Lynn Loves Lines

Back when Laura Piché was doing backgrounds for Lynn Johnston, I used to blame her for straight-edging all the backgrounds and making them look like…straight-edged backgrounds. It wasn’t really until these new-runs where I realized that all Laura was doing was to fill in the straight edges already drawn by Lynn Johnston, because Lynn often would sketch out the backgrounds in her penciling. In today’s For Better or For Worse, Lynn Johnston actually takes the time to draw all the little bars and cross-bars in Farley’s dog cage. I was very amused by this. Look at how nicely that cage is drawn, and yet, the same artist can’t take the time to even out the stripes on Michael’s shirt, or draw eyes on Michael in panel 1, or arrange the scene in panel 2, so we can see Michael’s face and Farley the dog.

In order to understand this, you have to enter the mind of Lynn Johnston to discover the secret to her art. Then you can return and you will tell your great understanding of Lynn Johnston’s art. My guess is that you will have discovered that she likes drawing straight lines and she hates drawing people

She does also like to create strips that pose interesting and unusual questions like:

You have two things, one is soft to sleep with and one is something familiar to smell for an 8-week old puppy. Which of those two is John Patterson’s T-shirts? If you picked “familiar to smell”, then why?