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Dear Lynn,

I just wanted to write to thank you for the many years of excellent stories! For Better or For Worse has accomplished what virtually no other comic has: it has had - and continues to have -the ability to provoke thought, induce tears, and share laughter.

Over the past few weeks I have been re-reading all of the FBoFW collections that we own, and I have to say that the story that most impressed me was that of Lawrence. I got into the comic in my early teens, and this series helped me to a greater understanding and tolerance of the fantastic diversity of our society!

Reading the strips involving Mike and Liz's years in university have helped me make the transition from the embrace of high school and constant parental presence so much more smoothly. They make me realize that yes, everyone else is panicking about midterms and grocery money, and that I'll be okay!

I am happy that Liz and Anthony are finally together again. Anthony's first marriage was a disaster from the word "go", but I am glad that you did not take the Mike-and-Deanna route this time. It worked out very nicely!

All that to say that I am very grateful for the wisdom, honesty, and humour your comic has shown me and your other readers. Thank you!

Sarah B., Ottawa

Just a quick note to let you know how much I like the way April's been drawn lately. I was a little weirded out at the super-dolled-up look she adopted after her sixteenth birthday, but for the past few weeks, she's reached a happy medium. She looks like a teenager--not a kid anymore, and not too grown-up.

I also enjoyed the recent write-up on using models in your research and development section. I've always liked Lynn's use of perspective and changing viewpoints in the strip, and it was cool to see some of the work that does into that. I just have one question--when has there ever been an emu in the strip?!

Kristen S., Seattle

Kristen - good question! Can we get back to you on that one?

I love reading all the comics, but 'For Better or For Worse' is probably my very favorite! I love to read about April and Liz, especially when the stories involve Shannon or Shiimsa! My day is not complete without reading this strip. It's the reason I like to draw comics of my own, and I'm thinking about asking some teachers to put a comics section in our school newspaper!
Thanks so much for making life that much better!

Yashly

I have been a fan ever since I ordered a book through Chatelaine magazine entitiled, "I've Got the One More Washload Blues". This was years ago and at that time I didn't know who you were. The book just sounded like fun, and it was!!

I now have all of your books and have laughed and cried with you over the years while raising my own family.

My kids and I loved your TV specials and I remember how my daughter cried when Elizabeth lost her bunny.

My three children are now grown and have moved away from home, but I'm looking forward to our eldest daughter's upcoming wedding and future grandchildren, and of course your future books.

Thanks for keeping me sane and laughing through the years!!??

Debbie W., Irricana, Alberta, Canada

As a Caucasian woman in an interracial relationship with a First Nations man, I was thrilled with the Liz/Paul relationship because it mirrored my own so closely. I would have LOVED to see Liz flourish up North!

I accepted the fact that your writers wanted to bring her back home to Anthony. Ok, fine, so he's more like her dad and a high school sweetheart and everything. But telling Liz that Paul is better off with Susan because she was "his own kind" hit me hard, and not in a good way. For the sake of all of us who are in relationships with those not of "our kind", I really wish a retraction of some kind had been printed!

Cathleen

I like the relationship between Liz and Anthony. I'm certain with time they can adjust to the "automatic family" , however, I do feel there would be some conflict. Children, unless so starved for a mother, don't share their parents immediately. And I've not seen Elizabeth portrayed as a maternal type. Therefore, I must say I would like to see how they work things out. That is to say the relationship goes further and they do. I know when my own daughter was small, she refused to let go of me and it took a lot of reassurance to make her believe no one was taking me from her. With that said, she's now 14 and still very much a moms girl. Thanks for listening. I've been a reader since I was a teen. I've watched these kids grow and I'm curious to see where their lives will go.

Cindy G, Ohio

I only just started reading FBOFW a couple of years ago. I cried a little when I heard about your retirement, because I was falling in love with the Pattersons! I literally stay up until one past midnight every night to see the next day's strip! My husband thinks I'm crazy!

Amanda P.S., Lynnwood, Wa.

I've been reading this strip for 20 plus years. I know this is silly, but I do wish you'd have Elly do something with her hair and perhaps try to be a bit more concerned with her appearance. I know she is supposed to be an 'everywoman' but really--she's sported the same look forever. Most women don't do that--those that haven't thrown in the towel that is. Why have long hair but wear it in a bun or ponytail everyday? Might as well wear it short! It would be more fashionable. I know plenty of grandmothers who look pretty sharp. Why can't Elly go through a mid-life change that actually improves her look? She exercises to stay healthy--stop having her look like a haus frau! I guess this bothers me because I'm pretty much the same age as she is and I still try!

Jan C.

Dear Lynn,
Thank you having the courage to print and even respond to negative comments and criticism about your strip. I am one of your readers who has both loved FBOFW - to the point where it is the ONLY comic I read - and been deeply disappointed in some of the recent story arcs. I need to add something to an issue already discussed here: Anthony's character. Lynn, a great many of the comments about Anthony are actually preferences - some people like stories about childhood sweethearts reunited and shy, stable, geeky guys getting the girl... and some people are turned off by them. We all have preferences. But pining for one woman while married to another and dumping emotional problems on a woman after she had almost been raped shows gross immaturity at best and emotional self-centeredness and dishonesty at worst. Basic character flaws do not go away unless we work on them and there has been NO indication that Anthony has in any way acknowledged his past behavior or changed. Moreover, basic character flaws will poison any relationship we enter, even and including a relationship with the great love of our life. Lynn, please show us an Anthony who is willing to look within and grow, an Anthony who has shaved off more than just a mustache. Then I really will be able to believe that Liz has made a lucky match.

Carol

Dear Lynn,

I have followed your strip devotedly since the early days, when Lizzie was still a toddler. The years haven't done anything to dim my affection for the strip, I have to say, though I do see where some of the complaints are coming from.

One of my favourite arcs was a few years back, after Jim gave April his old harmonica -- the one he had during the war -- and taught her how to play. Jeremy Jones tossed it out the window of the school bus one morning. The bus driver, after hearing the harmonica's history, organized the students into a search team to recover the precious item. It was touching and showed just how much April treasured an heirloom from her grandfather, and how much even a total stranger would recognize that value.

With that in mind, I'd like to point out an issue I had with the recent strip wherein Liz casually gave April's harmonica to a boy who had stolen it from her -- she didn't even think about it; she hadn't even noticed it was missing. It was just handed off like a trinket of no value, without consulting the real owner.

There was one line in April's monthly letter following about how she didn't want to bother her grandfather by telling him, but I don't feel this is enough to cover the matter. Couldn't it have been mentioned within the strip?

You still have time to patch things up; April needs a few solid things to hold on to in the midst of the move and all the uprooting.

With much appreciation,

Shirley

One of the things I love about Lynn Johnston's writing on For Better or For Worse is the way she develops the characters. I know a lot of people like the bad puns which make you groan and how the Patterson family's life models their own, but for me it is the subtle writing.

For example, in the current story about the telethon and Becky McGuire, it is easy to get the idea that Becky is finally realizing she has been letting her ego run away with her and it ruined her relationship with April. Becky has certainly shown off her egotistical, self-interest. However, the wording of the dialogue for Becky says, "Maybe I was too good for my own good." Lynn Johnston has phrased this just right. Becky is not saying she believes she was not too good; but she is saying that being too good caused bad things to happen for her.

I think what Becky has finally realized is that when she left April's band, she made the mistake of thinking she could still be friends with April and not be in her band. This is a reasonable thought since Becky had been friends with April before she even had a band, and certainly people have left bands before and not lost the friendships they had with their former bandmates. However, in the last two years, Lynn Johnston has ingeniously shown us an April which implies just how wrong Becky's thought was. If you look back at the times when April is in school, you will realize that April doesn't seem to have any friends who aren't in her band (aside from Shannon Lake) and she does not do any extracurricular school activities aside from her band. Not only that, Lynn Johnston cannily shows you why---April never initiates a conversation with anyone in high school. This is particular obvious in April's conversations with Shannon Lake, but Lynn Johnston is a clever-enough writ!
er to make this April's way she handles everyone, not just Shannon. I love the way Lynn Johnston puts these little details into the story, without drawing attention to them. If you read the story carefully as Lynn Johnston has precisely laid it out, you get a picture of an April who keeps everyone who is not in her band at arm's length. If Becky had known this, she might have thought twice about quitting the band.

The one exception to this rule is Shannon Lake, and I attribute this to Shannon's aggressive friendliness towards April. She does not allow April to push her away, no matter how many times April tries. If Lynn Johnston's niece is persistent like this in real life, I can see why she would be an ideal spokesperson for persons with special needs.

I can only imagine that if Becky McGuire had been like Shannon and hadn't given up when April pushed her away, or if she had never quit the band in the first place; then Becky and April would still be good friends, ego or not. It seems to me in today's story, from the words Lynn Johnston has put so exactly in Becky's mouth, Becky has finally figured that out. I am so glad that there is a writer as refined as Lynn Johnston working in comic strips today, and I for one, will feel the loss when For Better or For Worse goes to reprints.

Paul S., Oro Valley, Arizona