Will the Speech Therapist Demand Equal Time?
Judith the Physiotherapist got 3 whole days. Christine the Speech Therapist may also want 3 whole days, which means we may be doing this next week. Today’s strip did not have an air of finality about it for this strip sequence. And now we have introduced these people who weren’t even mentioned by name in the monthly letters, then how can we ignore Carole and Diane, who were mentioned in the monthly letters? The reason we can and will ignore Carole and Diane is that they come to help Iris with Jim every single day, according to the monthly letters. If you are like Lynn Johnston, and you are trying to show how saintly Iris is, then you are not going to introduce the idea that there are 2 ladies who come in everyday to help. We prefer the cold, lonely, Iris, who is so loyal to Jim that she has to be told to take a coffee break by the speech therapist. Lynn Johnston doesn’t seem to be able to make the connection that when she shows how miserable, and lonely and “you and me against the world” Jim and Iris are, it reflects poorly on the Pattersons, and Iris and Jim’s friends, and Iris’ family, and the assisted living staff, etc. After this week, I have grown tired snarking on that subject, so I opted to go in a different direction with today’s snark. If we have another week of this, I will be sorely tested.
posted by howard at 12:22 AM
6 Comments:
Here comes the severe testing of our snark. I really wanted to be wrong about this, but I had a hunch speech-therapy Christine would return this week. Grrr
I can't believe Howard was right about what LJ would write...
I think the key ingredient was that LJ gave Christine a name. She can't give a name to a character and have only one strip with the character. Not only that but it appears that Christine is now the new bearer of the old Elizabeth Patterson face template. The arrival of Kate Johnston on staff and the new looks for Elizabeth and April can't be a coincidence.
Yes, I also noticed that Christine strongly resembles the younger Elizabeth - the beautiful and sweet Elizabeth. I'm not sure why Lynn is now drawing Elizabeth in such an unflattering way. What will she look like in her mid 40's if she looks like this in her mid 20's? Do you think someone else is doing the artwork or is this in preparation for the hybrid strip?
I see from your post that Lynn's daughter is now on the payroll.
What will she look like in her mid 40's if she looks like this in her mid 20's?
We will never know, since she stops aging with the hybrid.
Do you think someone else is doing the artwork or is this in preparation for the hybrid strip?
The answer to both questions is "yes." The artwork is far too different from Lynn Johnston's to be hers. I believe Lynn was planning to retire in September and end the strip, but was talked out of it by her syndicate and also possibly by her staff, who might not want to have to hunt the savage Corbeil streets for new jobs. The reason I think the staff had an influence, is because the strip is going hybrid and not to straight reprints. This allows the persons employed as the character artist and background artist to continue to be employed, while the other members of the staff continue to sell and manage all the other For Better or For Worse items.
Quite interesting. Thanks for your insightful observations.
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