FOR BETTER OR WORSE, VIEWS ON A COMIC; LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

To Southeast Missourian readers:

Many larger newspapers in this nation have editors devoted specifically to overseeing their comic pages. That is a luxury not affordable to a publication the size of the Southeast Missourian. At papers this size, editors, like myself, handle the comic page as part of their general duties of turning out a daily product. As a matter of routine, I don't spend a lot of my day thinking about comics ... though I have lately.

My increased attention to this subject has come about because of a particular comic strip called "For Better Or Worse." It is one of 15 comics that appear in the Southeast Missourian. In a comic survey conducted by the newspaper in 1991, "For Better Or Worse" finished in the middle of the pack in terms of popularity, showing far stronger numbers among female readers than from males.

"For Better Or Worse" is a topical strip ... "reality-based," as the industry likes to refer to it. In the minds of some, reality has gotten the better of this strip recently.

Over a course of five weeks, including this one, "For Better Or Worse" deals with a subject that makes many readers uncomfortable homosexuality. A regular character in the strip, a teenager named Lawrence, revealed to a friend he is a homosexual. In coming segments, the strip deals with how Lawrence's family deals with this revelation.

As context for this, it is important to know something about the history of "For Better Or Worse." Lynn Johnston is the creator and fashions the strip as the life of an average family. Unlike Beetle Bailey and Peanuts and Hi & Lois, where the characters have looked the same for decades, the folks who inhabit "For Better Or Worse" age and learn and have life experiences.

Despite recent claims to the contrary, Johnston did not acquire a social conscience with the beginning of this series on homosexuality. Previously in "For Better Or Worse," she has addressed the issues of child abuse, alcoholism and aging parents ... all social dilemmas that touch people's lives, but none of which garnered the attention of the current series.

The company that distributes her work, Universal Press Syndicate of Kansas City, advised the 1,400 newspapers that carry the strip that the subject matter was sensitive. With this advisory, I read these five weeks of "For Better Or Worse" to see if the subject matter warranted removal from the comic page. It was my decision not to remove it.

My reasoning was two-fold. For one thing, what I saw in the strips was a sensitive treatment of a situation that many families face, which is keeping with what the artist has done for the 14 years of "For Better Or Worse." There was no obscenity, no racy art, no smutty gags and no advocacy of a particular lifestyle.

Secondly, removing something from publication often serves to give it a higher profile than it would get otherwise. Omitting this, or any, strip from the newspaper would likely cause more curious reaction and misconceptions than letting members of the public read it and decide for themselves.

At this writing, I have received nine telephone calls and two letters concerning this series; all have been negative. Of the people I've spoken to, only one acknowledged having read the strip before last week. Most said they read last week's strips because they saw an article about the controversy in some other newspaper or because someone had told them about it.

I was prepared here to provide a lengthy report of some of the conversations I had with these callers, but it might come off as misleading. In fact, most I spoke with were friendly and reasonable, only with an objection to "For Better Or Worse." I was less taken with those who took this issue as license to question my personal faith or my sexual orientation, but there is always that "sticks and stones" philosophy to fall back on. And the person who based her grievance on religious principles, then called me a name and abruptly hung up, provided more amusing irony than actual harm.

To get more insight on this comic, I called Lynn Johnston at her home in northern Ontario Monday. Like most people who create fictional characters, she spoke of the "For Better Or Worse" troupe as persons close to her.

"I couldn't bring Lawrence back into the mainstream," she told me. "For a long time, it has occurred to me that he was different."

So, last week, she brought him "out of the closet."

"To be a spokesperson for any group ... that was not my reason for this," Johnston said. "If it was meant to be an average family, this is one aspect of sexuality they are coping with."

Johnston defended her inclusion of this subject on a page frequently read by children, describing her work as "wholesome, decent, family reading." She added, "If you want to keep your children from something really ugly, turn off your television."

(Her point seems well-taken. Turn on the television any weekday and evaluate the content of many soap operas or daytime talks shows, which are broadcast during times when young children are home. The subject matter of "For Better Or Worse" pales in comparison. She wonders, rightfully, why her work has been singled out.)

Once the current series is finished, Johnston said Lawrence's homosexuality will not again be used as a theme in "For Better Or Worse." She explained, "I want people to see Lawrence as the kid next door."

Again, as I do my job, my mind is not focused for long periods of any day on the comic page. However, as a result of this recent reaction, I will certainly be more sensitive to its impact. Hopefully, this debate over publication of "For Better Or Worse" will be viewed in the broader context of the work this newspaper does. It is never our intention to offend a segment of our readership, and neither is it a goal to be defined by a brief portion of one comic strip.