For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for September 15, 2017

Reputation is SO on the line for Michael.

The wide gap of scalp on Michael’s head in panel 4 is one of instances of Lynn’s imperfect drawing. She tended to draw Michael’s hair poorly in the early years but she got better when Michael was in college and as an adult.

Lawrence says, “It is her, man! You never told us she was goin’ to our school!” This makes it seem like Michael knew Martha was going to their school and had intentionally not told them about it.

As we see from the last panel, Lawrence and Gordon are just pretending to be ignorant of Martha. They have heard things about Michael and Martha (probably the kissing) and the only place that information could have come from was Martha herself. Why they are doing that is a mystery but not as great a mystery as why Michael seems to be acting like Martha is a girl in junior high that no boy wants to admit he likes. “Martha an’ I were just friends.”

The Junior Hi/Middle School rumor mill is the original “fake news”.

I would be more worried about Martha’s reputation than Michael’s.

When I was in grade school, boys didn’t dare even to like the girls, or the bigger boys would tease them endlessly. But, a few years later, they were dating the girls! (Guess they wanted them all for themselves?)

Lynn’s Comments:

I imagined that the boys gossiped as much and as cruelly as the girls did. I might have been right.