For Better or For Worse

For Better or For Worse is a comic strip by Lynn Johnston that began in September 1979.

Related Topics:
Comic strip - Lynn Johnston - 1979

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Set in the fictitious Toronto-area suburban town of Millborough, Ontario, the strip chronicles the lives of a Canadian family and their friends. The father, John Patterson, is a dentist whose hobby is model railroading; he appears less often than the mother, Elly, a housewife turned book store owner.

Related Topics:
Toronto - Suburb - Ontario - Canadian - Dentist - Model railroad - Housewife - Book store

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The happy couple have three children: Michael, Elizabeth, and April. Michael is married to Deanna, Elizabeth teaches on an Indian reservation, and April is in high school. The strip also features Elly's father, Jim Richards, and his second wife, Iris.

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Unlike most comic strips (the best known exception being Gasoline Alley, but also the newer strip Baby Blues), the characters age in real time; fans have been known to express surprise and dismay at passing time in the story, such as "Michael is married?! He can't be that old!"

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The comic's characters were based upon Johnston's real family. However, the characters are substantially different from her real family. When her children were younger, she asked their permission before depicting events from their lives; and she only once used a "serious" story from their lives. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14846-2004Oct7.html When Lynn Johnston had the urge to have another child, she settled on creating a new daughter (April Patterson) for her alter ego from the strip.

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Johnston has stated that the strip will end in 2007.

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