I was almost elated today when I read that the 29-year reign of banality by comic strip "For Better or for Worse" would end. In fact, the Washington Post's Hank Stuever perfectly expressed my sentiments as a long-time anti-fan in his piece, "Something for Everyone to Hate."
While it's been more in vogue to direct one's vitriol at "Family Circus," FBOFW has always been the strip that made my skin crawl, the one I encouraged my dog to urinate on, the one for which I used to white-out the dialogue and write in heated debates on the dissolution of the USSR and other pressing issues of the day. "Family Circus" was dismissable, an old curiosity shoppe relic that I could pass by without interest, something I could use as a benchmark to marvel at how far humanity has come since its invention. On the other hand, FBOFW showed me on a weekly basis how boring life would be, how it would center around mundane, joyless labor and kitchen table conversations, how it had no room for passion or imagination. While its characters lumbered through life, aging painfully, their ripening bags and wrinkles the symptoms of their ennui, I was scared shitless that I might ever grow up to be that lonely, or that dull.
So, I was ready to pop champagne, when I read this second story in the Post, "Lynn Johnston's Drawn-Out Adieu to Cartooning." Tease!!! As it turns out, Johnston will not retire, but will instead create new cartoon strips set to the strip's origin in 1979, when the characters were younger, raising toddlers. What do we have to do to let this end? Bill Watterson--where are ye?! Help us in our time of need! So, instead of not ending FBOFW, Johnston has decided to make the strip even duller by revisiting old plot lines. This isn't change I can believe in.
And I'm not above taking a personal jab. Who knew Lynn Johnston looked so much like a young(er) Rue McClanahan? If you're hiking in Canada over Labor Day, it may be helpful for you to be able to distinguish between the two, a skill similar to differentiating a copperhead from its benign cousin, the king snake. Feel free to print this as a reference:
Rue McClanahan: Non-venemous
Lynn Johnston: Deadly
