CASTLEGAR NEWS, June 22, 1980

OR RICHER

. NOT POORER

A ° eee dentist’ wife finds wealth in her new comic strip

LYNN JOHNSTON, whose comic strip For Bet- ter or For Worse appears regularly in the Sun- day Cas/News is a native Canadian who has lived the span of the continent from Toronto to Vancouver. She now resides with her husband and two children in Lynn Lake, Manitoba. She has worked in TV graphic, medical illustration andasa freelance artist. During her pregnan- cy in 1972, “in defiance of blank ceiling as viewed from an obstetrician’s examining table," she did a series of cartoons which tur- ned into her best-selling book David, | Think We're Pregnant. Then came Do They Ever Grow Up? and Hi Mom, Hi Dad.

ONCE AGAIN, LAUGH- ter is created in Canada, and, once again, a persistent im- age dissolves: the dour coun- tenance of the humorless Canadian is being shattered, and not by laughter from a frozen face.

While Canadians have seen many of their best co- medy writers slide down the gilded pipeline to California and high-salaried jobs on TV sitcoms, the indigenous sense of humor is out of cold storage and incubated by a new breed of hue-ers and draw-ers whose syndicated cartoons are tickling the con- tinental funnybone from St. John’s to San Diego. For Better or For Worse is the latest addition, created by a self-proclaimed “eight ball on the poo! table of life,” 32- year-old Lynn Johnston of Lynn Lake, Manitoba, a nickel and copper mining community (pop. 3,000) some 840 km northwest of Winni- peg. Once again the comic strip-mining is done by Uni- versal Press Synidcate (UPS) a nine-year-old’ firm working out of Mission, Kansas that has struck gold with new talent from its Canadian acquisitions,

THE FIRST UPS CANA- dian connection came about in 1973 when co-workers of a far-too-humble editorial car- toonist for the weekly Mis- sissauga Times picked UPS at random from a Cartoon- ist’s Market annual and mail- ed off an envelope stuffed with his drawings.

The cartoonist first knew of the scheme when the return mail brought a UPS

contract for 10 years and the |

standard ooo split of all re

panel cartoon Pavlov was syndicated a year ago and appears in 60 papers.

“Actually, I'm a bit dis- appointed because Pavlov isn't in the really large papers,” says Martin, a gen- tle, wild-haired man with an insanely inventive imagina- tion. “At this stage of my life I'm doing a cartoon for money rather than glory, and Pavlov isn't selling that quickly. One reason, of course, is because it's a fact of the business that it's easier to place strips than single panels.”

LIKE UNGER AND Martin, Lynn Johnston is of British stock, but unlike them she was born and raised here — in Collingwood, On- tario and North Vancouver, British Columbia. She may become Canada’s biggest car- toon success — an unpre- cedented 140 newspapers bought For Better or For Worse even before it started running in September.

“Lynn's cartoon is al- most everywhere,” says Lee Salem, the UPS managing editor. “As of early Novem- ber she had over 15 million readers. Editors responded so quickly because they knew it was a winner. And when she's in a market, it’s gener- ally the largest paper in that market.” It also means that Johnston's half-share of news- paper fees is now more than $2,000 a week, or $100,000 a year.

The magic of For Better or For Worse is Johnston's wry romanticism about the subject of her comic strip: life with her family. “Children enrich and destroy their parents at the same time,” she says. “You want to be

ceives en the 250 daily newspapers that now carry Jim Unger’s famous single- panel Herman. Unger, a bachelor who today lives in Ottawa (“mainly because of the girls"), introduced UPS to the work of Ted Martin, a Toronto cartoonist and gal- lery owner whose single-

If, but you also want to have children; biology is so cruel. But I really believe in marriage . . ." Johnston's eyebrows arch, her fingers fondle Groucho's imaginary stogie. “Otherwise, why would I do it twice?”

HER FIRST MARRIAGE was at 20 to Doug Franks, a handsome rugger player and

GOING

MICHAEL ,ARE YOu TO sie EY K

TEASING LIZZIE,OR T Ger GOING-TO

PUNISH Ye You ?

1 WISH You'D STP WORRYING ROUT

LYNN JOHNSTON . .. cartoons became best-selling book

set of

aspiring John- ston, who has a galloping inferiority complex ("mea culpa is my middle name”), hung onto the marriage long enough to have a son (Aaron, now 6) and join her husband in Hamilton, where he work- ed for CHCH-TV and she worked for McMaster Uni- versity as a medical artist. Her ability to portray a virulent virus as Long John Silver and a stomach ulcer as a rat resembling’ Mae West made medical studies a bit lighter for students, and McMaster now has a col- lection of her pathological

it,

In 1974 she quit both marriage and job to work at a Hamilton ad agency. “I hated it,” she says, “but it showed me I could make a living freelancing — and it taught me packaging.” Packaging baby Aaron on her back like a papoose, she started touring the ad agencies looking for freelance jobs. “The baby thing was beautiful. How

could they turn down this ©

waifs? When Aaron had a runny nose as well, I got more work than I could handle.” WHILE THE SIGHT OF this slight, 5-foot-4 mother staggering under the com- bined weight of offspring and solo parenthood may have softened many an art dir- ector, she was in fact en- joying increasing demand for her cartooning ability. Since

then, her cartoon book’

David, We're Pregnant (1975) has sold more.than

100,000—copies:- This was ,.

followed by Hi Mom! Hi Dad!, 101 cartoons about life with an infant. It has sold more than 70,000 copies and, like all her cartoons, is auto- biographical. A third book, Do They Ever Grow Up? {1878}, has sold more than 40,000 copies.

What I really ‘dreamed of being was an actress,” says Johnston,

“Cartooning is a great substitute because I get to write all the lines and play all

the parts. My face hurts when I draw because I make all the faces my characters are making. Cartooning is portable, it’s private and it's

fast. Otherwise, I'd be ‘a musician. Harry Hibbs gave "me. a button accordion at CHCH, I'm going to play it at skit night in the community centre.” She’s also going to wear a grotesquely realistic set of false teeth that Rod Johnston, her dentist, hus-

YOU'RE FINE THE WAY YOU ARE “AND TL LOVE You

of how her fellow Lynn Lakers are going to react when she cracks open her smile wearing those gag choppers. “I love silliness, it really knocks me out. I've always been silly. 1 was a real goofball in high school, even though I had terrible skin and was

THE CONNECTION isn't immediately clear, but Johnston uses words this way — as images rather than

i She

band, for her..She rubs her blue- jeaned thighs in anticipation

puts herself down, and it's a

key to her humor. She looks a

lot like Elly, the limp-haired

. heroine of her cartoon strip.

Rod, whom she married in 1976,; looks like Elly’s hus- band, John (which is Rod's first name).

“For Better or For Worse is an unabashed ripoff of my own life and family,” she explains. “The kids in the strip will grow up as my two kids grow up, and if things get too boring in the strip, we'll have another baby to liven things up at home and in the cartoon, Not only that, but Connie, the divorced mother in the strip, is actually me during my free- lance days. It's all a ripoff. I haven't got a original thing to say. Even my ideas for gags are a ripoff. Rod may say something funny at dinner — he's the funniest person I know — and that gives me an idea for a gag. Or Aaron will say something, Or even little 2-year-old Katie will gurgle something.”

HER WORKPLACE IS a spartan basement room where she renders her ideas in ordinary. pencil with a quick hand, hastily casting aside a gag that doesn’t immediately flow to replace it with something that gives her more instant creative rewards. She works from 9 a.m. until noon at prodigious speed so that she's always well ahead in the drawings for her strip.

“Sometimes I'll get a theme — like jealousy. That's ‘an easy one because Rod has this beautiful dental assis- tant, Patti, and I just imagine T'm jealous — which I'm not —and grind out all sorts of dialogue about jealousy. Of course, all that attention I pay to feelings of jealousy begins to make me wonder. .

“I get paranoid, but it helps with the gags. Often I take Rod's compliments for insults, and that gets me into a cartoon thing. Of course I always figure a compliments an insult because I can't believe anyone would compli- ment me...I mean, for what?”

EMOTIONAL READ- ers are more reason for paranoia. The syndicate re- cently received a barrage of objections following her Sun- day gag which showed Elly on the telephone, backhand- ing a thoroughly annoying son, Michael, who then tear- fully lamented, “She usta warn me first." Too remin- iscent of child beating, many readers complained.

“Lately I've been de- manding we leave Lynn Lake, even though I agreed to stay here for five years when I married Rod. And I want to stay here; I love our friends. But I'm afraid our friends may feel funny about

Maney yours SaynayS ic av

me because of all this cartoon stuff. I mean, they may think I'm acting differently, and I couldn't stand that. I'd hate it if people thought I was stuck up, although I don't know why they should, since I'm so worried about being stuck up T'd never stick up, Y'know? I mean, I feel awkward wear- ing anything but my jeans. I never get dressed up much because I don't know any- thing about style. Y'know? I don’t know what I'll do with all that money anyhow — ex- cept maybe buy an airplane for Rod. He's a pilot and we love planes.

“I MEAN YOU DON'T buy a new parka up here very often because people recognize each other by their parkas and if someone has a new one, it throws every- body off. And in the frozen North you spend a lot of time in parkas, Of course, you can tell some people just by their waddle — like me.”

Lynn Lake is like a suburb without a city; a kaffeeklatsch community where traditional roles like homemaker remain in style; a pool of stability and rein- forcement. It's where Rod Johnston, a prospector's son, grew up, and where his parents still live. People draw together for warmth in the grueling winters in ways our cities have lost. Inside a very modest frame house (“all houses in Lynn Lake are modest”), a battered female ego struggles with the es- sence of what family means.

“Rod and I talk about our relationship a tremen- dous amount," she says. “Like our cartoon couple, this couple is truly in love in a working relationship where we're both individuals. I think people are going to be more sensible about mar- riage. People should live to- gether before getting mar-

Tied because there’s so much

that dating doesn't tell about a person. I'm mad that living together was frowned on when I got married the first time because I could have saved myself so much hurt. First of all, marriage is a love affair; but mostly it's a chal- lenge both partners must fervently desire and actively work to keep.”

UNCERTAINTY PLA- gues the creator of North America’s first new family comic strip in 20 years: it's the sort of. tension that breeds invention, Lynn Bev- erley Ridgway Franks John- ston is the first syndicated cartoonist to portray the laughter and tears of family life from a woman's perspec- tive. She does it with sen- sitive and knowing elan, per- haps even with brilliance ... though she'd be thefirst to deny it.

For Better or For Worse

THEN | GUESS IT’S FETE OU OK SOME _ ANENT

VM.NOT

A.D. Payne and his wife Eva had been

married 15 married years when A.D, decided to

secretary, Olive another was @ eae babe of 21. Her resemblance to a baby stopped right there. Olive was a peach, The fellow who first poured sand into an hourglass must have had Olive’s figure in mind. Innocent blue eyes blinked provocatively as she sat there with dainty legs crossed, steno pad at the ready, while A.D. dictated some boring

contract. Nien gn epring oF came to Amarillo, Texas thought to himself, ‘The

rivate code of ethics. No hanky panky fore she was married, and certainly never with a married man. A.D. was shattered. Here was this: tasty morsel within his grasp, yet so very, very far from cp d. Sometimes A.| DB.

thing had to give. That something was Eva With a lawyer’s analytical mind he

he might as well kill two birds: .

ith one stone. The ci devil Placed

in case Eva met her”

death by accidental means. ‘| smell gas’

A.D. went to work. He and Eva slept in adjoinin bedrooms that were equipped with both electricity and gas jets. Eva a forgot to turn off the gas when she heated her hair curlers. Cir- cumstances were made to order for.

rushed to Eva's ald. She was uncon- .

scious.but A.D. managed to revive Ber ht-year-old son loo! out her appreciation, a! ihe while promising she would never forget to turn off the gas jets again.

Two months later opportunity again knocked at A.D.’s door. His wife was bedridden with the flu. As she wheezed and coughed, our hero calmly dis- solved eight morphine tablets in a glass of water and forced his wife to drink the concoction so she would never return to Bee nal ging ways again.

thin minutes Eva’ 's pulse became aoe she slumped into unconscious- hess. A.D. went to his office. That eve- ning he returned home, fully expecting his wife to be no more. Instead, he found her sleeping peacefully. When Eva woke in the middle of the night she remarked how strong the medicine had been. It had been a long time since she had slept so soundly.. A.D. just stared at the ceiling and Gienched his fists in anger. Just wait till next time, he thought.

Flubbed again

Next time wasn’t long coming. A.D. and Eva went for a drive in the family auto. The scheming lawyer dicided to park ona steep hill facing Bishop’s Lake to look at the view. Because of the sharp

e us informed his wife that he'd better place

afew wage rocks under the rear wheels.. One couldn'

Returnin,

look at the rocks to see if they were holding properly. This time he sneakliy released the emergency brakes before the car. With a broad smile

is face A.D. kicked the boulders

from under the‘rear tires. Nothing hap- parked, he got behind the

id. Just as he thought

accomplishing Se atecion,

Fun’s fun, but this was ridiculous, thought A.D. This time nothin; would save Eva, In-the dead of night A.D. rigged up a black thread between the trigger of a shotgun and the door of Eva's broom, closet. When Eva opened the door the blast would certainly remove her head from the rest of her body.

Next morning the children left for school. A.D. read the morning paper. Eva began her housework. She opened the closet and the shotgun roared. A couple of pellets entered Eva's ri At

hand. The contraption had fired wide *

and low. A.D. solicitously washed the blood from the superficial wound, prom- ising to be more careful with his shot, itgun

ie future. Then he went downstairs

had the habit of doing, particularly after a good meal and a couple of drinks. A.D. iook the little woman out fa an evening on the: town ‘ ni the return trip heme

va fell as) een. 3 verything was perfec this time. About three kilometres from the railway crossing A.D. ran out of gas. Hance!

Are you keeping track? This is

attempt number six coming up.

When Eva took a bath it was her custom to set up an electric heater on a little shelf above the tul the next time Eva bathed’ he would hang g Up 8 a picture on the wall behind the

; AS he hammered away he

fue the heater would slide off the helt into the tub, thus electrocuting the uspecting Eva. All went as planned.

Eva splashed playfully in the tub. A.D. hammered on m the outside wall. Nothing

ur hero call it a day? No, he

‘ol would try again. This time he called his own office several times disguising his yolce and threatening to kill A.D. Payne. Now he figured he had estab- lished a reason to plant a bomb in his own car, which, of course, would blow up on Eva. On June 27, 1929, Eva was graciously given the use of the family car for the day. After a full year A.D. succeeded. ithereens. police notified A.D. he was beside him: sell with gri Erief. onan : ig awyer aln Imost got away with tne paneling i lous reporter, Gene Howe on the. Meera tiito Globe received permission to go through h all A.D.’s office records and notes, figurin; he might uncover an enemy who coul have wanted to kill the lawyer. When young Howe read Olive's shorthand dic- tation notes, he realized immediately he had indeed uncovered a motive for murder. Remember-how Olive was in the habit of taking down A.D.’s pro- fessions of undying love? It was these notes that were uncovered by the

mas ‘D. was taken into custedy. A day later he confessed to the “district attorney. It is his Patera that a elated here, for no one other than A.D. knew of his many attempts on his wie s life. A few days after confessing to murder

A.D. made another bomb in jail. No one has ever been able to figure out how he bad the materials smuggled into his jail cell,

A.D. Payne managed to blow himself _

to kingdom come. He was successful on the very fest attempt.

eg iF) ALLA Dan Pon ty a ES 1 Cet EY is Nl LIC yf ter OA

CASTLEGAR NEWS, June 22, 1980 7 AS

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