A staple of my childhood has ended...

For Better or For Worse took the big plunge; and it was a tiny 'tip-tap.'

Lynn Johnston went into semi-retirement, turning her strip into a retrospective hybrid, with some new strips, and all her characters stopped aging. This marks the end of the strip, since the aging, the growth, was always the big thing. (even other comic strips that age their characters rarely have the kind of character growth seen in FBOFW)

Towards the end there was massive reader backlash towards what was essentially a 'happy ending.' Lynn decided to close up shop by stepping back and putting a tidy ending to every character, something that didn't ring true to the organic strip as it had been written.

Still, all in all, this was one of the best comic strips of the last 30 years. I say that with all deference to Scott Adams, who captured the zany illogical madness of living in CUBE-land. Scott Adams perfectly showed us one moment in time in one place. Lynn showed us thirty years and many places.

That's success. Not the realms of people who love it, but the haters. When they care enough to hate, you've won. When they care enough to say, 'hey, this isn't as good as it USED to be,' that means you had some very real qualities they loved.

May I one day be hated so much.