For Better or For Worse is a Canadian comic strip by Lynn Johnston that ran originally from 1979 to 2008 chronicling the lives of the Patterson family and their friends, in the town of Milborough, a fictional suburb of Toronto, Ontario.

[3] The strip's 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...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.

On the For Better or For Worse website, Milborough is described as being about a 45-minute to one-hour drive from Toronto and resembling Newmarket or Etobicoke,[12] and a location map places the town on Highway 12 near Cannington and Beaverton in the northernmost part of Durham Region.

Furthermore, Johnston also intended that story turn as partially a prank, anticipating ignorant readers to assume that Michael was studying in the city of London in Britain and enjoying imagining those people being embarrassed when the regional geography is explained to them.

Johnston later confessed it had backfired on her and she had been fooled along with her targeted crowd when she got a congratulatory letter from Texas along with an earlier strip showing Michael in a cowboy hat, saying the Lone Star State would be a great place to tend to his education.

These include Elly's return to the paid work force ("The Last Straw"), John's midlife crisis, the birth of a friend's six-fingered daughter ("Keep The Home Fries Burning"), Elizabeth wearing glasses ("What, Me Pregnant"), friends' divorces and relocating to distant towns, the coming out of Michael's best friend Lawrence Poirier ("There Goes My Baby"), child abuse (perpetrated by Gordon's alcoholic parents), the death of Elly's mother Marian Richards ("Sunshine and Shadow"), and Elizabeth's experience with sexual harassment and assault at the hands of a co-worker ("Home Sweat Home").

While the Pattersons are a typical white English-language family, there have been recurring characters of diverse backgrounds (with cultures), including African-Caribbean, Asian, Latin American, Franco-Ontarian and First Nations ethnicities.

[20] Although the murder was not over Boncoeur's homosexuality, there were some homophobic attitudes seen in the media coverage of it, and Johnston felt that a gay character should be brought into the strip to help combat anti-gay stereotypes and discrimination.

[21] In April 1993, Lawrence Poirier's coming out generated controversy, with readers opposed to homosexuality threatening to cancel newspaper subscriptions.

[22] Johnston did receive supportive mail on the issue generally from social workers and politicians, who praised her for portraying it with realism and avoiding vulgarity.

Opposed readers who believed that a homosexual character was highly inappropriate for a family-oriented strip wrote Johnston many letters.

[23] Over 100 newspapers (including New Hampshire's Union Leader) ran replacement strips during this part of the story or cancelled the comic altogether.

Johnston's personal reflections on Lawrence, an excerpt from the comic collection It's the Thought That Counts..., are included on the strip's official webpage.

Lawrence himself is unsure of this, claiming that he really ought to see his family's view on homosexuals and that it could be hurtful to them if he comes out, which is not his intent, but Michael retorts, "it'll be a lie if you don't".

Johnston had originally stated she was going to address the issue once then leave it alone; however, she eventually wrote future story arcs about Lawrence's homosexuality.

The community was created with Baloney & Bannock comic creator Perry McLeod-Shabogesic, of the N'biising Nation (Anishinabek Crane Clan).

For the series of strips in Mtigwaki, Johnston was awarded the Debwewin Citation for excellence in Aboriginal issues journalism by the Union of Ontario Indians in 2004.

Storylines would now focus primarily on the second-generation family of one of the original children; scenes and artwork from older strips would be reused in new contexts; and the characters would stop aging.

[32] Johnston announced that the changes were to provide more time for travel and to accommodate health problems, including a neurological condition (dystonia) she controlled with medication.

[34] The changes in the strip over the next year were not major, although, as announced, the stories did focus more on Michael, Elizabeth and April than on Elly and John.

Anthony continues to manage Mayes Motors and its various related businesses, introduces Elizabeth to ballroom dancing, and hopes to eventually open a bed-and-breakfast.

In the last panel of the strip's original run (August 31, 2008), along with a caricature of herself at the drawing table, Lynn Johnston thanked everyone for supporting her and concluded with, "If I could do it all over again... Would I do some things differently?...

The next day, September 1, For Better or For Worse ran as usual, but Michael was once again a small boy, asking his young mother, Elly, to get him a puppy.

In the December 31, 2012, installment, dialogue that referred to the initial date of publication (1984) was altered, so that the strip was seen to be taking place in the present day.

Some strips have had altered panels, in particular those dealing with child discipline, because of the increased social and cultural opposition to corporal punishment.

During its run, the strip was also celebrated for its realism,[38] eschewing cartoon stereotypes in favour of a nuanced, relatable look at typical adult, child and teen concerns.

[39] Johnston, in September 2004, used this trend as inspiration to create a new storyline in which the now eighth grade April and her friends returned to school to see the incoming sixth graders dressing in revealing clothing and exposing their thongs.

Johnston herself did not need to look far for inspiration; she noted that “[w]e actually do get days that are warm enough for young girls to hang wildly out of their clothing…”[40] A storyline in which the supporting character Lawrence came out as gay cemented this reputation, as well as various stories dealing with prejudice, bullying, the mentally and physically handicapped, theft, cheating and abuse.

In 1985, Atkinson Film-Arts of Ottawa, in association with the CTV Television Network, produced an animated Christmas special based on For Better or for Worse entitled The Bestest Present.

[44] Featuring introductions by Lynn Johnston herself, the show looked at three related storylines from three different eras of the strip—the mid-1980s, the early 1990s, and the late 1990s.