For Better or For Worse

[Deleted]

I recently read Annie's Foob bio and it stopped short of saying Steve actually had a sexual affair, as I recall. There was lipstick-on-collar evidence but Steve said he hadn't slept with her and he and Annie recommitted to their marriage. The dalliance finally woke Annie up about the precarious situation she was in depending on Steve for everything and she got a job at the Empire Hotel, where she eventually got promoted to catering manager.

In Foob world, a woman with no college education or culinary or business training can become a the catering manager of a large hotel because she's... nice, I guess.

[aibohphobia]

Sept 20, 2008 22:56:48 GMT -4 Mugsy said:

By "her money is gone" does that mean it's all been spent and there's nothing left, or Rod siphoned it all into some sort of offshore account? Because, surely she has some legal recourse if it's the latter. And if it's all gone, then she never noticed what it had been spent on? Unless it was digs for the mistress, I guess.

I'm not really sure the whole story, so my first thought is that Lynn might be making things up or just stretching the truth to make people feel sorry for her and hopefully have them want to continue to have the reruns in their paper. I mean I do feel sorry for the fact that her husband cheated, and she found out like that. I don't know about him taking all the money part though since she makes it sound like he left her penniless. howtheduck at Foobiverse journal has a better explanation of what probably happened considering that most of her regular staff is still in place, and that there is someone in place, not Rod, to watch the money made from the strip for her.

howtheduck's explanation

[Deleted]

Over on The Comics Curmudgeon, there is a lot of skepticism about this article. Apparently, she has given different versions of her story at different times. Previously, she claimed that she found out about the affair, tried to work it out, and failed. Now she is claiming it was a bolt from the blue: I'm cheating and I'm leaving.

Also, the notion that hubby could simply run off with every penny of the millions she made over the years, and that she has no legal recourse is a bit sketchy.

The fact that the article reads as if a not terribly literate fan from Coffee Talk wrote it detracts from the credibility.

Some of the Coffee Talk Lynnions apparently got wind of Comics Curmudgeon's longstanding mockery of her strip and decided to wander over and comment: [blue]here[/blue]

Post 135:

And let’s not go into the curious nature of what’s considered appropriate amongst a lot of you and what isn’t. A man cleans out his wife’s bank accounts and runs off with someone else, that’s fine. Commenters routinely make crude sexual and threatening comments about Lynn Johnston because they don’t like her daily strip, that’s also fine. Several people from CC troll Johnston’s web page and forum, and that’s fine too. (Even Fandom_Wank doesn’t put up with that crap. Just to put it in perspective for you.)

But to write a bad daily comic strip with some old-fashioned and outdated values? Terrible! She should die in a fire! Get therapy! Stop taking it out on us!

You know, I don’t even know what to say to people who think like that.

A reply, post 168:

For someone who doesn’t “…even know what to say to people who think like that”–you have certainly communicated in great detail your absolute contempt for any who dare criticize Ms Johnston. Yes, her ex is a creep–although the details of the split vary in every interview. And those interviews just keep on coming.

I used to truly enjoy her strip but it’s been on a downward spiral for years. And I’ve expressed my opinions at Coffee Talk–but politely. Not by “trolling.” (I’m not Joan from Peoria.)

You will find sarcasm & irreverence at CC. Most CCers haven’t expressed approval of Rod’s behavior. But there’s been plenty of anger directed against Ms Johnston’s idiotic characters. (Have you read the turgid Biographies at her website?)

Her latest work is stiffly drawn, lacking the unpolished energy of the early stuff. And the stories are sick & sad.

(Post 201 is also a pretty devastating response)

Post 204 then weighs in with a lot of issues:

because by God any woman who’s cheated on must be fat so she’s evil and the adultery is her fault, because men are never at fault.

STOP with the personal attacks! It comes across as immensely, immensely sexist and deliberately and maliciously mean-spirited. It’s to the point that the entire Mudge response to Foob has put me off men. If this is the way you all really think about women behind the fake friendliness, you’re all a bunch of lying, backstabbing hypocrites.

It’s just a comic, for God’s sake. Every comic on Earth could be destroyed and it would be less important than one spouse destroying the trust of another.

Oh, but I forgot: the cheater is a man. He therefore must be in the right 100% and must have a reason, and that reason must be Lynn not being a 19-year-old who’s 46-14-18 and totally submissive.

[Deleted]

That last post is hilarious. The CC response has "put her off men"? Well, sister, you were obviously pretty damned close to the edge to begin with.

A lot of the CC criticism I've read has nailed Lynn on her own sexism: the outdated gender roles and horrid portrayals of ageing women. She is the one that writes submissive female characters that men and women find pathetic. She is the one that made her doppelganger in the strip a dumpy, frumpy, bun-wearing fatass. And if, through her own strip and website, she's given her audience enough reason to decide they'd rather neuter timber wolves by hand than be married to her, well, so what? You're only a good man if you'd want to marry LJ?

[Deleted]

The Animal House style "where are they now" coda that she wrote as her last original strip had Doormat Deena quitting her job as a pharmacist to open a "small sewing school". Because that is where women belong, donchaknow?

It reminds me of The Simpsons, when Milhouse's dad is dumped by Ms. Van Houten and moves into the single's complex. "That's XYZ. He's a big player down at the sewing store!"

[dannyboy97]

Sept 21, 2008 2:12:00 GMT -4 @calvin said:

The Animal House style "where are they now" coda that she wrote as her last original strip had Doormat Deena quitting her job as a pharmacist to open a "small sewing school". Because that is where women belong, donchaknow?

That, along with Anthony's dream of someday opening "a small bed and breakfast," especially bothered me. Why not just say "a sewing school" or "a bed and breakfast"? Why the need to specify "small"? I know this is a nitpicky thing to get annoyed over, but it's such a perfect display of Lynn's attitude that ambition=evil. Only greedy people who are doing a job for money (instead of love) would be interested in doing something ambitious! No, humble folks who have their priorities straight know that it's best to keep things small. You wouldn't want people to think that you'd been carried away with your success, after all. Ugh.

There's nothing wrong with dreaming big, Lynn.

[Mugsy]

And it's especially galling since Lynn herself is a pretty big success. She can play the "little ol' mom" card all she wants, but she is a working woman, the same kind her strip disparates. Her Foob empire includes books, calendars, TV specials, and a host of tchotchkes that are all over the world. Plus, she has travelled all over to attend award banquets and speaking engagements and whatnot. Not exactly a simple little comic strip that she churns out at the kitchen island between helping her kids with homework and baking cookies. It's just so weird that any kind of adventure or ambition is snuffed out in any Patterson, or wannabe. Maybe because her own mega-success didn't exactly end up with rainbows and unicorns for herself?

[Ripley]

Maybe because her own mega-success didn't exactly end up with rainbows and unicorns for herself?

That's probably it. "All my success couldn't bring me happiness so I'm going to make sure my pretend family never has to worry about travel or success. Except for Michael. But that's okay because he's the boy, so his wife will take care of everything."

Why can't she just retire the strip and do what other unhappy women do: Buy a copy of The Sims and spend her days killing off her "husband" in a myriad of violent ways?

[Deleted]

Lynn has always seemed very insecure about her own success, and I wouldn't doubt that she thinks her life would have turned out better if she'd just stayed a housewife instead of launching her comics career. In her world, all anyone should aspire to be is a cog in a nuclear suburban family, or else they are punished (see Becky, Therese and Warren). That kind of fake humility is a constant undertone in the later strips. Thus we have a pharmicist and a dentist who are portrayed as barely able to financially support their families, and the one character who is allowed fame and fortune (Michael) has no ambition and is never shown trying to achieve.

[azaleaqueen]

I don't know which I enjoy more--the strip which, years ago, I used to laugh at or the snark here which I used to laugh at.