I will not be doing any more new For Better or For Worse material. Here's the thing: I am having real problems with my vision. My hands are unsteady as well, so it takes me more than twice as much time to write and draw as it used to. I fight just to focus my eyes and am constantly having to "white out" my mistakes.

It used to be fun and fast and I loved it. Now, it's something I truly struggle to produce. Sad to say, I just can't continue. Thanks for asking. I'm glad you've enjoyed this saga!

First and foremost, from her imagination, along with the constant threat of a deadline!

When the strip began in 1979, Michael was already three or four, and Elizabeth was a toddler. We kept the ages static until our own children, Aaron and Kate, were three years older than the kids in the strip — and then I allowed the characters to age annually. This has made for some questions about actual dates and ages, when they don't line up perfectly.

In a nutshell: Lynn was pregnant with her first child, Aaron, and was drawing several single panel comics for her obstetrician, who encouraged her to seek a publisher. The comics were published in a book; David, We're Pregnant! Two more books followed, a Syndicate took notice, and the rest is history. For a more detailed bio on Lynn and how she started, please read our About Lynn page.

A comic strip comes from many sources. You need experience in art, drama and creative writing. Ideas and gags should come naturally to a comic artist - because once you're into the race, you can't get out! You may find yourself working with a friend on a mutual storyline. My best advice is to find a copy of "Your Career in the Comics" by Lee Nordling, published by Andrews & McMeel. It will be an invaluable resource. Good luck with your cartooning. The world needs more of us!

The strip is very loosely based on Lynn's own life. At first, there were distinct similarities between Lynn's family and the Pattersons but later on the strip departed greatly from Lynn's life.

The strip has been in syndication since 1979! In 2008, Lynn ended the ongoing storyline, and you're now seeing the strip in repeats. For more info, see our Growing Up All Over Again section.

Each newspaper's comics editor makes the decision about what to keep or remove, and we're not told which paper has dropped FBorFW (or why), so often we don't find out until someone writes to us. If you want it reinstated, your best option is to write to your newspaper directly and ask nicely. This often works!

Please use the "report this ad" link under the bad advert, and report it to our advertising partner. They'll take care of it.

Send a note to our website developer, Steph.

Anachronisms in the strip: since the strip is in repeats, sometimes things which were normal or common in the 80s will reappear in the strip and make no sense. Sometimes we can fix these in advance, and sometimes we just have to let them slide.

Something broken on the site: please do tell us about this — fborfw.com is very large, and has lots of "moving parts", so sometimes we don't notice an issue right away. You will generally get a personal response from a real human, so please be kind.

If you're reporting a technical problem, please tell us whatever you can about your computer: Mac or Windows? Laptop, desktop or phone? What operating system, and what browser?

We have donated all of Lynn's original art to Library and Archives Canada, so originals are hard to find — sometimes somebody will be selling one on eBay, but we don't offer them ourselves.

You may, however, order prints of almost any strip from our store. You just have to know the date of the strip you want, which you can find out by searching our Strip Catalog.

Absolutely! Lynn is Canadian, and has lived in several different parts of the country (currently she's in Vancouver, B.C.). The strip itself takes place in a small, fictional city called Milborough in Southern Ontario, not far from Toronto.

At first Lynn's syndicate wanted FBorFW to be US-based, but Lynn insisted it remain Canadian, or she wouldn't sign the contract!

Some of them are, and some are simply designed by Lynn, based on her imagination. Sometimes she models them after people she finds in catalogs or magazines. The ones who are based on real people often carry those peoples' names, and sometimes we just make the names up too! You can learn more about the real people who appeared in the strip here.

Lynn says, "No. In my mind all the characters are fictional now. At one time, however, when Mike and Liz lived at home, I was careful not to use family material that could embarrass Aaron and Katie!"

Lynn always worked to grow and improve as an artist, and so over the years of FBorFW, the art became more complex and realistic. This evolution in her drawing style allowed her to challenge herself. Heights and facial lines are always important, but the enlargement of the nose also takes away the look of innocent childhood!

I was nasally inconsistent — both with the dogs and the people — especially Elly. My son once asked why Elly had an "inflatable nose" and I had to admit that when she was in a bad mood, her nose was larger than it was when she was being sweet and kind.

Noses are a kind of cartoon crutch...so are eyes. The bigger the nose and eyes are, the less room there is for brain space! Too bad this isn't a gauge of intellect in real life. There would be a lot of folks sporting large honkers and googly eyes! Anyway, I appreciate the question. I have no serious answer. A nose by any other size... is still a nose.

When it came to making the children in the strip look older, I just checked the average height charts, changed faces and hairstyles slightly and "grew them up"! Elly and John stayed much the same except for jowls, tummies, and glasses.

I kind of compare the drawing of cartoon characters to you writing your signature. It is never exactly the same, but it's easily recognized as yours because the elements you include are always there. If you look at the signature you signed with 10 years ago, it will have changed from the signature you use today — but it is still recognizably yours. Cartoon characters evolve in much the same way.

They're drawn in a 29cm x 9.5cm rectangle and the newspapers reduce them to fit their own page format. There is a limit to which they can be shrunk according to our contracts, but papers shrink and sometimes squash them anyway! We just hope they're legible.

Some papers do that, in order to save space in the funny pages for more strips. Lynn makes a point of not including any plot-essential illustrations in those top panels, just because we know they are often removed. You can always find the entire Sunday comic on our website.

Most favourite: Edgar. Her least favourite is Elly.

Lawrence is Canadian; his mom is Elly's friend Connie (a Canadian) and his Dad was from Brazil. Lawrence's mother met Lawrence's father in Ecuador where she was working at the time. He elected not to follow her back to Canada. Lawrence eventually met his father.

He just has a way with words, and Lizardbreath is very close in sound and spelling to Elizabeth.

It's "DeeANNA".

Yes - Lynn's father, Mervyn Ridgway, was a member of the 408 Squadron. Lynn's mother served in the army too. Learn more here.

Liz's middle name is Deborah, and Mike's is Thomas.

Many names came from friends and second names of family members. Some came from people I knew as a child and some I just made up.

When you choose a name for a comic strip character, it's important! Eventually these characters grow into the names that you give them, and sometimes they suprise you.

Connie, for example was named for an art teacher I had. Connie Watson and I did not get along at all! I thought the Connie character would be a negative influence. Later in life, I met the daughter of the art teacher I clashed with...and discovered that she was a wonderful person. It was the teenage ME that needed work! Perhaps this is why "Connie" in the strip became a friend.

It's quite an adventure, doing this kind of work. The characters often take on lives of their own!! Thanks for asking.

She wasn't quite solidified at that point. She's officially Mira Sobinski now. We're impressed that you noticed!

He brings it into the garage for the winter at around Halloween. The tracks and buildings can handle the rain, and the engines and cars are portable enough to be brought out when he wants to "play".

You can get the out of print books on Ebay, from Amazon.com on occasion, or at second hand bookstores (call them and ask for any old books to be reserved for you; these places are great!)

The first video was "The Bestest Present", made in 1985, which won the Gemini award for best writing..

There was also a series of six animated half-hour specials produced for television broadcast in 1990.

In 1999 a new series of 16 half-hour tv shows were produced. We don't currently own the rights to these shows, so we can't sell them, and they're not currently available on television.

Tonner Doll Company produced Edgar, April, and Becky dolls for a period of time. They've now been retired, but will occasionally pop up on eBay.

For Better or For Worse turned 25 in 2004! To celebrate this milestone, we released an anniversary retrospective book with the title "Suddenly Silver". Our loyal readers will have noticed that we published two collection books in 2003: With This Ring and Reality Check. After we caught our breath from publishing our 25th anniversary book, we published another double dose of collection books in the spring and fall of 2005.

As of right now, you can't. The company that produced the series sold the rights to another company. After a series of mergers and changes of ownership, the current holder of the rights is looking for a way to make the series available. We'll let you know as soon as we find something out!

For reasons related to printing logistics, we occasionally had to omit a strip or two from a collection book, although this is a rare occurrence. We're working on a complete treasury edition of Lynn's work, which you can find here at IDW Publishing!

You can find a list of all Lynn's books here. The list is printable so you can take it to the library or your local bookstore. We also have the entire collection online in our database. Visit this page to start reading 1979 strips.

Farley the sheepdog was in fact named after the author, Farley Mowat. This led to a long correspondence between Lynn and the Mowat family — fortunately, Mr. Mowat was flattered to have a cartoon dog bearing his name.

Aaron voiced Michael, Kate voiced Elizabeth, and Rod voiced the mailman who delivered Elizabeth's bunny.

I just thought the name Philpott sounded like a well-established family business. I made it up!

That's John's "fickle finger". It just hangs from the ceiling, and is a lingering piece of bachelor decor that has shown up in the strip from time to time, usually at Michael's apartments.

Um....I didn't know she came across that way. Perhaps I thought it was funny?