Comments on: For Better or For Worse won’t go into re-runs, kind of

By: R Pyle

R Pyle — Sun, 04 May 2008 13:29:26 +0000

I agree with Malc in that Lynn should wrap things up, take a bow and go to Paris for a year. Or wherever. She needs to walk away for a while.

All of this “clarification” (read: mind-changing verging on the whimsical) is just making me hate the strip. I take a quick glance at it every day, and if I see that old-style drawing, skip over it.

But if she wrapped the strip, and perhaps a year later came out with a book full of new strips that take up where she left off…sort of a supermanga…I bet that would sell like crazy and make everyone happy.

By: Kate Rardin

Kate Rardin — Sat, 03 May 2008 17:04:31 +0000

I’m glad I stumbled upon this conversation as I’ve been wondering about the status of this strip — I took a newspaper hiatus due to the dreadful state of papers today. I’m sorry to learn about Lynn’s health. I do have to say though that I have a strong preference for following the present day family over the throwbacks. Watching the characters grow up and grow older has been a satisfying reflection of my own growth process and I have loved watching them adapt to each new age.

By: Malc McGookin

Malc McGookin — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 00:54:18 +0000

Lynn’s health issues have been well documented for some time, as have her psychological scars from what has obviously been (at times) a deeply troubled life.
A simple trip to Wiki will reveal some background.

Larry, I disagree that Lynn is in her creative prime, because creative prime is not age-related in the way that athletic prime is.
You may still physically be able to endure the stresses of meeting deadlines, and you may also have the ability to generate ideas, but spiritually you may have lost the will to do so.
I believe Lynn has done her dash, and needs time off to recuperate. There is an outside chance, if she is left to her own devices, that she could come good again and use the creative juices she built up in her hiatus (though that sounds more gynaecological than I intended).

Problem is, Lynn’s family now help create the strip, and she is under pressure from her syndicate to keep SOMEthing going, so as rival features don’t come in and claim FBOFW shelf space.

This woman has been surrounded her whole life by people who treat her like cr@p, putting themselves first. It’s time someone said “Lynn, take the time to enjoy YOUR life, we’ll all get along fine”.

FBOFW is not a gag-a-day strip, it’s a feature in which the characters move on chronologically. Therefore the only way Lynn can retire for FBOFW to undergo a Peanuts-style “classics” run is for all the characters to be catapulted back 20 years in time and go through the whole thing again.

Not only is this a ridiculous concept, it’s an indictment of the newspaper comics scene as it now stands.

It’s time for FBOFW to retire gracefully and stay as a golden memory in the minds of people who love reading comics. Any attempt to cobble together some lame excuse to prop it up will ultimately lessen it.

By: Garey Mckee

Garey Mckee — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 23:52:57 +0000

Yeah, and I can’t type “master” correctly either.

By: Garey Mckee

Garey Mckee — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 23:52:09 +0000

All of this is just getting way too complicated for me. LOL! I can barely mastery Alan’s spam proof math tests let alone figure out what the deal is with FBOFW.

By: Larry Levine

Larry Levine — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 21:29:05 +0000

Alan, I really feel for Lynn’s dilemma on retiring. She’s still in her creative prime which is why I hope she chooses to move FBOFW forward or retire it completely rather than re-envisioning the strip’s past.

By: Dawn Douglass

Dawn Douglass — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 17:08:18 +0000

That’s too bad. Similar to what Scott Adams endures, sounds like.

If she can’t work as hard as she used to, instead of going backwards, it would make more sense to me if she would continue writing the strip but let somebody else draw it.

By: Alan Gardner

Alan Gardner — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 17:05:45 +0000

So here’s the thought I had on the drive into work. I would love to own a box set collection of For Better or For Worse, but if she starts integrating new story lines in the old drawing style, etc. what would that final collection be? Would it be limited to the start of the feature to when she freezes the cast’s ages sometime this fall, or would it also include the reruns as those might be necessary for new story lines? In essence, will there duplicate strips in a future collection (should there be any)?

By: Larry Levine

Larry Levine — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 16:48:03 +0000

Dawn, Lynn suffers from dystonia, a neurological condition that makes her hands tremble. Even with medication, symptoms can continue to persist.

By: Dawn Douglass

Dawn Douglass — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 16:42:24 +0000

That makes sense. Thanks, Wiley.

Why all this talk about health? Is she sick???