Death, illness, and trauma are not themes that most cartoonists choose to tackle in the \u201cfunny pages.\u201d Lynn Johnston\u2019s daily comic For Better Or Worse, which ran from 1979 to 2008, remains one of the few strips set in real time, meaning that the characters grow, age, and inevitably pass away.\u00a0 By 1995, the fictional Patterson family\u2019s pet dog Farley had been a presence in the comic strip for much longer than an Old English Sheepdog\u2019s typical lifespan. Over the course of a few weeks, Johnston wrote Farley\u2019s death into the strip.<\/p>\n
This sequence of strips, a mere handful out of the hundreds she drew in her career, garnered over 2,000 letters from fans, most of which are held at The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum.\u00a0 This selection reflects the spectrum of emotions triggered by the death of a fictional dog. Among this collection are sympathy cards and personal pet photographs, letters berating Johnston, and letters thanking her for her cathartic use of art to share a deep part of the human experience.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\t\t