Can you tell me about cartoonist Lynn Johnston, who has a comic strip called For Better or Worse?
—Virginia C., California
Lynn Johnston, who doodled as soon as she could hold a pen, says she always knew she would be a cartoonist, but never expected to make her living as one. Johnston, who grew up in British Columbia, quit her job as a medical artist in 1972 when she was pregnant with her first child, Aaron. She drew more than 80 comics for her obstetrician. The drawings, depicting her view of pregnancy, were later published in a book called David, We're Pregnant. In 1978, she and her second husband, Rod, and her children, Aaron and Katie, planned to move to Lynn Lake, Manitoba, when Universal Press Syndicate asked her to do a daily strip. She signed a 20-year contract for a series based on her own family. Johnston has chronicled the life of John and Elly Patterson and their children ever since in For Better or For Worse, which appears in more than 2,000 newspapers in Canada, the United States, and 23 other countries. She and her family live in northern Ontario.
