For Better or For Worse

For Better or For Worse is a comic strip by Lynn Johnston that ran for 30 years, chronicling the lives of a Canadian family, The Pattersons, and their friends. The story is set in the fictitious Toronto-area suburban town of Milborough, Ontario. Johnston's strip began in September 1979, and ended the main story on August 30, 2008, with a postscript epilogue the following day. Starting on September 1, 2008, the strip began re-telling its original story by means of a combination of newly drawn strips (set in the past) and reruns. This new format, however, was dropped after less than two years and switched entirely to reruns, thus officially ending its run (of new material) by mid 2010. It is seen in over 2,000 newspapers throughout Canada, the United States and about 20 other countries, and is translated into eight languages from its native English.

The title is a reference to the marriage service found in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer as well as in the wedding ceremonies of other faith traditions:

...to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health...

A signature element of For Better or For Worse during the first 28 years of the strip's existence was that the characters aged in real time. Beginning on September 3, 2007, For Better or For Worse changed to a format featuring a mixture of new, old and retouched work, which allowed Johnston to "keep alive her partly autobiographical comic while not having to devote as much time to it." On September 1, 2008, Johnston began what she called "new-runs", restarting her storyline with new art and jokes. The time frame appears to be 26 years before the present day; the family is correspondingly younger. Michael looks to be about five or six years old, Elizabeth is a small child learning to talk, and the family is also raising a puppy. This new material was occasionally interspliced with strips from her original run. The strip subsequently went into straight reprints on July 12, 2010.

Johnston's work on the comic strip earned her a Reuben Award in 1985 and made her a nominated finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in editorial cartooning in 1994. The strip led the Friends of Lulu to add Johnston to the Women Cartoonists Hall of Fame in 2002. In the same year, Will Eisner described For Better Or Worse as "the best strip around currently," saying "It's humane, human, it has humor to it, and good artwork."