Straight Reprints? We’ll See.

Today’s reprint of For Better or For Worse features the expected can opener strip, originally reprinted on April 6, 1981. Although Lynn Johnston has not officially announced it, I expect that since this strip lines up in time so well with our current date of April 5, 2010; we are seeing the first strip of Lynn Johnston’s promised straight reprints of For Better or For Worse. Lynn said she wouldn’t go into straight reprints until the story could stand on its own, and I can see that with this story. In the 13 strips which compose the storyline, Lynn touches on an issue which has been and probably always will be a struggle between husbands and wives – - the family finances, especially when one of the spouses claims priority because of being the breadwinner in the family. We also see Elly’s use of anger and outrage in full flourish as John struggles to placate her, a theme which will reappear continually for 30 years.

For fans of the strip, this is a well-known story. Over the years of blogging on this strip I have seen a number of die-hard fans make a reference to this storyline. Looking over the story in its entirety I can see why. It’s relevant. It’s funny. Elly does not avoid appearing a little silly. Although John Patterson takes a few shots in it, they are not as personal. He is not being called a bad father or a bad husband as a point of the humour, which is the way it was for much of the first 2 years of the strip. This is a good place for Lynn to begin the straight reprints. For those persons who have never read the strip before, straight reprints are the best thing for them. The comic strip will just get better and better until Lynn starts reprinting strips from 2000, the year I consider to be the turning point on the quality of the strip. After that, it will start getting worse and worse. With straight reprints, that will be 19 years from now. By then, who will care?

As for the Howard Bunt Blog, this is the point I have been waiting for since September, 2007, the date on which Lynn Johnston originally announced she was going to retire. I have no desire to continue blogging on the old material. However, if it turns out that I am wrong, and there is still more new material to come, then the Howard Bunt Blog will reappear to comment on it. Lynn Johnston has already reprinted most of the Sunday comic strips from April to June, 1981; so there is a good chance that she will continue to do new material for the Sunday strips for the next 3 months in order to line up the dates for them between 1981 and 2010. Until she makes a specific announcement of an end date, we will have to wait and see. If there is one thing that following Lynn Johnston’s work has shown me, it is that she is quite capable of changing her retirement plans.

As for the dailies, if you want to read in advance, the material is all there on the Comic Strip Catalog on Lynn’s website and can be accessed by ID, but not by date. The Date choice has been blocked out for the next 6 months to give you some surprise. For those you who don’t like surprises, the IDs are these in chronological order: 3676, 3987, 125-128, 3988, 129, 130, 3989, 3990, 131, 3991.

I have some regrets about not continuing on with comments on the daily strips. I have been doing it a long time now, and it takes awhile for a blogger to build an audience. If there is one thing that commenting on the reprinted strips over the last 2½ years has taught me is that I am not that fond of commenting on 30-year-old material that was done by a rank amateur in the comic strip field. Aside from being outdated, sometimes it seems like I am picking on someone too young and inexperienced to know better. It was much more fun to comment on the work of a seasoned 30-year professional turning out the worst material of her career.

Until there is something new, see you then!