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Liz and I are agemates. I grew up right alongside her. I have cried with her and laughed with her through a lot! I always hoped that she would find "home" in Mitig, because that was so different for her, and yet, she really fit in there.

I related to the dilemma of moving home or staying to work with the children in Mitig.--I had to make a similar decision in my own life, where I, too, work with children.

And I can relate to the current mess that she's in. Liz has on some Red-Rose colored glasses, and she's seeing everything she WANTS to see. She's not really LISTENING to her friends, who can see things a little clearer than she does. Most of us have "seen" Anthony a bit more clearly than Liz has--and personally, I'm scared for her.

True, she's a "big girl" and can make decisions on her own, but that doesn't mean that I want her to get hurt. I know that she and Anthnoy were High School sweethearts, but they've (supposedly) grown up. Anthony cheated on his wife by pursuing Elizabeth; his "wait for me" put Anthony in her mind and she inadvertantly let a couple of really great guys slip away because of it.

I'm heartbroken that Liz seems to want Anthony (as she thinks he is) more than she wants to really know the truth. I wonder if Liz realizes SHE is a BIG part of the reason that Anthony and his wife didn't work out! What would she feel then? What about little Francoise? What about when the sweet little girl finds out that Daddy and Mommy aren't together because of Liz?

Please--please bring these issues up in the comic--at least let them deal with reality!

Lyn, New England

I don't see how you can possibly blame Therese for her and Anthony's marriage problems.

It's clear that Anthony is whiney, dull, boring, manipulative, pasty and has the personality of a toadstool.

It's also clear that he married Therese because he was looking for some woman to latch on to, some woman he was hoping would fill his personal void and "complete" him. Therese just happened to be the one who got the raw end of the deal. Anthony never loved Therese, he just used her in a vain attempt to give his pathetic life some meaning.

Then he forces her to buy a house she didn't want and have a baby she didn't want. Then he spends his days whining for Elizabeth, and the dirty rat can't understand why Therese is upset.

The writing is on the wall. I know you're going to slam Elizabeth and Anthony together in marriage, some grand finale before you freeze FBOFW this Fall. It's a good thing you are freezing the strip in time, because then it will be Elizabeth's turn to have the life sucked out of her by Mr. Toadstool.

But don't you dare try to blame Therese for her and Anthony's failed marraige!

Joe, Michigan

The storyline with Liz and Anthony is the first storyline to disappoint me in the long history of the strip. Liz has gone through many tough episodes in her life and seems uncharacteristic for her to suddenly take a "safe" option. The other disappointment is that this is the second Patterson child to go back to a childhood sweetheart. Is there an underlying message here that people should marry their childhood sweethearts because there is nothing better in the world? From a strip that has handled so many issues over the years this is a very disappointing message.

Rob, Oakville ON

Thanks for explaining why Anthony married Therese. I started reading FBorFW when their marriage was falling apart. Therese was doing horrifying things (like =asking guests to give money at Francoise's baptism and generally being an unappealing hard-[bleep] [bleeeeeep]), and i couldn't work out what Anthony saw in her.
I'm quite happy with the Anthony/Elizabeth/Francoise storyline. Kids want their parents to be happy and i am sure Francoise would be very keen to have a kind, affectionate mother-figure since her biological one is so cold.
I would like to see that git who was giving Elizabeth the run-around (Warren? The pilot) turn up expecting her to be hanging around waiting for him, and to get a nice, juicy rude shock to find she has cheerfully moved on and forgotten all about him (ah, its true, success IS the best revenge!!!)

Best wishes -- Mary, South Australia

Who is Elizabeth to say that Therese 'captured' Anthony? If anything, he was the captor. She thought she had a future with the man, didn't she? All the while, though, his heart belonged to the immature little pinhead doing her damnedset to become a duplicate of her screeching, gluttonous idiot harpy of a mother. He was a fool to think she wouldn't have found this out and made himself an uglier one by trying to force her into becoming a carbon copy of Elizabeth. She tried as hard as she could to break the sick hold Liz had on her man, didn't she? She even had the child she knew she didn't have it in her to raise but it still wasn't enough. She did something Liz didn't have the wits, decency or gumption to do: get herself out of a toxic, ruinous relationship the best she could. Does Lizardbreath see this? You better belive she doesn't! When the Pattersons benefit from the suffering of others, they make sure never to admit their victims have positive qualities. That way, they don't like like the hateful ghouls they are.

Paul J.

Anthony always loved Liz. But as she said, she took off to 'find herself'. If she hadn't had the experiences with other men and life alone in Mtigwaki, she wouldn't have realized what was truly important to her. In the meantime, Anthony found someone he thought he could love since Liz was not around. What's so bad about that? And true, his wife was very jealous of Liz...but I have a feeling she was jealous of everyone around Anthony. To those who think she left because of Anthony's torch for Liz, let me remind you...she also LEFT her daughter! Sorry, but this is a self centered character who, if she were indeed a victim, would have left Anthony with her child in tow. Anthony has been nothing but straight with his heart and love for Liz. He knew he made a mistake when he married Teresa but he tried to make it work. Eventually, he knew it wasn't going to. I say he's a good hearted, loyal guy and will be Liz's for life, if she wants him. See? Simple.

Jan C, Oklahoma

I'll begin as so many do by saying that I love your strip and have read it for many years. Actually, I doubt if anyone would write in if they didn't love the strip. But, it's possible to love and still feel bitter disappointment, and that is just what I feel about Liz as she is currently portrayed, a young woman who would grab a man by the tie to kiss him. It looked so uncomfortable! (Sorry, I've been on vacation in the north woods and am just catching up on the strips!) In Liz's younger years, I used to be frustrated that Michael was given all the interesting pursuits and Liz seemed to lack passion. Yes, she was going to teach, but it was hard to understand why she had chosen this profession, except for the influence of one inspiring teacher. Then, in Mtig, we really saw her bloom as a teacher who loved her work, and as a person. I was so pleased! In the midst of all this, all of a sudden, a babyish homesickness struck. I say babyish because many of us feel homesick at times as adults, but we learn to live with that if our chosen professions and life partners take us in other directions. However, Liz did not. I hardly see this as a sign that she has grown up and knows herself, as she is now claiming.
With all due respect to other points of view on the Liz/Anthony relationship, I have been reading many comments, and notice a common thread in many of those in favor of the two getting together. That is, a romance novel kind of mentality, with wording such as true love, meant for each other, meant to be, thrilled, deserving of happiness, happy ever after, at last, I was in tears, and on and on. I was expecting Liz to continue to develop in her teaching life in the north, and in her relationship with Paul and his family. You were doing something fresh and interesting, Lynn, and you were doing it well. I hated to see it devolve into another cheating plot line, with Liz running back to a much earlier life, including an old high school boyfriend in whom it is just plain difficult to sustain interest.
Still, I want to thank you, and I intend to keep reading.

Malva C, Minnesota

Been reading the strip since Michael and I both went on trip alone without our families and my mom cut out the strips daily and sent them to me. Helped me keep from getting too homesick.

The passion people are feeling around the Liz and Anthony relationship doesn't surprise me because I believe many of us like to think of the Patterson's as an extention of our own families.

That said, the discrepency between Sunday's comic and the weekly one didn't really bother me. I've always felt that a Sunday comic, be it FBOFW or another serialized comic, must be one of the hardest things for an artist to come up with. You face a group of additional readers who might not be in the mood for too much drama and who don't have the background the daily strips give.

You're charged with encapsulating everything that's going on into a limited number of panels...oh and at the same time, don't bore the folks who do read the dailies. I thought Sunday's strip was a fine way to do that.

I guess that's just my longwinded way of saying, "Keep up the good work Lynn!"

Mike S, MA

I have read this strip since the Liz was very little and I love everything about it. I must admit that I was one who was concerned that when Anthony asked Liz to wait for him when he and his wife were in conflict. I was also saddened when Paul turned out NOT to be Mr. Right. I am interested to see where this new relationship of Liz and Anthony goes. She did dump him first, and there is his daughter to consider, along with an ex-wife who always felt Liz had designs on her husband. But life is never clean and neat, but messy and cluttered. That is why I am still reading FBorFW after all these years, sometimes happiness only come when you understand that you have to sweep out all your junk to get to the good stuff. This strip does a great job of reminding us that life is a joy throughout our ups and downs.

M.E., NY NY

Where is Warren? Has Liz informed him that she's now with Anthony? Or is she simply hoping that if she ignores him, he'll never darken her doorstep again, and she won't be faced with the unpleasant prospect of having to break up with him?

I have to say that it looks as if the interesting storylines for the Pattersons have evaporated, and we're just running down the clock until the hybrid starts. This realization got me to thinking about spinoff strips that would have been more interesting than what we're reading now. I think the spinoff I'd most enjoy seeing is one focusing on Paul Wright, Susan Dokis, and the rest of Mtigwaki. I do realize that the Paul/Liz breakup would have to have been written differently, since we're supposed to see Paul as a "villain" now and not a sympathetic character, but it would have been possible to have Paul and Liz simply agree to go their separate ways BEFORE Liz moved back south, rather than have him cheat on her after she moved. This would have made for a nice segue into a new Paul/Susan strip. I know that it's pretty much impossible for something like this to happen now. It's too bad, because Liz's life up north was one of the more compelling aspects of this strip at one point, and I'm pretty sure I'm not the only reader who feels that way.

Speaking of Mtigwaki, it's very disappointing to me that Liz now looks upon her time there as nothing more than a brief opportunity to "grow up" and "find herself". I don't see anything wrong with moving away from home to experience new things, but it's rather selfish that Liz doesn't see that there were people up there who depended on her, and she left them behind after a mere two years. They weren't just there to be a background for her adventures or to teach her about native customs. They were real people with feelings, and they assumed she might actually invest part of herself in the community... you know, a give-and-take thing. If she had stuck it out even one more year, I could probably have more respect for her, but she let her homesickness (a normal but temporary emotion) get in the way. (It's also very debatable that Liz has done any "growing up" at all, but that's a complaint for another time.)

Ann, California

I am beyond thrilled Liz and Anthony are back together. To me they always seemed to be a pot and a lid. I had a friend I met right after college and the first time I introduced him to my parents my mom told me I was going to marry him. I told her she was crazy because he was already engaged. Well, he broke the engagement and we started dating a few months after that. As he puts it "We finally got smart". We've been together since and I am so happy to have him as my best friend and husband. When it's right, it's right.
Best wishes to Anthony & Liz!

Blythe, NJ

I have one wish: that Lynn publishes a huge full colour Sunday Strip Anthology. A big hard cover book, great for the coffee table. Imagine, each and everyone of those magnificent Sunday Strip, available and ready enjoy on paper, not on a computer. I would pay whatever necessary to own such a book since I enjoy the strip so much. Especially the ones in colour. Could you please tell me if that would be possible one day? Thank you. Also, I would like to ad that the Liz and Anthony relationship has me as a supporter since I feel that they missed the boat while they were young. She felt the need to be on her own for awhile and experience adventure, but deep down, she shares her mother's values, that is, stability and friendship in love. Too bad there's a child in the picture, but hey, I did it myself (raise step children) and didn't die from it! Since she already has her career, it's not the end of the world. I mean, she's not going to miss out on anything since she was wise enough to get her career/studies together before committing. She'll be fine! Long live the strip,

Diane, Valcartier Military Base, Quebec

Thanks for the suggestion, Diane - we'll certainly entertain the possibility. That will be one HEAVY book! :-)