dreadedcandiru2 | Of evil underbites and the prevention of fun.......

In an earlier post, I commented on certain facial expressions that Lynn liked to draw; I'd listed the Bug-Eyed Glare of Existential Horror, the Sticky-out Tongued Laugh of Malice and the Unhinged Jaws of Disproportionate Hostility; the neat thing about the new-ruins is that there's a new expression: the Scrunched-up Face of Rage; lately, it seems that we cannot go a week without seeing Elly with her eyes narrowed in anger sporting a severe and possibly evil underbite. The strange thing is the cause; we generally see this happen when the children are enjoying themselves. As howtheduck noted, the Elly of original history simply avoided having fun with the children based on the lunatic theory that her brain would erode and she'd become a babbling infant were she to do so; now, she seems to be actively trying to prevent them from having any fun at all. The reason, I think, is that since she's upset for no reason that she can articulate, the only way she can be less miserable is by spoiling other people's fun. The problem with this is that she ends up hating it when she wins; most of the Middle Years are spent watching Elly wring her hands and ask why it is that Michael sits in front of the box instead of reading or playing or taking an interest in the world. Since she doesn't want to face up to her responsibilities, she'd rather not admit that she was the mad scientist who made that monster.

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As howtheduck noted, the Elly of original history simply avoided having fun with the children based on the lunatic theory that her brain would erode and she'd become a babbling infant were she to do so; now, she seems to be actively trying to prevent them from having any fun at all.

The part which is difficult to understand is why Lynn Johnston has made this change with new-run Elly. The idea has been that her readers would be able to look at Elly's experiences and see something of their own lives there. When the kids make a mess and Elly looks gobsmacked, Elly represents all the parents who had to clean up a mess their kids made, for example. But for things we have been seeing lately, "Elly doesn't want the kids to play, or John to play a gross videogame with Michael", Elly has moved from the everywoman to being like some matron of an Oliver Twist-like orphanage or Roald Dahl parenting figure. "Kids must not have fun. It is wrong."

We have seen recently Lynn Johnston's own personal beliefs about the young in the podcast where she talked about young people not having the same work ethic she had, i.e. show up on time, etc. I wonder if this new aspect of the "no fun" Elly is a reflection of Lynn's idea that young people today are not serious enough about what they do.

I wonder if this new aspect of the "no fun" Elly is a reflection of Lynn's idea that young people today are not serious enough about what they do.

If so, she's barking up the wrong tree. The problen, of course, is that there's nowhere to show up for a lot of them that doesn't involve asking us if we want fries with that.

Also, Lynn's work ethic? Ha! She's had everything handed to her on a silver platter, how dare she complain about anyone else's work ethic.

Isn't it great that Lynn is full of shit? If she weren't, we wouldn't have nearly as much fun deconstructing her mush as we do now.

Lynn's work ethic, using her own words, involves showing up on time and doing the work. Even though she did have her strip handed to her on a silver platter, she did manage to meet her strip deadlines for 30 years. That fits very well with her style of a work ethic. She likes to compare herself to Charles Schulz who did the same thing for 50 years and, so I am told, never used an assistant.

Lynn, on the other hand, used assistants for years, so I wonder how much of the work ethic she brags on was the result of an assistant brow-beating Lynn about impending deadlines. Even in the post-assistant days of the new-runs, she has Kevin Strang colour and grayscale her strips, and 50% of her material is reprint. It's hard to credit her with a work ethic given those circumstances and the fact that contractual obligation forces her to produce material on a deadline.

Nevertheless, in the interview podcast and in a magazine interview I have seen, she has railed on about how young people today don't do what is necessary to succeed. She bragged about how if people wanted her spot in the newspaper they should knock her off the page. She has recommended graphic artists from Nipissing and Canadore to come see her and take her advice in order to get ahead. She seems to genuinely angry that they are not beating down her doorstep for her advice. There is definitely an element of "You must get a mentor" to advance in life. However, she also said that only women and men under 18 listen to her advice. One can only imagine what she says to the few people who have sought her out.

In the strip, by far the most successful person financially is Gordon Mayes, who regularly cowtowed to John Patterson for his success. When Michael Patterson got his book deal, the strip made a big deal about how it did not need to be edited (thanks to Elly's work on the book). Deanna Patterson was regularly portrayed as being completely unable to handle her kids without the help of Lovey Saltzman or Elly Patterson. The theme appeared several times.

Back in 1980, Lynn Johnston was the inexperienced comic strip artist and Elly reflected those insecurities. Now Lynn has 30 years under her belt, young Elly has turned hard-nosed about the behaviour of the kids, while the kids seem to be much more disobedient.

The strips used to run along the lines of "Just one cookie managed to destroy the clean house" which was a kid doing the things a kid does. Now the kids are malicious and intentionally doing things to defy Elly. Lizzie screams until she is allowed to go outside. Mike picks a video game specifically to irritate his mother. Not only does Elly reflect a new work standard, but the kids disobey mom on purpose.

I can see all of this as a reflection of the things Lynn Johnston has said in her interviews where she talked about young people.

She seems to genuinely angry that they are not beating down her doorstep for her advice. There is definitely an element of "You must get a mentor" to advance in life. However, she also said that only women and men under 18 listen to her advice. One can only imagine what she says to the few people who have sought her out.

This sort of thing makes it sort of clear why it is that she lost interest in the strip after Schulz passed away; without him to turn to for advice, she had no real idea what to do with the strip and felt lost. Too bad that he didn't name a successor to be her Daddy; the strip might not have stank so much if she could have gleaned darshan from the guy who writes long-runner Gasoline Alley.

Of evil underbites and the prevention of fun.......

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