114 or 271? That is the question.
In today’s new-run of For Better or For Worse, we get to see, for the first time, Connie knocking on Phil’s apartment door to find another woman there. In the original print sequence, this strip featuring Connie was followed by this strip, and it makes you think you missed a strip when you really didn't. Lynn Johnston said she was going to explain who the woman is, although in today’s new-run there does not appear to be any explanation.
The woman does not appear to be Georgia, the woman who ends up being married to Phil. The “’Allo” clearly indicates the woman is someone who primarily speaks French. However, it is possible that this could be Georgia. In Georgia’s first appearance she has long hair and not short. In Georgia’s speech pattern there is no indication of being French. However, in Georgia’s last appearance in the modern strip, her hair style is not that far away from the girl in today’s strip. Also, it is entirely possible that Lynn has forgotten Phil’s claim of just barely having met Georgia when he introduces her to Elly and family. It wouldn’t be the first time Lynn Johnston got things wrong in drawing old characters. After all, there is new-run Mrs. Baird vs. reprint Mrs. Baird, and let us not forget the ghost of Grandma Marian vs. the original living Grandma Marian.
The strangest part of this strip is where Lynn Johnston has apparently decided to change Phil’s address. In the original strip, Phil lived on 271 Rue des Fèves and in today’s strip that address is now 114. Looking at the dialogue balloon in the first panel, it even looks like the script on the address has been changed, since it does not match that of the text below it. I can imagine the discussion that led to this decision:
Lynn: OK. Connie arrives at Phil’s apartment and finds Georgia there and that way she knows he is a lying, cheating cheater. And he breaks Connie’s heart, just like Elly told her she would.
Stephanie: You can’t do that. When Georgia shows up for the first time, Phil tells Elly that he’s only known her for 147 hours, 11 minutes and 35 seconds. That strip was originally printed November 11, 1982.
Lynn: And the problem is?
Stephanie: You are reprinting stories from February, 1981, and that’s 1 year and 9 months away.
Lynn: And the problem is?
Stephanie: 147 hours, 11 minutes and 35 seconds is less than a week.
Lynn: And the problem is?
Stephanie: It can’t be Georgia at the door. Phil doesn't know her yet.
Lynn: But I already drew the strip.
Stephanie: Then redraw it.
Lynn: Are you crazy? I made a sacred vow that I would never redraw a strip, not even one line of it, no matter how bad it was, and I have kept that vow for these many 30 years.
Stephanie: Somehow I have no problem believing that. Well, then redo the dialogue. You’ve done that before.
Lynn: I know. I’ll make the girl into a Quebecoise woman. She can say “’Allo” just like all those Quebec woman do. That way everyone will know she’s a slut.
Stephanie: How will that make her a slut?
Lynn: Because she’s from Quebec.
Stephanie: And this is why I have to screen out comments to Elly's Coffee Talk from people who live in Quebec.
Lynn: That will absolutely work. She’s a slut and she’s living with Phil.
Stephanie: You remember that Phil is based on your brother.
Lynn: And the problem is?
Stephanie: Maybe you don’t want to portray your brother sleeping around with slutty Quebec women.
Lynn: You have a point there. My brother does have better taste than that. But I already drew the strip with a woman answering the door and she looks slutty.
Stephanie: Let me see the strip. That’s Deanna with dark hair. She’s not slutty.
Lynn: Deanna?
Stephanie: Mike’s wife. Had the kids Merrie and Robin.
Lynn: Oh, right. Well Deanna was a bit of slut too. All right. I know what I’ll do. I have Connie get the address wrong and then she rings what she thinks is Phil’s apartment, only it really is the apartment of this slutty Quebec woman, and Connie is too embarrassed by the slutty woman being there to figure out she got the wrong apartment.
Stephanie: Um. There’s a problem.
Lynn: What now?
Stephanie: You didn’t reprint the strip where Elly tells Connie what Phil’s address is.
Lynn: Of course not. Connie already knows Phil’s address because they have been corresponding for over a year. I couldn’t have her just get it from Elly.
Stephanie: Yes, but without that strip, the reader won’t know Connie has the wrong address.
Lynn: Details. Details. They can look up that strip with the address on the Comic Strip Catalog. That’s what it’s there for. Those readers can't expect me to do everything for them. You know that annoying Katje person will find it. By the way has she done the latest FOOBar strip yet?
Stephanie: Yes, I’ve printed it out for you.
Lynn: Oh goody. I just love the Yammersons. It’s like she has a camera in my house, or at least the house I had with Rod.
The woman does not appear to be Georgia, the woman who ends up being married to Phil. The “’Allo” clearly indicates the woman is someone who primarily speaks French. However, it is possible that this could be Georgia. In Georgia’s first appearance she has long hair and not short. In Georgia’s speech pattern there is no indication of being French. However, in Georgia’s last appearance in the modern strip, her hair style is not that far away from the girl in today’s strip. Also, it is entirely possible that Lynn has forgotten Phil’s claim of just barely having met Georgia when he introduces her to Elly and family. It wouldn’t be the first time Lynn Johnston got things wrong in drawing old characters. After all, there is new-run Mrs. Baird vs. reprint Mrs. Baird, and let us not forget the ghost of Grandma Marian vs. the original living Grandma Marian.
The strangest part of this strip is where Lynn Johnston has apparently decided to change Phil’s address. In the original strip, Phil lived on 271 Rue des Fèves and in today’s strip that address is now 114. Looking at the dialogue balloon in the first panel, it even looks like the script on the address has been changed, since it does not match that of the text below it. I can imagine the discussion that led to this decision:
Lynn: OK. Connie arrives at Phil’s apartment and finds Georgia there and that way she knows he is a lying, cheating cheater. And he breaks Connie’s heart, just like Elly told her she would.
Stephanie: You can’t do that. When Georgia shows up for the first time, Phil tells Elly that he’s only known her for 147 hours, 11 minutes and 35 seconds. That strip was originally printed November 11, 1982.
Lynn: And the problem is?
Stephanie: You are reprinting stories from February, 1981, and that’s 1 year and 9 months away.
Lynn: And the problem is?
Stephanie: 147 hours, 11 minutes and 35 seconds is less than a week.
Lynn: And the problem is?
Stephanie: It can’t be Georgia at the door. Phil doesn't know her yet.
Lynn: But I already drew the strip.
Stephanie: Then redraw it.
Lynn: Are you crazy? I made a sacred vow that I would never redraw a strip, not even one line of it, no matter how bad it was, and I have kept that vow for these many 30 years.
Stephanie: Somehow I have no problem believing that. Well, then redo the dialogue. You’ve done that before.
Lynn: I know. I’ll make the girl into a Quebecoise woman. She can say “’Allo” just like all those Quebec woman do. That way everyone will know she’s a slut.
Stephanie: How will that make her a slut?
Lynn: Because she’s from Quebec.
Stephanie: And this is why I have to screen out comments to Elly's Coffee Talk from people who live in Quebec.
Lynn: That will absolutely work. She’s a slut and she’s living with Phil.
Stephanie: You remember that Phil is based on your brother.
Lynn: And the problem is?
Stephanie: Maybe you don’t want to portray your brother sleeping around with slutty Quebec women.
Lynn: You have a point there. My brother does have better taste than that. But I already drew the strip with a woman answering the door and she looks slutty.
Stephanie: Let me see the strip. That’s Deanna with dark hair. She’s not slutty.
Lynn: Deanna?
Stephanie: Mike’s wife. Had the kids Merrie and Robin.
Lynn: Oh, right. Well Deanna was a bit of slut too. All right. I know what I’ll do. I have Connie get the address wrong and then she rings what she thinks is Phil’s apartment, only it really is the apartment of this slutty Quebec woman, and Connie is too embarrassed by the slutty woman being there to figure out she got the wrong apartment.
Stephanie: Um. There’s a problem.
Lynn: What now?
Stephanie: You didn’t reprint the strip where Elly tells Connie what Phil’s address is.
Lynn: Of course not. Connie already knows Phil’s address because they have been corresponding for over a year. I couldn’t have her just get it from Elly.
Stephanie: Yes, but without that strip, the reader won’t know Connie has the wrong address.
Lynn: Details. Details. They can look up that strip with the address on the Comic Strip Catalog. That’s what it’s there for. Those readers can't expect me to do everything for them. You know that annoying Katje person will find it. By the way has she done the latest FOOBar strip yet?
Stephanie: Yes, I’ve printed it out for you.
Lynn: Oh goody. I just love the Yammersons. It’s like she has a camera in my house, or at least the house I had with Rod.
posted by howard at 10:24 PM
21 Comments:
Good catch on the address; I was so busy wondering why Connie was doing this in the first place and why she was shocked that a glaring defect like that slipped right by me. Wouldn't it be just the weirdest thing if she was at the wrong place, though; if she got bent out of shape because she burst in on someone else's lives, we could point at her and laugh for being a bigger fool than ever.
I thought the address was wrong, so thank you for sparing me another trip to the archives to look it up.
Lynn: ...I have Connie get the address wrong and then she rings what she thinks is Phil’s apartment, only it really is the apartment of this slutty Quebec woman, and Connie is too embarrassed by the slutty woman being there to figure out she got the wrong apartment.
...
Lynn: ...Connie already knows Phil’s address because they have been corresponding for over a year. I couldn’t have her just get it from Elly.
Somehow I can imagine this actually happening, right up to and including the point where Lynn tries to justify that Connie manages to have the wrong address despite having been Phil's penpal for over a year.
DreadedCandiru2,
Wouldn't it be just the weirdest thing if she was at the wrong place, though; if she got bent out of shape because she burst in on someone else's lives, we could point at her and laugh for being a bigger fool than ever.
I could be wrong, but I think this is actually where Lynn is going. She’s has paid enough attention to the old strips to put Rue des Fèves on 2 new-runs. If Lynn were just making stuff up without looking at the old strips, Connie would looking for Phil on a street with a completely different name.
forworse,
Somehow I can imagine this actually happening, right up to and including the point where Lynn tries to justify that Connie manages to have the wrong address despite having been Phil's penpal for over a year.
This is the flaw in the story. My version of Lynn doesn’t see it. However, the real-life Lynn may be thinking Phil moved down the street to another apartment and didn’t tell Connie. Then later on when Connie asks Elly about it and mentions the address she visited, Elly points out the address error, preferably with a joke about how she gave Phil’s pipe to some strange Montreal woman, who doesn't know Phil.
Lynn: Details. Details. They can look up that strip with the address on the Comic Strip Catalog. That’s what it’s there for. Those readers can't expect me to do everything for them. You know that annoying Katje person will find it. By the way has she done the latest FOOBar strip yet?
Stephanie: Yes, I’ve printed it out for you.
Lynn: Oh goody. I just love the Yammersons. It’s like she has a camera in my house, or at least the house I had with Rod.
This? Totally made my day. Was LOLling. :)
You will not be surprised to learn that I noticed the address change right away. I even remembered the "271" without checking.
I suspect that Lynn was not thinking "Georgia." My guess is that she had some vague notion in her head way back when she did the "Montreal" arc, somehow in her patented inattention dropped that thread, and still has a vague recollection of what she meant to do at the time.
Of course, since we know what's coming tomorrow, it seems her purported "explaining" regarding this woman is nothing more than showing her. Connie apparently runs away and calls Elly.
I sort of wonder if Lynn's had any actual exposure to French Canadians, or French-speaking people in general.
At the very least, she could have watched "Allo Allo" reruns and realized 'Allo' is not something used as a face-to-face greeting! :)
At the very least, she could have watched "Allo Allo" reruns and realized 'Allo' is not something used as a face-to-face greeting! :)
Erg, I know! I made the same point over at Foobiverse.
aprilp_katje,
This? Totally made my day. Was LOLling. :)
I am glad you liked it.
You will not be surprised to learn that I noticed the address change right away. I even remembered the "271" without checking.
You are right, my continuity goddess. I am not surprised.
Of course, since we know what's coming tomorrow, it seems her purported "explaining" regarding this woman is nothing more than showing her. Connie apparently runs away and calls Elly.
My guess is that there will be an address comparison strip somewhere down the road after Connie returns from Montreal and that will be an additional explanation.
Anonymous,
I sort of wonder if Lynn's had any actual exposure to French Canadians, or French-speaking people in general. At the very least, she could have watched "Allo Allo" reruns and realized 'Allo' is not something used as a face-to-face greeting! :)
This is a strange thing. Lynn was recently at the Gatineau for the Rendez-vous International de la Bande Dessinée. You would think she would have picked up on that.
My guess is that there will be an address comparison strip somewhere down the road after Connie returns from Montreal and that will be an additional explanation.
I hope we get either something like that, or a strip where Connie actually (gasp) has a conversation with Phil and asks him directly.
This is a strange thing. Lynn was recently at the Gatineau for the Rendez-vous International de la Bande Dessinée. You would think she would have picked up on that.
Ha, now I am imagining she was greeting the French speakers she encountered with a hearty "Allo," leaving them to wonder if she was talking into a teeny-tiny earpiece mobile phone. ;)
aprilp_katje,
I hope we get either something like that, or a strip where Connie actually (gasp) has a conversation with Phil and asks him directly.
That would nice. In the original set of strips, Phil and Connie do not talk that much. She sees his show, and he doesn’t do much after that except talk about Lawrence’s broken leg. There is no pipe discussion.
Ha, now I am imagining she was greeting the French speakers she encountered with a hearty "Allo," leaving them to wonder if she was talking into a teeny-tiny earpiece mobile phone. ;)
That could very well be the case. Lynn talked about having only 15 people show for her presentation, and she blames the strike. Maybe it wasn’t the strike. Maybe it was the “’Allo.”
Wow - that "Elly on the phone" strip really makes the Montreal story *weird*. I don't remember it - did they keep it out of the collection, just like all the strips with the pipe in it?
I remember: Connie going for a week to Montreal, claiming to visit her cousin (and I think *asking* Elly if Laurence could stay), trying to decide what to do, going to see the band, having the "wow! nice to see you!" meeting with Phil ("and he's bilingual!" /starryeye) and the "nice, but a brush-off" strip. (Then hearing about Laurence's leg and not running back...)
That interaction at the jazz performance just makes no sense if Connie already knows Phil is living with someone. She's still in full-blown "crush" mode and thinks that maybe Phil's interested - until he says goodbye.
Finding out about another woman in Phil's life could fit after the performance - was that the original order? If not, I can just see LJ's editor saying No Way to reprinting it, that the story had a chance of working without it.
imh, the strip with the telephone conversation was omitted from the collection, just as you'd suspected. I'd always wondered about Connie's reference to Phil possibly living with someone in the first panel of this strip, which did make it into the collection.
There is no pipe discussion.
Nope--which is one more reason that the entire "pipe" sequence came as a such a surprise to me.
Lynn talked about having only 15 people show for her presentation, and she blames the strike. Maybe it wasn’t the strike. Maybe it was the “’Allo.”
"She seemed pleasant enough, but whenever someone went up to her to strike a conversation, she started to talk on the phone!"
InsertMonikerHere,
That interaction at the jazz performance just makes no sense if Connie already knows Phil is living with someone. She's still in full-blown "crush" mode and thinks that maybe Phil's interested - until he says goodbye.
Well, you are working under the assumption that simply suspecting Phil has another woman would deter Connie. What you have is that Connie calls Elly to determine the nature of Phil’s relationship with the woman. Elly doesn’t know a thing about her. From this Connie could draw the conclusion that the woman is not important enough to Phil to tell his sister about her, so Connie still has a chance. Connie’s mental state is shown in this strip where she feels bound to go ahead and ignore the other woman and her own son’s injury.
aprilp_katje,
imh, the strip with the telephone conversation was omitted from the collection, just as you'd suspected.
Nope--which is one more reason that the entire "pipe" sequence came as a such a surprise to me.
What we have is editing by collection inclusion then. I can understand why the pipe-smoking sequence would be excluded. Kids smoking is not a great family theme. However, what is even odder is that after having including the pipe-smoking strips, Lynn failed to reprint the strip where Michael and Lawrence are punished for smoking. Now it looks like they got off scot free, because Connie got all “in love” with Phil’s pipe.
As for the missing Elly conversation, it eliminates the ambiguity as to whether or not Elly knew about the other woman that Connie runs into. I am not sure why that would be necessary.
"She seemed pleasant enough, but whenever someone went up to her to strike a conversation, she started to talk on the phone!"
These days, with phones you can carry around sticking in your ears, this could be a rational explanation. More likely it would be Lynn’s antisocial behaviour though.
However, what is even odder is that after having including the pipe-smoking strips, Lynn failed to reprint the strip where Michael and Lawrence are punished for smoking. Now it looks like they got off scot free, because Connie got all “in love” with Phil’s pipe.
That's the impression I was left with. I had no idea strip with the reference to punishment existed. Did you happen upon it by searching for "smoking" in keywords?
Maybe Lynn ought to put together a special "treasury" collection consisting entirely of strips that have been previously omitted from collections, with essays explaining why they'd been left out.
Did you happen upon it by searching for "smoking" in keywords?
Yes. I was trying to find all the pipe-smoking references.
Maybe Lynn ought to put together a special "treasury" collection consisting entirely of strips that have been previously omitted from collections, with essays explaining why they'd been left out.
That's a good idea. I can just see the entries:
Michael and Lawrence smoke Phil's pipe.
Lynn: I left these out of the collection because...um...I forget.
Connie calls Elly about the girl in Phil's apartment.
Lynn: This is a good one. I left it out of the collection because...um...I forget.
.um...I forget.
LOL! But she'd never admit this. She'd make something up on the spot. It would be gloriously illogical and implausible and would probably involve some late-night calls to or from imaginary friends.
She'd make something up on the spot. It would be gloriously illogical and implausible and would probably involve some late-night calls to or from imaginary friends.
Oh, you are so right. Elly's phone call from Connie would be just like some phone she got from her friend Ingrid, who would call her up just as she was about to go to bed. Later on, Ingrid would end up going to Europe to become a wolverine hunter, and Lynn would lose contact with her Ingie.
Later on, Ingrid would end up going to Europe to become a wolverine hunter, and Lynn would lose contact with her Ingie.
And she couldn't bear to run the phone-converation strip in the collection, because she didn't want to leaf through and be reminded of poor, lost Ingie.
The pipe: Her good friend Gertrude actually did go out with Alan a couple of times, and he left his pipe at her house. "Trudy" stalked him to return the pipe, and in a jealous rage, she burned down his house when she discovered another woman was living at his place. At least she thought it was his place--it turned out she was on the wrong block. While the criminal charges were pending, attorneys contacted Lynn (in the middle of the night) and asked that she leave the "pipe" arc be left out of the collection.
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