Lynn Johnson's "For Better or for Worse" gives her 2 cents on gay marriage....

[LynneSin]

Mind you this takes place up in Canada. And about 10 years ago she shocked everyone by outting one of her characters, Lawrence who is Michael Patterson's best friend.

[lost-in-nj]

1. This comic does not hold back

deaths of pets and people, strokes, assault and the gay story line to mention a few
of the not to "mainstream for comics" subjects.

I hear it is coming to an end soon since the kids are grown up.

I LOVE this comic


:hi:


lost

[conscious evolution]

3. I will miss it

There was a note in todays paper that the wedding will be the last one.

[FloridaJudy]

5. Sigh.....

Why do the good ones always seem to leave so soon? Calvin and Hobbes, the Far Side, now this. While Beetle Bailey and the Family Circus go on forever.

Thank the gods for Doonesbury! And that Brethed reincarnated Opus.

[blueraven95]

10. I just googled the strip

and there is nothing on Lynn's website or on any news sources about it ending soon. That's not to say that it won't, but there doesn't seem to be any official announcement.

[Rhythm]

16. According to the FBoFW site

She's going to be going back to the beginning, and retooling it as she goes...

http://www.fborfw.com/pdf/TribuneArticle.pdf

[LynneSin]

42. She's already been doing flashbacks of the early years

it's going to be a hybrid where Michael's kids will do something cute and it flashes back to the early years of FBOFW. And the families will stop aging which is sad because we'll never see what happens to April.

[blueraven95]

48. I understood that it had been a hybrid

but it was sounding like people were saying that it's stopping totally, which, as far as I can tell, it isn't.

:hi:

[regnaD kciN]

47. It's ending on August 30th...

...and then will go into re-runs, but with new strips added occasionally (in the appropriate drawing style of that period) to flesh out the stories.

[BlueJazz]

2. It's just the opposite of that staunch, wonderful, Free-thinking American Comic..

"The Family Circus"

:) :puke:

[Rabrrrrrr]

13. And don't forget the always subtly insightful and hilariously apropos Mallard Fillmore.

:eyes:

[Taverner]

14. The comic may be lame, But Bill Keane is a Democrat

Part of the Liberal Artist club that includes Charles Shultz, Dr Seuss and Norman Rockwell.

Seriously!

[stuntcat]

39. he is?

well I won't get the feeling I usually have when I ignore that strip. It seemed so conservative/consumer oriented that just seeing it made me mad. but if he's a democrat I'll switch my feeling to dennis the menace.

[deucemagnet]

53. A touch of HP Lovecraft makes a vast improvement in Family Circus.

[stuntcat]

55. whoa it does wonders!

Right on.. I guess I should appreciate the fun that can be made of such a boring cartoon lol! Family Circus practically begs for it.

[MicaelS]

17. There are parody versions...

That are pretty raw. People take some of Keane's panels and re-tool them with, shall we say, VERY ADULT comments.

One is "The Other Family", google it, I'm not providing a link.

[BlueJazz]

37. I googled it,...Whoa !!

[riverdale]

45. http://www.theotherfamily.com/

http://www.theotherfamily.com/

[SacredCow]

4. This is going to be among the last of the truly great strips....

Comics seem to be a dying art form.

[tigereye]

6. that's a wonderful strip

:thumbsup:

[Parche]

7. WOW I am impressed

:woohoo: :hi: :hug:

[Serial Mom]

8. I loved it, along with the ones regarding her dad's stroke!

She made things real, funny and pointed in all of them!

I did not know the strip will end :cry:

[yellowdogintexas]

9. no no, she can't end it. That makes me sad too.

It sounds like she is planning a retirement and letting us know she won't keep it up long enough to marry off April. April is only about 16, I think. Or maybe she just ran out of storyline.

Maybe she will keep it going long enough to get April out of high school, John retired from dental practice etc.

She COULD do what Foxtrot did and just do Sundays ....;( :cry:

[Shakespeare]

11. I love her for doing that, but I HATE HATE HATE where she's taken Liz's story.

Marrying Anthony? Barf, barf, and more barf. It's almost made me anti-FBOFW, I hate it so much.

[Rhythm]

15. But we've all known that was going to happen eventually for YEARS...

I don't mind that she finally managed to get back around to Liz finally getting the 'good guy' who's not as flashy as the cop or the chopper pilot. That's more like 'real life' anyway.

[Shakespeare]

21. See my reply downthread. n/t

[MicaelS]

19. As opposed to whom?

Warren couldn't / wouldn't commit, the cop Wright cheated on her, she had always loved Anthony, so just what other choice should Johnson have made? Actually she should just have married Liz and Anthony off a long time ago and avoided that whole plot line where Anthony married Therese.

[Shakespeare]

20. Why did she HAVE to get married at all?

The majority of posters on the fan boards for the strip detest this storyline, too. Anthony also cheated on her (years ago), so she's showing a pattern here--that's disturbing in its own way. Plus, Anthony is just icky. His nickname on the boards around the time Paul dumped her (until Johnson drew him differently) was Pornstacchio. I don't find him likeable, I don't find him interesting, and I don't see why she HAD to get married at all--Johnson has gone out of her way to give Liz a real career, and then she suddenly turns into an indecisive mess who can only think about getting married.

Blech.

[MicaelS]

23. Why? Because she's the creator

And it's her strip and her decision, that's why. That's the only reason you, I, or anyone else needs. She doesn't owe anyone any explanation or rationalization beyond that. ESPECIALLY those trying to foist their own socio-political views into her supremely well-constricted world to validate their own lives and decisions. Those who like it, fine. Those that don't, too bad.

Furthermore it proves why artists don't, and shouldn't, listen to fans. Like the old saying goes, those than can do, those that can't teach, and those that can't do either, are critics.

[Shakespeare]

24. Oh, for crying out loud. Now I'm not even permitted an opinion?

She can do whatever the fuck she wants--and I can have whatever opinion I choose. You questioned my opinion, and I responded with a rhetorical "why" explanation. Jesus Christ. :eyes:

[MicaelS]

27. Very well

I think it's quite apparent that Johnson has always had a traditional view of marriage. She has said in the past that she faced criticism when she decided to have Elly be a stay-at-home mother. I'm sure she faced criticism when she had Deanna do the same. So I guess it's natural she would face criticism when she had Liz get married.

[CBHagman]

56. Actually, Deanna's still working

The strip has dealt with Deanna's job as a pharmacist on more than one occasion. And Mike is a writer, so perhaps they need the two incomes anyway.

Here's Johnson's profile of Deanna:

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

Notice too that Deanna and Elizabeth had some really frank talks about marriage, with Deanna bursting some of the romantic bubbles. And Liz laid her cards on the table about Deanna now having to share access to Elly's baby-sitting services.

For all that the strip is a celebration of family and community, there's no pretending that people are perfect. We got to see how insensitive and demanding John was as a young husband, and how depressed -- and sometimes just plain cranky -- Elly's dad is after the stroke.

[Zuiderelle]

26. Sorry bub, but artists should listen to fans.

That's like the fundamental purpose of it all in entertainment... to actually entertain your fans.

[skygazer]

28. If artists always listened to fans, all art would be like Britney Spears

I understand what you're saying but you have to do what pleases you as well as what sells. Otherwise, what's the point?

[Zuiderelle]

29. To a point yes. Unless everything you do is offensive.

Then, what's the point?

[MicaelS]

31. Disagree

The purpose of art is to express one's self through one's artistic ability. If people like it, they will support the artist, if they don't they won't. Many writers or filmmakers have started the reason they started doing what they do is they wanted to create the type of work THEY wanted to read or see and that no one else was doing. You have to have a certain level of arrogance to put yourself out there in public and believe people will actually want to see, read or hear what you do and suffer possible failure and laughter. That arrogance has to extend to the fact that the artist, not the fan knows what's best for their art.

I like best what one of the animators of the classic Warner cartoons said. "I wasn't making these things for other people, I was making them for myself."

[Zuiderelle]

36. That's the whole problem then.

If artists do shit despite what their fans like, then what's the fucking point? In this world of ours, where art is a commodity, the artist has to cater the art to the audience. Otherwise, it's just an exercise in ego. Either way, fine. But one way there's money to be made (a living) and the other just principles.

[LynneSin]

43. I hated that mustache that Anthony had - so glad he shaved it

he was kinda creepy looking with it.

I wasn't sure what I thought of Liz marrying Anthony but she was getting the shittiest boyfriends. Perhaps the strip is just showing Liz grown up and ready to have a family. And I like that they showed that men can be single parents too. Marie-Therese was a real bitch.

[SocratesInSpirit]

32. Amen!

There's even a blog dedicated to chronicling the downfall of FBOFW:

http://community.livejournal.com/binky_betsy

[HughBeaumont]

41. Liz and the Milquetoast Boy Wondah were destined for each other.

Granthony sucks a horse carcass, that fucking ex-moustached bastard. He wasn't a particularly memorable HS boyfriend for Liz, he was an emotional cheat in his first marriage, had no spine, was so hellbent on having a kid when his wife didn't want one, and is then built up to be this perfect male? He looks exactly like her father, he's an out-of-shape dorkus who looks just as lame without the shoebrushstache as he does with it, he isn't particularly funny or witty and he should have a giant Schwebels label fastened to his white loaf back! Notice how all of her better looking suitors are portrayed to suck in some fashion and the Late-season Happy Days Ron Howard-looking spectacled goober is the Knight in Shining Armor (who by the way made a play for her after she was sexually assaulted. Gee, what woman can say no to that)?

Ever notice that with all of the Pattersons, they're paired with their childhood sweethearts? "Your first wuv is your twoo wuv?" I mean, come ON.

This is a good rant about said subject: http://shaenon.livejournal.com/29475.html

[Shakespeare]

52. THANK YOU. You just enumerated all the icky negatives, including the pass/rape incident.

Not to mention he kept professing his love for her WHILE HE WAS STILL MARRIED.

The whole relationship is icky.

And Liz isn't above reproach, either--do you really blame Paul for dumping her after she had her little emotional crisis and suddenly decided to move back home, demanding that he get a transfer to be closer?

[HughBeaumont]

54. And why, pray tell, did she have that emotional crisis?

Because April told her Stache-thony and his wifey were divorcing.

"WAIT!"

And all of a sudden, she wants to move back because she was "homesick". W.A.B.O.B.S.

[Mike Daniels]

49. Yeah, they were the Rachel and Ross of the comic strip world

Will they get together? Who or what will get in their way of getting together, blah, blah.

Who cares anymore? The recent updates to that storyline alone indicated that the strip was getting ready to wrap production.

[mdmc]

12. one of my favorite toons

[Rhythm]

18. I always loved this strip... been reading it since i was a teen.

I love the way Johnson handles 'real life' situations candidly.

[Occam Bandage]

22. I hate--absolutely hate--FBOFW. The characters have become flat. The women are

pathetic little flowers who latch onto men and are incapable of showing any spine. Everyone talks in bad puns constantly. I used to love it. Now I can't stand it.


(from www.katebeaton.com)

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

25. Ha......the eyes in the last panel

Typical of the overblown drama of FBOFW. The only likeable character was the dog who drowned.

[SocratesInSpirit]

33. LOL

I saw that one... Kate Beaton is brilliant!

[Mike Daniels]

51. Even the gay friend is only brought out about once a year

The storyline was cutting edge when it first happened but after Lawrence reconciled with his family he was literally pushed out as a supporting character.

He only seems to appear now when there's a special event that requires flowers. It's become a gimmick that says "see how progressive we are - even though we don't even show this character 362 days out of any given year."

[SocratesInSpirit]

30. I've been following this strip since my early teens...

and it can't end fast enough! It's really gone downhill in the last few years. It has been especially disheartening to watch the downhill momentum of Liz, who once had an exciting, useful life up North and a boyfriend she actually seemed to care about and love, run home to live with Mummy and Daddy and marry the man they've picked out for her - the boring, pasty-faced Anthony Caine. Why don't I like Anthony? A. he emotionally cheated on his wife, whom he never should have married as he was clearly still in love with Liz, B. he came on to Liz RIGHT AFTER SHE WAS FREAKING ALMOST RAPED ("I have no hoooome!") and he was still married, C. the two of them have no chemistry whatsoever (as evidenced by the most unromantic courtship and marriage proposal ever - hell, they didn't even seem that interested in each other back in high school!). And if Paul cheated on her (which was the most contrived piece of B.S. ever), she is partially responsible because she jerked him around and just up and left when he was already arranging for a transfer to Mtigwaki to be closer to her.

And don't even get me started on Michael... his crap book (I've read "excerpts" on the website - the prose is pretty purple) gets a $25,000 advance? For a first-time novelist? And published by the first place he sent his work to? And now all of a sudden he has a second novel out in less than a year? I don't think so!

[MicaelS]

34. If you hate it so much

Why are you still reading it? Unless of course you just enjoy suffering? :rofl:

[SocratesInSpirit]

35. It's kind of like watching a trainwreck...

You want to look away, but you just can't. And reading the snark is half the fun! :)

On edit: When Lynn Johnston wants to, she can write one hell of a strip. There was one a few weeks ago when April was visiting Grandpa that was just beautiful. Even though FBOFW has gone from being one of my very favorites to one of the most cringe-inducing (second only to the platitude-spouting fossil Mary Worth), I've read the strip for over a decade, so I figure, why stop now? I'm sticking around 'til the bitter end. :D

[Occam Bandage]

46. Many regular FBOFW readers started back when it was great, and have read it

every day since. It's become awful recently, but stopping would be like throwing your dog in the dumpster when he develops bad breath...

[LynneSin]

44. I know there are challenges with FBOFW but I appreciate her getting the issues out

She took a major hit to her circulation when she outted Lawrence but she never backed down.

[grannylib]

38. I love that strip...

[CreekDog]

40. See, I told you comic strips don't need to be funny!

:think:

[sasquatch]

50. I remember when the Middletown Journal (OH) didn't run their strip because they talked about "Gays"

:eyes: