Lynn Johnston on her comic influences

TOM HEINTJES: ...I find it interesting that some of your earliest comic influences were comic books, and not comic strips. In fact, you and I share some of the same early favorites -- Little Lulu, Uncle Scrooge, Mad magazine.
LYNN JOHNSTON: Well, those were all fantasy comics. I was never interested in superheroes, though. In the superhero comics the men were always all-powerful, and I was surrounded by weak men. My father was meek, and every male teacher at school that I could browbeat into tears, I did. The men were my adversaries, in a sense.
TOM HEINTJES: Did you enjoy Wonder Woman comics？
LYNN JOHNSTON: No. Wonder Woman was perfect, and I was fat and ugly. I knew I could never look like that, so I didn't want to look at her. I loved the Little Lulu stories, where she would fantasize that her bedroom rug would turn into a pool of water, and she could dive down into the center of the world. Or Scrooge McDuck with his money bin. I loved all that stuff. It was wonderful fantasy that seemed achievable by a child. And it wasn't ugly. There were no villains with guns. The bad guys were the ones who were going to steal your lunch money, or who were going to stop it from raining forever.

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TOM HEINTJES: What sort of creative influence did comics have on you? Did you ever try tracing any of your favorites?
LYNN JOHNSTON: No, never. I never wanted to trace people's work. I would try to draw cartoons from time to time based on other peoples' stuff, but I just wasn't happy copying anybody. If I took elements of anybody's work, it was Len Nomris of the Vancouver Sun. He was my father's absolute idol: he just adored the man and had all of his books. He was an editorial cartoonist, and his drawing was just exquisite. It had a British sort of sarcasm to it. He had been an architect, so his renderings were just absolutely beautiful. He always gave you extra stuff to look at. If there was a painting on the wall of the ocean and the painting was tilted, the water was still perfectly horizontal. If there was a bird cage, all you would see of the bird was its feet, because it was obviously dead. I always appreciated that, because not only did you have all of these extra jokes, but you had 10 minutes of looking at all of these drawing thrills.