# Is For Better or for worse the only comic where the characters age naturally **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 13, 2004, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-for-better-or-for-worse-the-only-comic-where-the-characters-age-naturally/279516 "2004-12-13T00:02:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-for-better-or-for-worse-the-only-comic-where-the-characters-age-naturally/279516/1 "2004-12-13T00:02:17Z")
Are there other comics where the characters grow up at the same rate as everyone else or is For Better or for worse the only one? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-for-better-or-for-worse-the-only-comic-where-the-characters-age-naturally/279516/2 "2004-12-13T00:07:49Z")
When Trudeau rebooted Doonesbury back in the 80’s, he fixed the characters so that they would age properly. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-for-better-or-for-worse-the-only-comic-where-the-characters-age-naturally/279516/3 "2004-12-13T00:07:52Z")
There used to be one called “Gasoline Alley” which did the same, I believe. ---
**Author:** ![pesch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pesch/32/4925_2.png) [@pesch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pesch)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-for-better-or-for-worse-the-only-comic-where-the-characters-age-naturally/279516/4 "2004-12-13T00:08:52Z")
“Gasoline Alley” was the prototype for aging its characters. The mother in “Jumpstart” just recently learned she’s pregnant for the third time, but I don’t know if this means he’s going to start the clock for the kids. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-for-better-or-for-worse-the-only-comic-where-the-characters-age-naturally/279516/5 "2004-12-13T00:12:59Z")
The three kids in Baby Blues are aging, albeit slowly. ---
**Author:** ![Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-for-better-or-for-worse-the-only-comic-where-the-characters-age-naturally/279516/6 "2004-12-13T00:20:06Z")
> [@pesch](#): > > “Gasoline Alley” was the prototype for aging its characters. > > The mother in “Jumpstart” just recently learned she’s pregnant for the third time, but I don’t know if this means he’s going to start the clock for the kids. Actually the kids in “Jumpstart” already do age…he makes a big deal when “kindegarten Sunny” comes in and replaces “toddler Sunny”, or whatever. Not sure if he does it every year though, or only every couple of years. God, I can’t believe I know that. ---
**Author:** ![YPOD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e99b99/32.png) [@YPOD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YPOD)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-for-better-or-for-worse-the-only-comic-where-the-characters-age-naturally/279516/7 "2004-12-13T01:27:10Z")
Prince Valiant ages, but not as quickly as For Better or Worse. I guess people aged more slowly then. ---
**Author:** ![MLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-for-better-or-for-worse-the-only-comic-where-the-characters-age-naturally/279516/8 "2004-12-13T01:38:28Z")
Blondie and Dagwood have theoretically aged, but incredibly slowly. She was a flapper in the '20s, and now she is the mother of teenagers. And would that every woman’s boobs held up as well as the former Miss Boopadoop’s. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-for-better-or-for-worse-the-only-comic-where-the-characters-age-naturally/279516/9 "2004-12-13T01:53:43Z")
_For Better or Worse_: Definitely aging normally. Everybody’s ages match up with the time passed. Major changes happen in characters’ lives. Reasonable attempt at making characters look older. _Doonesbury_: Aging normally, but at times characters seem to get stuck in situations for a long time. The characters who have made it all the way through the history of the strip (Mike Doonesbury, Zonker Harris, B.D., Bernie) started college the same year I did in 1970 and are now 52, like I am. Trudeau doesn’t know how to draw characters aging, so nobody actually looks much older. In some sense, the strip is about characters who get stuck in their lives at some point. In particular, Zonker is still the same child-like character he was 34 years ago. But then, so am I. _Cathy_: It’s hard to judge. When the strip started twenty-some years ago, Cathy was apparently in her early thirties. (She and her mother were already bothered about how old she was and when she was going to get married.) Now perhaps she’s in her early forties, so time in the strip is going no more than half as fast as normal time. But perhaps time really is going at the normal rate, and Cathy and Irving are in their early fifties. Irving looks to be drawn to be about that age. Cathy hasn’t changed much, but that might be because Guisewite doesn’t draw aging very well either. I personally think that the characters really are that age. Like _Doonesbury_, this strip is about people who get stuck in a rut for a long time. _On the Fastrack_: For a long time, characters aged at less than half of the normal rate. Holbrook actually announced a year or so ago that characters will age normally from now on. Changes do occur in character’s lives. _Baby Blues_: Characters do age and major changes actually happen in their lives, but clearly more slowly than in real life. ---
**Author:** ![sleeepy2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@sleeepy2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleeepy2)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-for-better-or-for-worse-the-only-comic-where-the-characters-age-naturally/279516/10 "2004-12-13T01:57:19Z")
In comic books, Erik Larsen’s excellent _Savage Dragon_ is happening in real time. Roughly 12 or so years have passed since issue #1. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-for-better-or-for-worse-the-only-comic-where-the-characters-age-naturally/279516/11 "2004-12-13T02:08:06Z")
The characters in Alison Bechdel’s _Dykes to Watch Out For_ have been aging over the years, albeit not quite in real time. ---
**Author:** ![Malodorous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e47774/32.png) [@Malodorous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malodorous)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-for-better-or-for-worse-the-only-comic-where-the-characters-age-naturally/279516/12 "2004-12-13T02:54:18Z")
> [@Wendell Wagner](#): > > _Doonesbury_: Aging normally, but at times characters seem to get stuck in situations for a long time. The characters who have made it all the way through the history of the strip (Mike Doonesbury, Zonker Harris, B.D., Bernie) started college the same year I did in 1970 and are now 52, like I am. Trudeau doesn’t know how to draw characters aging, so nobody actually looks much older. In some sense, the strip is about characters who get stuck in their lives at some point. In particular, Zonker is still the same child-like character he was 34 years ago. But then, so am I. I would say all the characters besides Zonker have had many big life changes. Mike has gone through several careers and two marriages, Boopsie and B.D are raising a kid, Mark came out of the closet, etc, etc. Indeed one of the best parts of this strip is the various life changes the characters have gone through over the years. There also have been several changes to their appearences to make them look older, though I would add the caveat that Duke was older then the other characters to start with, and doesn’t seemed to have aged much at all. I would imagine that in real-time he must be in his sixties at least. ---
**Author:** ![Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-for-better-or-for-worse-the-only-comic-where-the-characters-age-naturally/279516/13 "2004-12-13T02:56:01Z")
Actually I was just noticing the other day that Duke seems to have MORE hair now than he did 10 or fifteen years ago. Could be Rogaine or implants I suppose. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-for-better-or-for-worse-the-only-comic-where-the-characters-age-naturally/279516/14 "2004-12-13T03:11:24Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > There used to be one called “Gasoline Alley” which did the same, I believe. Gasoline Alley still exists. One character died of old age earlier this year. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-for-better-or-for-worse-the-only-comic-where-the-characters-age-naturally/279516/15 "2004-12-13T03:41:02Z")
Malodorous writes: \> Mike has gone through several careers and two marriages, Boopsie and B.D are \> raising a kid, Mark came out of the closet, etc, etc. Yes, they go though changes, but they sure take a long time to do it. Mike is back in the situation he was in the mid-1980’s, married to a woman who, one suspects, is ready to have a child. Kim is now in her thirties and presumably there’s going to be a sequence soon with Mike and Kim having a baby. The next 15 or 20 years of this life will be a repeat of the previous 15 or 20 years. B.D. (and maybe Boopsie, although I’m not sure about her age) was in his early forties before he had a child. Mark Slackmeyer didn’t come out (to himself) about his homosexuality till he was 40. He didn’t even realize it himself, you understand. He wasn’t someone who pretended to himself that he was bisexual. He literally didn’t even realize that he was gay till he was 40. These are characters who, despite the changes in their lives, are stuck in a rut. I’m not saying that these sorts of people don’t exist. I know such people. It’s just not typical to stretch out phases of one’s life for so long. Oh, I forgot to list Mark as one of the characters that have lasted all through the history of the strip. So that’s five of them - Mike, Mark, Zonker, B.D., and Bernie. All presumably 18 in 1970 and now 52. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-for-better-or-for-worse-the-only-comic-where-the-characters-age-naturally/279516/16 "2004-12-13T06:20:05Z")
> [@Biffy the Elephant Shrew](#): > > Gasoline Alley still exists. One character died of old age earlier this year. The wife/mother? ---
**Author:** ![Malodorous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e47774/32.png) [@Malodorous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malodorous)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-for-better-or-for-worse-the-only-comic-where-the-characters-age-naturally/279516/17 "2004-12-13T06:55:06Z")
> [@Wendell Wagner](#): > > These are characters who, despite the changes in their lives, are stuck in a rut. I’m not saying that these sorts of people don’t exist. I know such people. It’s just not typical to stretch out phases of one’s life for so long. Yeah, I get what your saying. The main characters have had sort of extended mid-lives, rather then settling down more as one would expect. This is kind of inevidable, as Tredeau needs to keep inserting them into new careers and such to keep them somewhat involved in world events and keep the strip from getting boring. Mark’s coming out was a good example of this, it was really late in his life for him to realize he was gay and it didn’t make a ton of sense given the characters arc up to that point, but it kept the character interesting and let Tredeau write about gay-issues and the like. Also, vis-a-vis the OP, it should be noted that the characters were “frozen in time” for most of the 70’s. I think they were at Walden College for most of a decade. Having them graduate and begin to age was a later addition to the strip. > [@](#): > > Oh, I forgot to list Mark as one of the characters that have lasted all through the history of the strip. So that’s five of them - Mike, Mark, Zonker, B.D., and Bernie. All presumably 18 in 1970 and now 52. Boopsie was pretty early, wasn’t she? ---
**Author:** ![LifeOnWry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/96bed5/32.png) [@LifeOnWry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LifeOnWry)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-for-better-or-for-worse-the-only-comic-where-the-characters-age-naturally/279516/18 "2004-12-13T07:04:38Z")
The characters in Rose Is Rose are aging a bit, too, but not in “real-time.” Pasquale used to speak fluent babytalk, and is now probably a third-grader. There was a little cousin who took over the cutesy babytalk, but I haven’t followed the comic too closely so I don’t know if she’s still around. Lately, they all seem to be about Peekaboo, the cat. ---
**Author:** ![Malodorous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e47774/32.png) [@Malodorous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malodorous)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-for-better-or-for-worse-the-only-comic-where-the-characters-age-naturally/279516/19 "2004-12-13T07:28:52Z")
> [@Malodorous](#): > > Also, vis-a-vis the OP, it should be noted that the characters were “frozen in time” for most of the 70’s. I think they were at Walden College for most of a decade. Having them graduate and begin to age was a later addition to the strip. Now that I think about it, this is probably another reason why they seem to be at an earlier stage in their lives then one would think. The characters didn’t graduate from college until around 1982, so their not ~52 like one would expect from someone who started college in 1970, but rather more like ~40, as one would expect from someone who graduated college in 1982. This also explains why Mike and B.D’s kids seem so young for men who were in college during Vietnam. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-for-better-or-for-worse-the-only-comic-where-the-characters-age-naturally/279516/20 "2004-12-13T08:20:56Z")
> [@ouryL](#): > > The wife/mother? Skeezix’s aunt/Walt’s wife Phyllis. It was revealed that her sister, Madame Octave, was Skeezix’s birth mother. You can still read the strip online: [www.comicspage.com](http://www.comicspage.com) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-for-better-or-for-worse-the-only-comic-where-the-characters-age-naturally/279516.md?page=2)