I've Got the One-More-Washload Blues

For Better or For Worse #1

by Lynn Johnston

They say life is what happens while you're busy making other plans. Life, it seems, always has a new surprise in store and that's as true as ever for the Patterson family of For Better or For Worse. Lynn Johnston has been bringing life to the Patterson clan since 1979, and for readers around the world, life just wouldn't seem right without her daily dispatch. I've Got the One-More-Washload Blues give readers more of what they've come to expect from Johnston's beloved a sense of connection, a shared intimacy with a family as familiar as their own, and a front-row seat to the enduring, endearing comic saga called life.

Genres: Comics, Humor, Graphic Novels, Comic Strips, Graphic Novels Comics, Cartoon, Comedy

130 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Lynn Johnston CM OM is a Canadian cartoonist, well known for her comic strip For Better or For Worse, and was the first female cartoonist to win the Reuben Award.

Reviews

[Marc *Dark Reader with a Thousand Young! Iä!* · Rating 5 out of 5]

I grew up with For Better or For Worse. We had a couple collections growing up, as well as Johnston's earlier David,we're pregnant!, and they definitely formed part of my early understanding of relationships and families. We received a daily newspaper (I delivered it) and for a time I clipped this strip and glued them into a notebook in order. I'm the same age as Michael, and my younger sister was the same age as Elizabeth. Otherwise, our personalities and family details didn't strongly match, but it was enough for me to form a connection with the Pattersons.

I remember very well the day when Michael's friend Lawrence came out as gay, and was shocked at the reporting of the resulting public backlash against the strip. I instantly knew what the outcome would be when Farley was showing his age and then April went for a walk by a rushing stream. I lost touch with the strip when I went off to post-secondary, but dipped back in often enough to see the Patterson children's struggles with early adulthood. I acquired all of the collected volumes over the past few years (although I missed out on the more recent hardcover editions) and my daughter has read through them all a couple of times. And now I am finally doing the same.

At the strip's outset in 1980, Micheal is 5 (I think he turns 6 off page, unless the one-panel strip of Ellie taking multiple kids to the movie theatre, to see "Godzilla vs. the bionic bunnies" was his party), Elizabeth ("Nizzie") is an infant, Jon is a dentist and honestly not a particularly good husband or father, and Ellie is a bedraggled stay-at-home mother. They live in Toronto in what looks like a suburb. The family ages in real time as the strip progresses, as do the social issues reflected in their lives. It's a brilliant series with excellent comedy and artwork and a sense of real life at work at all times. No one draws a mess like Lynn Johnston.

The strip from this collection that stand out best for me is the first mention of Deanna Sobinsky, in which Michael calls her names (something like "meat brain" and then "Deanna-deanna-as big as a -pianna"), she slaps him, and he takes heart that she touched him. Thus a life-long crush is born.

[Adrian Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

These books bring me unending joy.

[Lyndsay-ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first if the For Better or For Worse series, and definitely a good intro to the series. Still one of my favourite comic book series and this one was great. I am always excited to find a new book and have to make myself slow down on reading it so it lasts longer than an hour.

[Deborah · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I was little, I would read this book over and over again. I always related to the kids in the book. As an adult, I still love this book, but now I relate more to the parents.

[Carlye Krul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Throwback to my childhood lol

[Child960801 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this series and remember reading it in the papers. We've managed to collected almost all the volumes in the series. This is the very first, introducing us to Elly, John, Michael, Elizabeth and their various friends and neighbours. One of the things I love about this series is that these people grow and change over time. Elizabeth starts the series as a baby and ends it as a young woman with a career, a love and a life of her own. Lots of funny moments about what it's like to have very small children in your house and the joys and frustrations there of.

[Scottsdale Public Library]

People have been watching Elly, John, Michael, Elizabeth and the rest Patterson family expand, change, and mature through the daily funny papers since 1979. Take a trip back to the very beginning with Johnston’s first For Better or For Worse collection, I’ve Got the One More Washload Blues. Filled with touching and humorous cartoons, this book will have you laughing and crying… sometimes both at the same time!

-Lindsey D.-

[Mireille Duval · Rating 4 out of 5]

The rampant sexism in here is really weird. I think of this series as heart-warming and loving, and to read about John hoping that his wife won't go back to work, and ask her if she's gained weight, is disheartening. It's still fun, and warm, and funny, and a picture of how horrible (and sometimes sweet) life is with babies and toddlers.

[Karolinde (Kari) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the very first of the original For Better or Worse collections. I love so many of the strips, but at this stage, I found Ellie's grousing over giving up her career a little annoying. I like it went her mom tells her she's a spoiled brat.

[Namitha Varma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Family comics can never run out of fun, I guess!

[Tammy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I spent the day sick in bed, so my husband handed me this comic from his parents' shelves.

This comic is from the early 80s and its age shows, particularly in the gender roles. My goodness. The story is fictionalized autobiography -- little four panel vignettes of the author's life as a mother of two and wife of a doctor. It's day in the life stuff, but I guess the fact that this wife has a voice at all was something notable at that time. You read about endless housework, her husband who gets drunk at parties and goes on business trips, and her gossiping with her friends -- mostly about men.

I'm curious to keep reading the series, if only to see if there is a shift in perspective as the author's popularity grows and time passes. If nothing else, it's a good reminder of how far women have come in the course of own lifetime.

Nothing mind-blowing, but an interesting cultural study of well-off Canadian housewives of the 80s.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

At 8 ½ by 9 inches the Andrews and McNeel editions of For Better or For Worse is in a larger format than a lot of comic collections, and in the 128 pages they were able to get pretty much the complete run of the dailies for a year in an annual collection, though for the first year’s run they only include a handful of Sunday strips. Still, you do get the feel of the entire year’s output – I wish you could say that about more comic collections.

Anyway, here’s the first year’s run of Johnston’s family sit-com centering on Elly the wife and mother’s world and outlook, realistic with a mild feminism. Three stars, I’d say it’s enjoyable with a mild humor at this point and the family issues rarely rise much above child rearing and mild friction between the spouses.

[Kest Schwartzman · Rating 1 out of 5]

I got a whole random load of these out of a free box a while back, and I guess I read them in more or less reverse order. The latter ones I remember thinking "geez, feminism hasn't gotten very far since the 90s!" but reading this- holy hell it has come a long way since the early 80s.

[Mapleleaf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Husband John ogles women, discourages his wife Elly from working, and expects women to do housework. Much has changed since the author wrote these comic strips. Still gets a chuckle anyway from the ways of old.

[Bianca · Rating 5 out of 5]

I used to watch the cartoon when I was younger and I loved it. The comic book is very different to it as it doesn’t really have a continued story but more so little bits of conversations and daily life happenings.

Still enjoyed it very much as it’s very nostalgic.

[Erik · Rating 2 out of 5]

The jokes are really cliche and obvious. Maybe it gets better as the characters start aging and drama creeps in, but there wasn't enough here to encourage me to read to that point.

[Shoshanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Warm. Sweet. Heimish. Everything I need right now. Gonna read this strip all the way through and get back to long form comics afterwards. We actually had this book in the house growing up...

[Laura · Rating 1 out of 5]

I never followed this series too closely when it appeared in news papers. Although, reading it now makes me cringe.The husband is awful!

[J.T.K. Gibbs · Rating 5 out of 5]

A nice break from the heavier books I’ve been reading. I remember through this raising my kids with all the joys, frustrations and stubbornness involved.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rereading this classic strip after many years. It's still wonderful!

[Tricia Beaman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this comic strip growing up. it follows a family and their struggles and joys with life. love it still!

[K · Rating 3 out of 5]

In case you somehow are not aware of For Better or For Worse, it's a comic strip wherein the story is told of a family of four. They age, things happen & it's permanent. The characters don't reset every week or month. The story progresses. Since she started writing it around 1980, and I've never been a regular reader of the newspaper (certainly not when I was in elementary school), I thought I would finally borrow/buy all the compilations & hopefully be able to read the whole thing.

What surprised me was how chauvinistic the father, John, is. He oogles women, he reads "those" magazines and rarely appreciates the work that his wife, Elly, does. They clearly love one another, but they fight with one another (in front of the kids), spank their children & gossip with the neighbors. It's a good book, but I was surprised that some of the material covered made it one that I wasn't going to let my children read. I don't think I want to introduce to them the idea that men assume women work in the kitchen or are often perceived just as objects of desire.

It will be interesting to see how her characters change through the years.

[Ricardo Alves · Rating 4 out of 5]

Até há pouco desconhecia a série Para o que Der e Vier (For Better Or For Worse), da canadiana Lynn Johnston, publicada entre 1979 e 2008. Foi uma aposta da Gradiva, que infelizmente não vingou entre nós. E infelizmente porque a autora cultivou um humor mais refinado e adulto, acompanhando o envelhecimento das personagens (o que, à época, não era muito vulgar) com o seu próprio. A série tem aliás uma forte componente autobiográfica,
A Balada da Máquina de Lavar (I've Got The One-More-Washload Blues, 1981) é o primeiro álbum da série e mostra-nos o dia-a-dia da família da classe média, os Patterson, centrando-se na mãe, Elly, que decide ficar em casa a tomar conta dos filhos muito pequenos, enquanto o marido trabalha na sua clínica dentária. Muito bem conseguido o tratamento do tédio e da saturação, como o da felicidade e exaltação.

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've always been a big fan of reading the 'funny pages' and I always enjoyed reading the For Better or For Worse comic strip. I grew up reading the strip and loved reading about the joys and challenges of parenting as I became a mom.

Our girls weren't as familiar with these characters because we no longer subscribe to a newspaper, and I thought they'd like to read some of the books.

This is the first book in the series and while I'm sure I appreciated the humor a bit more than they did, we all enjoyed reading this collection of comic strips.

[The other John · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is the first For Better or For Worse collection, reprinting strips from 1979 and '80. It's an amusing look at family life, though the late '70s background sometimes gives the strip a nostalgic feel. The influence of Peanuts on Ms. Johnston is most evident in this volume--both in the art and writing. Some of the strips could be Charlie Brown or Lucy all grown up. It's only the start of tone of he best comic strips that have been out there these past 50 years or so, but it's well worth reading.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve read all of these books, most of them as they were in the newspaper. As a mom it’s good to see the humor in every day life. What I didn’t remember was how snotty Lynn’s husband could be. Maybe that explains there divorce. Either he really was that way or he didn’t like his portrayal in her books. Have to reread a later one.

[Kara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love this series! Re-reading them. This first one feels like an insight in to what my own mom's world must have been like in the late 70s and early 80s. So many things have changed, but so many are exactly the same.

[Seema Ravi krishna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh! how I loved this first collection in the comic series. It's heartening to know that parenting tales hasn't changed much since 1981. Simple, charming yet hilarious comic strip that makes it worth having a family with all its maniacal miseries!

[Kyrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lynn Johnston lives my life! Honestly! She's so funny!

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first For Better or For Worse collection has Elly handling baby Elizabeth and young Michael while trying to keep her shit together as a mother.