Info on 'For Better or For Worse' Future Includes a YouTube Video

Info on 'For Better or For Worse' Future Includes a YouTube Video
By Dave Astor - E & P
Published: August 13, 2008

Universal Press Syndicate today provided more details about what will happen with "For Better or For Worse" beginning Sept. 1.

On that date, as E&P and other media outlets have previously reported, the 1979-launched comic is starting over in a form cartoonist Lynn Johnston calls "new-runs."

The syndicate said: "Using new comic strips drawn in the style she used 29 years ago when the Patterson family first appeared on comic pages, Johnston will begin retelling their story from the beginning."

Johnston added: "Everything in September is new -- the punch lines, the drawing, all are new. The only thing retro is the way I'm drawing everything. I want it to flow into the classic material seamlessly.

"This first year, the ratio of old to new will be at least 50-50. I want this to be the best thing I've ever done, and I'm having so much fun drawing Lizzie as a baby again and revisiting all the characters."

In a statement, Universal President/Editor Lee Salem said: "For a generation of new readers unfamiliar with 'For Better or For Worse,' it's a chance to begin an exciting journey; for current fans, it's a chance to relive their favorite episodes. One such episode is the adoption of Farley, the Patterson's beloved dog. That will come in October."

Farley had died in a 1995 "For Better or For Worse" sequence.

For the past year or so, Johnston's comic has been a hybrid of new and old story lines. "At first I thought that I could segue back and forth from today to yesterday, but that became very confusing," she said. "Some people really enjoyed it and some just wanted us to get on with the story."

Johnston will select material from her collection of almost 10,000 archival strips to help retell the Patterson family's story as longtime readers remember it, pausing in spots to update references that seem confusing or to flesh out characters she didn't explore in the first telling.

"I'm starting right at the very beginning -- when Elizabeth was a little crawling baby and couldn't say too much, and Michael was in kindergarten," she said. "I'm a better storyteller now, and I want to improve the storyline or take a piece of art and make it better."

As Johnston previously told E&P, the end of her marriage was a major factor in changing her "For Better or For Worse" plans. "At this time in my life I thought I would be on a cruise ship to Panama or the Mediterranean," she said. "But I'm a single lady now, and I want to keep working. Because I don't have to work 365 days of new material into a year, I can still take some time off to paint and travel."

Over the years, Johnston's characters aged in real time -- and her art style changed, too. "When I first started the strip, the comic's style was fast and loose, probably because I was so busy and I had to get it out fast," she said. The drawing went on to become much more detailed.

"For Better or For Worse" appears in more than 2,000 newspapers worldwide. Some papers have said they'll drop the comic Sept. 1, but many other clients are taking a wait-and-see approach. Meanwhile, a number of cartoonists are upset with the new-old plan, arguing that shrinking newspaper-comic space should be devoted to all-new material.

Johnston discusses the future of her comic in a 5:16-minute video produced by Universal. It was posted today on YouTube, and can be seen here.