Ding, Dong, the Hybrid’s Dead

On 01/07/2008, Allison Zadorozny told me:

Thanks for contacting us. There are no plans at this time to reconsider the hybrid format. After almost 30 years it is a necessary transition, and we hope people will understand that and allow future generations to enjoy For Better or For Worse.

But then 5 days later, her boss, Lynn Johnston had a different story for the Ventura County Star. I will address the parts which are new to me.

We're about to part from the ever-evolving Pattersons, however, because new versions of "For Better or For Worse" will end this year.

Johnston hasn't set a specific end date but did start a slow phaseout of the comic in September with a "hybrid" version, alternating new strips with reprints of old ones. The "reruns," which have a much different look from the current strips because Johnston's artistic style has evolved, are presented in the guise of Michael Patterson talking to his daughter about his parents when they, like him, were starting a family.

Speaking via phone from her studio in Corbeil, a town in Ontario, Canada, Johnston, 60, said that after tying up loose ends, she plans to stop writing material about the modern-day characters, although she will make a few mainly cosmetic changes to the classic versions. "I'll fix up some of the old illustrations that I want to improve, and flesh out some story lines," she said.

Although Johnston had originally planned to continue integrating the new and old versions of the comic when the strip ends, she's since decided that "going back in time is confusing to people," so she won't have Michael et al introducing the material.

Let me translate for you: Lynn Johnston knows the hybrid has failed. She said, “Knock me off the comics page” and some people did. I believe Lynn had hoped that the regular inclusion of new material with old would allow the strip to hold the same number of papers for the syndicate, because the fans would put up with the old in order to get the new. Perhaps if all the fans were lunatics like me, that would be the case; but with newspapers who regularly poll their readers about which comics to keep, you have to ask yourself, “Since the hybrid started in September, have things gotten better or have they gotten worse?” For me, definitely worse. Lynn has still tried to juggle the same number of storylines in half the space she previously allotted and this is beyond her. You can’t jump from story to story, strip to strip in the same week and expect to tell a coherent story.

The Star will stop publishing "For Better or For Worse" when Johnston finishes the current story lines and the strip goes into reprints. It will be replaced with "Family Tree," a new comic by Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Signe Wilkinson about an environmentally conscious modern family, the Trees, who are trying to live green while navigating the usual conundrums of family life.

Here’s an example of another a paper interested enough in For Better or For Worse to run this article, but not enough to try to stick with reprints of the strip. However, notice that they are going with somewhat of a name artist to replace Lynn.

John Matthews, vice president of Universal Press Syndicate, which distributes "For Better or For Worse," said that even the reprints will be fresh to readers who missed the strip's earlier years. "Anyone under 65 probably hasn't seen them, so they'll be new to a lot of people," he said.

Under 65? I think I have been insulted. This is the old argument handed out by Lynn and now by the Syndicate and although it may be true, the best strips from 1979-80 were not picked out by Lynn to impress the people it should have impressed. Thematic strip choices of low quality were clearly not the way to go.

But Joe Howry, The Star's editor, said he decided to discontinue the comic after the Patterson saga wraps because he believes that "rehashing old strips" is "unfair to our readers. It is a way to just keep the strip going but not having to do anything new or original."

The Star does run reprints of "Peanuts" cartoons on its comics pages, but, Howry said, he does not place "For Better or For Worse" in the same category as Charles Schulz's cartoon. "There's no comic strip as loved and popular as Peanuts,'" he said. Reruns also are "unfair to the many talented cartoonists creating new material," he said.

Let me translate Howry for you: Peanuts reprints sells papers. Peanuts reprints from the 1950s are not much different from recent Peanuts. For Better or For Worse reprints cause people to write letters to the editor saying, “What is going on? What happened to the art?”

"For Better or For Worse," as the title suggests, isn't always a bag of laughs. Elly's gone through menopause. Michael and Deanna's apartment was destroyed in a fire. Farley the dog died (heroically). April's enveloped in adolescent angst. Grandpa Jim is recovering from a stroke. And who knows what's happening between Elizabeth and her former flame Anthony, now a single dad (Johnston has promised to bring this fluctuating romance to a conclusion).

I love that quote “fluctuating romance”. It is a very good description of the Anthony and Elizabeth romance.

Johnston, who's won numerous honors, including the National Cartoonist's Society's Reuben Award (the Oscar of the cartooning world), plans to travel, paint and spend time with her family when "For Better or For Worse" ends this year. She also plans to contribute to the "For Better or For Worse" Web site, www.fbofw.com, and publish a detailed book — text with some illustrations — about the characters' long-term futures.

Ding! Ding! Ding! Lynn Johnston has now had her first interview since September, 2007, where she does not mention her divorce. Thank you, Lynn.

She's open to letting another artist write and draw the strip, continuing the cycle with Michael and Deanna's story, but "only if it were the right person. It really has to come from the heart."

Let me translate this for you: The Syndicate has realized that they can still make money on For Better or For Worse, if there is new stuff. They have also realized that the difference in quality between the old stuff and the new stuff means, they are not talking the same thing as Peanuts or Calvin and Hobbes reprints. They point their fingers over to Gasoline Alley and say, “Look. Jim Scancarelli didn’t change it that much from Dick Moores.”

They offer Lynn some money and Lynn has a majour breakthrough that maybe she can hand her strip off, and still specify what the strip is about (retain creative control). It must be about Michael and Deanna. Lynn has already let Laura Piché draw a lot of stuff, so she is clearly comfortable with someone else drawing her strip, but apparently not Laura Piché as a final choice. Somebody (the Syndicate, Laura Piché or Lynn Johnston) are saying, “Not Laura Piché.” And to be frank, Laura Piché’s art is not as good as Lynn’s.

As for today’s strip, apparently Lynn has seen Avenue Q.