For some reason today, I decided click over to the For Better or For Worse blog and read this entry, which is a compilation of fan mail written to author Lynn Johnston. While that may not sound remarkable, some of the letters are exactly that (you may want to read this comic and a few subsequent ones just to get a context):
I really wish John and Elly would be more understanding of April. Yes, family dinner time is important, but the last days of high school are stressful. If the girl needs to write three essays, then let her do it. At least she’s doing her homework, as compared to chatting with her friends or playing video games.
– Sara P, Iowa
***
Lynn, apparently it amuses you to use April as a punching bag. We see her parents alternately neglect her, disrespect her, insult her, call her a liar when she’s threatened, yell at her for having feelings, yell at her for breathing, and today as good as threaten her into apologizing for a wrong she never committed.
Why this constant hating on April and smacking her down? Why? WHY?
– JRI, NYC
***
Now that John has forced April to apologize to Elly “NOW,” I STRONGLY SUGGEST that he induce an apology from Elly to April. First for not simply taking her “in a minute” at face value, continuing to pick and pester, and secondly for her “quitting motherhood” overreaction. Let’s have some perspective. April is not automatically wrong because she is 17 years old.
– Katje B, Albany NY
***
Is anyone else a little bored with Elly and Connie’s tired platitudes on their long walks? Where’s the funny bone? Furthermore, while it’s nice to paint a rosy portrait of everyone getting along in blended families (as per Connie’s statements), I doubt the transition is ever as easy as Connie’s experience would have us believe. More real life, and more “funny”, please!
– AC, Texas originally from New Brunswick
The Internets breeds passion for even the most obscure subject (not that a comic strip that’s been running for several decades is at all obscure), but it also breeds the “I could do it better” mentality. It’s painfully obvious that people like Katje B from Albany, NY are driven into a fury by the very fact that a cartoon mother gets upset with her cartoon daughter–people with that kind of passion can’t be talked down from their ledge–but what’s with comments like AC’s? Really… who takes the time to write and insult a comic strip author like that? Presumably, this is a fan of the strip, so why is s/he using such a nasty tone?
At least the raving loons provide good Ping fodder.
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