"For Better or For Worse" Comic
Anyone read the comic strip "For Better or For Worse?" It's a 29-year-old comic about a family; it began in the late 70's with the two protagonists being newly married and parents. Unlike most cartoons, the characters aged in real-time, and over the course of the strip's lifetime, the little babies grew up and now all but one of them is married and having kids of their own. It's a realistic long and drawn-out (excuse the pun) storyline that's been going on since well before I was born.
Anyway, apparently Lynn Johnston, the creator of the strip, is thinking about retirement. But instead of doing what most cartoonists do, which is wrapping up any ongoing story lines and thinking up a good finishing piece, she is going to end by starting over.....Once the continuing storyline ends, she's going to go back to the beginning of the story and re-tell some of the events that took place, with new artwork and dialogue.
I don't know how long she's going to do this before she retires for good, but she's apparently planning to do it for more than a year.
Does this seem weird to anyone else? Okay, maybe it's because I'm an author and a cartoonist who also loves to tell long and drawn-out stories. But I say, once a storyline has been told, how much can you really get out of going back and re-telling it? I'm not sure if she's actually going to re-do some of the exact story lines, or just add new ones that don't conflict with the old plot, but either way it seems wrong to me....like finishing a scarf and then unraveling it, or knitting a knew one over top of it.
She says that she cannot bear to give the strip up, since it's been a part of her for most of her adult life, but neither can she continue with the storyline moving forward, because she doesn't think there's anywhere else to go with it. I can kinda see the problem there, and I sympathize with her, but I'm just not sure about this. I don't think anyone will like it, and I fear that ultimately it will be a waste of time. Also, it's like resurrecting something that has already died. It's like those creepy dreams I have of my grandparents, where they're alive again miraculously but they don't quite "fit" in the real world anymore because they've been dead for so many years.
Well, only I could spend an entire LJ post talking about cartoons.
dascully
Anyway, apparently Lynn Johnston, the creator of the strip, is thinking about retirement. But instead of doing what most cartoonists do, which is wrapping up any ongoing story lines and thinking up a good finishing piece, she is going to end by starting over.....Once the continuing storyline ends, she's going to go back to the beginning of the story and re-tell some of the events that took place, with new artwork and dialogue.
I don't know how long she's going to do this before she retires for good, but she's apparently planning to do it for more than a year.
Does this seem weird to anyone else? Okay, maybe it's because I'm an author and a cartoonist who also loves to tell long and drawn-out stories. But I say, once a storyline has been told, how much can you really get out of going back and re-telling it? I'm not sure if she's actually going to re-do some of the exact story lines, or just add new ones that don't conflict with the old plot, but either way it seems wrong to me....like finishing a scarf and then unraveling it, or knitting a knew one over top of it.
She says that she cannot bear to give the strip up, since it's been a part of her for most of her adult life, but neither can she continue with the storyline moving forward, because she doesn't think there's anywhere else to go with it. I can kinda see the problem there, and I sympathize with her, but I'm just not sure about this. I don't think anyone will like it, and I fear that ultimately it will be a waste of time. Also, it's like resurrecting something that has already died. It's like those creepy dreams I have of my grandparents, where they're alive again miraculously but they don't quite "fit" in the real world anymore because they've been dead for so many years.
Well, only I could spend an entire LJ post talking about cartoons.
dascully