Elly Knows
Do you remember those old Hollywood movies where there would be a stream of glamourous girls who would descend stairs that reached to excessive heights, supposedly as a part of a stage production (at least that would be the idea behind the film), but which were too enormous to ever be on any real stage? Well, apparently Lynn Johnston does, as this is the image which ends the final panel of today’s For Better or For Worse strip, in order to make a pun on the phrase “one step at a time”. It’s a funny image that most of Lynn’s older audience will get.
As for the rest of the images, particularly the very plain second panel head picture of Elly, they show that this strip was extensively drawn by Laura Piché, Lynn Johnston's assistant who supposedly only draws the backgrounds. It is a definitely match to Laura’s background character style of drawing.
In January, Lynn Johnston went away from her every other month new and reprint style to an every other week style; but from the end of February we have had solid new stuff. I wonder if this means that we are headed into a month of reprints again, or if this is the sign that Lynn is going to take us with solid new stuff all the way to September. Considering there are 5 months there, that would be 2 ½ months reprint and 2 ½ months of new material, if the hybrid method were used. That doesn’t seem like enough new material to adequately cover the subject matter left to be covered, so my hope is that there will be much more new stuff in there.
The other possibility that occurs to me, especially from looking at the art over the last month is that it looks like Lynn’s influence on the art has decreased significantly. The physical character of Elly, especially in today’s strip, does not look like Lynn Johnston art in any of the panelsl. That is the case for a lot of the art in this whole engagement sequence. However, there are moments, like the face for Elizabeth as she says, “Payback time” or Elizabeth’s silent full face panel just after she became engaged, that look like Lynn. My impression is that Lynn may be doing what they call “breakdowns” which is just general sketching of where things go on the panel, and then letting Laura Piché finish them out, with the exception of some of those Elizabeth big head panels.
My guess is that by letting Laura take over more and more of the art chores, then this allows Lynn Johnston to continue to get that vacation time she was enjoying so much with the hybrid. My hope is that she will continue this method all the way through September (since she said in a few interviews back in January she was dropping the hybrid); but their continued appearance in the Sunday strips is throwing me off. Laura is getting better at the art and imitating Lynn Johnston’s style. She still has issues with perspective and art basics. For example, the female character in the last panel has a very long body for her head size. Nevertheless, I find that the idea of plot progression with the modern characters and Piché art is far preferable to me than the reprint strips.
Storywise, things are still pure Lynn. I cannot imagine anyone else producing an anti-love story like this one, particularly knowing that with a largely female audience, there are many of them which would prefer something more romantic from Liz, the ingénue of the strip. However, there is a possibility that this may change up a bit. In today’s strip, you see Anthony move to the back seat in wedding planning as he says absolutely nothing and goes to silhouette for two panels. From here on out, my guess is that the wedding is an Elly and Liz show. I certainly hope that is the case.
I remember in my own wedding planning how I discovered that my opinion weighed in behind that of my wife, my wife’s mother, my wife’s father, and my wife’s step-mother. My great moment of independence was when I had to put my foot down and inform my wife’s step-mother that she was not picking my groomsmen for me. As for everything else, there was a social change at the time that said that the groom should be involved in the process, so the ladies would occasionally ask my opinion and then after a few laughs and a pat on the head, would go on with what they wanted to do in the first place. Considering how traditionally Lynn Johnston plays with the writing in this strip, I expect to see a lot of Anthony in silhouette between now and September.
As for the rest of the images, particularly the very plain second panel head picture of Elly, they show that this strip was extensively drawn by Laura Piché, Lynn Johnston's assistant who supposedly only draws the backgrounds. It is a definitely match to Laura’s background character style of drawing.
In January, Lynn Johnston went away from her every other month new and reprint style to an every other week style; but from the end of February we have had solid new stuff. I wonder if this means that we are headed into a month of reprints again, or if this is the sign that Lynn is going to take us with solid new stuff all the way to September. Considering there are 5 months there, that would be 2 ½ months reprint and 2 ½ months of new material, if the hybrid method were used. That doesn’t seem like enough new material to adequately cover the subject matter left to be covered, so my hope is that there will be much more new stuff in there.
The other possibility that occurs to me, especially from looking at the art over the last month is that it looks like Lynn’s influence on the art has decreased significantly. The physical character of Elly, especially in today’s strip, does not look like Lynn Johnston art in any of the panelsl. That is the case for a lot of the art in this whole engagement sequence. However, there are moments, like the face for Elizabeth as she says, “Payback time” or Elizabeth’s silent full face panel just after she became engaged, that look like Lynn. My impression is that Lynn may be doing what they call “breakdowns” which is just general sketching of where things go on the panel, and then letting Laura Piché finish them out, with the exception of some of those Elizabeth big head panels.
My guess is that by letting Laura take over more and more of the art chores, then this allows Lynn Johnston to continue to get that vacation time she was enjoying so much with the hybrid. My hope is that she will continue this method all the way through September (since she said in a few interviews back in January she was dropping the hybrid); but their continued appearance in the Sunday strips is throwing me off. Laura is getting better at the art and imitating Lynn Johnston’s style. She still has issues with perspective and art basics. For example, the female character in the last panel has a very long body for her head size. Nevertheless, I find that the idea of plot progression with the modern characters and Piché art is far preferable to me than the reprint strips.
Storywise, things are still pure Lynn. I cannot imagine anyone else producing an anti-love story like this one, particularly knowing that with a largely female audience, there are many of them which would prefer something more romantic from Liz, the ingénue of the strip. However, there is a possibility that this may change up a bit. In today’s strip, you see Anthony move to the back seat in wedding planning as he says absolutely nothing and goes to silhouette for two panels. From here on out, my guess is that the wedding is an Elly and Liz show. I certainly hope that is the case.
I remember in my own wedding planning how I discovered that my opinion weighed in behind that of my wife, my wife’s mother, my wife’s father, and my wife’s step-mother. My great moment of independence was when I had to put my foot down and inform my wife’s step-mother that she was not picking my groomsmen for me. As for everything else, there was a social change at the time that said that the groom should be involved in the process, so the ladies would occasionally ask my opinion and then after a few laughs and a pat on the head, would go on with what they wanted to do in the first place. Considering how traditionally Lynn Johnston plays with the writing in this strip, I expect to see a lot of Anthony in silhouette between now and September.
posted by howard at 10:22 PM
19 Comments:
Whoa. Elly is a HUGE bitch here. "You're FINALLY engaged!!!" WTF? She's only 26! Way to show that the only accomplishment of your daughter's that you care about has nothing to do with her intelligence or talents. Just with whether she's got a man on the hook or not. Gah!
I hate Elly. I hope the strip ends with her death, a la the TV show Roseanne, where Dan Connor has a heart attack at Darlene's wedding. Except I want Elly to be run over by the semi truck delivering the pastries to the wedding. And everyone should just go on about their business as if they don't care.
OK, so I'm still judgmental.
I found the "FINALLY" very messed up. I read it as addressed to both Liz and Anthony, as in this has been their destiny all along, and finally they're getting on with it. Yeah, and she was hoping they'd get together. As if that hasn't been painfully obvious for at least eight years now.
Stupid Elly.
The so-glazed-they're-making-me-hungry-for-doughnuts look on Elly's eyes tells me that this is going to be held in the biggest church they can find. My guess is that Elly started planning Liz's wedding back when she was kicking dolls and yelling "BLAHHHH!!" at them. She decided on Anthony because he'd passed the farm test bystill coming back after she'd exiled Liz to Manitoba. As for Therese and the rest, they should have known better than to get in her way.
Where is John?????
Elly’s reaction in today’s strip reminds me of my mother’s reaction. George and I were next door neighbors. We were friendly but not close friends. He was/is older than I and travelled in different circles. Then something changed, and we became VERY good friends.
My parents were perplexed about our relationship because we insisted that we were “just friends.” When we got engaged (after a year of being just friends) my mother sighed in relief. I was 22.
Anon NYC
I'm still confused. Taking it slow, but getting a ring within a couple of days? Then, we're engaged, "but we're not planning anything yet?"
Does grandpa chinballs get invited to the wedding to be held at the ravine, or does he have to watch on closed circuit TV?
Lynn is coo coo for cocoa puffs.
qnjones,
Way to show that the only accomplishment of your daughter's that you care about has nothing to do with her intelligence or talents.
It’s been this way for a long time with Elly. Even when Liz was in Mtigwaki, when she and Connie talked about Liz, it was always in terms of her love life. One of the great accomplishments of the strip, was during the second Elly trip to Mtigwaki, where she got to go to the pow-wow and realized that Mtigwaki was a community that felt like home for Liz to Elly. At the time, I thought it was a turning point in the strip that Elly finally accepted that Liz was her own woman. In retrospect, I realize that this was just Lynn Johnston giving a big compliment to her First Nations friends, even though she never planned to leave Liz in Mtigwaki.
I hope the strip ends with her death, a la the TV show Roseanne, where Dan Connor has a heart attack at Darlene's wedding.
I remember this one, except we find out all this business in a voice over during the final episode. The writing on that show reached FOOB-like proportions during its final year.
aprilp_katje,
I read it as addressed to both Liz and Anthony, as in this has been their destiny all along, and finally they're getting on with it.
I find it hard to believe that this is not the true interpretation.
DreadedCandiru2,
As for Therese and the rest, they should have known better than to get in her way.
There has been that “destroy anyone who gets in their way” aspect to Liz and Anthony.
Anon NYC,
When we got engaged (after a year of being just friends) my mother sighed in relief. I was 22.
I was 28 when I got engaged. I remember my brother-in-law commenting that he had wondered whether I would ever get married.
James,
I'm still confused. Taking it slow, but getting a ring within a couple of days? Then, we're engaged, "but we're not planning anything yet?"
This is Liz we are talking about. Remember she is the woman who can go from a February strip dancing about over Paul Wright to a May strip saying “Wait!” when she finds out Anthony is divorced to another May strip announcing she is leaving Mtigwaki. Actions speak much louder than words with Liz.
I'm 30, and thankfully my parents do not regard marriage as something that their daughters MUST do. In fact, the only one of their children who was likely to marry at all is the one who just died. I have felt fortunate that the only advice my parents ever gave us about marriage was to learn to take care of ourselves first, so that marriage was an option and not a necessity.
I actually think they regret all that good advice now that it looks like there will be no weddings and no grandchildren, but at least they have the good sense to keep it to themselves.
howtheduck:
It never does pay to take Elziabeth at her word. She thinks that if she says she's taking things slow, she's reassuring people who think she's rushing in to things. Unfortunately, most of the people she knows know that her words are meaningless, that her deeds do her talking for her.
qnjones,
I'm 30, and thankfully my parents do not regard marriage as something that their daughters MUST do.
We live in an interesting age where our society pushes us hard towards marriage. I remember in my single years there were some women I dated who wanted me to marry them. Their unstated (but obvious) motivations were like, “Marry me, so I don’t have to depend on my parents anymore.” Or “Marry me, because I want children really bad.” Or “Marry me, because all my girlfriends are getting married.” We have come a long way since maiden aunts and confirmed bachelors were considered to be integral parts of our society. I remember back in university uncovering a statistic that compared the number of persons married at least once by the age of 40 from 1980 to 1880. Much to my surprise, it was about 85% for 1980 and about 40% for 1880, when I would have expected that there would have been more pressure to marry, because the jobs available for women to support themselves were much less than in 1980. I see the rising average age of marriage in our country in many respects to be a sign that the pendulum towards mandatory marriage is moving in the other direction back to the way it was in 1880.
Howard,
There is no way it will swing back very far. Our society does not offer options other than marriage or longterm romantic partnership. You either marry, or you're seen as a freak. Incidentally, over 90% of all people in today's society will marry at some point in their life, which would seem to be even higher than the 1980 statistic.
You would not believe how much scandal my unmarried state has caused at work. I am constantly harassed on this topic, though I never bring it up myself. The married women in the office act as though my unmarried state is a special, alarming circumstance. It's extremely irritating.
qnjones,
There is no way it will swing back very far. Our society does not offer options other than marriage or longterm romantic partnership. You either marry, or you're seen as a freak.
Traditionally, the maiden aunts continued to be supported by their parents and, at least in the case of my grandfather, assumed childcare roles in support of their sisters or brothers who did managed to get married. I have been told that my grandfather was essentially raised by 2 of his aunts, because his mother was not particularly motherly, even though she was an attractive woman who had no difficulty getting a husband. I don’t see that situation existing anymore, and certainly you are proof of that.
However, I think there has to be some point at which someone says, “Look! Half the marriages are failing, and the average marriage is 7-8 years. Perhaps, most folks are just not cut out for this stuff.” And then maybe the pressure diminishes.
I am constantly harassed on this topic, though I never bring it up myself. The married women in the office act as though my unmarried state is a special, alarming circumstance.
On the other hand there is no accounting for just pure rudeness. At one point in our society, it was considered to be extremely impolite to ask a lady about her love life.
Howard,
Yes, it is true that maiden aunts held what was traditionally an important role not just in caring for young children of their siblings, but also for their elderly parents and relatives as well. However, that did not mean that they were appreciated by their family members who held the purse strings. In fact, those women were often resented as another mouth to feed/person to support by the breadwinners, regardless of how helpful their work was in the home. I know that I personally do not long for a return to that sort of setup because I value my independence very highly (which is the primary reason I don't want to marry).
And yes, people are rude. But they also are genuinely worried. These women actually think it would be a disaster if I never married/had children. I have tried to explain that I am temperamentally unsuited for marriage/kids, but they can't shake the programmed idea that women need to be married with children to be happy.
One of my co-workers has an 18 daughter who is engaged to an illiterate, unemployed 21 year old boy who is mildly retarded, a compulsive liar, and has a criminal record as well as a string of bad debts. (I wish I were exaggerating. I'm not.) My co-worker is happy about the engagement because she feels "safer" knowing her daughter has a "man to protect her." Nevermind that logic says this "man" cannot even fend for himself. In her opinion, any husband is better than no husband at all, after you are 18.
qnjones
but they can't shake the programmed idea that women need to be married with children to be happy.
I am truly surprised to learn that marriage and children are still viewed this way. Ann Landers, a popular advice columnist who died 5 years ago, conducted a survey in the 1970's that shocked her readers. She asked: “If you could do it over again— would you have children?” 70% said “No.”
Anon NYC
Wow. I met my husband at the age of 30 and we married at 32 and started our family at 35. Nobody has ever said anything about "settling down", "being left on the shelf", "when are you going to meet someopne..." etc. Lots of my friends are in the same situation. Lots of other friends are happily single/childless and I'm pretty sure they are not targetted by nosy pokes either. Must be different DownUnder!
"my mother sighed in relief. I was 22"
Sorry, AnonNYC, I'm flabbergasted. 22 is so YOUNG to be married!
Mel
I'm sorry to hear that people around you treat your status as an affliction.
It is quite possible to be happy, childless and unmarried. Among my circle of friends, I'm in the minority as someone who is married with children, and I never really considered getting married until I met my wife.
Sounds like you work with some close-minded people
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