Monday, December 17, 2007

For Better or For Worse hodgepodge

I've been posting fairly sparingly about comic strips on this blog... but it is one of the three primary subjects of Wizards Wireless, so I think it needs a mite more attention.

Let me start with a bit more focus on For Better or Worse.
  • It's a very popular and well-known strip drawn by Canadian author Lynn Johnston. It appears in roughly a gazillion newspapers and garners more attention and fans than most daily strips because the characters age and develop. Recently, the author has decided to stop aging the characters and run repeats of strips originally published decades ago.... see my previous posts about this comic strip.
  • I've been having a lovely discussion in the comments of this post about For Better or For Worse with Liz of A Chair, A Fire Place and A Tea Cozy. Liz said the following: "I have to say, I love finding another person who is obsessed with the FBFW soap opera!" Liz, I love it too. In fact, it's inspired me to post more about FBoFW and other developments in comic strips I follow.
  • Quick explanation of the acronyms: For Better or For Worse is abbreviated in a variety of ways... I typically use FBoFW. Others use FBFW. Lynn Johnston uses FBorFW, as evidenced that the strip's website is http://www.fborfw.com.
  • And, here's my reaction to the FBoFW strip for Monday, December 17th: That's it? She just left the cliffhanger from last week? Now I've got to read about holiday baking when I'm dying to know about Anthony, Therese's, Elizabeth's and Francie's reactions? At least the strip is still in the present tense, though.
  • Out of curiosity, I've added a poll to the sidebar to see how many people who read this blog also read FBoFW or if it's just Liz and I.
  • If you are a regular reader of FBoFW (or however you wish to acronym it), what are your thoughts about the recent developments in the past two years or so?

5 comments:

  1. FBoFW is the only comic strip I read; I've been reading it since before April was born! Has Johnston really decided to stop aging the characters? Permanently? That would be a huge disappointment.

    As for the last two years, I've liked reading about Michael and especially Elizabeth and her romantic entanglements (Paul!). Less so the parents and April, but I guess that's more a reflection of where I am in my life than of the quality of those storylines.

    She's really going to stop permanently aging the characters??

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  2. I've been reading FBoFW for years. It used to be my favorite strip, but it has become very disappointing over the past few years. I really dislike the Elizabeth / Anthony plotline, for more reasons than I have room for in this comment box!

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  3. I'm also glad she seems to be moving the timeline along for this final (?) year. Johnston's reminding me of Stephen King after he finished the Dark Tower series; no more books, really, Mr. King? ;-)

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  4. Anamaria- Oh, I'm so sorry to be the one to have to tell you... but yes, Lynn Johnston decided to stop aging the characters. The strip is currently in "hybrid" mode... a combination of old and new strips while she wraps up the storylines. The strip will eventually focus primarily on Michael and his family.

    There are lots of links to news stories about it in this post:
    http://wizardswireless.blogspot.com/2007/09/for-better-or-for-worse-hybrid-begins.html
    and this one:
    http://wizardswireless.blogspot.com/2007/08/for-better-or-for-worse.html

    Pirate Ninja Mommy- I know how much you hate the Anthony/Elizabeth plotline! I think I'm starting to come on board.

    Lisa- me too. I'm relieved to see the timeline progressing.

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  5. Oh. Well. That's depressing! At least it sounds (from the interview) as if she'll take the time required to wrap up the Elizabeth/Anthony storyline (would love to hear your opinions on that!). And I like Michael and his family. I just can't see myself reading the strip every morning if I know it's not going anywhere.

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