This is why I love "For Better or For Worse"

[LynneSin]

This strip, which is geared towards families, isn't afraid to address the real issues of today. FBOFW caused a big controversy almost a decade ago when they featured the first gay character - Michael's best friend Lawrence came out sometime right before they all started college. Today Lawrence and his partner are sucessful business owners (they own a landscaping company) and are often featured in the strip. Along with when Lawrence came out, FBOFW had their strip pulled in many papers when Michael chose Lawrence to be his best man in his wedding 3 years ago. In some papers, Lawrence argued about the "flowers" he donated instead of his sexual preference in order to prevent the strip from being pulled from certain papers.

I really liked today's strip. About 3 weeks ago Elizabeth (the daughter) got a wedding invite to her ex-boyfriend's wedding. Since Elizabeth isn't dating anyone she is instead taking a friend of Lawrence, another openly gay person. In today's strip he talks about possibly getting married and the fact it is legal where he lives (the strip is based in Canada).

Congrats to Lynn Paterson for a great strip. BTW, during the height of the Iraq War, the grandfather, a WW2 veteran with the Canadian Air Force, mentioned why the war was wrong. In the grandfather's monthly letters to the official site for FBOFW, he went into more details.

If you aren't reading this strip - you should! It's a great comic strip and a realistic family to boot!

[GOPisEvil]

1. Wasn't it sad when Farley died?

:-(

[XanaDUer]

11. Was Farley the dog that died saving a child from drowning?

I remember that, I think.

[GOPisEvil]

12. Yes, I believe so. nt

[LynneSin]

14. He saved April from Drowning

Here's the series:

http://www.fbofw.com/char_pgs/farley/farley_passes.html

[GOPisEvil]

16. Dammit Lynne!

;(

[ibegurpard]

2. One of the unique things I always liked about that strip is

that the family isn't stuck in some kind of time warp. They have aged, progressed and moved on with the times. It's funny and also moving at times.

[liberalhistorian]

10. Exactly! I was pregnant with my son at the same

time the mother was pregnant with April, the youngest child, my son was born only a couple weeks after April was. That was kinda fun going through the same things being pregnant that the mother did, at the same time.

[SOteric]

3. Enjoy it while you can.

Paterson has stated she very much wants to retire. She will be aiming for closure and wrapping up the lose ends of the family she's allowed to grow up and live through real life tedia within the coming year.

[LynneSin]

5. NONONONONONONONONO

Can't she let someone take over the family????!!!!!

She can't end it - it's the best out there!

[regnaD kciN]

20. Actually...

...she's going to be continuing the strip for the next four years, until her syndication contract expires. At that point, she'll be in her sixties, and won't want the pressure of turning out a daily strip. She says she's going to finish the strip, at that time, with a book that carries the story of the Pattersons as far into the future as she can imagine. (This is something she is good at -- for the strip's twentieth-anniversary collection, she published The Lives Between The Lines, which filled in a lot of the "backstory" of the strip, and also recounted what happened to a number of characters who, for one reason or another, "dropped out of sight.")

As someone has mentioned, the web site for the strip is fantastic -- lots more detail about the characters.

[SweetZombieJesus]

4. Good strip, but I can't help thinking about all the horrible, space

wasting strips that populate my local comics section, like Blondie and Family Circus.

Someone should start a "Worst Comics" poll.

[BurtWorm]

7. Go ahead, SZJ! You know you want to!

[LynneSin]

8. Those are all tolerable compared to Mallard Filmore

I can't believe trees were destroyed to publish that filth!

[MrBenchley]

9. Anytime anybody tells you

that it's not true that cconservatives are hate-filled humorless imbeciles...show them Mallard Fillmore. The asswipe that drraws that doesn't even know what a joke would look like.

[LynneSin]

13. For those who have never seen Mallard Filmore

Which I never really bothered either and now I see why:

http://est.rbma.com/content/Mallard_Fillmore?date=20030804

Is this suppose to be entertaining?

[anti_shrub]

6. The cartoonist is Lynn Johnston

The family in the strip are the Pattersons.

I literally grew up with FBOFW (I was born in 1978), and after seeing Michael and Liz go from toddlers to school kids to adults about the same time I did, it wouldn't be the same not to see them on the top of my comics page.

[Rowdyboy]

15. I've been reading since before "Apo" was born...

She can't possibly, ever end this strip! Please, I love these people-they can't just go away...

[CBHagman]

17. I hope it doesn't end soon.

I've been following it for years and would miss it if Lynn Johnston decided to retire.

Then again, a lot of the best cartoonists decide to retire, and we're the worse for it.

Anyway, one of my favorite strips of FBOFW was the one where April asked her grandfather about ethnic customs and traditions, and he invented a Canadian dance that included shuffling up to the donut counter at Tim Horton's! It was a riot.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

18. I'll bet Elizabeth is going to be Dennis'

best man. :-)

[alfredo]

19. It's my favorite too

I also like Boondocks, Doonesbury, Over The Hedge, and Non Sequitur

9 Chickweed Lane is also very good. If you are a cat lover you will really like this strip. well drawn too.

http://www.chickweed.com/

[regnaD kciN]

21. Coincidence?

Lynn Johnston has said that 9 Chickweed Lane is one of her favorites, too.