Finally Mike Leaves His Job

I have had an idea in my head for over a year now about how Howard would take over Mike Patterson’s position at Portrait Magazine, once Mike finally got around to leaving, and snark his work life. Little did I suspect Howard would still have his trial unfinished when Mike quit. Little did I suspect it would take 1½ years from the time Deanna told him to quit for him actually to quit. It becomes clearer to me now that the way Lynn Johnston works is she sets things up years in advance, then expects us to remember them, when she drops the hammer years later. What you have is:

The setup
1. Mike and Deanna get baby #2.
2. Mike and Deanna move into the larger upstairs apartment.
3. Mike and Deanna spend the night over at Elly’s and talk about how it would be nice to have a place like this.
How to get them there
1. Introducing the Kelpfroths
2. The Kelpfroths smoke
3. Deanna shows her mother the fire escape
The development
1. The Kelpfroths are evil
2. Lovey can’t get rid of them
3. The Kelpfroths are too stubborn to respond to Lovey or Mike’s clever article
The payoff
1. The fire
2. The Kelpfroths are burnt. Sweet revenge.
3. Mike and Deanna move in with mom and dad
The last minute realizations
1. Mom and dad have no place to go. Need to find a place close by.
2. Mike can’t afford a house. He gets an advance.
3. Mike has a great job and has no reason to quit. He sacrifices himself nobly.
The stuff they haven’t realized yet
1. Where is April going to go? Need to establish the place close by has room for April. On the other hand, it seems cruel for April to have to continue to stay in the rec room, or to leave the house where she grew up.
2. Where is Elizabeth going to go? She can’t move in with Anthony until after they are married which is the end of the strip, but Mike and Dee have to have the house before then.
3. Daycare for Robin and Junior Kindergarten for Meredith. Meredith was at Junior Kindergarten when this all happened. Now it’s almost March and there has been no mention of putting her in a Milborough School. Having Connie Poirier take care of them ad infinitum seems ridiculous.

Of course, we know Mike hasn’t actually left Portrait yet, because he has to get his spirit name from his fellow Portrait employees. Unlike the Elizabeth situation, where Lynn Johnston had actually spent a little time developing the characters of at least some of the characters in Mtigwaki, Mike has been at the job since September, 2003, and the number of strips devoted to his fellow workers (Weed doesn’t count) I can count on my fingers. I was actually impressed that the artist bothered to draw a fairly accurate editor-in-chief Barry, the previously-unnamed publisher Gluttson, and assistant Francine; when the modern drawing of Anne Nichols was off, and Melville Kelpfroth underwent severe physical changes each time he was portrayed.

This lack of development may be the reason for the Josef Weeder party. Unlike the situation when Jesse Mukwa gave Liz her spirit name, there would be no resonance for Francine to say nice things about Michael. She has not been mentioned in any of Mike’s monthly letters and there is no other person to stand up for Mike. It seems possible then, that Michael’s farewell from Portrait is being coupled with his book contract party, so Mike can get his compliment from Francine, and there still be enough people to say congratulations on the book contract to make a week-long party sequence work.

The side effect on this will have on April’s Real Blog is that in the next 7 months, there is going to be very little April. She has no dangling plotlines. They could send her back to Winnipeg over the summer to re-emphasize she plans to be a vet, but why bother? Lynn’s objectives are:

1. Mike’s farewell party
2. Elly and John buy the retirement house; sell the Sharon Park Drive house.
3. Mike and Deanna get the Sharon Park Drive house.
4. John officially retires and sells his business to Everett Callahan.
5. Elizabeth deals with Warren Blackwood.
6. Anthony Caine proposes and wedding preparation ensues.
7. Elizabeth, Anthony and François stick it to Thérèse.
8. A parade of old For Better or For Worse characters at the party and the wedding and John’s retirement party.

That is more than enough for 7 months, but there is almost no April in there. qnjones and I don’t mind writing overnight posts for Elizabeth and Michael respectively, but there may come a time when aprilp_katje says “Enough is enough. I want to write my own Blog.” After all, there are only 7 months left.