For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for December 14, 2010

What, exactly, was it Spock said?

@ thebird55 “It’s life captain, but not as we know it”?

Apprehension I think!

Not on topic but I have noticed, time and time again that people seem to think these comics are reprints from the past. This is NOT the case. From Lynn herself in 2008: “For Better or For Worse begins again on September the 1st with new material, new art and new enthusiasm! Without the need to visit all of the auxiliary characters, I can concentrate once again on the insular little Patterson household. I have the children all to myself again. I can do spot gags and silly stuff. I can fix what I don’t like about my early work as I add and subtract…redraw and just improve everything.”

http://www.fborfw.com/

Thanks Bill. Now we can just look at the strip and chuckle. Gamma & Gampa…so shy…so excited…so true.

We were the same way! The enthusiasm from our parents was infectious, but when the grandparents actually arrived, we became shy creatures …

Ah, the good old days…when you could meet your arriving loved ones at the gate!

But Granma/Granpa, you look so old!

Happens every time when you don’t see each other much. Just give them 30 minutes or so, and it’ll be fine.

Bill - She did end the strip as we all knew it. She rebooted the strip, starting from the beginning - these are remakes of her originals. Some have been edited, changed slightly, some are new material with new gags.

BUT the drawing style - as she herself says - is her old style, and she had to relearn it.

So they are new, but they are an old-new, kind of like when you remove the paint from an antique piece of furniture, you can see what was hidden beneath.

Lynn has since changed her mind on how she decided to re-do the strips, since she made that earlier statement. She now does not add any new strips to the mix. It’s all the old stuff from the beginning. Look for this info at her comic’s web site.

She does make daily comments about each and every old strip over at fborfw.com. Just click on “strip fix” at the top menu.

Lynn ran her last new strip in July. She has a video on her site about the production of that strip. Everything is reruns now. Bill, you need to make sure of your facts before you make pronouncements.

After a time, you may find that having is not so pleasing a thing, after all, as wanting. It is not logical, but it is often true. –Spock in ‘Amok Time’

Are these the “other” grandparents?

Maybe they only know the parents of one parent yet?

You know Bird, I thought you meant Dr. Spock. (the childhood expert)

A logical mis-deduction.

At this young age, even if they talk to their grandparents every week on the phone and have been looking forward to their visit …if the last time Michael and Lizzie saw them was, say, Christmas a year ago, well, then that’s been a really long time for them and they just need a little bit of time to get to know their grandparents all over again. As lightenup said, in 30 minutes or so, they’ll be just fine.

@summerdog - Thanks for the heads up on the daily commentary over at fborfw.com. I know there is a lot of confusion over this new format, since Lynn changed her mind a lot during the transition.

However, I didn’t realize she was doing commentary. Today’s comments are interesting to me personally, since I lived in a small town near Lynn Lake, Manitoba for many years in my teens and twenties ( in the late 80s and 90s). During this time, Lynn Lake went through an upheaval. Mining stopped, leaving most residents unemployed. Most of the stores closed and most people left town. Lynn Lake is a very sparsely populated village now. Alas, so is the small town I lived in, Leaf Rapids, Manitoba. Same reason, the mine closed down and most people left town, due to lack of employment. Northern Manitoba is a really beautiful, unique place, but isolation and climate considerations make it somewhat undesirable to live in.

Who are you people and what have you done with gramma and grampa?!

I love it! And as my grandkids all live in other states, I realize that I can’t connect with them the way I could if they lived nearby.

Gramma and Grandpa? These people don’t look like them!

The older I get, the older my mom gets; and it’s freaking me out! Every time that I phone chat with her, there is this image in my head. But when I video chat with her, it surprises me at how she looks.

It’s neat to see grandparents again in the strip.

Guess the thought was better than the reality!