Since 1979, Lynn Johnston has drawn one of the few syndicated comic strips -- if not the only one -- in which the characters age in real time. Now she's doing something no cartoonist has done before: She's taking the characters of "For Better or For Worse" back in time 29 years to start their tale over again, fleshed out with new details, back stories and dialogue -- all in her original drawing style, which differs from the current one.

The blend of old and new actually began a year ago, but the contemporary story arc kept moving forward. That will change on Sunday, when the saga of the Patterson family ends. Beginning Sept. 1, the "new-runs," as Johnston calls them, will be interspersed with old work dating back to the strip's origins, for a ratio of roughly 50/50 old and new.

Some newspaper editors have said they will drop the cartoon rather than pay first-run prices for recycled material. Others, including the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, will keep it until they see how it develops.

"For Better or For Worse" is the saga of John and Elly Patterson of suburban Toronto, their children, friends and extended family. It has addressed relationships, life stages and social issues (in 1993, teenager Lawrence came out as gay, sparking praise and criticism from readers), and depicted births, deaths, breakups and marriages.

The strip has brought Johnston awards and a devoted global following. It appears in more than 2,000 papers and has prompted spinoff TV specials and more than 40 books of "For Better or For Worse" compilations.

Now Johnston is looping back to the beginning to do it all over again, with hindsight.

"Think of it like a novel," with new chapters inserted every so often, said Sue Roush, managing editor of Universal Press Syndicate, which distributes the strip.

"She's told the story through the years. Now she's going back to when Elly and John were young parents, Elizabeth was a baby and Michael was a toddler, to tell the story over again. As she goes back, she's adding new material here and there with brand new strips, not just redrawing what she did years ago.

"She's finding as she looks back there were things to say about their past she didn't say the first time," Roush said.

Johnston lives in North Bay, Ontario. In an interview posted on YouTube, she says that her original retirement plans were upended by the breakup of her marriage.

"At this time in my life I thought I would be on a cruise ship to Panama or the Mediterranean ...," she said. "But I'm a single lady now, and I want to keep working.

"Because I don't have to work 365 days of new material into a year, I can still take some time off to paint and travel."

Roush said reaction to the change has been mixed.

"Some editors are skeptical. I'd say most are taking a wait-and-see approach. Fan reaction has been positive. It's never been done before, so we'll just have to see what happens."

The News & Record of Greensboro, N.C., is one of those dumping the strip.

"For us it's an easy call," said Mike Kernels, assistant features editor. "We're doing away with our op-ed page on some days to save costs, so we need the space for 'Doonesbury,' which is all fresh strips.

"We know our readers are going to react badly," he added. "The same thing happened when we killed 'Peanuts' after Charles Schulz died. It's going to be a long day, but for us it's the right decision."

The Athens Banner-Herald in Athens, Ga., went the other way.

"Our executive editor decided to keep it because we had so many phone calls when we stopped running it earlier this summer," said features editor Julie Phillips. "We got complaint after complaint. It was pretty amazing."

Steve Massey, Post-Gazette assistant managing editor/features, noted that "For Better or For Worse" is always in the top-five reader favorites in the paper's comics polls, and that no one has commented about the flashback-style material thus far.

"We're going to keep running it for now and see how it goes," he said. "We can always change our minds later."