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I LOVE your strip, and enjoy reading it every AM--I look forward to seeing Anthony and Liz get together. They've both grown and evolved and realized that things have come full circle. On another note, I've been wondering why all of the characters have been made to look more realistic and attractive, yet Elly looks cartoonish and frumpy with a hideously big Karl Malden-type nose. It used to be smaller! I am older than Elly, but look younger, and no, my nose hasn't grown with age.

Margaret D, Maryland

Wow! I just noticed that Michael and Deanna's eyes blink in today's strip. Cool!

Don C, Brighton ON

I'm surprised that the dress survived what must be over 50 years of the mistreatment of being stuffed in a box and crammed into some crawlspace, which surely isn't controlled for temperature or humidity. I was surprised when she took it out of the box it wasn't yellowed, moth-ridden or water-damaged. And bringing it to a dry cleaners almost ensures its destruction unless they just happen to be professional restorers. I'm also surprised that Dee is making plans for this dress's preservation without consulting with her inlaws first.

I do have to agree with the writer from yesterday who complained about her haircut. It's simply not flattering, and without the distinctions of the hair covering her whole forehead and the occasional plumped-lips look (which also show up in Meredith!) she otherwise looks too much like Michael in the face that way.

Denise L, Chicago IL

Ok, have to comment on Mike's character. After reading this morning's strip, I have to agree with some other commenters that Mike is coming across as a might bit out of touch/insensitive/clueless. What happened to him? He had gotten to the point of being more thoughtful and considerate, but yesterday and today's strips would make one wonder if he isn't going to soon start sounding like John did in some of the early strips you've been showing.

Also, just to chime in on the Elizabeth and Anthony storyline...not sure I want to see them togehter either. I've always viewed Anthony as nice, devoted (to Liz anyway), but...weak.

To end on the positive...I LOVE FBorFW...have been a loyal reader for years. I miss reading the monthly letters from the characters!

Lisa, Las Vegas

The strip seems overly focused on married people who reproduce. I sometimes feel kind of insulted, as a long time single woman who divorced before she could have kids.

Lisa, Michigan

Lynn, Just wanted to thank you for so many years of enjoyment from reading your comic strip.
I just wanted to tell you why I enjoy For Better or For Worse so much. For one thing, the characters are not perfect, they make wrong choices or mistakes just like we all do. If all your characters did everything perfectly, your comic strip would not be half as entertaining. Secondly, I feel like these characters are old friends, and we have all grown old together. I see many personalities that I recognize from my own experience.
Thirdly, I feel like I share things with your characters. I went back to get my degree in Elementary Education at the same time Liz went to teacher's college and I enjoyed watching her go through student teaching because I could relate to everything she was experiencing. April was born about the same time that my daughter was and it was so fun to watch both of them grow up--many times we would joke that you were spying on us as April did the same things my daughter did. Thank you so much for sharing your talent and letting the world know how much we all have in common. I wish you as much happiness in your life as you have brought to mine.

Jennifer N, Utah

One of my biggest complaints about your strip is the way the children are portrayed. Plain and simple, children their age do not say things the way you write them. These children are not mature enough to be witty. It is not realistic and is very annoying, and is definitely enough to drive me away whenever they are the subject.

Kelly, Newnan GA

Imagine this scenario:

Liz gets involved with a man who is still mooning over his last girlfriend, whom he constantly romanticizes. She accepts his proposal of marriage, only to have him invite his "lost love" to their engagement party. When she objects, he tells her she is overreacting.

Liz watches as her fiance spends most of his time not with her, but with his ex. Then, she finds out that the ex has been invited to their wedding!

Liz is expected to suck it up and smile; her objections are constantly overruled because "we're old friends". She also sees all too clearly that the ex still has feelings for her fiance, but refuses to deal with them, to make a clean break, or to sit down and discuss what's going on.

Liz gets married. Her new husband immediately starts pushing her into things she either doesn't want, or isn't ready to have yet. All the time, he is wishing she were someone else.

Liz walks, finally.

Now, I know that if this had been a part of the strip, it would have been written with the deepest sympathy for Liz and her trials and tribulations. Yet since it happened to someone else, someone who is not a Patterson, not only is the former wife to blame for everything, but Saint Liz steps in to make the whole situation all right, winning Saint Anthony as the door prize.

I really can't stand the way her story is going. Rather than being a strong, intelligent, independent woman, she spends her time justifying Whaaanthony to her one friend (Liz never spends time with anyone else now that she is part of a couple); suddenly, she is ready to be a stepmother to a girl who doesn't like her; she is Saint Anthony's googly-eyed girl.

Her romance with Paul was fresh, imaginative, and a lot of fun to read. I rooted for her in those days. But Lobotomy Liz, the Stepford Stepmother, is an irritating bore.

Erin

I think the flashback comics are a great way to give Lynn some personal time. What I don't like is the thought of "freezing" the characters. For years I've watched them growing and changing at a more or less realistic pace that made the comic more like a novel. For me, the ideal would be to see the characters continue to age and change, but just to get into their lives less frequently - as happens with friends in real life.
On another note, I'd love to see Deanna get a new hairdo - and Shannon, too; mushroom and flower-power-straight do not suit those girls.

Monica C, Oshawa ON

Dear Lynn,
My mother told me about your comic fifteen years ago. We often chuckled about it when we talked across the continent. It was a lovely sharing thing and helped through the years of flying to her when she was ill with emergencies and then this fall when she died.It is the ordinariness of what goes on with the Pattersons and that you follow each person in the family, just as I as a Mother do with mine, that is so precious.

Suzanne H, Iowa

I love your strip and enjoy everything you are doing with it. It's YOUR strip. I completely understand wanting slow things down! I don't think just because your work is in such a public forum, you should be barred from doing so.

I think your transitions from present day to the "memory" strips have been very evident and not confusing at all. You set it up very well.

I can't wait to see where you take us in the next few months. Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful talent with the rest of us!

Angie, Alabama