I saw some hints that the creator of one my favorite comics, For Better or For Worse, was thinking about retiring. Her contract was up soon and she didn't know if she wanted to continue. Recently, there has been many repeats -- sometimes, but not always, akin to flashbacks, with "I remember when" movements supplying the opening. And, then, suddenly there were no strips at all this week in the NY Daily News. Some lame strip replaced it. What gives? I surely don't want them to cancel this excellent strip!
A trip to the website ... as with Pearls to Swine, Doonesbury and Get Fuzzy, one need not buy the paper to get a daily fix ... clarified matters somewhat. Lynn Johnston has decided to take a "hybrid" approach, which is mostly a fancy way of saying she wants to work part time. The strip is about to enter it's third decade, so hey, she has every right (even without a few health issues) to do that. The article also notes that she has decided to have particular focus on the son Mike (married, two kids, writer) and to "freeze" things so people don't age etc. Neat trick, if you can do it!
Overall, though, the strip will be much the same as now ... just fewer episodes. When Lynn Johnson's friend "Sparky" (Charles Schultz) died, the NY Daily News ran "classic" strips for awhile. This was fine -- I have read the strip for years, including many collections, but there are so many strips -- consider the relatively new Pearls to Swine, which already has bred several collections. BTW, Stephan Pastis -- the author of PTS is big fan of Schultz, and a highlight of SP's life was when he got to meet him. See, e.g., the introduction to Zeeba Zeeba Eata. Love that strip.
And, since I did not read the FBFW strips when they first came out, the "hybrid" approach is fine too. Others, including younger viewers, will have read less of them. As to those papers that carry the strip, enough readers should be fans to make it worthwhile to carry the strip, even in this new format. How much would one strip cost anyway? Besides, what will it be replaced with? Even a part-time strip of this special caliber, a true to life strip mixing teen and adult material (including the elderly, the ailing grandfather character and his loving wife) that still is funny is a rare breed. Few must reads left, this is one of them.
If the NY Daily News decides to permanently strip the comic pages of this gem, they will have made a mistake.