Thursday, January 08, 2009

Beauty and the Beast

Some of my favourite elements appear in today’s reprint of For Better or For Worse.

There’s John Patterson who goes to bed shirtless even in the dead of winter. I can see 3 chest hairs and I think we have a hint of a nipple on his moob (man boob). There are those little fleas in almost every panel and I still don’t know what they are.

There is Lynn Johnston slamming a family member by using their comic strip avatar. In this case it is her brother. I don’t know if Lynn Johnston’s brother ever got married; but I find it interesting that after painting such a bleak picture of Uncle Phil in marriage, Lynn Johnston eventually got around to marrying him off in her comic strip in defiance of Elly’s own prognostication.

We also get the old, standard “a woman preparing for bed is scary-looking” comic last seen on March 24, 2006. I find these kinds of strips to be particularly amusing with respect to nonsensical comments Lynn Johnston has made in recent interviews about going to bed fully made up; or wearing a thrift store negligee in order to make herself feel attractive going to bed. These comments were coupled with Lynn Johnston’s belief that her husband left her for a more attractive woman. Ironically, in this strip, John Patterson expresses the belief that men stay in marriages if they refuse to see how their wife truly is. After seeing 29 years of Elly Patterson, I can certainly believe that was John Patterson’s method of operating.

2 Comments:

Blogger DreadedCandiru2 said...

howard,

Ironically, in this strip, John Patterson expresses the belief that men stay in marriages if they refuse to see how their wife truly is. After seeing 29 years of Elly Patterson, I can certainly believe that was John Patterson’s method of operating.

Same here. He's willing himself to see Elly as the pretty girl he fell in love with instead of the frump she became. That's kind of romantic but it's also kind of stupid. The man should be able to love Flapandhonk just as much as he does the fantasy Elly in his head.

10:19 PM  
Blogger howard said...

dreadedcandiru2,

He's willing himself to see Elly as the pretty girl he fell in love with instead of the frump she became.

At this moment in 1980, Elly is still pretty but you can see her embracing the frump already.

The man should be able to love Flapandhonk just as much as he does the fantasy Elly in his head.

In the handful of romantic moments between Elly and John over the last 10 years, it has never been a moment when Elly is in Flapandhonk mode, or shrieking mode, or look-down-her-nose mode. I remember a romantic moment when April was in Winnipeg, where John played as if he were meeting Elly for the first time and she played along. That fit the fantasy Elly pretty well. And of course, there was the “Would you do it again?” moment between John and Elly during the Elizabeth and Anthony marriage, which again goes back to young Elly. The only modern Elly love moment I can remember with John was after he had come back from talking to Anthony Caine about his failed marriage, and he gave Elly a big hug as she was trying to do laundry. In fact, I would be hard-pressed to find another moment between John and Elly in which John expressed his love for Elly as strongly.

8:37 AM  

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