As a young adult, Johnston enrolled in the Vancouver School of Art. She left before earning a degree, having taken jobs as an animator and illustrator. She moved to Ontario after marrying her first husband, Doug, at the age of 20. In 1968, she found a job at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, as a medical illustrator. The University trained her, and she went through the first year of medical school, taking anatomy courses and dissecting alongside the medical students. She very much enjoyed her job, but her happiness was yet to be complete.
First Child, First Cartoons
In 1972, Johnston's son Aaron was born, but the joyous event was overshadowed by her crumbling marriage. Her husband divorced her and moved back to Vancouver six months after Aaron's birth. Johnston, who had quit her job at McMaster during her pregnancy, began working as a freelancer. Johnston told Rob Colapinto in Chatelaine, "My life was in the toilet. It was up and down, dating these duds, having this kid who was a spinning top, and no money."
Somehow, Johnston managed to make enough to pay the mortgage. Her first work was for her obstetrician, who asked her for some cartoons to post on the ceiling above his examining tables.
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