The First New-Run Appearance of Steve Nichols
Steve Nichols is Anne Nichol’s husband and up until today’s new-run of For Better or For Worse had not been seen in any new-runs. It seems today that whenever I think about Steve Nichols, I recollect that he was the husband who cheated on his wife in this storyline. He was known for that sort of like Lawrence Poirier is known for being kicked out of his house when he announced he was gay and Farley the dog is known for saving April. However when I look at the whole of the Steve Nichols strips out of For Better or For Worse’s 30 years, the affair strips are a pretty small portion of them. Most of the strips involving Steve occur during the birth of his second son, Richard, and his daughter, Leah. His last appearance involved an irritating leaf blower and it was back in 2003. In other words, we haven’t seen Steve for 7 years.
There was one mention of Steve in a new-run, where it appeared that Lynn Johnston was hinting broadly at a potential early indication of Steve’s cheating. The impression I got was that Lynn was going to use the new-runs to tell an untold story about the cheating. Over a year has passed and that hasn’t happened. With straight reprints looming ahead, perhaps Lynn Johnston decided it was finally time to wrap up this story she had planned to tell. It’s hard to say. Nevertheless, Steve the cheater gets the rap today that he is also the Steve the father who doesn’t consistently discipline.
It’s been awhile since Lynn has drawn Steve and it is nice to see that she hasn’t done like she did with Dr. Ted McCaulay and Mrs. Baird and draw someone that barely looks like they did before. Steve has his widow’s peak and his bushy eyebrows and the nose is kind of close to its original appearance. The only real knock against the drawing is the chin, which featured a nice set of chin-nuts before, and now doesn’t. All things considered, that’s not too bad. One thing I do notice about Steve through the decades is that, like John Patterson, his appearance never really changes.
The fun parts of the strip are (a) the reappearance of little Christopher Nichols as the tarbaby, (b) Elly’s lame reasoning about why John has suddenly taken up training Farley again, since it’s really to support an impending dog-training reprint (c) the strange lack of coffee cups (Can Elly and Anne really talk without coffee?) (d) Elly sitting on something other than a chair or couch/chesterfield and (e) Elly visiting with Anne at Anne's house, which is a much more unusual event than I would have guessed.
There was one mention of Steve in a new-run, where it appeared that Lynn Johnston was hinting broadly at a potential early indication of Steve’s cheating. The impression I got was that Lynn was going to use the new-runs to tell an untold story about the cheating. Over a year has passed and that hasn’t happened. With straight reprints looming ahead, perhaps Lynn Johnston decided it was finally time to wrap up this story she had planned to tell. It’s hard to say. Nevertheless, Steve the cheater gets the rap today that he is also the Steve the father who doesn’t consistently discipline.
It’s been awhile since Lynn has drawn Steve and it is nice to see that she hasn’t done like she did with Dr. Ted McCaulay and Mrs. Baird and draw someone that barely looks like they did before. Steve has his widow’s peak and his bushy eyebrows and the nose is kind of close to its original appearance. The only real knock against the drawing is the chin, which featured a nice set of chin-nuts before, and now doesn’t. All things considered, that’s not too bad. One thing I do notice about Steve through the decades is that, like John Patterson, his appearance never really changes.
The fun parts of the strip are (a) the reappearance of little Christopher Nichols as the tarbaby, (b) Elly’s lame reasoning about why John has suddenly taken up training Farley again, since it’s really to support an impending dog-training reprint (c) the strange lack of coffee cups (Can Elly and Anne really talk without coffee?) (d) Elly sitting on something other than a chair or couch/chesterfield and (e) Elly visiting with Anne at Anne's house, which is a much more unusual event than I would have guessed.
posted by howard at 9:39 PM
4 Comments:
All I can assume from today's strip is that Elly's presence at Steve and Annie's house causes Steve and Annie to act like John and Elly, with Steve doing something to undermine Annie's authority and Annie passively taking it.
I noticed the absence of coffee cups, too. I blame Elly's Patterbutt. If it weren't so big, she wouldn't have to steady herself with both hands on that railing. And why the railing? My guess is that Lynn drew Elly's head too high above Annie's when she started today's strip, then had to come up with some explanation, since using an eraser and starting over is not the Lynn Johnston way.
It is weird that she didn't go into more depth with hints of Steve's infidelity; what that tells me is that she thought that the "He works, you're related" is all we needed to see. She's strange like that.
forworse,
And why the railing? My guess is that Lynn drew Elly's head too high above Annie's when she started today's strip, then had to come up with some explanation, since using an eraser and starting over is not the Lynn Johnston way.
I can see that. Over the years I have noticed Lynn seems to draw the heads first and the bodies later, and this has resulted in characters regularly changing their heights with respect to each other. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the origin of the railing.
DreadedCandiru2,
It is weird that she didn't go into more depth with hints of Steve's infidelity; what that tells me is that she thought that the "He works, you're related" is all we needed to see.
Since Steve has been re-introduced to the strip after 7 years absence, I wouldn’t be surprised if we get a few more “Steve is unfaithful” hints before the week is done.
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