Come When Called or Not
Just as last week, Lynn Johnston reprinted one of the last few strips from March, 1981 which had not already been reprinted, today’s new-run of For Better or For Worse seems calculated to be a set up to allow Lynn Johnston to reprint this Farley unreprinted training-related strip also from March, 1981. I had presumed Lynn Johnston would not touch it, because it was too heavily tied to the Farley training sequence Lynn Johnston reprinted last year. However, it seems this is no longer the case. The joke in the unreprinted strip has to do with John being able to call Farley, and the joke in this new-run is that John is unable to call Farley. The two are directly related in theme, so I expect we will the unreprinted strip reprinted tomorrow, similar to the new-run and reprint sequence from last week.
This strip taken in combination with yesterday’s training strip creates an unusual pair. While yesterday’s strip seemed to be hell-bent on teaching Farley not to come to the house to try to get in, today’s strip is the exact opposite. It almost suggests the possibility that Elly’s water gun-related training was designed to cause John’s training with Farley to fail so she can stand at the door and mock John’s training. That is certainly in keeping with Elly’s attitude toward John training Farley as she did in this strip.
If this week is the final week of daily new-runs as I suspect, then we are in 1 solid week of strips not so much slamming John, as mocking John. Will Lynn Johnston want to end her new-run sequence with something like this? I think it is possible, and certainly appropriate. John has been slammed and mocked consistently since these new-runs began. It would be good for Lynn Johnston to go out the way she came in.
This strip taken in combination with yesterday’s training strip creates an unusual pair. While yesterday’s strip seemed to be hell-bent on teaching Farley not to come to the house to try to get in, today’s strip is the exact opposite. It almost suggests the possibility that Elly’s water gun-related training was designed to cause John’s training with Farley to fail so she can stand at the door and mock John’s training. That is certainly in keeping with Elly’s attitude toward John training Farley as she did in this strip.
If this week is the final week of daily new-runs as I suspect, then we are in 1 solid week of strips not so much slamming John, as mocking John. Will Lynn Johnston want to end her new-run sequence with something like this? I think it is possible, and certainly appropriate. John has been slammed and mocked consistently since these new-runs began. It would be good for Lynn Johnston to go out the way she came in.
posted by howard at 10:02 PM
4 Comments:
In a way, it's kind of impressive just how much work Lynn will do to get the story back on track for the sake of one un-re-run strip rather than come up with a new storyline which can run for the last five days of the strip. Why, it's almost as if she has learned a thing or two about continuity after all the criticisms about Annie's kids and Deanna's move.
It almost suggests the possibility that Elly’s water gun-related training was designed to cause John’s training with Farley to fail so she can stand at the door and mock John’s training. That is certainly in keeping with Elly’s attitude toward John training Farley as she did in this strip.
That's sort of a horrible thing to think, isn't it? Too bad that it makes so much sense; it would be like Elly to want John to fail his way so she can either succeed her way or, better yet, declare Farley untrainable and blame John for forcing an idiot dog on them all.
forworse,
In a way, it's kind of impressive just how much work Lynn will do to get the story back on track for the sake of one un-re-run strip rather than come up with a new storyline which can run for the last five days of the strip.
The storyline about John and Michael at the car wash was somewhat of an original story for Lynn, even though she re-used a lot of jokes she had done many times before. I think those may be her 2 alternatives at this point in her creativity. She can either create strips to reuse old jokes or create strips to support a reprint. Ironically with her daughter recently married, Lynn would have the opportunity to use her life as fodder for stories about Elly and John, but I don’t think that would occur to Lynn these days.
Why, it's almost as if she has learned a thing or two about continuity after all the criticisms about Annie's kids and Deanna's move.
Deanna’s move was a story Lynn said she wanted to tell just as she was starting this mess. As for Annie’s 2 sons, I don’t know what Lynn had in mind. Whatever story there was squashed because she needed to correct the continuity error.
DreadedCandiru2,
Too bad that it makes so much sense; it would be like Elly to want John to fail his way so she can either succeed her way or, better yet, declare Farley untrainable and blame John for forcing an idiot dog on them all.
Sometimes these Farley strips seem to tap into Lynn’s feelings for the original, real-life Farley, whom she desperately wanted to get rid of, and who apparently was forced on her by her first husband. Since Farley’s return, the bulk of the new-run strips have featured Farley abuse as a source of humor.
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