The last completely new strip will be Sundays page, with Monday beginning a new phase of the strip, mostly reprints with a smattering of new material until she finishes open plotlines. Early next year, all the current storylines will be wrapped up, and time will freeze for the Pattersons. I will miss this strip, although I'm looking forward to how everything ends.
http://www.fborfw.com/news/002696.php

Has it been known it was coming to an end or is this the first announcement?

Haven't followed it in years, but For Better Or For Worse was one I used to follow closely. Very well done. Also unusual that it was a "real time" daily strip. You watch the lives of these characters unfold, kids growing up and having kids.

Are there, or will there be, complete and chronological collections?

I haven't followed it in many years and don't know much about what has been happening. I've heard that it still has avid fans. How many years has it been running? I remember reading it as a kid.

I love that strip and still read it today (most days). I didn't realize it was ending...

Yes, I read it every day thanks to the online version at her site. She had said some time ago that it would be ending this fall, but I don't think anyone expected it to be next week. The announcement only came yesterday, and its done Sunday?? The strip has been running for 28 years, DL.

Cranky, we will find out the answer to your first speculation by early next year since she's going to wrap up open plots, but yeah, I'll miss watching the kids grow up too. It would have been fun to see where April ended up.

There's loads of collections, pretty much released as the strip went on, so I'd imagine they are chronological. The most fun one I read was a prose/strip hybrid called "the Lives Behind the Lines" that detailed their life story, but it only went up to the 90s, as I recall. I imagine that once she finishes, they'll plan some kind of definitive set ala the complete Calvin and Hobbes (only more volumes since it went much, much longer).

Well, I guess it's for better or for worse...

Damn real time! Fakes fans!!!!!

Nearly three decades. That's a pretty respectable run. Especially for a naturalistic family strip. There aren't really all that many of those. Not many cartoonists have achieved what she has.

I see it most days. It really has its own vibe unique to the funny pages. I didn't know it was winding down, but it has had that feel to it lately.

Bummer.

Either way, hell of an accomplishment.

Except for Elizabeth's storyline, I've been enjoying it. I doubt I'll be able to follow the occaisional new strip, though. That's a strange way to wrap up stuff.

Our local paper has shrunk the strips so bad that reading FBOFW has become a chore. Thank goodness for the on line version.

My mother was a huge fan of this strip, and a couple of years before she passed away, I wrote Lynn Johnston and asked it she could do a small birthday sketch for her. Couple of weeks later I received birthday greeeting featuring April and Farley. Mom plotzed.

That's a nice gesture by Lynn Johnston, Brian. She seems very down to earth in interviews and such that I've read.

I usually read the Sunday strip. A nice accomplishment, hope she enjoys semi-retirement.