Lynn Johnston

Lynn Johnston,  (born May 28, 1947) is a Canadian cartoonist, known for her newspaper comic strip For Better or For Worse.  She was the first woman and first Canadian to win the National Cartoonist Society's Reuben Award.

Early life
Born Lynn Ridgway in Collingwood, Ontario, she was raised in North Vancouver, British Columbia. She attended the Vancouver School of Art (now Emily Carr University of Art and Design) with hopes of making a living as an artist. After working briefly in animation, most notably as an uncredited cel colorist on The Abbott and Costello Cartoon Show , she married in 1969 and moved back to Ontario, where she worked as a medical artist at McMaster University for five years.  Johnston's illustrations are in storage in McMaster's medical archive.  They include depictions of routine hospital happenings, such as a father smoking in the waiting room.

While expecting her first child, she drew single-panel cartoons for the ceiling of her obstetrician Murray Enkin's office. Those drawings were published in her first book, David, We're Pregnant! which was published in 1973 under her then name of Lynn Franks (and subsequently republished under the name of Lynn Johnston) and became a best seller. After her divorce, she did freelance commercial and medical art in a studio converted from a greenhouse. Hi Mom! Hi Dad!, a sequel to David, was published in 1975. Shortly thereafter, she met and married dental student Rod Johnston.

For Better or For Worse

In 1978, the Johnstons and their two children relocated to Lynn Lake, Manitoba. She was asked by Universal Press Syndicate if she was interested in doing a comic strip. She sent twenty copies of a strip called The Johnstons, based on her family "since we were the only people I knew I could draw over and over again with some consistency." Much to her surprise, the syndicate approved of the initial strips and offered her a twenty-year contract. After a six-month "work-up" period, the strip first appeared in newspapers throughout Canada under the title For Better or For Worse. The strip has been carried by about 2000 newspapers in Canada, the U.S. and 20 other countries.

Many story lines draw from her family's real-life experiences. Her main characters are named after the middle names of her husband and children, with the exception of the mother, as Lynn Johnston has no middle name. Instead, she elected to name the protagonist Elly, in honor of a friend of hers who died at a young age. Her brother-in-law Ralph Johnston inspired the controversial story about Lawrence's coming out. Deanna was based on Aaron's high school sweetheart, who died in a car accident years after their relationship ended. Johnston's niece Stephanie is developmentally handicapped and her experience is shared in recent story lines on the integration of developmentally handicapped students in April's class. Elizabeth's teaching career was based on daughter Kate's decision not to pursue a career in education, but provided Johnston with a chance to imagine how that might have turned out.

The characters in For Better of For Worse have aged in "real time". On August 31, 2008, Johnston herself appeared in the Sunday strip, which was supposed to be the end of the cartoon, and announced that she would take the story back nearly 30 years to soon after its beginning, with half of the material to be new and the other half repeats.  The "new" material was actually reworked versions of older strips with retouched artwork and new dialogue that was sometimes only tweaked to use modern expressions or product names in place of older ones. On seldom occasion an entire strip or a panel has been redone, such as Michael or Elizabeth spanked being turned into a "time out". One spanking strip that remained was a story arc where Michael was spanked by John for hitting another child, and it percolating into a discussion with Elly that she disagreed that spanking was the proper remedy (although she agreed with John that Michael's violent attitude had to be nipped in the bud). Other strips, such as Elly getting annoyed and then hurling something at the back of John's head (such as a coffee cup) were also censored. As the strip was a family strip, issues of throwing a hard object behind someone's back raised issues of spousal abuse.

Personal life
Since the 1990s, Johnston has been notably forthcoming in her discussion of the abuse inflicted on her by her mother and her first husband, and being unprepared to be a mother to her son Aaron—topics that have also been reflected in the strip. A column by Jan Wong of The Globe and Mail, reprinted in Lunch With Jan Wong, notably portrayed Johnston as somewhat difficult and irascible.

Johnston resided in the Northern Ontario town of Corbeil for many years during For Better or For Worses run. Her daughter Katie also lived in Corbeil and worked at the For Better or For Worse studio, while her son Aaron works in the television industry in Vancouver, BC. In September 2007, Lynn and Rod Johnston announced their separation and intention to divorce. Johnston had talked about either ending For Better or For Worse or handing it off to another cartoonist, but changed her mind as a result of her split from her husband of over 30 years.  In September 2008, For Better or For Worse transitioned into a unique mix of straight re-runs, and strips that featured original 1980s artwork (sometimes slightly retouched) but new dialogue by Johnston to reflect societal and technological changes.

In September 2015, Johnston and her daughter moved back to North Vancouver.

Johnston had a close friendship with Charles M. Schulz, creator of Peanuts. She wrote the introduction to one of the volumes of Fantagraphics Books' series The Complete Peanuts.

On 13 March 2014, Library and Archives Canada announced that it had acquired material to add to its Johnston collection, including 3282 drawings, 296 watercolours, 244 photographs, about 3.5 m of textual items, and a few other objects.

Awards and honours

 1985 – Reuben Award, the first woman and first Canadian to win
 1987 – Gemini Award, Best Cartoon Series
 1990 – Honorary Degree, Doctor of Letters, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Ontario
 1991 – National Cartoonist Society Newspaper Comic Strip Award
 1992 – Made a Member of the Order of Canada, the country's highest civilian honour
 1993 – Honorary Degree, Doctor of Laws, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario
 1994 – Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for a story on Lawrence's coming out
 1999 – Honorary Degree, Doctor of Laws, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario
 2000 – Honorary Degree, Doctor of Letters, Nipissing University, North Bay, Ontario
 2000 – Honorary Degree, Doctor of Letters, Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, Vancouver
 2001 – Comic of the Year, Editor and Publisher
 2002 – Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal
 2003 – A star on Canada's Walk of Fame in Toronto
 2004 – Debwewin Citation from the Anishinabek Nation for excellence in Aboriginal-issues journalism
 2007 – Made a member of the Order of Manitoba
 2008 – Inducted into the Canadian Cartoonist Hall of Fame
 2008 – Inducted into the National Cartoon Museum Hall of Fame
 2012 – Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal

Selected bibliography
 David We're Pregnant, 1973
 Hi Mom! Hi Dad!, 1975
 Do They Ever Grow Up? Leaving Home (With Andie Parton)
 See For Better or For Worse'' for compilations of the comic strip

References

External links

 Official Website of For Better or For Worse
 Official Website of FBorFW character Ned Tanner
 1994 Hogan's Alley interview, conducted by Tom Heintjes
  NCS Awards
 The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum: Lynn Johnston Collection guide

Category:1947 births
Category:Living people
Category:Canadian comic strip cartoonists
Category:Members of the Order of Canada
Category:Members of the Order of Manitoba
Category:People from Nipissing District
Category:Reuben Award winners
Category:Canadian female comics artists
Category:Female comics writers
Category:People from Collingwood, Ontario
Category:People from North Vancouver
Category:Writers from Manitoba
Category:Canadian women artists
Category:Emily Carr University of Art and Design alumni