For Better or For Worse

Would it shock you if I told you that I used to really like For Better or For Worse? It's true. What other strip blended sentimentality and schlock so well with humor and a brisk, biting taste of real life, and hid right on the funny pages? What other funny page comic could interest you like that, could take a month to wrap up a good scene and keep your attention? Well, Calvin, obviously.

But Lynn Johnston was a master of the craft. I loved the slow growth of her characters, and I loved the realistic plotting and pacing. It felt like a comic that was really, truly great.

Not so much these days.

The sudden about-face to put Liz and Anthony together has been schlocky without the bite of real life. The return home for Liz was contrived. The plotting feels like...plotting. After the great and more subtle stuff that's come before--such as Gordo's romance, which was hilarious, felt spontaneous, and was completely character-driven--this is just a disappointment.

Lessons to be learned from this?

Just because you've grown to love the characters that much is no excuse. Your readers still expect top-notch writing and the same steely-eyed treatment you gave the readers when the characters were young. Now is not the time to gloss over their faults, or to rewrite them.

PS: One ray of sunshine throughout has been April. April is a brat. She has always been a brat. An ungrateful, nasty little thing. And Lynn has gone out of her way to show April the right way in obvious and overly preachy ways--but April still remains the same character, essentially. She babysteps her way better. She proclaimed in a recent strip that although she knew she had nothing to complain about, she'd find something.

In a way, April has remained the best and most real part of the strip. A teenager to the core. Her reactions to the unsubtle life lessons have been the best part of the strip for a while. Her 'band' has been an excuse to preach, one she keeps telling us she doesn't appreciate either.

In short, LJ has been true to the character. Keep being true to that one character, and there's still hope for the strip.