For Better Or For Worse

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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

http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/9559/theinhkocomic1sc.jpg

― kingfish trampycakes (kingfish 2.0), Sunday, 11 December 2005 00:11 (eighteen years ago) link

Thanks, Shannon.

― Lars and Jagger (Ex Leon), Tuesday, 13 December 2005 18:34 (eighteen years ago) link

Yes! Those inferior to us will always be great mascots to remind us how much fortunate we are!

I like the last Sunday strip!

― Obsessing over the unobtainable and nonexistent. (Leee), Thursday, 15 December 2005 00:55 (eighteen years ago) link

two months pass...

Seriously, the funny! I'm not joking!

― c(''c) (Leee), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 04:29 (eighteen years ago) link

I actually chuckled, god damn you.

― David R. (popshots75`), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 04:36 (eighteen years ago) link

this thread really should have been titled "For Better Or For Worse: B/W?"

― s1ocki (slutsky), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 15:59 (eighteen years ago) link

mods?

― s1ocki (slutsky), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 15:59 (eighteen years ago) link

You sound like Sinbad.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 16:00 (eighteen years ago) link

the brave & heroic sailor, i hope!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 16:10 (eighteen years ago) link

i take that as a compliment!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 16:10 (eighteen years ago) link

six months pass...

Looks like Jim's a goner.

― The Bearnaise-Stain Bears (Rock Hardy), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 17:28 (seventeen years ago) link

The paper I read here doesn't have FBOFW, but they do have Rex Morgan, MD!

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 17:34 (seventeen years ago) link

I appreciate the moral worldview she articulates in today's strip -- she approaches death's solemnity with a generically derivative joke about prime rib. Indeed, death be not proud! Brava, Ms. Johnston.

But I don't get slocki's joke thatis the true tragedie! :(

― c('°c) (Leee), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 17:47 (seventeen years ago) link

OH WAIT HAHA.

― c('°c) (Leee), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 17:47 (seventeen years ago) link

The blinking on the website is creepy.

― Chuck_Tatum (Chuck_Tatum), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 19:03 (seventeen years ago) link

Looking upthread I see that we're about a year from the end forever and for real of FoFW. I guess the culminating event is going to be April's graduation from high school and moving out, creating a newly empty nest for Ellie and John, but in the meantime we have lots of milestones for the cast to get through.

I'm particularly looking forward to the series of strips where Liz testifies about her assault, and when the assailant is released on a technicality, Anthony goes berserk and shoots the guy, then as Liz' cop boyfriend who's name I forget tries to stop the murder Anthony kills him, and then finally himself.

...what?

― 100% CHAMPS with a Yes! Attitude. (Austin, Still), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 19:54 (seventeen years ago) link

even cathy is better than this

― chaki (chaki), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 23:11 (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.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 01:30 (seventeen years ago) link

I've been telling you people this strip is as good as Hamlet.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 02:04 (seventeen years ago) link

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

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

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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For Better Or For Worse - C/D?