For Better or For Worse

For Better or For Worse is a 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. Now running as reruns, For Better or For Worse is still seen in over 2,000 newspapers throughout Canada, the U.S. and around twenty other countries. History and background Johnston's strip began in September 1979 and ended its original daily black-and-white run on August 30, 2008, with a postscript epilogue (as a full-colour Sunday strip) running the following day. Starting on September 1, 2008, the strip began re-telling its original story, using a mixture of straight reruns and retouched strips which featured altered dialogue. This new format, however, was dropped after less than two years and in July 2010, the strip switched entirely to reruns (with some minor alterations). The strips seen in papers in 2016 were originally from 1987. A signature element of For Better or For Worse during its original run was that the characters aged in real time. 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...