Time of Year
One of thing I have noticed about the new-runs in For Better or For Worse is that Lynn Johnston appears running them in some sort of real time, which is to say, she recognizes the seasons. After yesterday’s jump into a reprint from year 1, I was surprised to see that we are immediately back into new-run territory and in particular, a new-run showing a seasonal change. This could be the purpose for the new-run – to set up the season and then let the reprints exist within that framework.
One of the other aspects of the new-runs, and appears to be one of the more pleasant aspects of it, is Elly handing John work to do. She did this effectively by handing John a basketball last week, and this week he gets a rake. Presumably, John won’t take the rake to the lights on Elly’s car in revenge after consuming too much vodka.
These are the moments when we have seen a happy Elly, and in my opinion, these have been the best of the new-runs. It does not involve Elly whining about motherhood or cleaning a house. It does not involve man-bashing. It is not an old joke done again (although I am not completely sure about this one, since we have seen raking strips before). It does not involve kids with unkidlike behaviour. No jokes about bodily excretions and best of all, no puns.
One of the things aprilp_katje noted yesterday was that the reprint on Thursday was a one-off. Connie is never seen telling Elly that she doesn't appreciate John enough. Nor is there any follow-up afterwards. So we had 2 new-runs with Elly talking to Connie about John, and then a reprint addressing the same issue. As aprilp_katje pointed out, Lynn is fulfilling her stated intention to flesh out old storylines.
Based on this, we will probably continue to see the new-run establish the season of the year and we may see more sequences which were short before be fleshed out, i.e. add new-run strips surrounding them.
One of the other aspects of the new-runs, and appears to be one of the more pleasant aspects of it, is Elly handing John work to do. She did this effectively by handing John a basketball last week, and this week he gets a rake. Presumably, John won’t take the rake to the lights on Elly’s car in revenge after consuming too much vodka.
These are the moments when we have seen a happy Elly, and in my opinion, these have been the best of the new-runs. It does not involve Elly whining about motherhood or cleaning a house. It does not involve man-bashing. It is not an old joke done again (although I am not completely sure about this one, since we have seen raking strips before). It does not involve kids with unkidlike behaviour. No jokes about bodily excretions and best of all, no puns.
One of the things aprilp_katje noted yesterday was that the reprint on Thursday was a one-off. Connie is never seen telling Elly that she doesn't appreciate John enough. Nor is there any follow-up afterwards. So we had 2 new-runs with Elly talking to Connie about John, and then a reprint addressing the same issue. As aprilp_katje pointed out, Lynn is fulfilling her stated intention to flesh out old storylines.
Based on this, we will probably continue to see the new-run establish the season of the year and we may see more sequences which were short before be fleshed out, i.e. add new-run strips surrounding them.
posted by howard at 9:26 PM
9 Comments:
howard,
Based on this, we will probably continue to see the new-run establish the season of the year and we may see more sequences which were short before be fleshed out, i.e. add new-run strips surrounding them.
This means that Lynn is living up to her promise to do exactly that. Without the old-run strips for context, the new looked awkward due to their revisionist take on history. Now that she's finding her way, we can look forward to an era wherein Lynn is in as many papers as Blondie or Hi and Lois. She won;t be at the commanding heights she was but she'll still have a larger following than most.
You see this strip as "happy Elly"? Maybe so, but I find it kind of sick that her happiness comes from taking pleasure in destroying John's enjoyment of a few minutes of quiet in nature.
I also find it interesting that new-run Elly is constantly doling out chores to John (rake the lawn, change the baby, play with Mike, feed the baby, now feed her differently) and generally bossing him around. I think this is some kind of fantasy for Lynn about how she wishes she'd treated Rod.
DreadedCandiru2,
Now that she's finding her way, we can look forward to an era wherein Lynn is in as many papers as Blondie or Hi and Lois.
She won’t be at the commanding heights she was but she'll still have a larger following than most.
It may be that Lynn will be satisfied with that. Some of her fans may be too.
qnjones,
You see this strip as "happy Elly"?
Yes. She is not “martyr Elly” without even the time to read a newspaper and taking everything on herself while whining the whole time. She is sharing the load of chores she expects to be done, without regard to anything else; but doing so with a smile on her face and no whining.
I remember moms like this when I was growing up. My best friend in my elementary school days had a mom who handed out a long list of chores for their kids to accomplish, regardless of whether or not their kid had a friend sleeping over. I remember on one occasion on a sleepover, helping him get this massive list of chores done so we could finally have some time to play, and by the time we got all the chores done, I had to go home. Needless to say, he spent the night over at my place for sleepovers from then on.
I also find it interesting that new-run Elly is constantly doling out chores to John (rake the lawn, change the baby, play with Mike, feed the baby, now feed her differently) and generally bossing him around. I think this is some kind of fantasy for Lynn about how she wishes she'd treated Rod.
Probably so. If only Rod had been busy with chores, then he wouldn’t have had time to mess around.
IMHO, if you're happy about ruining someone else's day, you're not really a "happy" person. Her "happiness" here is clearly mean-spirited.
Aaah...I get to ruin John's fun!
qnjones,
IMHO, if you're happy about ruining someone else's day, you're not really a "happy" person.
Each one’s happiness is relative. The things which usually delight young mothers, i.e. the adorable antics of small children, have never seemed to delight Elly Patterson. She seems to like ruin John’s fun.
Eventually he will divorce her in favor of another woman, and Elly will wonder why a man would get a divorce since they have all those shared memories. John will then explain that those shared memories of her ruining his fun, and he doesn't mind forgetting those.
Wait! I think I am getting John and Elly mixed up with someone else.
howard,
Each one’s happiness is relative. The things which usually delight young mothers, i.e. the adorable antics of small children, have never seemed to delight Elly Patterson. She seems to like ruin John’s fun.
This is something I've noticed about a lot of the mothers in this strip. Not only do we have Elly not caring about what should delight her, we have Deanna and her "find something to do that involves staring into space like robots" mantra along with Liz blowing her stack at harmless wordplay. This is because Lynn does not believe that children should actually act like children. She regards their not acting like tiny adults as an injustice, not to mention a cruel joke that the Man played on her.
dreadedcandiru2,
This is because Lynn does not believe that children should actually act like children.
And she has been consistent with it, even from the first days of the strip. The remarkable thing is that a strip with so much animosity towards children acting like children would ever become popular in the first place.
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