The Lives Behind the Lines: 20 Years of for Better or for Worse

by Lynn Johnston and Velda Johnston

Book Overview

This is a trip down memory lane, looking back over some of the Patterson family's most memorable moments. Creator Lynn Johnston's commentary adds a behind-the-scenes element, as she describes some of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0740701991
• ISBN13: 9780740701993
• Release Date: October 1999
• Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 8.5" x 11.0"

Customer Reviews

A Great Book

I started reading For Better or for Worse close to twenty years ago. It has always kept my interest as well as that of my wife and two children. Mike is one year older than our son and Lizzie is one year younger than our daughter so we can identify with much of the strip. As in real life the actions of some of the characters irritate us at times but overall we look at them as family. Even April has worked her way into our hearts. Going through this book was almost akin to looking at an old family album. You know the characters but forgot where they came from. My personal favorite was the bylines on Mrs. Dingle. Connie's mis/adventures, Lawrence's dilemma, Gordo & Tracy, the Enjos and many more I'm not mentioning here help make this the finest written cartoon I've ever followed. I realize that Ms. Johnston will be pulling the plug on this series at some time. I certainly hope it's a long time before she does. If in fact she retires from the strip before I permanently retire I want to say thank you for all the years of laughter and sometimes tears. I also enjoy Fox Trot, Baby Blues, The Duplex, Dilbert and several others but they do not have the impact that this strip has.Again, thank you very much for many happy hours of reading.Larry Michaels

The Essential Guide to one of the best daily strips

"For Better or For Worse" is not a typical comic strip; the characters get older, some die, some get new friends; it is an ongoing saga about life. Lynn's work can be outrageously funny, sad and, as some other reviewers have pointed out, schmaltzy. I have tried to read the strip every day since I first discovered it (twenty years ago). I can't guarantee a belly laugh every day, but you will think about the characters and worry about them. This is the difference between FBOFW and other strips - who cares about Dilbert or BC? Even with my long history with the strip, this introduction to the characters was perfect to reflect on what has happened and who all the characters (some of whom don't show up for months on end). In the book Lynn says she has more story lines than panels to hold them - let's hope this is true for a very long time.

Fantastic

When I found this book, I at first thought that it might be an autobiography of sorts of the Johnston family. I wasn't thrilled, but I love For Better or For Worse so much, that anything about the comic strip will interest me. What I found was a treasure, not an autobiography, but a volume on the autobiographical Pattersons, including a discussion about the evolution of the strip, an examination of the major characters and their friends, and a synopsis of events that occurred to the Pattersons prior to the first strip published 21 years ago. Ms. Johnston does an admirable job of showing how she has developed characters that often seem so real that I now think of them as members of my family. I learned things that I have missed through the years, including Connie's South American adventure which resulted in the birth of Lawrence. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of the Pattersons, Lynn Johnston, and For Better or For Worse.

The title pretty much says it all

"The Lives Behind the Lines" is a book that will give a For Better for For Worse fan a perspective of the Pattersons and their friends that hasn't been told in the strip itself. It tells thorough stories about them and stuff that you didn't even know about before! Perfect for any fan... and to those new to the strip so that they know who's who.

A great behind-the-scenes book!

This book really fills in the details (with words and new drawings) that Lynn Johnston could not squeeze into a daily comic strip. For example, I learned a lot about Elly's past, how she and John met, more about Lawrence's 'coming out' situation, and what she sees for the future of these characters. Every major character in the show is given this "behind the scenes" treatment, which is great (I never knew the entire history of Elly's best friend Connie, for example). Of course, there are lots of old cartoon strips where appropriate -- but this is much more than a book full of cartoon strips. My only "complaint" is that there is no table of contents for the characters and things are not necessarily in chronological order. When I wanted to look up info on a particular character or situation, I'd have to flip through the pages for a while.