I’ve been following the comic strip For Better Or Worse since Lynn’s reboot of the series, and it seems to me as if she’s rewritten the husband to make him look like a sexist and clueless idiot. Was the character this bad in the original series, or is she getting revenge on her old hubby with this version?
In the original, owing to the need for a regular gag, he was something of a “sitcom husband”, alternating sage and compassionate paternal advice à la Robert Young with clueless pratfalls for the requisite yuks. But I don’t recall him being sexist.
Please check this out, The Foobiverse!'s Journal. By and for people enraged by FBoFW, and often hilarious.
I quit reading the strip about six months before the reboot, but as I recall, the husband was a good guy in the original, caring, good with the kids, etc. My guess is that she’s working out her issues in the new strip.
What’s the “reboot”?
Lynn Johnston announced that she was ending the series in (IIRC) August 2008, to retire, spend more time with her husband, etc. Then at some point she announced, essentially ‘forget retiring, I want to redo the strips, with my older style of drawing, and change the plot around - I’m going to restart around then instead.’ So the strip restarted from the beginning; some newspapers did drop her around that time.
It was learned later that her husband left her last year, which spurred the unretirement. Some checking around led to the theory that he had left her for one of her primary employees, whose name was quietly dropped from the list of who works for her.
The strip is now a mix of old panels and newly drawn ones in the style of the old panels. The old panels have had dialogue changed, I believe. The rebooted John is something of a rat, a heel and a chauvinist. It really does seem like she’s working out her issues on the funny pages, which is a little bit distasteful to me.
Not that she wasn’t already working out her issues with her kids well before the unretirement and reboot…the last about five years of FBOFW were a Comics Curmudgeon’s DREAM as she set about making sure her paper kids, at least, knew well and good that Mama knows best.
It seems like it’s usually been pretty easy to tell what’s the old work, and what’s the original; Johnson’s art style (and even lettering style) has changed so dramatically.
I’m not convinced that she’s re-writing old strips in order to make her husband look bad. What I do think we’re seeing is that 30-year-old humor based on the role of women in society hasn’t aged well. Last year, I picked up the boxed set of the first year of “WKRP in Cincinnati”, which is also from the late 1970s. While some of the episodes have aged pretty well, any of the humor based on Jennifer or Bailey, and the chauvinistic way that many of the male characters treated them, feels very odd.
I seem to remember seeing a side-by-side comparison of an original classic Foob strip and the same strip as re-released in the reboot, and there were changes made. But I can’t remember offhand what the website that had it was. I’ll look for it after lunch.
Oh, I do know that she’s making some changes to the old strips; I noted that, when she’s made the changes, it seems like the art and lettering are noticeably different. I’d just like to see an actual example in which the “reboot” strip makes John look like an asshat, whereas the original didn’t.
Lynn Johnston announced she was going to retire & let papers run the strip from the beginning, if they wished (to pay for it). Then she changed her plans & announced she would continue the story as sort of a hybrid, with bits of the older strip included as characters reminiscenced. And she would re-write some older bits, too. After about a year of that experiment, she decided to start again from the beginning. Except not in the same order. And with new strips included, to fill out old story lines. Confused? Let Pig explain itfor you…
So, For Better or For Worse wrapped up the story line on August 31, 2008–with the wedding of Liz & Anthony. (Some folks were not happy with the match.)
Since then, we’ve seen strips from the first two years, rearranged & interspersed with “new” strips drawn in a style that slightly resembles Johnston’s old style. The strips originally appeared in 1979 & 1980 but, on her website, Johnston said everybody should think they are happening now! She’s updated a few details but ignored others that scream 1980.
Yes, Johnston’s husband (a dentist, just like John in the strip) left her–which affected her retirement plans. In one of the many interviews released, in which she gives conflicting versions of the story, she said she’d known there were problems in the marriage. But she decided to wait until retirement to fix them…
In the original strip, John began as a slightly clueless guy who expressed a few sexist ideas but generally meant well. He evolved over the years, as did all the characters. The old strips that have been re-run tend to be the ones that made him look bad. Here’s a brand new stripthat ran last week!
Yup, she’s still working through some issues…
Good example…and, yeah, that’s clearly new art.
I wonder if “PMS” was a commonly-used term in 1980? 
Yes, it was and get the hell off my lawn!
Musta been Kortney…
Who did Dilbert kill off? 
You mean who was killed and didn’t come back? The Pointy Haired Boss was killed a couple times. Ted’s been killed and/or fired many times. Alice has kill-punched a collection of minor characters. I haven’t seen Loud Howard or Bob the Dinosaur for quite a while, but I don’t think they died.
Why is she resuing old strips? Can she not draw anymore? Did she get arthritis or something?
But then he got better.
Then it doesn’t count. 
Er, didn’t the show ALWAYS blow, and discussions were not akin to debates about angels and the heads of pins? Kids, it went to hell ten years ago. Accept it and move on.