North

Comics class: Whitehorse artists meet famed cartoonist Lynn Johnston

Some young artists in Yukon got to draw alongside a famous Canadian cartoonist. Lynn Johnston is known for her comic strip For Better or For Worse which has been published around the world.

For Better or For Worse has been published in more than 2,000 newspapers

Cartoonist Lynn Johnston with budding artists at a youth workshop Thursday at Arts Underground in Whitehorse. (Philippe Morin/CBC)

If you ever read a newspaper comic strip about a hapless teacher called Melvin Floob, you'll know it started in Whitehorse.

The character was invented by Maddy Mead, one of a few budding Yukon cartoonists who attended a workshop at the Arts Underground on Thursday.

Young artists invented characters and onomatopoeia. For example the word "ssschllorpp" is the sound of a person with wet feet taking off a pair of rubber boots. (Philippe Morin/CBC)

"He's a teacher who's always late and still lives with his mom," she says. 

The workshop was led by Lynn Johnston, perhaps Canada's most well-known cartoonist. She created the comic strip For Better or For Worse, which follows the Patterson family. It has been an international success, finding its way into more than 2,000 newspapers (including the Whitehorse Star.)

Some rough artwork from Lynn Johnston shows the famous Farley, a beloved character who died in 1995. One of Johnston's innovations is to have characters age and die in real time. (Philippe Morin/CBC)

Johnston says it's always nice to meet young people who are interested in drawing, even if their generation is more used to webcomics than the 'Sunday funnies.' 

"I am glad to see they're reading and they're doing a lot of hand drawing," she said.

"Fantasy will never go away so and so we all have some thing in common all of us here. We're all members of the same club."

Johnston also held a workshop for adults at the Arts Underground in Whitehorse.