The final daily For Better or for Worse strip was published today. If you read the strip in the Toronto Star, you'll see this strip in tomorrow's paper. This concludes Lynn Johnston's 29 year story about the Pattersons in fictitious Milborough, Ontario.

Forever I assumed the story would end with the words "for better or for worse", but I assumed they'd be said by Elizabeth at her wedding. I'm guessing everyone thought that so Lynn threw a little curve ball by having Iris say them about her and Jim. I was also pretty sure Jim would pass away, but as we learn in the final Sunday strip, he lives another two years.

I just realized I have a whole bunch of For Better or for Worse entries so it's time they get their own category. On the day this 29-year ritual ends for me, someone who started reading them daily only a few years after they debuted, I introduce you to my Foob entries.

Update: I went downstairs to check out my copy of today's Star. That let me see what happened to the characters. It seems, everything works out for the Pattersons. Elly and John retire, Grandpa Jim dies at 89, Elizabeth teaches and has a son, Michael signs a film contract, Deanna begins a sewing school and April works with the Calgary Stampede.

This final insight into For Better or for Worse reminds me a great deal of the final ten minutes of the Six Feet Under series finale. I loved that show and thought the final ten minutes were stunning. April is the Claire of FBOFW and the only difference is Six Feet Under showed us the death of each member of the Fisher family where Lynn wisely stuck to the life. To see the final ten minutes of Six Feet Under and that amazing scene, shoot over to this entry.

It's over.

Update #2: It seems we Toronto Star readers didn't get the whole story! They edited the final destiny strip for space so my scan above doesn't show the first row. Below is the actual unedited final new strip of For Better or for Worse.

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Lynn Johnston's comic strip, "For Better or for Worse", is winding down. She says the larger For Better or for Worse story will wrap up at the end of August, and the final new Sunday strip will reveal what the characters get up to in the years to come.

I've written quite a bit about this strip as it's the only one I read daily and I've been reading it for almost 25 years. I'll never forget the heroic death of Farley and the controversy surrounding Lawrence's homosexuality. Lynn wrote a touching, interesting story and I'll be sorry to see it end.

I'm wondering what that final Sunday strip will tell us about the characters we've seen age these past few decades. I'm sure John will retire and work on his trains, Elly will enjoy her grandchildren and see her father pass away, Michael will become a successful author, Liz will enjoy married life, become a school principal and have children of her own and April will study Veterinary Medicine at the University of Guelph.

We'll see how I did.

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Today's For Better of For Worse strip is sweet and all, but I didn't get it. I simply didn't know what mucilage meant.

I need you to be honest with me. Should I have known was mucilage means? I suppose the real question I'm asking is, without cheating, do you know what mucilage is?

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The Leaf game was breaking my heart, so I pulled out today's Toronto Star and checked out For Better Or For Worse. The Toronto Star runs the Sunday strip on Saturdays, so this strip hasn't appeared online yet. I could be wrong, but I think Jim just passed away.

Jim was just foreshadowing his imminent demise by suggesting this may have been his last Christmas. Then, surrounded by friends and his loving Iris on New Year's Eve, there's this:

For the record, my wife doesn't think Jim passes in this strip. What make me think he's gone is the look Iris gives him in the second last frame. It's her realizing he's gone while the party sings "and who knows when we'll be all together again". Then, the final frame with Jim in the same peaceful pose and Iris giving him a kiss and silent message "Happy New Year, Jim".

This could easily be Jim having fallen asleep during the party, but wouldn't this make for a wonderful death? I'm hoping Lynn has finally let Elly's dad go.

Is Jim dead or just sleeping?

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I'm a For Better or For Worse fan, and I recently discovered a great blog for fans of the strip. It's called The FOOBiverse! and every day the strip is discussed in a very snarky and hilarious manner. It's the kind of blog I wish I had started.

Speaking of For Better or For Worse, Grandpa Jim had another stroke and is in bad shape. Lynn Johnston is doing a hybrid of old and new strips these days, and it's working out well. We just revisited a younger Grandpa Jim from the days when Michael was a baby and then we came back to the current day to see him suffer another stroke. The juxtaposition of the younger, vibrant Jim with the unresponsive, elderly Jim was pretty jolting, and damn effective.

Note to Self: You may feel fit right now in your youth, as if you can take on the world and accomplish anything, but one day, if you're lucky, you will get very old and die.

TGIF everyone!

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We have a For Better Of For Worse update.

The strip isn't going away, but Johnston is scaling back. Next month, she will start running older material, which will occasionally be interspersed with new strips. She eases into it beginning today as older daughter Elizabeth, just reunited with her old high-school flame Anthony, reminisces with a friend in flashbacks about how Anthony went through a bad marriage and now is divorced.

"I'm looking at this as a real challenge so that I can have some time," Johnston said from her studio in Corbeil, Ontario. " ... I'm 60 and I want to travel and there's other things I want to do."

As a result, the characters, who have aged in real time over the past three decades -- a rarity in the comic-strip world - will put the brakes on the advancing years. They all will stay the same age they are now.

So that's it, the Pattersons will no longer age. For as long as I can remember, they've been ageing as I've aged, and now they'll be frozen in time. I'm surprised at how this little thing saddens me.

What maddens me is the recent focus on Elizabeth and Anthony. We saw this coming a mile away and now Lynn Johnston is driving this syrupy drivel home full throttle in every panel.

It's still the best damn comic strip out there.

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I've written about For Better Or For Worse in the past. It's the only comic I read daily, and today's strip has a new layer we could only dream about back in the day.

April and Eva are performing a duet at this telethon and along with the lyrics that appear in the strip we're presented with an MP3 of their song. It's a brave new world, and Lynn Johnston is all over it.

I know you're anxious to hear this masterpiece. Here's April and Eva performing "Everybody's Different". http://www.fborfw.com/strip_fix/everybodys_different.mp3

Bring the noise.

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I'm shocked. I checked in on The Pattersons this morning and caught Elizabeth and Anthony sharing a kiss. I just didn't see this coming, did you?

Here's the For Better or For Worse strip, if you missed it. And yes, I'm being sarcastic, if you missed that. The final frame in the final strip will be the words "for better or for worse" at Elizabeth and Anthony's wedding.

You can take it to the bank.

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I only read one comic strip on a daily basis. I check in on the Patterson's and see what's new in the For Better or For Worse universe.

I'm confused by today's strip. Read it below and we'll continue this discussion around the bend.

April and Elizabeth are clearly having a little sibling tiff while both rush to get to where they need to be. April loses it and calls Elizabeth "LARD BUTT!" and then I get awfully confused.

Lizzy is giving April the evil eye while April cries and says "She who laughs last, laughs best." What exactly does that mean in this context? Who's laughing? Why is April crying? Did Lizzy smack her in the head in a frame that got deleted? Am I missing something?

Help!

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We already knew Lynn Johnston was freezing the For Better or For Worse characters' ages next fall, but we now have more details. The strip isn't actually being retired, there will be new material that would include revisiting storylines from the past and expanding on them. Everyone will stop aging, however.

That Star article discusses Elizabeth's three suitors: former high school boyfriend Anthony, new love interest Paul, a policeman, and Warren, a helicopter pilot. It also reveals Warren's full name, Warren Blackwood. I recently wrote about another Warren Blackwood.

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Lynn Johnston's "For Better Or For Worse" is my favourite comic strip by a very large margin. It's the only strip I read daily and I've been reading it since I was a little whipper-snapper.

Not only is it well written with a great balance of humour and reality, but the characters have aged in real-time. Sadly, the end is near. Lynn Johnston will freeze the characters' ages next fall when she takes a well deserved break from it all. "I feel I've done the best I can do for as long as I can do it," she said. "It's time."

It saddens me to think there will soon be mornings when I can't check in on The Patterson's. For the first time I will age while Michael Patterson stays in his early 30s. The long rumoured ending for the series will be Elizabeth marrying Anthony and uttering the words "for better or for worse" in the final panel. However Lynn decides to end things, I'll be there reading.

Other entries about For Better or For Worse:

• I Don't Get It
• FWOFW Theories
• Thank You, Farley
• Riddle Me This

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It doesn't happen often, but it happened today. For only the second time in recent memory, I'm unsure about a For Better Or For Worse strip.

If you read today's strip, you'll see the final frame is Elly's employee staring at a telephone book that appears to have been bitten. There's a chunk of the phone book missing with teeth marks indicating someone chomped into it. In the previous frame, Elly is sensably acknowledging that "the key to successful salesmanship is not to take rudeness personally".

Are we to believe Elly was so frustrated by the rudeness of the two women loitering in her store that she took a bite out of the white pages? Is it even possible to do this without losing your teeth? As I did last time, I'm reaching out to you for some answers. What's the joke here?

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I'd like to thank Farley, the Patterson's sheepdog who passed away a few years ago. It's no secret that I read For Better or For Worse every day and have since I was a very young lad. Lynn Johnston's strip has that perfect blend of realism, humour and Canadiana and the characters age in real-time enabling fans to literally watch the Patterson's age and grow.

Farley was a member of the family, always there. He'd play with Michael, Elizabeth and April, get into mischief and perform general dog duties. When April was four, we were witness to a heart wrenching story line that elevated Farley to martyr status. April was playing by the river and fell in. Farley jumped in to keep her above the water until help arrived. Farley saved her life, but the exertion and cold was too much for the old dog. His heart stopped and John ended the strip by saying "I didn't think that a heart so big would ever stop beating".

This story line might be my all time favourite in the series, and there have been some exceptional ones. Thanks again, Farley.

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I've received a few emails regarding this comic strip and my plea for help. There seems to be two trains of thought on this one.

The first theory is that John is upset because April mentioned she had the best fishing day when he felt it was more of a father/daughter day. As happy as April was when she stated "Know what, dad? That was the best fishing day I ever had in my whole life!", John found a fault in her statement, displeased that she celebrated the fish more than her love for him. This is probably what Lynn Johnston was going for, but it seems awfully harsh of John and rather out of character. April is young and is happily remarking on the great day she had. This should make John smile, not scowl!

Another theory is that John is selfishly upset that he didn't catch any fish and April caught many. There's no way the John I know would be upset at this fact. As you'll see in the strip, complete with my annotations, John was extremely happy in every previous frame, helping with the net and taking pictures. What father wouldn't be happy watching their child succeed in this manner? Again, John should be happy.

I'm still interested in hearing your theories as to what this strip is about. I still don't quite get it.

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I've been reading Lynn Johnston's "For Better Or For Worse" for as long as I can remember. It's the only comic strip I read daily. After reading thousands and thousands of FBOFW strips, this weekend was the first time I can honestly say that I didn't get it.

Here's the strip. Am I missing something? I don't understand why John is upset that April had a great day with him. He seemed to be enjoying himself in the boat. Will someone please explain this one to me...

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