most of the minor characters here:

http://www.fborfw.com/char_pgs/who/

― Austin Still (Austin, Still), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 13:13 (eighteen years ago) link

I think Gordon, Lawrence and Michael were friends in high school, but I don't think they hang out much anymore. Weed, the photographer, has been Michael's best friend since he got out on his own, but that's going by the wayside now that Weed is boinking his assistant. (xpost)

― Rock Hardy (Rock Hardy), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 13:20 (eighteen years ago) link

while googling up that official site, BTW, I ran across the tidbit that Johnston plans to retire the strip in about two years, when her current syndication contract runs out.

― Austin Still (Austin, Still), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 13:37 (eighteen years ago) link

The thing about FBOFW is that it's one of those strips that is awesome in summarized form but really, really irksome to read as a daily.

― The Ghost of Black Elegance (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 15:01 (eighteen years ago) link

HERE COMES AN IMPORTANT LESSON!

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 15:03 (eighteen years ago) link

That site is strangely addictive. It's amazing how much hate mail/angry calls from newspapers she got when she did the "Laurence comes out storyline" in 1993. I confused Gordon with Anthony, it seems. I also didn't realize that Farley had died and has been replaced by son of Farley.

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 15:25 (eighteen years ago) link

Laurence came out in 1993!
Holy crap.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 15:30 (eighteen years ago) link

HERE COMES THE BLANK MEANINGFUL STARE

The awesomeness of FBOFW is lost on me. Gimme a talking robot and WoW references, plz.

― David R. (popshots75`), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 16:20 (eighteen years ago) link

HERE COMES THE "OH FUCK WE'RE REALLY OLD!" REVELATION

― David R. (popshots75`), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 16:20 (eighteen years ago) link

HERE COMES THE DRUMS!

Oh sorry, wrong thread.

― The Ghost of Black Elegance (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 16:29 (eighteen years ago) link

So Canadian it HURTs.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 16:47 (eighteen years ago) link

There's a guy named "Weed"? That's almost as bad as Mike Seaver's (Growing Pains) best friend's name: Boner.

Maybe I'd get the FBORFW books, it sounds like a soap opera. ... No, no I won't ever get them.

― Vermont Girl (Vermont Girl), Wednesday, 17 August 2005 15:53 (eighteen years ago) link

Whoops about Anthony & kiddiedom: "Anthony is now married to Thérèse and they have a young daughter named Francoise."

― Leeeeeeee (Leee), Wednesday, 17 August 2005 18:04 (eighteen years ago) link

It is nothing more than a soap opera, but at least I don't give it an hour a day like I used to do with "Days of Our Lives." Lynn Johnston totally has a tin ear for dialogue (today's strip for example), but I'm willing to give it 30 seconds a day to follow the characters.

― Rock Hardy (Rock Hardy), Wednesday, 17 August 2005 18:15 (eighteen years ago) link

FOOBS. FBOFW sucks eh

― Dan I. (Dan I.), Wednesday, 17 August 2005 23:38 (eighteen years ago) link

Best single comic strip this year was that one Get Fuzzy that mentioned beaver eating, but was hastily edited so that some papers (midwest and west of that?) got one that talked about marmots or something instead. I couldn't find the switch documented anywhere but I tell you I saw the original with my own eyes.

― Dan I. (Dan I.), Wednesday, 17 August 2005 23:41 (eighteen years ago) link

I think there was an ILE thread about it.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 18 August 2005 13:14 (eighteen years ago) link

I cried reading the FBoFW strip where the Patterson's older dog died saving April from drowning in a river.

― mushy, Thursday, 18 August 2005 13:39 (eighteen years ago) link

I have been obsessed with reading lately, it's so soap opera and cheesy. Liz should run away from Anthony, he looks like he's 80, for real.

Did you know there's a bunch of websites dissecting and satirizing this strip? Here's a couple of links:

http://www.livejournal.com/community/binky_betsy/

http://www.livejournal.com/users/ellcee/

http://aprilsrealblog.blogspot.com/

― Leon C. (Ex Leon), Thursday, 18 August 2005 13:52 (eighteen years ago) link

I suspect people don't like FBoFW because they expect it to be funny.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 18 August 2005 19:53 (eighteen years ago) link

I hate nothing more than the traditional shocked/wistful/melancholy look on the faces of the parents (or "'rents" in FBoFW world) in the last panel of a "they grow up so fast" strip. Sometimes this facial expression is also inexplicably included in a strip about the dogs and fucking rabbit.

― Dan I. (Dan I.), Thursday, 18 August 2005 20:50 (eighteen years ago) link

There is one good thing about For Better or For Worse which is that eventually all the characters will die.

― Dan I. (Dan I.), Thursday, 18 August 2005 20:55 (eighteen years ago) link

lol I swear I didn't read those blogs until just now.

― Dan I. (Dan I.), Thursday, 18 August 2005 21:00 (eighteen years ago) link

three months pass...

Ugh! That April, she's a real hoser sometimes! Like, could she be any ruder to her mom this morning? I mean, Elly was just trying to be helpful! Sheesh!

― Keep the juices flowing by jangling around gentleee as you move (Leee), Monday, 5 December 2005 22:53 (eighteen years ago) link

If I had a nickel for every final FBOFW panel that featured a character's eyes bugging out in a reaction shot, I'd be almost as rich as Lynn Johnston.

I just went to the syndicate's website to steal some of these priceless images and ran across this:

As of September 1st "For Better or For Worse" will no longer be available on Comics.com due to the fact that the creator has not renewed her contract with Comics.com.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Thursday, 8 December 2005 20:02 (eighteen years ago) link

I read it at www.ucomics.com now. In color!

― I do feel guilty for getting any perverse amusement out of it (Rock Hardy), Thursday, 8 December 2005 21:16 (eighteen years ago) link

The "April has acne" storyline is getting really old. I want to find out if Lizzie's gettin it on with the cute cop.

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Thursday, 8 December 2005 21:27 (eighteen years ago) link

Bah, color.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 8 December 2005 21:33 (eighteen years ago) link

Almost any story having to do with April gets old really quick.

― Lars and Jagger (Ex Leon), Friday, 9 December 2005 03:33 (eighteen years ago) link

Ape! Sometimes I can't stand her, but today: "Sometimes it's hard to know if I'm being useful... or just being used." So wise beyond her years!!

― Obsessing over the unobtainable and nonexistent. (Leee), Friday, 9 December 2005 19:27 (eighteen years ago) link

That's quite a hip outfit and hairstyle that she's got, too.

― scamperingalpaca (Chris Hill), Friday, 9 December 2005 22:22 (eighteen years ago) link

The high school switched to a uniform dress code a couple years ago.

Cripes, the shit that lives in my brane...

― Austin Still (Austin, Still), Friday, 9 December 2005 22:46 (eighteen years ago) link

Whoops, good catch. I read FBoW on Sundays, and figured it was individual choice as to why April was wearing a grey pants outfit and her friend was in a skirt.

― scamperingalpaca (Chris Hill), Saturday, 10 December 2005 01:23 (eighteen years ago) link

Skipping 19 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

its no brewster rockit: space guy

― chaki (chaki), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 02:34 (seventeen years ago) link

> it would be awesome if today's strip signals Johnston's resolve to KILL EVERY RECURRING CHARACTER before the strip ends next year.

I'm saying, yo! My scenario only ends with three minor characters dead and one major one utterly traumatized, alas.

― 100% CHAMPS with a Yes! Attitude. (Austin, Still), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 02:44 (seventeen years ago) link

Yours sounds like the ending of Homicide: Life On the Street

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 04:20 (seventeen years ago) link

the canadian comics hall of fame will give lynn their highest award next year at the wright awards

― anthony easton (anthony), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 05:37 (seventeen years ago) link

...unless one man can stop them.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 12:48 (seventeen years ago) link

I haven't regularly read the comics in years now, and never particularly cared for FBOFW, but knowing that it'll be ending relatively soon kinda bums me out. It was never really funny, but at least it was inoffensive. It was workmanlike. Yeah.

― barefoot manthing (Garrett Martin), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 13:18 (seventeen years ago) link

Ditto. Dependably enjoyable on Sundays.

― lumberingwoodsman (Chris Hill), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 14:36 (seventeen years ago) link

i can wrestle chester brown to the floor easy

― Chuck_Tatum (Chuck_Tatum), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 15:39 (seventeen years ago) link

Insert Joe Matt joke here.

― 100% CHAMPS with a Yes! Attitude. (Austin, Still), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 15:43 (seventeen years ago) link

Hahaha the metaphysical ontology of mind, as distinct from body today! Hahaha Johnston you are a treat!

― c('°c) (Leee), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 16:19 (seventeen years ago) link

April, yeesh! Way to be selfish and not think about the BAND.

― c('°c) (Leee), Monday, 2 October 2006 22:28 (seventeen years ago) link

Hey! Grandpa Jim was the one who got her started on the guitar. He'd want her to follow her musical dream!

(I guarantee we see this sentiment in print by the end of the week.)

― It's the lazy and immoral way to become super hip. (Austin, Still), Monday, 2 October 2006 23:33 (seventeen years ago) link

three months pass...

APRIL!!! Give your sister some PRIVACY, for CORN'S SAKE!!!

― c('°c) (Leee), Thursday, 4 January 2007 19:22 (seventeen years ago) link

This Elizabeth-being-cheated-on thing is really fucking irritating because it was so telegraphed months ago. But then I realized everything in this strip is telegraphed months in advance. Why does this irritate me more?

― do i have to draw you a diaphragm (Rock Hardy), Friday, 12 January 2007 16:20 (seventeen years ago) link

Oh gross I hope Anthony at least shaves for the wedding

― A B C (sparklecock), Friday, 12 January 2007 16:28 (seventeen years ago) link

WTF are these online?

― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 12 January 2007 16:43 (seventeen years ago) link

http://www.gocomics.com/forbetterorforworse/

― do i have to draw you a diaphragm (Rock Hardy), Friday, 12 January 2007 16:51 (seventeen years ago) link

FBFW: The Clip Show

― Chuck_Tatum (Chuck_Tatum), Friday, 12 January 2007 17:53 (seventeen years ago) link

But... IT JUST HAPPENED!

This strip has me in tears.

― c('°c) (Leee), Friday, 12 January 2007 18:01 (seventeen years ago) link

FBFW: The Clip Show

BOOOOOO. Just end the strip, for fuck's sake, while you've got Leee in tears!

Actually, if the syndicate owns it and could continue it without her, this is probably the best solution.

― do i have to draw you a diaphragm (Rock Hardy), Friday, 12 January 2007 18:07 (seventeen years ago) link

BLOG ALERT: FoxTrot Goes Sunday-Only!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 12 January 2007 18:32 (seventeen years ago) link

hahaha, I saw the "Throw Snowballs at Gramps" ad at the bottom and thought, "Dude, that's harsh, he just had a stroke!"

― do i have to draw you a diaphragm (Rock Hardy), Friday, 12 January 2007 18:48 (seventeen years ago) link

"What I'd like to do is freeze the characters at the ages they are now," said Johnston, who turns 60 this May. "No people will grow older. No dogs will grow older and pass away."

The strip's creator was referring to Farley, the shaggy canine whose heroic 1995 death (after saving April from drowning) brought Johnston an avalanche of reader mail.

I'm surprised she'd want to fix the characters in teim. Aging is so preferable to the umpteenth time Lucy pulls the ball before Charlie Brown can kick it or Bart's 15th year at Springfield Elementary (to a lesser degree). Farley's death, the Doonesbury characters, Luann, Crankshaft, even Gasoline Alley - all gain greater investments because the characters age.

― lumberingwoodsman (Chris Hill), Friday, 12 January 2007 20:58 (seventeen years ago) link

Characters age in Luann?

― Candy: tastes like chicken, if chicken was a candy. (Austin, Still), Friday, 12 January 2007 21:58 (seventeen years ago) link

Puddles has been a puppy since the beginning, I think. But, Brad used to be in HS or whatever, now he's an awful fireman.

― c('°c) (Leee), Friday, 12 January 2007 22:24 (seventeen years ago) link

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/departments/syndicates/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003531732

I know too much about this comic considering I don't actually read it.

― Chuck_Tatum (Chuck_Tatum), Friday, 12 January 2007 22:46 (seventeen years ago) link

charlie brown losing for the ten zillionth time has so much more resonance than anything in FBOFW or god fking LUANN any day of the week!

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Friday, 12 January 2007 23:20 (seventeen years ago) link

Crankshaft is also pretty much fixed in time, he shouldn't be driving a schoolbus anymore and at least one of the seven poignant alzheimers-stricken characters in the strip shoulda kicked it by now

― A B C (sparklecock), Saturday, 13 January 2007 01:25 (seventeen years ago) link

charlie brown losing for the ten zillionth time has so much more resonance than anything in FBOFW or god fking LUANN any day of the week!

Why? It's static. Charlie Brown's a loser with a good heart. He doesn't ask the red-headed girl out (or did he? Seems like he got kissed once). He loses his kite. Lucy pulls the football. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Whereas in Luann (and that was just an example of a strip with the characters aging), the characters are allowed to grow, act on crushes/jobs/whatever, fail or succeed, but they evolve to a degree. Peanuts loops. Don't get me wrong, I like Peanuts, but it's McDonalds - guaranteed the same taste regardless of year - while strips that age at least make it to Burger King or Burgerville taste.

Maybe it's the models of Loser, Brat, Wise, Imaginative, Creative, Chaotic that make Peanuts worthy or resonant, not so much their stories, which is where the aging comes in?

And true, on Crankshaft. The adult characters are more timeless than the grandkids, who seem to be growing and moving on. Lena died, however - the woman who made the coffee. Alas, poor Lena.

― lumberingwoodsman (Chris Hill), Saturday, 13 January 2007 02:16 (seventeen years ago) link

Don't get me wrong, I like Peanuts, but it's McDonalds

!!!

― Casuistry (Chris P), Saturday, 13 January 2007 10:17 (seventeen years ago) link

NARRATIVES ARE NOT THE ONLY FRUIT.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Saturday, 13 January 2007 10:18 (seventeen years ago) link

Anyway, it is more like Burgerville (and I think I'm the only other person here who really knows from Burgerville?) -- it's fall therefore it must be time for the pumpkin milkshake, which may taste the same as last year but it's still a pretty great shake. I used to work next door to a Burgerville and marked the passing of the year through its milkshake cycle.

But the whole point of some strips is variations and refinements on a set of themes, finding new angles and new approaches, teasing out new aspects of it.

The football strips are sort of obvious in their emotional heft, and are iconic of the strip, but consider the "x days until Beethoven's birthday!" strips, which seem to last for weeks in some years, and which are the true test of a daily stripper -- how many times can you tell the same joke without telling the same joke, while bringing something new to it.

I can't imagine what you'd make of Krazy Kat!

― Casuistry (Chris P), Saturday, 13 January 2007 10:27 (seventeen years ago) link

guaranteed the same taste regardless of year

the tone of 50s Peanuts is MASSIVELY different from 80s Peanuts! and, you know, probably about 300 strips a year were not about topics that Schulz returned to, let alone how his returning to the ones that did become staples let him try and find new nuances or add depth by building on years of playing with the themes.

― nu-mongrel (kit brash), Saturday, 13 January 2007 14:44 (seventeen years ago) link

the football strips are a narrative of sorts. charlie brown goes from getting downright pissed at lucy's yearly offer to "maybe it'll be this time? this time maybe?" credulity to eventual resignation to his fate. lucy goes from mean-spirited trickster to virtual indifference - schulz once said something like "she's not trying to be mean, she just can't control herself."

schulz did acknowledge the passing of time on occasion. there's a few sunday strips from the early '70s where charlie brown is remembering the times he used to sit on the bench at lunchtime (in the early '60s, that is) and pine over the little red-haired girl (who has apparently moved away). i think they're the best strips schulz ever did. (you can find them in "sandlot peanuts," if you're interested)

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Sunday, 14 January 2007 04:27 (seventeen years ago) link

WUHoh! Does Liz go for veal??

― c('°c) (Leee), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 21:46 (seventeen years ago) link

WAHT, do you mean fuck-want for Jesse? No, she's just a sentimental sap.

― do i have to draw you a diaphragm (Rock Hardy), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 23:36 (seventeen years ago) link

MILE HIGH CLUB THEN CHOPPER CRASH!
MILE HIGH CLUB THEN CHOPPER CRASH!
MILE HIGH CLUB THEN CHOPPER CRASH!
MILE HIGH CLUB THEN CHOPPER CRASH!
MILE HIGH CLUB THEN CHOPPER CRASH!
MILE HIGH CLUB THEN CHOPPER CRASH!
MILE HIGH CLUB THEN CHOPPER CRASH!

― Candy: tastes like chicken, if chicken was a candy. (Austin, Still), Friday, 19 January 2007 13:25 (seventeen years ago) link

two months pass...

OH GOD APRIL.

― Leee, Monday, 26 March 2007 18:56 (seventeen years ago) link

Prepare yourself for three weeks of explicit heavy petting. You know Johnston has the pull to make it happen.

― Deric W. Haircare, Monday, 26 March 2007 19:27 (seventeen years ago) link

awwwww shit april's going roadside

― A B C, Monday, 26 March 2007 20:04 (seventeen years ago) link

This is gonna either get ridiculously hilarious (if Patterson tries to be serious) or grimly dull (if she tries to be funny.)

― Oilyrags, Monday, 26 March 2007 20:24 (seventeen years ago) link

Also:

http://www.gocomics.com/lio/2007/03/25/

― Oilyrags, Monday, 26 March 2007 21:03 (seventeen years ago) link

that lio!

― chaki, Tuesday, 27 March 2007 03:50 (seventeen years ago) link

Re: FBOFW Strip 03-27-07

OMG.

― Mordechai Shinefield, Tuesday, 27 March 2007 04:57 (seventeen years ago) link

Should I ban myself for having searched the internets for FBOFW pr0n???

― Leee, Tuesday, 27 March 2007 19:18 (seventeen years ago) link

You'll find it soon enough!

― R Baez, Tuesday, 27 March 2007 19:20 (seventeen years ago) link

Aww yah!

― Leee, Tuesday, 27 March 2007 19:24 (seventeen years ago) link

That was perhaps more than you would liked to have known.

― Leee, Tuesday, 27 March 2007 20:21 (seventeen years ago) link

what a letdown!!

― A B C, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 12:26 (seventeen years ago) link

I kno! (-_-#)

― Leee, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 16:38 (seventeen years ago) link

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