Johnston's 'For Better or For Worse' comic strip to live on in hybrid form

by Pam Becker

Chicago Tribune (MCT)

3 March 2007

CHICAGO—Nearly seven years ago, Lynn Johnston, creator of the popular “For Better or For Worse” newspaper comic strip, set her sights on retiring in 2007.

Johnston, whose strip is syndicated by Universal Press Syndicate to more than 2,000 newspapers, said she was tired of the relentless pace. Coping with a painful neurological condition called dystonia was draining her energy, and she wanted to explore other interests.

Yet Johnston, a resident of Corbeil, Ontario, was loath to close the door on a tale that has transfixed fans around the world and earned her some of cartooning’s highest awards.

“I don’t want to give this saga up either,” she told the Chicago Tribune in November 2004. “But I’m also not going to be able to work constantly with the deadlines anymore ... because of my health and age. And there are other things I want to do and explore.” Her retirement date was set for September of this year.

But now Johnston, 59, and the syndicate have figured out how to have it both ways: The strip will continue in a hybrid form, in which the present-day story line will be minimal—likely focusing on the young family of Michael Patterson—and strips from the past will be reprinted as flashbacks. The new format is scheduled to begin in September.

Johnston spoke with the Chicago Tribune recently about the plans. This is an edited transcript of that conversation.

Q: How did this hybrid idea come about?

A: It was suggested to me by Universal Press Syndicate that the strip could run again because there wasn’t anything that was filling that niche. I was surprised. I just assumed that it would end and I would take a bow and that would be it.

It was decided that because I had started with 150 papers and didn’t move up to 2,000 papers until after about 15 years, many papers never took the original work. So many readers never saw the original work.

I respect my editors and appreciate them; I really respect and appreciate my readers; and I also am not dead. So I would like to keep my hand in it.

Q: How are you feeling now as opposed to a couple of years ago, when you were planning to retire altogether?

A: I’m fine, actually. When I think about all the other people I know who have health concerns, I have nothing. I just get tired is all. The dystonia has improved. I believe it was caused by hormone replacement therapy. It was awful at that time (a few years ago). I was not me. I was a different person.

Q: How much time will this free up for you?

A: What we’re doing now is looking through the books and choosing all the best material. We can probably choreograph a year’s worth of work in a few days.

Q: You’ve decided to stop aging the present-day characters when the new hybrid strip starts. Why?

A: That would require that I do a comic strip within a comic strip.

If I aged the characters, I’d have to change them.

The grandfather would pass away, the dogs would pass away, April would grow up and go to university. And then I’ve got two comic strips.

It’s time for me to make a change because I don’t want to look at my work and say, `You know, it’s not my best work anymore,’ which is what would happen if I was to continue and try to tell stories about things I know nothing about.

I don’t think that I could sustain a strip that was continuing in real time now.

Q: Are you going to wrap up the current family story before you start the hybrid strip?

A: Yes, it will have an ending the way a long-running saga would have on television.

Q: Is there going to be much plot line in the new present-day scenario?

A: There will have to be some story line, but it’s not going to be something that is complicated. I’m going to have more fun with it, because I think I can do more spot gags, more gag-a-day kind of stuff. It will free me up from all of the research that I have to do.

I could not sustain a gag a day strip (daily).

Because if you’re doing the kind of work that is gag-a-day, eventually you’re going to have to work with writers. One brain cannot come up with a gag a day.

The public chews that up like popcorn and waits for the next one, not realizing that you’re sitting at home looking at a blank page, thinking, Help!

By having that break in between the present-day elements, I’ll be able to do sight gags and have fun with the animals and have fun with the children.

Q: How long are you going to do this hybrid version?

A: They’re leaving it open to me. As long as it’s being enjoyed, as long as everyone is comfortable. We can’t guess what’s going to happen.

I think that newspapers and the comics pages are changing as we speak, as the Internet becomes more and more a part of people’s lives. The strip is very popular on the Internet, and we can interact with our readers on the Internet.

Q: People are wondering who Elizabeth will end up with.

A: To tell you the honest truth—the honest truth—I don’t know.

Q: Some critics have said you should retire altogether to open more space for up-and-coming comic strip artists. How do you answer that?

A: I want to see new work. I want that to happen. If what we’re doing does not free up that space, it’s because somebody hasn’t come along to fill (the family niche).

Is there room for more? Perhaps. I don’t want to hold anyone back. But I know that the syndicates are looking for anything that will come along and just knock the socks off editors and sales staff and readers alike.

It’s a game of chess. When someone comes along to bump me ... that’s the way it works.

One of the things that bothers me is that so many people are getting computer skills that they’re forgetting how to draw. They don’t want to learn how to draw a chainsaw or a pickup truck or a tree.

You can’t be lazy. You have to have multiple skills. You have to write in an entertaining way, you have to be able to draw well. You have to be absolutely reliable when it comes to deadlines. You have to be willing to go that extra mile when it comes to giving your readers something worth looking at every single day.

Q: What are you planning to do with the time you’ll have once you’re freed up from the daily strip?

A: I have a painting studio and some blank canvases. I really want to paint. That is pulling me like the strongest magnet—it’s like a love affair that’s unfulfilled. So that’s No. 1.

I want to travel—that’s certainly up there too. I’ve been taking Spanish for a long time. I really want to learn the language well, so I’m going to continue with that. I’ll probably get more involved with community things.

There are no closed doors.