Going Back in Time
Today’s reprint of For Better or For Worse is the first Sunday strip to move chronologically backward in the original publishing schedule for Sunday strips since this strip published on July 26, 2009, which was originally published on March 16, 1980. Today’s strip was originally published June 8, 1980. Everything else between the two strips was either a new-run or originally published in 1981.
The reason why this is important is because Lynn Johnston announced the moment of going to straight reprints would be in Early Spring, 2010. For Better or For Worse’s great claim to fame was that the characters in the comic strip aged in real time. Their birthdays occurred at the same time each year. The school for the kids started and stopped at the same time real schools start and stop. For these reasons, it is crucial that straight reprints line up with the reprint’s original publication dates. An April strip must be reprinted in April, for example.
During the last year and a half, Lynn Johnston has been pulling strips to reprint from 1979-1981 without respect to the chronological order of things. It appears the motivation was for these things:
1. Introduce the adoption of Farley the dog as early as possible, so that the cartoon dog could be used to promote Lynn’s children’s book about Farley.
2. Reprint only those strips which painted the avatars for Lynn’s ex-husband and son in the worst possible light for reasons of person revenge against them due to Lynn’s divorce.
3. Fill in the gaps for storylines Lynn felt were not properly covered in their original publication.
As a result from pulling these strips willy-nilly, Lynn ended up reprinting strips from 1981 as late into the year as June. This means that in order to line up the June Sunday strips from 1981 with 2010, Lynn must either reprint strips from years before 1981 or write brand-new strips. Spring, 2010 has happened, and sure enough, we see a Sunday strip reprinted from 1980. If this trend continues, we could see Sunday strips from 1980 published from now until June, when she can go back to reprinting Sunday strips from 1981. This move back to 1980 could be the sign that Lynn Johnston is officially doing straight reprints with the Sunday strips.
As for the theme of today’s strip, it is an interesting one. Elly is trying to change her hairstyle herself. This is a rare event. Elly normally does not change her hairstyle any more than just adding some curls as in this strip. Normally she goes to a stylist, but often she doesn’t like the result as in this strip and this strip and this strip. This strip is the closest one I can find to today’s strip, although Elly does not try as many different styles as in today’s.
Looking through the old strips about hair, I think I have found a new favourite. Elly is rarely satisfied with her hair, and rightly so, but this strip is the exception.
The reason why this is important is because Lynn Johnston announced the moment of going to straight reprints would be in Early Spring, 2010. For Better or For Worse’s great claim to fame was that the characters in the comic strip aged in real time. Their birthdays occurred at the same time each year. The school for the kids started and stopped at the same time real schools start and stop. For these reasons, it is crucial that straight reprints line up with the reprint’s original publication dates. An April strip must be reprinted in April, for example.
During the last year and a half, Lynn Johnston has been pulling strips to reprint from 1979-1981 without respect to the chronological order of things. It appears the motivation was for these things:
1. Introduce the adoption of Farley the dog as early as possible, so that the cartoon dog could be used to promote Lynn’s children’s book about Farley.
2. Reprint only those strips which painted the avatars for Lynn’s ex-husband and son in the worst possible light for reasons of person revenge against them due to Lynn’s divorce.
3. Fill in the gaps for storylines Lynn felt were not properly covered in their original publication.
As a result from pulling these strips willy-nilly, Lynn ended up reprinting strips from 1981 as late into the year as June. This means that in order to line up the June Sunday strips from 1981 with 2010, Lynn must either reprint strips from years before 1981 or write brand-new strips. Spring, 2010 has happened, and sure enough, we see a Sunday strip reprinted from 1980. If this trend continues, we could see Sunday strips from 1980 published from now until June, when she can go back to reprinting Sunday strips from 1981. This move back to 1980 could be the sign that Lynn Johnston is officially doing straight reprints with the Sunday strips.
As for the theme of today’s strip, it is an interesting one. Elly is trying to change her hairstyle herself. This is a rare event. Elly normally does not change her hairstyle any more than just adding some curls as in this strip. Normally she goes to a stylist, but often she doesn’t like the result as in this strip and this strip and this strip. This strip is the closest one I can find to today’s strip, although Elly does not try as many different styles as in today’s.
Looking through the old strips about hair, I think I have found a new favourite. Elly is rarely satisfied with her hair, and rightly so, but this strip is the exception.
posted by howard at 11:06 PM
5 Comments:
I agree with your "favorite" as a rare nice strip, although Steph must a) be entering strip descriptions in a feverish and very careless hurry, or b) just as bad a speller as Lynn herself. Description = "Elly remonicse about her mother" = WTF?!?
(I am not going to bring it to her notice. At this point, after trying to help out and having her still mess up, I think Steph doesn't really give a damn how accurate in content or how properly spelled the descriptions are. No more "helpful suggestions" from me.)
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"No matter what I do, I still look like a frumpy, middle-aged woman". Elly (Lynn?) dipshit: it's not so much your uninspired hairstyle, it's not even so much your awful frumpy clothes, it's not even your face - it's your Freakin' Attitude.
It's this sort of thing that reminds us how insecure Elly is about the way she looks and how prone to defeatism she is; since she thinks that Fate is conspiring to turn her into a frump, that's what she ends up looking like.
Anonymous,
I agree with your "favorite" as a rare nice strip, although Steph must a) be entering strip descriptions in a feverish and very careless hurry, or b) just as bad a speller as Lynn herself.
From what aprilp_katje has told me from her conversations with Stephanie, she inherited most of those descriptions from the person who used to keep the strip archives, and most of those entries are not her own. As to whether Stephanie will respond to comment about needed corrections, I think it is clear from several sources, she considers that to be a very low priority.
Elly (Lynn?) dipshit: it's not so much your uninspired hairstyle, it's not even so much your awful frumpy clothes, it's not even your face - it's your Freakin' Attitude.
That’s true. If there’s anything the new-runs have given us, it’s that Elly was acting like a frumpy, middle-aged woman at the very beginning of the comic strip.
DreadedCandiru2,
It's this sort of thing that reminds us how insecure Elly is about the way she looks and how prone to defeatism she is; since she thinks that Fate is conspiring to turn her into a frump, that's what she ends up looking like.
The interesting part of it is that as Elly gets older, she starts dressing less and less like a frumpy, middle-aged woman and more like a woman in her 70s.
It's so weird seeing that nostalgic strip and recalling the (mostly) warm, rosy anecdote Lynn had to accompany it in her collection...back when she maintained that while she and her mother often disagreed on things, deep down they loved each other very much.
The strips covering the death of Elly's mother all but retroactively sainted her!
Contrast that to now, where if Lynn mentions her mother, it's mostly to make clear she was an abusive harridan.
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