The Great Big Beautiful Podcast, Episode 163: Lynn Johnston
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Today, we’re taking a trip down memory lane with one of the all-time greatest newspaper comic strips, Lynn Johnston’s For Better or for Worse. Johnston’s strip ran from 1979-2008 and was a staple of the daily reading routine for millions of people and a few generations of comics fans.
And now, we can all dive back in and appreciate the strip’s brilliance from the beginning. The Library of American Comics (who is doing the lord’s work with their publishing program) just put out the first gorgeous volume of For Better or for Worse, which collects every strip from 1979-1982. As is expected from the LoAC, the packaging is phenomenal, and the book is a joy to hold and read. It’s also the first of NINE planned volumes that will ultimately collect every strip (weekday and Sunday) of the story in order.
On this episode, we talk to Johnston about the new edition, looking back and reevaluating work she did 40 years ago, how the strip tackled serious and timely social issues, living in the cold pre-internet nowhere of northern Manitoba, and if it’s possible to make a living as a cartoonist in 2018.
Connect:
- The Library of American Comics is on online here.
- The show is on Twitter here and Facebook here.
- Jamie is on Twitter and Instagram as @theroarbots.
- Justin is on Twitter and Instagram as @140JustinC.
