Press Release
Welcome back, Elly, John, and the entire Patterson family as IDW Publishing and the Library of American Comics proudly announce For Better or For Worse: The Complete Library by Lynn Johnston. These definitive hardcover editions will collect the entire series in nine volumes, three books per decade of the strip.
For Better or For Worse is one of the most beloved comic strips of all time, with a devoted audience of more than 220 million. These new collections are being produced with Lynn Johnston’s cooperation and are being edited by Dean Mullaney, Kurtis Findlay, and Lorraine Turner.
Since For Better or For Worse debuted in 1979, the world was able to watch the Patterson family grow up in real time—and to many readers, they feel like family!
“The strip reflects the experience that we readers shared,” says co-editor Lorraine Turner. “Life is like a tide that ebbs and flows—raising children, caring for aging parents, and accepting the aches and pains of getting older. Lynn Johnston allowed us to witness—and sometimes laugh at—a part of ourselves through the eyes of her characters.”
Book One, coming October 2017, collects all the daily and color Sunday strips from the strip’s debut in September 1979 through the end of 1982. The book will feature a new cover panel by Lynn Johnston, and occasional context notes and comments. For Better or For Worse: The Complete Library reprints the strips in chronological order, allowing us to enjoy it as it originally unfolded!
Lynn Johnston was born in Ontario, Canada. She is the first woman to receive the Reuben Award for Cartoonist of the Year from the National Cartoonists Society. She has also received the Order of Canada. Lynn began For Better or For Worse in 1979. She told the saga of the Pattersons for 29 years, until August of 2008, when she retired from the daily production of new strips and storylines.
For Better or For Worse: The Complete Library, Volume 1: 1979-1982
11” x 8.5” landscape hardcover, 544 pp., $39.99
October 2017