  "There’s nothing I like better than laughs. I just love to laugh. I really do. It’s the best thing in the world." (AP/Ed Eng Photography/Ed Eng) |
“[Farley] died. He died a hero’s death,” Lynn Johnston recalled from her comic strip “For Better or for Worse”.
Farley - the Patterson’s family pet, died in 1995 after he saved April (Ellie Patterson’s daughter) from drowning in the creek. The beloved dog was brought back however in 2008, when Johnston decided to recirculate her comic strip in the papers after it had finished its run.
“[For Better or for Worse] is starting again for the second time,” Johnston said. “I’m working on the earlier work and Farley is back again.”
After the comic strip made its second debut, publishing company Harper Collins approached Johnston and asked her to try her hand at writing a children’s book, an opportunity she couldn’t pass up.
“It just happened at the right time,” she said. “I asked my sister in-law [Beth Cruikshank] who’s a veterinarian, and loves to write, and she said she’d love to work on it, so the two of us put a story together.”
Both Johnston and Beth Cruikshank created “Farley Follows His Nose”, a book about a curious dog who travels the city following his favourite scents. The book was released in April.
Lynn Johnston took the time to sit with Canoe.ca at the Hyatt hotel in Toronto, to talk about her new book, the comic strip “For Better or for Worse” and what lies ahead for her, the Pattersons and Farley.
Q: How did you get the idea for the book?
A: You have to come up with a plausible story line because he is a dog. He’s not a dog with a person’s fantasy background you know, not Curious George. He had to do a dog’s thing in a dog’s time. So it’s all about sniffing and smelling and [Beth] said dogs are really guided by their nose, their noses are really important to them.
Q: And so how do you get into a dog’s head to find the story line?
A: Eat kibble for a couple of weeks. (laughs). Scratch a lot… (laughs). I’m losing it. Roll in the dirt a lot.
Q: So because you have such a big following, and the book is targeted towards kids, do you expect them to pick up the book?
A: I hope so. Well, because the strip is running again from the beginning, I hope that new readers will come and enjoy it. But I think a lot of adults that have grown up with the strip, and family members who have grown up with the strip, will recognize the character and perhaps buy it for their children.
Q: Will you do another children’s book?
A: I hope so. It means coming up with another story that the editors there like and one of the things that sort of makes it challenging is that this is a dog. He’s a real dog and he lives with a responsible family. So he can’t really be out stalking the streets all the time having adventures. Some of the adventures have to be closer to home. So we’re working on some story lines that we think will have some potential.
Q: Where do your ideas come from?
A: You really need somewhere to start. So I started “For Better or for Worse” by using my family. And I could draw all of the characters in the family and write one liners about kids’ behaviours. But in order for it to sustain its interest to me, I had them grow up so that I could use a lot of this material. You have to be the characters. You have to be something that is a fly on the wall.
Q: Do you have any other plans aside from comics?
A: What’s nice about being 60 is that you have the time and peace of mind to be able to ask, ‘what do I want to be?’ ‘What do I want to do?’ But I just love the challenge of stories and the illustration and laughs. There’s nothing I like better than laughs. I just love to laugh. I really do. It’s the best thing in the world.
Q: So what makes you laugh?
A: Umm. There are so many things that make me laugh, so many things. You know it’s like the way the dog looked this morning, it’s the way the baby ate his oatmeal, it’s the way grandpa sucked on his teeth. It’s funny, funny, funny that it doesn’t make sense to anybody else, but to me it makes me roar. And with luck, I’m able to put some of those little nuances into my comic.
Q: So when all of this is done. When Farley is done, when the Pattersons are done, where do they all go?
A: They go into the same wonderful treasure chest as “Rupert Bear” and “Where the Wild Things Are” and “Winnie the Pooh”. And with luck all of those things that people have enjoyed [they] can pick out of their bookshelf and read again.
