The Last Straw

For Better or For Worse #5

by Lynn Johnston

“The Pattersons of For Better or For Worse have edged out the Bumsteads as the first family of the funnies.” — Life “The clear favorite in terms of popularity is a slice-of-life humor strip, For Better or For Worse, cartoonist Lynn Johnston’s offbeat view of the modern family of four.” — Detroit Free Press For Better or For Worse is Canadian cartoonist Lynn Johnston’s humorous look at the ups and downs of the Patterson family, a contemporary suburban family. Syndicated in more than 450 newspapers, For Better or For Worse has topped popularity polls in the Orlando Sentinel , Chicago Tribune , Denver Rocky Mountain News , Omaha World Herald , Vancouver (B.C.) Sun , and Cincinnati Enquirer .

Genres: Comics, Humor, Comic Strips, Cartoon, Graphic Novels Comics, Comedy, Parenting

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Lynn Johnston CM OM is a Canadian cartoonist, well known for her comic strip For Better or For Worse, and was the first female cartoonist to win the Reuben Award.

Reviews

[Marc *Dark Reader with a Thousand Young! Iä!*]

These are great collections for a casual and quick reading of an evening. I think blitzing one cover to cover would be a bit much, but split into even just two sessions is fine. There’s a lot of life happening in these pages, with each book covering one year’s worth of daily strips. This one includes one Sunday strip at the end, from which the title and cover image were drawn.

Elizabeth is becoming more impish, Michael is subject to some harsher social elements, Ellie continues to struggle with personal fulfillment and domestic expectations, and John is a dentist. The art seems to become a bit messier, the characters more gargoyle-like in bodily expression during times of trial. It’s a controlled, intentional sloppiness.

The volume opens with an introduction and accolades from Charles Schultz, himself 35 years into his strip. Great praise!

[The other John]

In this For Better or For Worse collection, I noticed that the status quo shifts from strips that are one shot gags, to strips that are part of a longer storyline. Most of the storylines involve day-to-day events--like a yard sale, Hallowe'en, a business trip for Elly, or John injuring his foot. They're all served up with the classic Johnston sense of humor, which makes for enjoyable reading.

[Maggie Dore]

It was funny and a real page-turner. LOVED IT.
A family favorite.

[Scott]

Coming out in 1985 with strips from mid 84 through mid 85. Fairly standard fare for Johnston here, there are no major plot developments so it’s sort of domestic drama as usual. I’m looking forward to the kids getting older so they can get into more interesting predicaments.

[liliana •_•]

Made me laugh a lot. Super cute and the illustrations are so good!

[James]

Very humorous and very true to life, this collection is where I start remembering the series in my childhood. I think it's just a slight bit better than the early years.

[Suzanne Lorraine Kunz Williams]

I love to take a break with the little snippets of life that Lynn Johnston does.

[Krista]

I stumbled across these old comic books at the library and was humored by this set.

[Dolly]

I've always been a big fan of reading the 'funny pages' and I always enjoyed reading the For Better or For Worse comic strip. I grew up reading the strip and loved reading about the joys and challenges of parenting as I became a mom.

Our girls weren't as familiar with these characters because we no longer subscribe to a newspaper, and I thought they'd like to read some of the books.

This is the fifth book in the series and while I'm sure I appreciated the humor a bit more than they did, we all enjoyed reading this collection of comic strips.

[Child960801]

This comic strip is about life as a family and all that goes into that. In this volume, Ellie goes on a business trip by herself, Michael flies across the country to visit his grandparents, and John injures his foot, along with various other adventures.

I quite like these comics. Some of the jokes are just about one character saying something and someone else reacting to it, which is fun.

[Lyndsay-ann]

Love these books. They are great, and fun to read over and over again. I've read books 4 and 5 many times. I want to go out and see what other For Better or Worse books I can find to read.

[Rain ((A 1,000 yrs of nothing, it’s a heartbeat, I’ve never been ready.))]

This is a very interesting book!

[Adrian Jackson]

It's nice to revisit these books and derive the same level of enjoyment.