Putting the Pieces in Place
In today’s For Better or For Worse, John Patterson enters the fray in the fight to get a dog. Ultimately we know that Elly gives in to getting Farley after she is ganged up on my Mrs. Baird, John, and Michael. Today we would call that an intervention. Back then it was yet another example of “Mom runs the house and nothing happens unless she agrees, and that won’t happen unless you gang up on her.”
However, the motivation for Lynn Johnston to focus the strip this way, is to show why it is that John will push for the dog along with the kids. He wants a dog too. This also provides the humour for today’s strip, because he is a grown adult and he wants a puppy.
The real-life Farley entered Lynn’s life before she even met John Patterson or even her son Aaron, so the curious question is from whom is she modeling John and Mike’s behaviour? Presumably the only person possible would be her first husband. Given that the original Farley was sent off to the “farm” because he was rough with baby Aaron, my guess is that Lynn’s first husband was the one who wanted the dog.
The interesting part is that in the second year of For Better or For Worse, the incident with Farley the dog being sent to the farm was years past. It make me wonder if, by putting Farley in the comic strip, Lynn was somehow trying to atone for having gotten rid of Farley back then.
However, the motivation for Lynn Johnston to focus the strip this way, is to show why it is that John will push for the dog along with the kids. He wants a dog too. This also provides the humour for today’s strip, because he is a grown adult and he wants a puppy.
The real-life Farley entered Lynn’s life before she even met John Patterson or even her son Aaron, so the curious question is from whom is she modeling John and Mike’s behaviour? Presumably the only person possible would be her first husband. Given that the original Farley was sent off to the “farm” because he was rough with baby Aaron, my guess is that Lynn’s first husband was the one who wanted the dog.
The interesting part is that in the second year of For Better or For Worse, the incident with Farley the dog being sent to the farm was years past. It make me wonder if, by putting Farley in the comic strip, Lynn was somehow trying to atone for having gotten rid of Farley back then.
posted by howard at 1:07 AM
10 Comments:
howard,
Ultimately we know that Elly gives in to getting Farley after she is ganged up on my Mrs. Baird, John, and Michael. Today we would call that an intervention. Back then it was yet another example of “Mom runs the house and nothing happens unless she agrees, and that won’t happen unless you gang up on her.”
Saying "No" all the time seems to be the only power Lynn allows to the mother characters in either version of the strip. They ultimately cave in to their kids and husband because that's the deal with mothers but they gotta put their objections out there.
The real-life Farley entered Lynn’s life before she even met John Patterson
Was this meant to be a sly reference to Lynn's recent claim that she'd actually been married to John Patterson for 30+ years, or did you mean to write "Rod Johnston"? ;)
As for the story behind this strip, I suspect she's just cribbing bad sitcoms and [other] bad comic strips.
And gah, this strip is just so stupid. I don't know how she imagines this is an improvement over how Farley originally came to be adopted. And look how tiny Liz is in the first panel. By what stretch of the imagination would this dog be "for the kids"? Maybe you could make an argument for "for Michael," but not for both kids. (Never mind that he seemed very much a family dog originally.)
Liz looks, at most, three months old in this strip. I don't know if that's intentional or bad drawing. In the earliest strips, I'd have pegged Nizzie for maybe six months. This strongly suggests that Farley is, as I suspected, being retconned to (at least) a year earlier than in the original run. Stupid.
DreadedCandiru2,
Saying "No" all the time seems to be the only power Lynn allows to the mother characters in either version of the strip.
It would be nice if once in awhile, the mom says “Yes” and it’s the dad who says “No”, but I would be hard-pressed to think of a time when that occurred in this strip.
aprilp_katje
Was this meant to be a sly reference to Lynn's recent claim that she'd actually been married to John Patterson for 30+ years, or did you mean to write "Rod Johnston"? ;)
Rod Johnston. Mental fatigue on writing has struck me again. It would be nicer if these things came out during the day instead of late at night.
As for the story behind this strip, I suspect she's just cribbing bad sitcoms and [other] bad comic strips.
I think this is less likely. We know Farley is based on a real dog, and when Lynn brings in characters based on real people, she usually brings her baggage with them.
By what stretch of the imagination would this dog be "for the kids"? Maybe you could make an argument for "for Michael," but not for both kids. (Never mind that he seemed very much a family dog originally.)
And the original Farley would have been a family dog, since he preceded Aaron. I got my first dog when I was 6. I would agree that the size Lizzie is in that picture is way too small.
Liz looks, at most, three months old in this strip. I don't know if that's intentional or bad drawing.
With this artist, you really cannot tell. She was never good at doing consistent sizes on characters in the past, and the new-run seems to have given her license to be even worse. In the first new-run, Lizzie looked like her same size she was from 1979, so my guess is drawing error.
Sadly, though, that Mom is the nay-sayer is a pretty realistic portrayal of this kind of marriage. Let's face it--Dad's at the office all day. It costs him little to say yes. Mom says no because saying yes adds to her workload.
When my parents moved us to Iowa, Dad promised us we could get a dog (a bribe to stop whining). He did this without consulting Mom. Mom was angry. Dad spent all his time at the office, and furthermore, did no housework at all. Mom knew that it would be all on her to clean up after the dog, take care of the dog, make sure she got walked, etc. Sure enough, Dad picked out a dog that could not manage to be housebroken, so Mom got to clean up lots of poop and pee in the house until she finally insisted the dog had to go. She found a nice family with a farm and gave the dog away.
In a bad marriage with extreme setup of Dad as breadwinner and Mom as housewife (where Dad rarely helps around the house and Mom is treated as a second-class citizen because she makes no money), "no" usually is all the power the wife has. That's why it's an ugly way to arrange a marriage, one that kills any romantic or friendly feelings between the spouses. Because it naturally breeds resentment.
This rings so true to my own experiences that I wonder how Lynn knew how to draw a relationship like this. Was her first marriage like that? Was her second marriage that way until she became a rich and famous cartoonist? I guess we can't know. Unless Lynn's next tell-all interview reveals the answer.
qnjones,
This rings so true to my own experiences that I wonder how Lynn knew how to draw a relationship like this.
I believe the standard phrase is, “You must have had a camera in my house.”
Was her first marriage like that? Was her second marriage that way until she became a rich and famous cartoonist? I guess we can't know. Unless Lynn's next tell-all interview reveals the answer.
The usual sources of Lynn’s inspiration do not provide the answer to this one. In Dennis the Menace, the dad is nerdy and the mom is a knockout, but they still come down hard on Dennis. In Peanuts, the adults are mentioned but never seen. In Cathy, Cathy was not married yet; but Cathy’s mother clearly ruled the house. The clearest choice for Lynn would be her own domineering mother, assuming that we can believe a word of what she has said about her mom.
Making CNN News: "Popular Comic Strip Ignites Controversy"
http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/books/09/05/better.or.worse.ap/index.html
howtheduck, OT again. Something I noticed in researching the Anthony bio. I think that Lynn completely forgot that, in June 2002, Anthony tells Liz that Gordon had offered to make him manager of his businesses when he graduates the following year. Why do I think that? Well, during his paternity leave in 2005, he makes a big deal to Liz about how Gordon allows him to do the accounting from home. Not managing, but accounting. Then, in April of 2006, John gushes about Anthony having been promoted to manager--and in May of the following year, Liz admires Anthony's office, and Anthony says that when Gordon made him manager, he did it right.
Grrr. This annoys me! 0_o
Re. Lynn using sitcoms/other strips instead of real life not being her M.O. Well, she has noted that the strip in the beginning was very closely based on her real life and real family, but that years later, this became less and less true (especially once Aaron and Katie had left home). The latter years, according to her, were all her imagination.
Now, Lynn wants to go back and "correct" her earliest work. I would expect this means making those earlier strips more subject to her imagination. And the current arc is such a bad-sitcom situation, I wouldn't be at all surprised if this were the inspiration.
aprilp_katje,
Then, in April of 2006, John gushes about Anthony having been promoted to manager--and in May of the following year, Liz admires Anthony's office, and Anthony says that when Gordon made him manager, he did it right.
The progression with Anthony at Gordon’s does seem to be primarily based on him moving from one office into a nicer one. You never actually see Anthony manage anyone.
The latter years, according to her, were all her imagination.
They seemed to be more along the lines of “I hate marriage.”
And the current arc is such a bad-sitcom situation, I wouldn't be at all surprised if this were the inspiration.
We shall see what she has in mind, once Farley makes his appearance.
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