Angela Aug 7, 2009 (edited Jan 3, 2010)
It was with a tinge of bittersweetness that I picked up and read through the final books of Bill Amend's Foxtrot and Lynn Johnston's For Better or For Worse, two comic series that I've been reading for as long as I can remember.
Foxtrot showed up relatively late in my daily papers, 1995, right around when the strips featured in Wildly Foxtrot were in circulation. The comic's satirically sharp take on pop culture and constant breaking of the fourth wall roped me in immediately, and I became an instant fan. I loved the Mortal Karnage II comic series, which was the first set of strips I had ever read. Later, Amend takes us through such classics like the Tamagrouchy and Bitty Baby craze, the production and anticipation of the Lord of The Rings films, the subsequent Harry Potter vs Rings debacle (It's a Gandalf hat!), and a gripping obsession on World of Warquest. The ongoing jokes, such as Peter's inability to gain weight and love for Springsteen, Jason's uber level of genius, Paige's love for ice cream and literal dreamboy Pierre, Roger's BBQ screw ups, and Andy's health food fetish were all ripe for juicy jokes and punch lines. Jason's geeky costume showcasings for big, upcoming movies and computer-themed jokes were always a delight to read, and I loved those early summer vacations to Uncle Ralph's cabin (Playboys in the WHAT?!), the visits to the "Fun Fun" theme parks, and the summer-long series devoted to Camp Bohrmore.
For me, Amend reached his comedic zenith between Wildly Foxtrot and FoxTrotius Maximus; from that point on, though, he remained on a slippery decline until the very end. There was some decent material in the last two anthologies, but whenever the comic wasn't focusing on the current pop trend, it was weakened by Amend's constant regurgitation of the older gags, running the well dry with either different spins or blatant repeats that just weren't fresh or funny anymore. Sadly, Foxtrot became a frustratingly third-rate comic toward the end of its life..... and I believe no one knew this better than Amend himself, hence his relatively early retirement from the dailies. Despite that, the majority of his work was so consistently good, he can be forgiven for his stumbling last few years. His last week of strips was a nice little send-off, one final breaking of the fourth wall to give a nod of acknowledgment to the fans.
For Better or For Worse was a comic that was always "there." It pretty much always existed in my local papers, and it was there ever since I actually began reading newspapers. I was never ardent enough to follow the series strip by strip, though, and I often missed out on huge gaps of subplots throughout its syndicated course. I practically missed the entirety of the last six years, so I played a lot of catch-up by picking up the final nine books in the series. Prior to that, I wasn't even collecting the older books, so I dropped for all previous twenty-two books in one shot. Needless to say, it was the best way to realize the full progression and evolution of the comic.
It's easy to rag on the For Better or For Worse, for its sometimes overbearing sappiness and conclusive viewpoints on life. There will be characters that people will either love or hate...... or really, really hate. (For me, April falls into the latter category, though she admittedly gets more tolerable by the end.) But the comic is, if nothing else, consistent. The comedy was generally smart and well-written throughout its twenty-nine year run, even when it was saddled into its morally centered phases. (I'm still surprised, though, at how crass and bitingly hilarious the old comics were. John was damned near chauvinistic back then, and the kids were total whippersnappers in actions and words. In many ways, they felt more like how a 'real' modern family would behave -- they had that dysfunctional edge that made them easier to relate to than the fluffiness of the latter-day stuff.) The comic was always exceptionally well drawn, too, from the side-splitting bug-eyed look of the older comics, to the later ones bursting with beautifully-colored details in their book collections. But the series is to be truly commended for its steadily structured chronological outlining. It's always strangely compelling engaging in conversations with real-life friends and family about the fictitious relationships and happenstances that have occurred in the FBOFW universe. For people who are of like-age, it was probably easier to relate to the Patterson family growing up. Mine was scarily similar, since I was pretty much Elizabeth; she and I were born right around the same year (I was 1980, she in 1981), I have an older brother like Mike (who was referenced as being born in 1976), and a younger sister like April, who was born in 1991. (Sis is 1989.)
With a personal round of applause, I say, "Great job, Amend and Johnston. Thanks for the good times." This is an end of a small, personal era, and their collected works will join the likes of Peanuts, Calvin & Hobbes, and The Far Side for my all-time favorite funnies.
