Suddenly Silver: Celebrating 25 Years of For Better or For Worse

by Lynn Johnston

(Characters) move into your home and into your head," Lynn Johnston writes about her For Better or For Worse creations. "They talk and can be heard in conversation-with you, with each other......... They allow you to be a part of their world inasmuch as you have asked them to be a part of yours."

That sentiment also applies to the millions of faithful For Better or For Worse fans who follow the popular family strip each day. Suddenly Silver celebrates that decades-old relationship between creator, characters, and readers.

Millions of readers share a daily relationship with Lynn Johnston and her cartoon family, the Pattersons. Suddenly Celebrating 25 Years of For Better or For Worse allows these faithful friends-and new readers, too-to honor that long association through a one-of-a-kind collection of strips that also includes Johnston's musings about her real life and how it's reflected in one of the cartooning world's most beloved and followed families.

Suddenly Silver is divided into three sections using cartoons from the strip's early, middle, and more recent years. This insightful structure enables readers to revisit favorite earlier strips and to watch the development of storylines and the growth of characters over the years. Throughout it all, readers will find the same focus on everyday family life humorously portrayed through the good and the not-so-good days. All the cherished characters are present, including parents Elly and John, their children and grandchild, Grandpa Jim, and of course the dogs.

Johnston's thoughts about them, their individual development, and their familial evolution makes Suddenly Silver particularly captivating. As Lynn describes her work, readers get to share in the Pattersons' rendition of real life through the heartwarming, the humorous, the tragic, and the triumphant. This book, like the cartoon it honors, will make readers smile while emphasizing what's important in life.

For Better or For Worse : What a run! What a celebration! What a future to look forward to!

Genres: Comics, Humor, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Cartoon, Canada

304 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2004

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

[Chuck Neumann · Rating 4 out of 5]

While not my favorite comic strip, "For Better or Worse" is close to it. This book covers the first 25 years of the strip, mainly through the strips themselves but also through comments by the author of the strip (Lynn Johnson) as well as from her husband, children and other family members. The strip is unusual, the characters age in real time. At the beginning of the book, the Pattersons are a young married couple with two small children. At the end of the book they are middle aged with the children off on their own. I was shocked to see strips I read recently in the newspaper in this book - which was published in 2004. I later discovered that in 2008 the strip started rerunning its strips from the beginning, so strips appearing in newspapers now first ran in the late 1990's. I had no idea, I apparently started following this strip in reruns. The strips are fun to read again, and in some I got a preview of strips I will be reading in the future. The book explains how in the early strips real life was followed pretty closely, but as time went on they became more fictional. For example, the real family never had a third child (April in the strip), and the real children have different careers and lives then what appeared in the strip I really enjoyed the book, and highly recommend it to readers of this fine comic strip[.

[David Rickert · Rating 4 out of 5]

For Better or For Worse is, in my opinion, one of the top ten greatest comic strips of all time. I could be biased because my mother was constantly cutting out strips for the fridge because the antics of Michael and Elizabeth reminded her of us. I didn’t appreciate it then, but it’s part of the universal genius of the strip. The only drawbacks to the book is that the best of format does not allow some of the storylines to develop and some of the Sunday pages are out of order.

[Gary Horst · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a lot of fun, and has a lot of heart! Published in 2004, it covers the first 25 years of Lynn Johnston's strip about the Pattersons and their extended family. It also includes essays or reflections by several of Johnston's family members. I had forgotten how well - with tender hunour - the strip dealt with challenging issues like loss, fear, dementia, grief, coming out, etc. Grateful for having picked it off the library discount shelf several years ago and finally getting to it!

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

How could you not love these, will continue to revisit them as I grow a little older as well as my children. Jokes or punch lines that were lost before are now making more and more sense to me. I recommend this to anyone that needs a little giggle now and then.

Will always be a fan of the famous Canadian Author, Lynn Johnston.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Special anniversary collection of the highlights of 25 years of the beloved comic. There are also sections of text with words from Lynn and her family about sharing a life with the Pattersons throughout the years.

[Shelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love For Better or For Worse! I only wish this 25th anniversary collection had included more of the strips.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love reading these as now I relate more to elly than Elizabeth as the years go by. Aging parents, kids starting the pre teen years, juggling a household and career.

[Benjamin Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the comic strip 'For Better or For Worse' from near the time of its very beginning, all the way through to the end of its story line...and was quite disappointed when Lynn Johnston announced her retirement and, consequently the end of the main story line. It's one of the few strips that allowed the characters to age and so it was like living with a real family for all of that time. This book includes strips from throughout that time, covering most of the major story plot lines, including all of the leading edge/controversial ones. Major sections are separated by candid narratives from Lynn's relatives as well as herself, describing the impact of her success on their real family. One note of caution though for those that have not read the strip before. These narratives are presented before the actual story line so act as spoilers. I would read each of these sections after the material itself.

It was great fun to go back and re-live the story of the Patterson family and all of their friends. I wish it was still an active strip (not re-runs) just so I could see what happens to all of them.

[Lyndsay-ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

My grandmother Nona has several of Lynn Johnstons For Better or Worse books, and reading them at her house was my first introduction to this comic strip. I've probable read them about 100 times now, and each time they make me laugh out loud. And this book did the same.

This book spans over 25 years of comic strips with an introduction covering the early, middle and late years. They are written by Lynn and she talks about what was going on in her life at the time, the process of begining her strip and how it has changed over the years, as well as where she's drawn some of her inspiration. Within are also some writtings by some of Lynns family. All of these were really interesting to read, because they really gave an inside look at Lynn and the comic strip itself.

This is a great comic strip, and the family is fun to read about and believable as characters. I think no matter how many times I read the same strips over and over, they will always be funny.

[Robyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the comic strip For Better or For Worse, and I come back to the collections often. Suddenly Silver is the 25th anniversary collection, and includes more information than the smaller, annual volumes. There are essays by the Johnston children, as well as the extended family. There are pictures of the actual Johnstons as well, which is nice. I don't know about you, but I tend to think of Lynn Johnston as looking like Elly Patterson. She doesn't, really, and none of the kids resemble their comic counterparts.
This book goes further than any of the others in dispelling the myth that the Johnstons and the Pattersons are the same family.
In addition to all of the personal commentary, many of the "greatest hits" and "best of" are reprinted in this book.

[Doris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been a fan of this strip for many years, and was saddened when Lynn announced it would end. I watched all the way through the retrospective strips, then found this treasure in a discount store.

This book contains thoughtful essays by family and friends, but it also has many strips I had never seen. Althogether its a quick trip down memory lane, with much filler information for older story lines.

Worth reading for any fan of the strip!

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting selection of the first quarter-century of the comic strip, along with some nice essays and background material. Some of the storylines aren't sufficiently introduced or concluded, and I wish they'd added a bit more of them, even if they'd had to leave out some others entirely. I thought the most interesting thing was to compare the art from the earliest strips with that of the latest; there's quite a sense of evolution. It's an enjoyable book.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this comic strip! It's my daily soap opera. The problem is that I only started reading it 3 or 4 years ago, so I had to catch up! Dylan got this book, which is the first 25 years of the strip, for me for Mother's day. And then for the next few years I checked out the website. So I am now totally caught up and I can't wait for the big wedding!

[Marjo · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up because I really like FBOFW.

I enjoyed reading all of the testimonies from the family of Lynn Johnston, so that was a plus, and revisiting the stories and the universe is always a fun time, but I couldn

[Emily Andrews · Rating 4 out of 5]

i just love FBorFW, so it's hard to say anything bad about it.