This comic strip seemed tired when I got on board a few years ago, but if you go back to 1981, this thing was surpisingly honest and sharp. It's just the rest of comicdom and sitcoms caught up after a while. Great work. An entertaining mix of short storylines and one-strip laughs. ( )

This book is the first For Better or For Worse collections, 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.
--J. ( )

This is the first book collection of my favorite current comic strip. It introduces the Patterson family, with John and Elly, and Michael (5) and Elizabeth (1). I love this strip for its gentle humor, the breadth of the storylines and the depth of the characters, and the likeable and accessible artwork - but most of all for Lynn Johnston's decision to age the characters at a "real" pace. The result has been a strip which has allowed me to know and love the Patterson family through nearly a whole generation of happenings, silly and serious, joy and pain, birth, marriage, death and those other things that make real life so fascinating. Only Frank King's "Gasoline Alley" has rivaled this strip in that respect. This book introduces the Pattersons, Elly's next-door friend Anne, Michael's friend Lawrence (son of Connie, Elly's best friend), John's assistant Jean, John's philandering friend Ted, Elly's parents, and Deanna Sobinsky, who will marry Michael 20 years later. Michael's first words to her in the strip were "Hi, Wart-head!" Love this strip. ( )