Old-run to New-Run Transformation Part II
Once again we continue our theme in For Better or For Worse of redoing first year strips as new-runs. In today’s new-run of For Better or For Worse, Lynn Johnston is doing an adaptation of this strip. In it, young Michael reveals that he got a picture of Deanna Sobinski by beating up Lawrence for it. As we know from modern times, Lawrence was revealed to be not only a homosexual but also not a Caucasian, as his father was from Brazil. These 2 characteristics prevent him from being a viable candidate as Deanna’s Sobinski’s love interest.
Back in 1980 we didn’t already know this, so Lawrence could well have been a rival of Mike for Deanna. However, it does mean that story of Michael’s fight over Deanna in the first year has to be written so that is clear to everyone that Lawrence wasn’t really interested in Deanna; but just got in a fight because he had been needling Mike about his obvious obsession with Deanna Sobinski due to his pudding cup exchange with her. After all, everyone knows that in addition to 6-year-old straight boys being obsessed with the one girl whom they will marry and feed pudding; homosexual boys already know at age 6 that they are homosexuals and must act accordingly.
The other interesting part of this strip is how violence is represented. Back on 11/9/2008; Michael and Richard Nichols’ got into a fight and each “bop”ped each other on their respective heads and then turned their backs on each other, as if that ended their fight. In today’s new-run, Michael “bop”s Lawrence on the head, which seems to cause him to have a spasm of laughter. Deanna Sobinski “BOOF”ed Michael in the stomach, which left Michael thinking of his poor poetry skills. Back in 1980, Deanna “WAAP”ed him right across the face, so hard she almost caused him to fall over. 1980s Deanna knew how to fight. I don’t know what to think about these new-run characters, who seem to be following the Marquess of Queensberry rules. Perphaps they have been to the Anthony Caine School of Self-Defence.
We also see today, the second appearance of the art teacher, an African-Canadian woman who favours a scarf around her head. I find it amusing that we have seen her so much after Beth Cruikshank wrote that giant biography of Shelagh Campbell, Mike and Lawrence’s Grade 1 teacher, whom we have not even seen one time.
Back in 1980 we didn’t already know this, so Lawrence could well have been a rival of Mike for Deanna. However, it does mean that story of Michael’s fight over Deanna in the first year has to be written so that is clear to everyone that Lawrence wasn’t really interested in Deanna; but just got in a fight because he had been needling Mike about his obvious obsession with Deanna Sobinski due to his pudding cup exchange with her. After all, everyone knows that in addition to 6-year-old straight boys being obsessed with the one girl whom they will marry and feed pudding; homosexual boys already know at age 6 that they are homosexuals and must act accordingly.
The other interesting part of this strip is how violence is represented. Back on 11/9/2008; Michael and Richard Nichols’ got into a fight and each “bop”ped each other on their respective heads and then turned their backs on each other, as if that ended their fight. In today’s new-run, Michael “bop”s Lawrence on the head, which seems to cause him to have a spasm of laughter. Deanna Sobinski “BOOF”ed Michael in the stomach, which left Michael thinking of his poor poetry skills. Back in 1980, Deanna “WAAP”ed him right across the face, so hard she almost caused him to fall over. 1980s Deanna knew how to fight. I don’t know what to think about these new-run characters, who seem to be following the Marquess of Queensberry rules. Perphaps they have been to the Anthony Caine School of Self-Defence.
We also see today, the second appearance of the art teacher, an African-Canadian woman who favours a scarf around her head. I find it amusing that we have seen her so much after Beth Cruikshank wrote that giant biography of Shelagh Campbell, Mike and Lawrence’s Grade 1 teacher, whom we have not even seen one time.
posted by howard at 11:03 PM
9 Comments:
howard,
However, it does mean that story of Michael’s fight over Deanna in the first year has to be written so that is clear to everyone that Lawrence wasn’t really interested in Deanna; but just got in a fight because he had been needling Mike about his obvious obsession with Deanna Sobinski due to his pudding cup exchange with her. After all, everyone knows that in addition to 6-year-old straight boys being obsessed with the one girl whom they will marry and feed pudding; homosexual boys already know at age 6 that they are homosexuals and must act accordingly.
Ah, but that's the thing, though. Everyone does not know that; Lynn may believe those things but that doesn't make them so. She's repeating the mistake that led to yesterday's strip: trying to make things make sense on her terms. She knows that Lawrence is gay and thus "cannot" fight over a girl while ignoring the possibility that he might fight harder than Mike so as to hide his orientation from the world. She also ignores the fleeting nature of grade school crushes; Mike might be hovering over Deanna during recess only to lose interest by the time lunch gets over; tomorrow, he could be doing the same thing to Janice Madigan.
She knows that Lawrence is gay and thus "cannot" fight over a girl while ignoring the possibility that he might fight harder than Mike so as to hide his orientation from the world.
Although at age six Lawrence could have felt "different," he wouldn't have had an awareness of being gay and perceiving that as being something to hide.
FOOBAR Lawrence would know all that, but Lynn's not writing FOOBAR Lawrence on purpose. She's just clueless. ;)
AAAGH! IT BURNS!
Granted: my fault for clicking on that link. But it couldn't be resisted. Grandstanding Granthony announcing that he'd never had anything to fight for before...
That almighty splash you just heard was my projectile vomiting into the East River, which is a half-mile or so from my dwelling.
josephusrex,
That was probably one of the lowest points in the strip. The only things that I can think of that are worse are John and Elly trying to get Liz to be Awfulny's mistress, "Where is he when you need him?" and the race to rescue the laptop.
DreadedCandiru2,
She's repeating the mistake that led to yesterday's strip: trying to make things make sense on her terms.
Exactly. She should just leave Mike as the vicious brute he was back in those days. Young Mike was the kind of boy who would beat up his best friend to get something from him. That’s a lot easier to accept than pudding cup boy.
aprilp_katje,
FOOBAR Lawrence would know all that, but Lynn's not writing FOOBAR Lawrence on purpose. She's just clueless. ;)
I have to disagree with you on this point. All the characters are Lynn. Lynn knows what happens in the end. Lynn is writing FOOBAR Lawrence, only FOOBAR Lawrence is really FOOBAR Lynn, a woman in her 60s reliving her past.
What I want from the new-runs is an enhancement of the storyline as it was originally presented. Instead, what we have is the storyline rewritten either from a faulty memory (Nichols kids mess) or from a person who writes the characters as if they were already grown up (Michael worried about his poetry, Lawrence not interested in Deanna). Frankly the story would be better if Deanna Sobinski preferred Lawrence and gave him her picture instead of Mike, making it a point of letting Mike know that nice boys who don’t annoy her all the time can have a copy of her school picture.
josephusrex,
Granted: my fault for clicking on that link. But it couldn't be resisted. Grandstanding Granthony announcing that he'd never had anything to fight for before...
I know. I still remember my reaction when I first read that sequence of strips. I was genuinely shocked. I had never before seen a comic strip character so completely dismantled by his creator before.
That almighty splash you just heard was my projectile vomiting into the East River, which is a half-mile or so from my dwelling.
Good to know. The rivers in Tucson are all dry, so I wondered what that splashing sound was.
howard,
I was genuinely shocked. I had never before seen a comic strip character so completely dismantled by his creator before.
The most shocking part is that to this day Lynn has no idea how badly she'd mangled Anthony. The intervening three-and-a-half years have done little to repair the horrible damage she did the character in that sequence, damage she's not aware of because this sort of crap happens all the time in John Wayne movies.
dreadedcandiru2,
The intervening three-and-a-half years have done little to repair the horrible damage she did the character in that sequence, damage she's not aware of because this sort of crap happens all the time in John Wayne movies.
Except John Wayne never played a whiner who was married and hit on the victim right after she was attacked. She's trying to mix The Best Years of Our Lives with Stagecoach, without realizing that in both cases someone in the story must take the high moral ground (i.e. intentionally trying to end yours or someone else's marriage is wrong). You would think of all people, Lynn Johnston would realize the need for this perspective, and yet she never did.
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