For Better or for Worse

The family strip will return to the comics page tomorrow

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If you're a fan of the comic strip "For Better or For Worse" that runs six days a week in the Star-Bulletin, you already know how the story ends.

As promised by creator Lynn Johnston, the 29-year story of the Patterson family concluded "on a high and philosophical note" yesterday, with a character's renewed and defining commitment to "(love) someone -- with all your heart -- and with all you have to give," through good times and bad.

But wipe your teary eyes, faithful readers, and be happy. Starting tomorrow, the family's story begins again on our comics backpage. Let's call it "FBOFW 2.O." or, as Johnston has put it, "new-runs."

This is not some desperate gimmick by a creator trying to squeeze a cash cow dry by resuscitating a story that should've ended long ago.

Johnston still finds things in the family story she could improve upon. She's made the novel decision to replicate the drawing style she first used nearly three decades ago for use during this second go-round. The story and the characters won't change, but during this renewed run of "For Better or For Worse," Johnston is planning to seamlessly incorporate new material into the classic originals.

Out of the almost 10,000 archival strips at her disposal, Johnston will retell the entire Patterson family saga for fans both old and new, occasionally pausing to update references or flesh out previously unexplored supporting characters.

The 61-year-old creator from Ontario did something like this earlier, intermixing the newly drawn storyline with "flashback" reprints of her older strips.

Speaking from her Canada home, Johnston said that 50 percent new material will be incorporated into the reworked "For Better or For Worse" through September 2009.

"I ask my readers to hang in there with me. This is something that's never been done before. It's very much a work-in-progress. A whole new generation will be reading this, so come along and see where I go with this thing."

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Lynn Johnston's decision to keep her beloved comic strip "For Better or For Worse" going, even as the story of the Patterson family came to its natural conclusion, was born as much out of personal necessity as a creative one.

In a telephone conversation from her Ontario home Wednesday, Johnston said that it all started when her husband left her for "a woman friend of mine" 18 months ago.

"I was so shocked then that I was asking myself, 'Who's doing the comic strip of my life now?' My two adult children and I felt like the rug was pulled from under us," she said.

"I knew that there was stress during that time between my husband and myself, but I thought it was due to my constant work here in my home studio. I thought he was ready for me to quit so we could start our retirement years together, sailing the world on a cruise ship to Panama or the Mediterranean, with me in my Tilley hat and sneakers."

While the early years of "For Better or For Worse" drew inspiration from Johnston's life with her now-ex-husband and growing children, "people who've been reading my strip over the years were hoping that my real family life was like the Pattersons'. They certainly found out that my own life was just as vulnerable as my characters'.

"I made all of this public pretty soon afterward. My life was upside down at this time, so that's why I included the retro strips for about a year or so. With the story going back and forth in time, I admit I was getting mixed reactions. People with young families were more enthused about it, while older fans wanted me to go on with the current story. But I admit my life then was glued together by shards and pieces, so I'm grateful to my fans and United Press Syndicate (the strip's marketer and distributor) for believing and staying with me through it all."

And so begins a new phase in Lynn Johnston's life.

"I never thought I'd be single again at this time of my life, so now I find myself still wanting to work on the comic strip and keep my hand in it. And since I don't have to work 365 days trying to create new material, I can still take time off to paint and travel."

Johnston originally transitioned from doing exacting medical illustrations to creating "a fast and loose comic-strip style. I had to get the work done between 9 and noon everyday to get the strip to the syndicate by mail, so my drawings looked very sloppy. But they had a happy sense of freedom to it that I think I lost over the years as I got better working under deadlines. So drawing in the style of the strip's early years, it's like me being the age of 30 again."

Because Johnston has been doing this for so long, the award-winning illustrator has "more of an understanding of the relationships of the characters, so instead of it being a gag-a-day strip, which it was early on, I can introduce the Pattersons and their friends in a better way, with fleshed-out content. The readers will better understand who is related to who now."

Fans can expect the whole of September to be all "new" work, and Johnston said she's currently finishing strips that will run at the end of October.

Besides the financial necessity of continuing her strip, what are her other reasons to keep on keeping on?

"I didn't want my strip to run again in its original form. I mean, I'm still alive and healthy, and I can still make it the best it could be. And I love the challenge.

"I'm re-energized. I admit that when I started this many years ago, when I was offered the job of doing a daily comic strip, I never applied with a finished project in mind. My previous experience was doing three little books on pregnancy and childbirth. But United Press' intention was to have another woman do a comic strip due to the previous success of Cathy Guisewite's 'Cathy,' so I accepted the job."

In the beginning, she said, it would have been impossible to go back into her work and make changes. "I was living in an Arctic community with a newborn baby and my husband working as a 'flying dentist,' so my original art was being sent to the states first by Grey Goose Bus line, and then courier, back in 1979. Now I can rework and fix things in those old strips electronically, so it's much easier to add new material. It's just wonderful," she said.

"I asked a painter friend of mine, 'When will I know when to stop?' and she said, 'When you can't do anything more to it.' I'm 61 now, so hopefully with some good luck, I have 10 more years in me."