John and the Super Vac Kissing In A Tree
In today’s new-run of For Better or For Worse, we see Part II of the vacuuming story, where Dr. John Patterson investigates the loss of his keys and finding out from Michael they might be in the Super Vac, he decides to…um…well I’m not really sure what he’s doing. The intelligent thing would be to go to the store manager and see they can open the Super Vac to find the keys. After all, we know from this strip, John is not above going into the trash for valuables.
Instead what John is doing appears to another customer as though he and the Super Vac are having a “relationship”. Searching the Comic Strip Catalog for “relationship” this strip is the closest I can find to today’s strip. In the all the other strips, “relationship” meant something between people or pets.
On the other hand, this strip has some similarities to today’s strips. Both strips paint an image of John Patterson who doesn’t mind doing something which appears sexual in nature while out in public. This strip is the famous “John has an orgasm in the massage chair”, while today’s strip appears to be “John has rough sex with the Super Vac”.
While the massage chair strip was a little more innocent, this one is much more obvious in its intent. The other customer specifically mentions “relationship” so even Lynn’s most devoted readers would be hard-pressed not to pick up on the sexual overtones.
On the other hand, if this ends up being one of Lynn Johnston’s last new strips, I think it is only appropriate that she ends the era of new-runs continuing on with one of her major themes of the new-runs: My ex-husband (represented by John Patterson) is a pig. It’s somewhat comforting to know that in the 3 years since her divorce, her hatred remains unabated.
Instead what John is doing appears to another customer as though he and the Super Vac are having a “relationship”. Searching the Comic Strip Catalog for “relationship” this strip is the closest I can find to today’s strip. In the all the other strips, “relationship” meant something between people or pets.
On the other hand, this strip has some similarities to today’s strips. Both strips paint an image of John Patterson who doesn’t mind doing something which appears sexual in nature while out in public. This strip is the famous “John has an orgasm in the massage chair”, while today’s strip appears to be “John has rough sex with the Super Vac”.
While the massage chair strip was a little more innocent, this one is much more obvious in its intent. The other customer specifically mentions “relationship” so even Lynn’s most devoted readers would be hard-pressed not to pick up on the sexual overtones.
On the other hand, if this ends up being one of Lynn Johnston’s last new strips, I think it is only appropriate that she ends the era of new-runs continuing on with one of her major themes of the new-runs: My ex-husband (represented by John Patterson) is a pig. It’s somewhat comforting to know that in the 3 years since her divorce, her hatred remains unabated.
posted by howard at 9:36 PM
9 Comments:
On the other hand, if this ends up being one of Lynn Johnston’s last new strips, I think it is only appropriate that she ends the era of new-runs continuing on with one of her major themes of the new-runs: My ex-husband (represented by John Patterson) is a pig. It’s somewhat comforting to know that in the 3 years since her divorce, her hatred remains unabated.
It is, isn't it? Other people might have moved on by now but it'll be years before she can think about Rod without being enraged.
dreadedcandiru2,
Years? I don't think it will ever occur. She used her first marriage as fodder for the Therese and Anthony story and that was decades after the marriage was over.
It's funny. Even in the original series, Lynn Johnston went on and on relentlessly about how important it was for people to get married, settled down, and have children. Yet she depicts her fictionalized husband as a jerk (though a lot of Rod Johnston's natural goodness seems to come through despite Lynn's best efforts to the contrary) and her children as brats. Happy long-term relationships are few and far between in FBOFW, and Lynn mostly sabotaged them or turned her attention elsewhere in the last few years of the strip.
She used her first marriage as fodder for the Therese and Anthony story and that was decades after the marriage was over.
Point taken. Lynn tends to love hate almost as much as Elly does.
Anonymous.
Even in the original series, Lynn Johnston went on and on relentlessly about how important it was for people to get married, settled down, and have children. Yet she depicts her fictionalized husband as a jerk (though a lot of Rod Johnston's natural goodness seems to come through despite Lynn's best efforts to the contrary) and her children as brats.
This is what I find so compelling about the strip; Lynn seems to think of family life as a horrible burden that we have to bear despite not wanting to.
Anonymous,
Yet she depicts her fictionalized husband as a jerk (though a lot of Rod Johnston's natural goodness seems to come through despite Lynn's best efforts to the contrary) and her children as brats.
As you know, happy families aren’t funny families.
Happy long-term relationships are few and far between in FBOFW, and Lynn mostly sabotaged them or turned her attention elsewhere in the last few years of the strip.
That’s true. Grandpa Will and Carrie disappeared in the final years of the strip. Candace and Rudy disappeared to show up only at the very end as sniping versions of their previously-happy selves. Lawrence’s partner Nicholas disappeared after 2004.
dreadedcandiru2,
This is what I find so compelling about the strip; Lynn seems to think of family life as a horrible burden that we have to bear despite not wanting to.
Most of the humor of the strip is based on this premise – the burden of being a mom or being a wife. There are a lot of unhappy moms out there who love the strip because Elly is just like them, except without any fun stuff to make up for the bad stuff.
Point taken. Lynn tends to love hate almost as much as Elly does.
Wonder if the fortune teller saw this while he was filling her with notions of being a good person - or was that just her wallet in his face blinding him? For the rest of her life Lynn will be enraged about Rod. One hopes that he's living true to himself and has found sincere, deserved happiness.
Anonymous,
Wonder if the fortune teller saw this while he was filling her with notions of being a good person - or was that just her wallet in his face blinding him?
He appeared to be doing a palm reading and had an astrology chart, so we are talking about a pretty generic fortune.
One hopes that he's living true to himself and has found sincere, deserved happiness.
An Anonymous poster from Corbeil who sometimes comes here (clearly not the Anonymous you), has indicated said that Rod is no longer with the woman with whom he was having the affair that led to his divorce from Lynn, he reestablished his dental practice (after having previously retired), and is having a relationship with a woman who works in his practice. I can't attest as to the reliability of the source, however, I have seen other evidence that Rod does have a currently active dental practice.
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