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Chère madame Johnston
I don't like the reruns but I realize they're necessary to keep you in front of that drawing table. After all you're not a slave. I too would like to slow down a bit at work (I'm 57). This is why my favorite character is John, nobody knows what he's doing, what he's thinking, when he gets home everyone is eager to tell about their things.I feel this way. Some may think you're not a femisnist, I think you are, but a nice one.

Gaetan D, Quebec City

I am new to this website - it's great! I cannot start my day without reading the strip (although I have to admit that when it is a flashback, I am disappointed).

I love the sensitive and humorous way Lynn Johnston handles the tough but real situations in life: gay issues, caring for the elderly, classmates who are different (Shannon), teenage immaturity - the list goes on and on.

Thank you and keep it up.

Jo W, Boca Raton Fl

Lynn;

I have followed your strips for years. I have always appreciated the wholesomeness of it. Like Pasta is comfort food. For Better or For Worse is comfort reading. I have enjoyed the hybrid that you have created with the old and new strips. I too am a younger reader (30) and missed alot of the beginning stuff. Best of luck to you in the future.

Lucy A, Edmonton

Love the strip, but I really do not care for the flashbacks. Please keep the new ones coming!

Dustin, Kalamazoo

I absolutely adore the flashbacks. As much as I admire the art work in the more current series, I preferred the art work in your earlier strips. They always seemed to capture a joy, and sense of fun and an overall love of life.

Thanks so much to you, your team, and your family (for sharing you with the world.)

Linda L, Birmingham Alabama

I love this strip and I can totally relate to Elizabeth (We even have the same name!). I am so happy and yet so sad to see she is engaged. Yet another friend has left me behind and gotten herself married off. It is pretty sad when the comic strips have a more active social life than you do. ~sigh~ Congrats Liz!

Liz, Philadelphia

You know, the flashbacks were sort of fun at first. But if the intention is to wrap up the story as a whole, then re-run the entire thing again, I guess I don't really see the point. And they aren't even part of that so-called innovative "hybrid" anymore, just re-runs. Its like hearing someone read a REALLY good book- one where you are just dying to know what happens next- but the person reading keeps deciding to re-read the past chapters to you. Its somewhat anti-climactic.

I also think its dissapointing that April's birthday was ignored entirely. Its a good thing she is fictional, because if my birthday were totally ignored while the people around me strolled down memory lane to the "good ole days" before I was ever born, I would be pretty hurt.

Rachel, Netherlands

Love the "wrinkle" strip. I laughed when I found my first creases, but then I was only 18 or so and thought it was funny to be seeing faint smile lines engraved in my face already. I just figured it meant a lot of smiles had happened!

Breanne M, Washington State

Hi Lynn,

I've read (and loved) your comic for years - first in NC, then OK, now in the Middle East (via the internet - Thank God for it, otherwise I'd never get my "fixes").

I actually love those comics with the animals in them... the bunny harassing the dogs to chase it was duplicated by my cat harassing my dogs (she must have been reading over my shoulder). I wouldn't mind some repeats of Farley... I really miss that furball.

Thanks for great work!

Angie, Middle East

Hi Lynn. Long time reader. First time clatcher. I really don't enjoy the flashbacks. There are so many story lines to flesh out that there is no need to do this. Unless you're taking a break? We want more meat and potatoes!

Nancy, Texas

I learned to read with FBOW 25 years ago! I wanted to know what the kids were up to and kept trying to read the strip until I perfected my favorite skill. Michael and Elizabeth reflected my brother and I growing up, and Elly and John my parents. We laughed and cried with your characters countless times.

How fun it still is to read your strip! Thank-you for all the wonderful years.

Laura F, Moscow Idaho

I loved Sunday's strip! I have a three year old son and taking him for a haircut is the WORST. I wouldn't cut his hair myself - my mother did that with me too many times and I have the funny looking grade school pictures to prove it! Thanks for the laugh!

Penny, Milwaukee

Hey Lynn,

I am 23 and I love the strips and have every one of the books! I know every aspect of the Patterson universe (that's been released into print) and I marvel at the epic story you have created. You really are a genius!

I'm not enjoying these flashbacks but I respect your semi-retired position. It feels like gooey cheese on a pizza that just doesn't tear off, you can't break free from this strip. While I am thrilled to read new strips it is certainly coming at a cost. However for those that have never been exposed to these older works, I'm sure it's very cool to see how it all began.

Again, I respect where you are coming from. You deserve a break but there are still stories to be told. I wish there was a better solution...

Cheers

Catherine

BRAVO!!! to John's comments on 4/7/08. I, too, believe Lynn Johnston should be elevated to a world class author/illustrator. FBoFW far exceeds the standards of other comic strips primarily because this is a serial. How else could so many people from different parts of the world care so much for the Patterson family without the passing of life's seasons and the telling of this story. I agree with others that Liz's wedding should take place before the strip freezes in time and I hope that we are given the opportunity to eavesdrop on April's future plans. Maybe Lynn would be interested in providing an annual "Christmas letter" to update her loyal readers on the family happenings.

Sherry L, Florida

As much as I loathe the Elizabeth and Lurch engagement, I prefer the modern, ongoing strips to the retro ones. If nothing else, they ARE boring. "Little kids" are featured in a number of comics already: Baby Blues, One Big Happy, Pickles, etc. To see teenagers and in particular, young adults in real relationships (as one would consider Elizabeth, Lawrence and Nicholas, Gordon and family),is a niche that really isn't being filled in most comics pages today. Any sudden desire to showcase funny little kid antics can be easily met by Robin and Meredith.

Linda, Tucson

Dear Lynn, I got to know "For better or for worse" via a friend at university in the 1990s and it became a constant partner.

And, alas, how close to life the Pattersons are some times!

Thank you, very very much!

Funny enough, I (or even 'we') have adopted some of the small parts of wisdom spread by the Pattersons to include them into daily life and business.

And for sure, some sentences will also accompany hopefully the future, after my son-to-come marriage in 2009.

Ladies? Gentlemen? Who didn't share sometimes the wise thoughts of "Know when to hold them, know when to fold them" introduced by Lynn? Folks: thats one of the universal principles of life, believe me :-)

How often I have shared with a smile the idea of "Just remember, as you are trying to find out whats right, for the baby, it does try to find our whats right for you?" again introduced to me via the Pattersons.

Is there a nicer way to help those a bit confused with their new baby?

I will not repeat the praises on your presentation of gay life, kids with special needs, or social issues, as their quality is well know (just keep on going, please!)

But, Ms Johnsonn, Lynn? One more thing to thank for:

In the darkest hours of the days when Canada's southern neighbour started to behave like run by a mad man, I was close to say good by to North America as a whole. And than it was you, which kept my hope alive, that there will be one day a time when I will be happy return to North America (which I was lucky to visit in 1999, great Yukon and NWT and Alaska).

Because if you are that successful even in the States, there is hope :-).

Best regards

Magnus H, Berlin Germany

Lynn, I am really enjoying the flashbacks that you have incorporated with the regular strips. Although I have been reading FBOFW for quite a few years now, I haven't seen the earlier strips when Michael and Liz were very young. I'm only a bit older then Liz, and it's cute to see how she "started out", before I started reading in the mid 90's. I can't wait to see more of what happens in the past and the present!!

Alyssa, Michigan

Dear Lynn,

I'm a long-time devotee of your stories, from shortly prior to April's birth to present.

Last summer our local paper ran an article regarding your upcoming retirement, indicating that you would run "flashbacks" off-and-on throughout the year rather than creating all new story lines. Unfortunately, the flashbacks are so very early in the strip's history that I don't even recall them; and frankly, they are not as entertaining nor fulfilling as more current events (I hearken back to memories of Farley, "Lizardbreath", Lawrence's coming out, etc). I am puzzled as to why these very early memories take precedent over the later ones. Just because they might not have been carried by as many papers doesn't make them better. I believe Farley deserves at least one mention prior to your retirement; he did, after all, curtail his life to save April's. Nothing to my memory from this era in the Patterson family history has been included in the flashbacks sections.

I'd also appreciate spending more time with the characters as they live now rather than where they once were. I understand and appreciate your need to ease into retirement, yet I hope you will allow enough time to tie up all the loose ends prior to moving on to other pastures. Sure, life doesn't always tie up the loose ends, but there's no reason why the Pattersons can't! Story lines as rich as the ones you've created deserve some closure.

Thank you for your kind consideration of my requests and all the entertainment you have provided through the years. We readers are so very lucky you shared your gift with us!

Zoe B, Kansas City

I was hooked on For Better or Worse when Lynn so aptly presented the mother-in-law when Michael married. It was my stepmother all over again!
For Better or Worse is my desert when reading the daily paper - the very last thing I read each day. Am amazed over and over again with her artistic protrayal and under- standing of human nature. I am 80 years old, a retired counselor, who delights in seeing the lives of the Patterson's unfold. Not all sugar and cream, but really for better or worse. Can't wait for Elizabeth and Anthony to marry - have seen that coming for a long time.
I would think it would take Lynn as much time to rework old strips as it would to turn out new ones and am so disappointed when I fihd that the daily offering is from times past. I would really miss the family if we had to say Good By!

Marie H, Des Moines Iowa

All I can say about Sunday's strip is "New Parents.....go figure!"

Pinki M, Houston TX