For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for March 05, 2021

Paybacks are hell, Michael.

Evil brother will feel the wrath! Just you wait.

as if Elizabeth’s embarrassed enough!

This would be a flashback if he has a daughter whose brother tortures her 30 years later. He might call Liz and apologize – a 30 years old apology. OR he might laugh along with his son only to have his wife bite his head off, reminding him of his mother. His wife might sit down with him and explain why girls are tender and sensitive about their emerging womanly bodies and do not need older brothers tease them. Thankfully I did not have an older brother. Poor Liz. Now I am thinking of my 6-year-old grandson and 2-year-old granddaughter, whether I need to warn my daughter-in-law. She was the oldest, so no older brother torturing her.

I never wore a training bra. I was a late bloomer then it ( they) caught up with me in a hurry.

The bad part is that Mike and April will tease her about the bra and Elly will do nothing about it (spoils)

Oh brothers.

Michael beware, revenge will be fierce!

Remember Smilin’ Bob? Ha,ha, those ads were funny.

Watch it Mike. Females tend to stick together on issues like this. And you will not survive if they gang up and double team against you.

Here I was hoping Michael would have to explain a black eye from yesterday’s bra snap.

She should accuse him of using a washcloth to fill the extra space in his athletic supporter.

How would Michael know about Kleenex in the dryer? He balks at putting away clean clothes delivered to his room!

A-S-S-H-A-T

This is not making me smile. It’s starting to verge on abusive, and it’s ugly.

Watch your back, Mikey, Liz is young but not dumb: been living with YOU her entire life ;)

I was fortunate to NOT have a big brother. An older sister, yes, but she never bugged me like this.

When I was that same obnoxious age as Michael, we used to riff on the “don’t squeeze the Charmin” commercials on tv….

Michael is a really mean kid.

At this point, the a** kicking should begin.

Lynn’s Comments:

Looking back on this strip, I had a hard time figuring out what Elizabeth was doing in the first panel here. She is stuffing her clothes into the washing machine. When I work with students, I always tell them to make sure the audience knows what they are looking at, that they use good reference so that appliances and machinery look right. Here, it seems, I didn’t follow my own advice!

Liz: “But not as full of Kleenex as the wastebasket next to your bed!”

I cannot remember my son doing that to his little sister.

I never had a brother. But if I did, I would certainly have made sure he would NEVER discover my under things.

Good one.

Oh my. Back in the 90s mom ran off and left me and my daughter on our own. Took her to a Maidenform lingerie store and enlisted the help of a wisened older sales lady to help get us started. They disappeared for a lifetime before reappearing with everything sorted. This before single dads were a thing and life was interesting to say the least.

I suspect Michael’s jock strap is about to get a liberal application of Ben-gay. Have fun in gym class that day, dude. eh?

Will Lyn ever show lots of used kleenex under Michael’s bed, along with certain magazines?

I’m sorry. I was always up for teasing my sister. However, that was just downright mean….

He’s back to being an idiot again. I guess he used all his empathy on Gordon. Yes, I KNOW she’s his sister…

Let’s check under your mattress Michael.

Assuming John got around to removing Elizabeth’s ‘appliance’, did he take her teeth and lower jaw as well?

I say: make him wear it for a week! Michael will never make any commits like these for the rest of his life!!!

If that was my kid he would be grounded until age 18 and he would NEVER be allowed to date. Where did he learn to be such a sexual harasser?

Wow, that was really mean!

Cut it in half and you have two beanies with chin straps.

The bra comics are offensive. It’s not funny that boys and men are taught to act this way

If Liz were real and knew the German term, she’d be thinking that Michael has a backpfeifengesicht: a face in need of a fist.

Stuff them all into his big mouth, and pack them in with knuckle sandwiches!

It was so much easier being the last one born, out of a extended and dispersed family, sisters, cousins, and so forth…They all, more or less ignored me…Some were in college when I was in first grade….I got to grow up more less unhampered by their idiocies…which were apparent…Some of us were truly familySome of us became dear friends, and that is how it is supposed to work…Lucky us…

OMG I would have been killed by my parents if I was teasing my sister like that