For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for October 25, 2020

knock yourself out, John

“If I try it on and then show it to Mom?”

I’m glad the last panel happened. Up until then John was freaking me out.

You can tell this piece was written by a woman. No father would ever say those lines to his son. Every guy remembers being a little boy at Halloween and had a cool mask like that himself.

“Why can’t we celebrate what’s beautiful in life, instead of being drawn to the warped and the macabre?” You mean there’s another way win an election?

Maybe it’s a way of getting back at his mom and dad for sending him away for the summer!!!!

Yeah I wasn’t buying it for one nano second, John just wanted that awesome mask for himself…lol

Lynn’s Comments:

If you’re a fan of Jim Unger’s “Herman,” look at John’s profile in panel 8. Doesn’t it look like it was drawn by Jim Unger? I loved the way he drew a non-expression like this. Guess the admiration rubbed off!

Fifty bucks at that time? Inflation!

I wonder if you could get away with wearing that to the store, and tell everyone it’s your COVID mask.

Typical

Well we all have a face / That we hide away forever / And we take them out and show ourselves / When everyone has gone / Some are satin some are steel / Some are silk and some are leather / They’re the faces of the stranger / But we love to try them on

Billy Joel, “The Stranger.”

Philippians 4:8.

I remember my dad once came home with a scary mask to prank my mom. But that was a really horrible mask, it was the face of a politician!

$50 is a lot, for a high school kid to blow on a mask.

 

I thought it was probably less in the old strip, but Lynn had edited the rerun, to keep up with inflation.

 

Nope… It was 50 bucks in 1991.

Good grief.

I had a mask sort of like that one year. I don’t get many trick-or-treaters, but i decided to go to the door wearing the mask. Turned out it was a toddler with his mother. The kid screamed in terror, and his mother tried to calm him down.

I decided I had better take off the mask, but the kid screamed even louder. Imagine, the monster was peeling off his face!

Never wore the mask again.

$50 in 1991 is $82.37 in today’s dollars.

https://www.bankofcanada.ca/rates/related/inflation-calculator/

What is an insult to one generation is a complement to another! If Ellie were still pregnant, seeing that mask on John or Michael would send her into labor!

And finally a step back to boyhood!

We never had masks like that back in the 50’s and early 60’s when we went out in costume. Also, our town made it a rule that kids were only allowed to trick-or-treat while in elementary school. Once you were in Jr. High it was over. And all the parents knew who was in what grade in our close-knit neighborhood so we couldn’t cheat. If teens came to the door, they got nothing. These days, I would be very wary of denying “treats” to teenagers.

Just the sort of comment that keeps Weta Workshop and Skywalker Ranch in business. …and loving it.

There was one where John discovers an abnormally high phone bill and quickly discovers the reason: Michael dialed a 976 number. However, rather than deck Michael or shout until hoarse, John is surprisingly calm and demands to know why he even did so in the first place.

Michael: It was $10 a call, and I spoke to Domenica; she was an Italian girl who made me feel good about myself. We would chat for a little bit, then she asked me to call again another time; the phones were really bad there.

John{nodding his head}: Uh huh. And every time you did, it cost $10 more. That is how they make their money, Michael. Off kids like you.

Couldn’t help it, John? Humans are powerfully attracted to the macabre. Witchcraft, magic, demons, vampires, werewolf, zombies…there are just too many more to name.

Take away the ugly and what’s left? Jesus

Lighten up, Francis. It’s Halloween.

Christ, John. It’s a Halloween mask. Always so preachy.