Lynn Johnston
(By Lynn Johnston)
I was born Lynn Ridgway in Collingwood, Ontario, Canada, and I grew up in British Columbia. My father was a jeweler, my mother a calligrapher and bookkeeper -- both were musical, artistic and creative people. We were a family that loved to laugh.
My brother became a professional musician (trumpet) and I went to the Vancouver School of Art, hoping, somehow, to make a career as an artist. My main interest was animation, and after three years of Art College, I took a job in an animation studio in Vancouver where I worked in the ink and paint department. I married a television cameraman and in 1969 moved to Ontario with my husband where work in the media was more available.
Unable to work in animation, I got a job as a medical artist at McMaster University. It was a wonderful five years of learning. I gained a reverence for life and the human body that only one in a hospital environment can achieve.
In 1972 I discovered that I was expecting Aaron, and left McMaster to work at home. My obstetrician challenged me to do some drawings for the ceilings above his examining tables, and during my eight months of regular visits, I did over eighty comic drawings for him ... my view of pregnancy. These were published in a book called "David, We're Pregnant," which, to date, has sold over 300,000 copies and has only recently gone out of print!
Shortly after the publication of my first book, I was divorced and worked as a single parent, free-lancing from a greenhouse I turned into a studio. These were "hard times" as they say -- but a real education, as I did everything from pasting type to designing cereal boxes, billboards, leaflets, posters, flyers and book illustrations. I learned a great deal more about commercial art than I ever learned at school.
In 1975, "Hi Mom, Hi Dad" was published, a sequel to "David," and at this time I met and married Rod Johnston, then a dental student in his second year in Toronto. I continued to freelance doing serious, comic and medical art from my studio until Kate was born and Rod had graduated from dental school. "Do They Ever Grow Up?" was the third publication in a sequence of books I began as a humorous but down to earth look at parenting.
In 1978, Rod and I, Aaron and baby Katie were planning to move to Lynn Lake Manitoba, when Universal Press Syndicate wrote to me and asked if I was interested in doing a daily comic strip. Someone had sent my books to Kansas. John McMeel and Jim Andrews thought I had potential, and offered me an opportunity I could hardly believe! I sent off twenty examples of "The Johnstons" -- a series based on our own family -- since we were the only people I knew I could draw over and over again with some consistency. Expecting to be politely turned away, I received and ultimately signed a twenty-year contract; and the work began.
In 1979, however, when the publication date came due, the characters remained the same, and only the names were changed - to the second names (Aaron Michael, Katherine Elizabeth, Roderick John) except for Elly who was named for a dear friend of mine who had passed away. Lee Salem, my editor, suggested the title "For Better or For Worse" -- and it seems to have been a good choice, as the strip is not all roses.
In 1991, I wanted another baby. Since it wasn't possible to do in reality, I made one up! Baby April appeared April 1st of that year and has added a great deal of creative fun to the strip.
"For Better or For Worse" now appears in over 2,000 papers in Canada, the United States and 20 other countries. It is translated into eight languages. There are more than 30 books currently in print. The 20th anniversary collection titled The Lives Behind the Lines and published by Andrews and McMeel (Fall 1999), reveals never-before-told stories about the characters. All About April (2001) is a collection of my favorite strips about April, chronicling her fun-filled and rambunctious first 10 years. The Robert Tonner Doll Co. also celebrated April’s 10th birthday with the debut of an April doll, "captured " at the age of 5. In Reality Check (Fall 2003), Mike and Deanna learn that an unexpected baby is on the way. Elizabeth swaps steady date for blank slate after discovering that her live-in boyfriend was cheating on her, and Grandpa Jim catches everyone (including himself) off-guard when he and his new love, Iris, elope to England. In the Fall of 2004 the book Suddenly Silver will be released, which is a compilation of early, middle and later years to celebrate the 25th anniversary of "For Better or For Worse." Letters from my family are included. I invited them to tell it like it was and is, living with and being part of a comic strip.
Rod and I now reside in the country, in northern Ontario and live quite privately, preferring to regard the family as the most important part of our lives.
Most cartoonists start the way I did: doodling on anything as soon as I was able to hold a pen. Well, I've always loved to draw, and have always had a silly streak in me that more often than not, got me into trouble. "For Better or For Worse" lets me put it to good use!
I always knew I would be a cartoonist, but I never expected to make my LIVING as one! Seeing the young new talent coming into the business, I remember how afraid of rejection I was from others in the profession. How does it feel now to know that competition is coming my way? Wonderful. Anyone who can write and draw and make me laugh shares my soul, and I look forward to seeing who’s coming up next, who will share this experience with me. The ability to do comic art - any art - is more than a talent. It’s a gift that must be respected and used well.
Photo by Ed Eng
