Welcome Back, Year Two!!
Since today’s reprint strip of For Better or For Worse is a reprint including young Farley the dog, and little Lizzie is shown walking in the Keep on Truckin’ style, it is safe to assume that Lynn has moved back to reprinting strips from the second year collection, for the first time since January. Elly has the bulging eyes stare popularized by Charles Schulz. Then there are the usual anomalies: The handprints that look like animal tracks which appear not only behind Michael but in front of him, the mysterious footprints beside Lizzie who appears to be leaving no footprints, the large clumps of fleas near Lizzie and Farley’s feet and Elly’s head, the pictures of falling rain that seems to indicate that all 3 of them were playing in the rain with only a few drops of wetness between them (except on the floor), and the scratches on the wall which cannot be attributed to any of them.
There have been many strips of Elly being horrified at other people making messes. Lynn Johnston repeated this theme regularly throughout the 30 years of her strip. I can conclude that either Elly’s children are unteachable, or that they just make messes to antagonize Elly. Oftentimes in these situations, Lynn Johnston exaggerates the mess to be beyond what could have been created by the little ones, and this time is no exception. Generally, Lynn is a little more subtle. The handprints are in front of Mike on the wall after all.
There have been many strips of Elly being horrified at other people making messes. Lynn Johnston repeated this theme regularly throughout the 30 years of her strip. I can conclude that either Elly’s children are unteachable, or that they just make messes to antagonize Elly. Oftentimes in these situations, Lynn Johnston exaggerates the mess to be beyond what could have been created by the little ones, and this time is no exception. Generally, Lynn is a little more subtle. The handprints are in front of Mike on the wall after all.
posted by howard at 9:26 PM
11 Comments:
howard,
I can conclude that either Elly’s children are unteachable, or that they just make messes to antagonize Elly.
In other words, we're looking at people who don't know better through the eyes of someone too self-absorbed to teach them.
Oftentimes in these situations, Lynn Johnston exaggerates the mess to be beyond what could have been created by the little ones, and this time is no exception.
Another example of that is the infamous "jusr ONE cookie" strip; I mention it because we'll be seeing it soon.
There have been many strips of Elly being horrified at other people making messes. Lynn Johnston repeated this theme regularly throughout the 30 years of her strip. I can conclude that either Elly’s children are unteachable, or that they just make messes to antagonize Elly.
I read it as, these are just kids making a normal amount of mess, just being kids. There's nothing extraordinary about what they're doing. But to Elly, it is an utter disaster when anything in her little world is not absolutely "perfect" as she defines it. The smallest speck of dirt reflects poorly on her, and makes her scrub and scrub and scrub just to get rid of it.
In other words, the woman's bonkers, and her creator doesn't know it.
DreadedCandiru2,
Another example of that is the infamous "jusr ONE cookie" strip; I mention it because we'll be seeing it soon.-
Are you talking about this strip?
clio_1,
I read it as, these are just kids making a normal amount of mess, just being kids. There's nothing extraordinary about what they're doing.-
I would have to think at some point, Elly’s kids would recognize she goes nuts over certain things, and they would change the way they do things to avoid her wrath. I know that, at least with John Patterson, obnoxious John from 1979 eventually became a man terrified of the wrath of his wife.
Elly never improved, did she? She was always crazy, but it seems she gained the confidence to inflict her crazy more aggressively on everyone else. What's the big deal about pets taking a while to pee outside? They're in a fenced-in yard, Elly does not have to stand there waiting for them, and she's not out in the rain. Honestly, Elly should have lived in a house with no human or pet contact at all, she can't stand not controlling absolutely everything, including other creatures' bladders.
clio_1,
She was always crazy, but it seems she gained the confidence to inflict her crazy more aggressively on everyone else.
What's more, she also made sure her children were as crazy as she was; why else did Liz yell STOP in a crowded limo?
What's with the new code on the daily comics with the date now. "nn" What?! "Never New" or "Noodle Nudge" or "Not Now"? Maybe this new cataloguing will minimize re-re-reruns.
clio_1,
She was always crazy, but it seems she gained the confidence to inflict her crazy more aggressively on everyone else. -
And also without respect to the emotional and physical consequences.
Anonymous,
What's with the new code on the daily comics with the date now. "nn" What?! "Never New" or "Noodle Nudge" or "Not Now"? Maybe this new cataloguing will minimize re-re-reruns.-
I don’t know what nn means. I will probably have to wait to see how often it shows up to draw any conclusions. The last time Lynn Johnston reran strips from Year 2, she did not use it.
And also without respect to the emotional and physical consequences.
Gods, I HATE that strip. After April says her "bummer" line, the normal response would be for her mom to say something like: "Oh well, them's the breaks, kiddo". WHY does she suddenly shriek at the top of her lungs??
April asked about the other phones, found out they were not available, relinquished the phone to her mom, and merely mentions that she's a bit bummed out that she can't even go online at the moment. NONE of that means Elly has to turn into a Demon Freak From Hell with anger management issues.
More disturbingly one gets the sense that LYNN is the one with anger management issues, and she can't even see it. She thinks her "failure to communicate" punchline is "funnily and appropriately illustrated" by Elly going ballistic on a perfectly decent kid who didn't misbehave.
Of course, Kool Aid Nation will read it as a "Rotten Ungrateful Brat April" strip, since they always see themselves in Elly and think she can do no wrong.
Anonymous,
She thinks her "failure to communicate" punchline is "funnily and appropriately illustrated" by Elly going ballistic on a perfectly decent kid who didn't misbehave.-
This style of humour was borrowed from Charles Schulz, where he would often have some character become all mouth and yell, with the other characters doing flips in the air. The imagery was so fantastic, it usually worked as a sight gag (even though Charles Schulz did it again and again and again). With Lynn Johnston, she never seemed to realize that making that yelling come from an adult and removing the flipping in the air, it went from funny adult to crazy adult. The other aspect Lynn altered was that in the early strips, Elly and Michael and Lizzie all did the yelling. In the later strips, it was almost always Elly, until Elizabeth got old enough and she started yelling at kids too.
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