And Lizzie Gets Young Again
At long last, one of my predictions about the latest For Better or For Worse strip has come true. Today we have a new-run. It appears from the story in the new-run that Lynn Johnston has forgotten about this strip, which shows how Lizzie’s bed looks and instead remembers this new-run strip or this new-run strip from about a year ago, when Lizzie’s behavior today would make more sense. In other words, when your daughter is getting close to 2 years old, you aren’t as worried about them crying during what appears in the strip to be an afternoon nap.
The joke is supposedly that little Lizzie can sleep through all those noises but is woken up by the “Click” sound on the door. As any experienced parent knows, children often fall asleep when they are riding in car seats, because they like the motion and the background noises. When my son was little (less than 1 year old), I used to have to take him on brief car rides to knock him out, or the other alternative was to put him in one of those electric swings. From this perspective, the strip works. Parents of young children, particularly children who don’t sleep through the night, are very careful to take advantage of any moment when their child falls asleep naturally. However, it is necessary to forget that little Lizzie is old enough to be potty-trained and is already pretty verbal to appreciate it.
There are a few other strange things about the comic strip. When my kids fell asleep in their car seats, I would usually try to carry them by themselves to their bed. I would not carry them and 2 sacks of groceries as it appears Elly is doing in Panel 2. Also, I would not take off my shoes while I was carrying them, as it appears Elly did in Panels 4 and 5. I would put them to bed and then get the groceries and then take off my shoes. These are the parts of the strip where I must suspend my disbelief. The biggest thing to disbelieve has nothing to do with Elly and Lizzie. After this new-run or this new-run or this old strip, who would ever believe Michael Patterson would ask his mother for permission to eat a banana?
The joke is supposedly that little Lizzie can sleep through all those noises but is woken up by the “Click” sound on the door. As any experienced parent knows, children often fall asleep when they are riding in car seats, because they like the motion and the background noises. When my son was little (less than 1 year old), I used to have to take him on brief car rides to knock him out, or the other alternative was to put him in one of those electric swings. From this perspective, the strip works. Parents of young children, particularly children who don’t sleep through the night, are very careful to take advantage of any moment when their child falls asleep naturally. However, it is necessary to forget that little Lizzie is old enough to be potty-trained and is already pretty verbal to appreciate it.
There are a few other strange things about the comic strip. When my kids fell asleep in their car seats, I would usually try to carry them by themselves to their bed. I would not carry them and 2 sacks of groceries as it appears Elly is doing in Panel 2. Also, I would not take off my shoes while I was carrying them, as it appears Elly did in Panels 4 and 5. I would put them to bed and then get the groceries and then take off my shoes. These are the parts of the strip where I must suspend my disbelief. The biggest thing to disbelieve has nothing to do with Elly and Lizzie. After this new-run or this new-run or this old strip, who would ever believe Michael Patterson would ask his mother for permission to eat a banana?
posted by howard at 9:47 PM
7 Comments:
What I find difficult to believe is that it took this long for Lynn to show us that Elly can never win; usually every strip drips with the theme that her life is a litany of thankless martyrdom by selfish and ungrateful children and moronic, unappreciative husbands.
I also find it hard to believe that it took this long for Lynn to regress Lizzie into a tiny, crawling infant. She looks three months old in this one.
DreadedCandiru2,
I also find it hard to believe that it took this long for Lynn to regress Lizzie into a tiny, crawling infant. She looks three months old in this one.
We have seen almost nothing but reprints for the last few months and the 1981 strips have a tendency to get Lizzie’s size right for her approximate age. As long as Lynn runs them in chronological order, it’s not usually a problem. The new-runs are the strips which normally change Lizzie back and forth. This one is a classic Lizzie-regression strip, since the whole joke relies on her being 3 months old.
Do you think it's an accident or deliberate that Lynn has drawn Elly in such a way that, if you removed the divider between panels 3 and 4, she would appear to be her own conjoined twin at the hip?
Hm, so did John and Elly give up on ever having Liz sleep in that big-girl bed they got for her?
forworse,
Do you think it's an accident or deliberate that Lynn has drawn Elly in such a way that, if you removed the divider between panels 3 and 4, she would appear to be her own conjoined twin at the hip?
They do look like mirror images of each other. Knowing the Lynn Johnston art style, I would be surprised if it was by accident. She has a tendency to mimic her own work. Most times that imitation is not in the same strip.
aprilp_katje,
Hm, so did John and Elly give up on ever having Liz sleep in that big-girl bed they got for her?
At least she is there by 1983.
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