Lynn Johnston on her writing process:

“The stories often write themselves. It's a wakeful dream state… When you're writing, it's like you're under a general anesthetic, where you'll wake up and say, "I don't believe it ー the sun went down!" It's like a state of suspended animation. You are transported into a dream state so your body exists as a shell during the time you're writing.”

#lynnjohnston #forbetterorforworse #comicstriphistory

https://notes.arkholt.com/pubs/hogansalley/ha-1-fall-1994/interview/johnston-writing-process

Lynn Johnston on the reader response to the Lawrence "coming out" storyline in For Better Or For Worse, from Hogan’s Alley 1:

“I’m hearing from families, psychiatrists, doctors, teachers, very open-minded people who are saying, ‘Good ー we have left this in a closet for far too long, and it's time we allowed people a life.’”

#lynnjohnston #forbetterorforworse #comicstriphistory

https://notes.arkholt.com/pubs/hogansalley/ha-1-fall-1994/interview/johnston-lawrence-reader-response

Lynn Johnston on writing meaningful work, from Hogan’s Alley 1:

"I was going to have readers every day who would expect a certain level of quality work, and I think that maybe that's why I segued into the little vignettes that have moralistic and motherly values, like little parables. I might not be able to have a joke every day, but I could have a thought every day.”

#lynnjohnston #forbetterorforworse #comicstriphistory

https://notes.arkholt.com/pubs/hogansalley/ha-1-fall-1994/interview/johnston-meaningful

Lynn Johnston on subtlety in For Better Or For Worse, from Hogan's Alley 1:
"There are so many men in the business who are good at the comedy part, but the subtle, gentle, nuance part, you don't see that much. I think Brian Bassett, who does Adam, is very capable of that. I think Sparky [Charles Schulz] does that. I do it… They make you say, ‘Yes, I know how that feels.’ It's not necessarily funny, but it's real."

#lynnjohnston #forbetterorforworse

https://notes.arkholt.com/pubs/hogansalley/ha-1-fall-1994/interview/johnston-subtlety

Lynn Johnston on drawing when she was a child, from Hogan's Alley 1:

"I spent hours and hours in my room drawing… I found that if I was in a terrible depression and I closed my eyes, the blackness would appear to go on forever. But if I put it down on paper, it was no bigger than 8 ½ by 11, and I could deal with that. If you have a horror inside of you, it goes down to your marrow. But on paper, it's not so bad."

https://notes.arkholt.com/pubs/hogansalley/ha-1-fall-1994/interview/johnston-child-drawing

#lynnjohnston #forbetterorforworse #comicstriphistory