Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for August 19, 2013

“Waves of Fear”…or“Invitation To the Deep End”…

Do they make checkered swim trunks?

Trust me, Gunther would not look good in a bikini!

goin’ off the deep end!!!

Anyone who would wear that “Bookworm” costume has no fear, or shame.

A bikini just for Gunther… to wear.

I hope Rosa has a “wardrobe malfunction” at the party.

Seriously, a dweeb like Gunther would go postal at the idea of Rosa on display in a skimpy bikini for all his friends to salivate over. Not to mention that other guys will be all over her.

Gunther, idiot scared guy!!! You got this beautiful young woman who is as smart as you, throwing a party,and who bought a bikini just for you. My God that makes the nervous nerd that I was in high so jealous, beyond belief. I think he will man up though and go, but there is still that lizard guy who likes her too. So this ought to be a good arc.

wow, Sunday’s comic starts up rest of the week

Gunther is self conscious for sure, but he hadn’t had that male role model to help him feel a little more sure… he has had help in the external areas, but not so much in the “inward perceptions” department… he may have not seen this day coming…-And some “Gunther” types may be more physically appealing to the ladies than they realize… they are just not so confident about their appearance, or as in the case with Gunther, losing a few more buttons (in regards to a pool party, a lot more buttons)….

I’ll call my professor and roll up the newspaper for you!

For goodness sake, hasn’t Gunther been around girls in bikinis before? As long as he only gapes at Rosa and not Luann or Bernice, he’ll be fine.

Must be “ratings week”; we got “fan service” coming! :p

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I don’t know what songs JPW or anyone else will have in store, but here are a few from me:=In The Summertime (Mungo Jerry)Water (Rose Royce)Inner Tube/Theme From Boat Wierdos (Joe Walsh)Second Hand Store; Indian Summer; Tomorrow (Joe Walsh )Private Idaho; Rock Lobster; Summer of Love (B52s)Boys of Summer (Don Henley)Hot Fun In the Summertime (Sly and the Family Stone)Summer (War)Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie… (Brian Hyland)Summer Breeze (Seals and Crofts/ Isley Brothers)Under the Boardwalk (Drifters)Suddenly Last Summer (Motels)The Girl From Ipanema (Getz/Gilberto)The Boy From Ipanema (Nancy Wilson)Summertime Blues (Eddie Cochran/ Blue Cheer)Wipeout (Surfaris) Theme From A Summer Place (Percy Faith)King of the Surf (Trashmen)

Rosa will make a man of him this summer… and we will never know.

Uhmmmm, getting more and more worried about Gunther. He’s had enough togetherness with Rosa by now to get over his fear of closeness with her. Maybe he should see a doc to determine if he’s got a phobia about women or…..if his shyness has progressed to an aversion.

He could also use some manly advice about altering his clothing choices just a tad. I think they’ve become akin to a ‘protective armor’ shielding him from romance.

I know what Gunther is worried about.

He will need a very, very baggy pair of swim trunks.

Well, this pool party could be quite interesting, depending on who shows up and in what context. It could totally party time, or there could be some drama, especially if Tiff shows up. Or, perhaps, some others we might not expect….

Perhaps TJ may be catering the affair! Hmmmm….. Just as long as neither Brad nor Toni have to show up for “professional” reasons…

its like that movie she is out of your league.

I have to admit that I have never found bikinis all that appealing. I wouldn’t even call them sexy. More skin does not automatically equal more sexy, quite the opposite in fact. I see a girl in a bikini, and I go, “meh”.

Now you put that same girl in a nice one-piece that has a little skirt — a swimdress in other words — and my reaction is, “Yowzers”!

It’s always been that way with me. It’s not what you can see but what your imagination has to fill in that makes an outfit sexy.

Gunther just needs a little time to get used to the idea that he’s going to see Rosa in only a skimpy bikini. He’ll overcome his nerves and do just fine….

Oddly enough, there are a lot of Gunthers in the world – teenage boys who are nervous around people in general and particularly nervous around girls. It’s not always a matter of not having male role models. I have two sons – one outgoing and social, the other shy, awkward and retiring. They all grow at their own pace. Gunther will be the first billionaire in the bunch.

Oh RELAX, Gunth.

There’s nothing WRONG with Showing a little skin Now and Then.

Hey! Tell Rosa about the time Luann Enjoyed SEEING You WET and NAKED at the Library.

Oops…..,

Mr. Evans, your avatar Gunther is a total dweeb. Just sayin’.

I agree that Gunther seems overly nervous, but it just MIGHT be – that it’s scary because Leslie could crash the party and Gunther would have to come to Rosa’s defense. I believe it’s a combination of his low self esteem and extreme shyness.

“Faint heart never won fair maid.”

Alright! New bikini!

Jeez, something needs to give. Either Gunther needs to loosen up or Rosa needs to dump him.

So I wonder is he actually going to have Luann and gang go to college? Is she going to grow up in real time?

Gunth! A Grip!Get one!Bettin’ she’s cuter in a 2 piece

“Isn’t it about time for Gunther to evolve and start moving out of the ‘petrified of women’ phase? He’s a 17 or 18 year old young man, not some shy thirteen year old, and he shouldn’t be frightened of seeing his girlfriend in a swimsuit.”>Gunther is the type of person who is going to be petrified at the thought of anything new for his whole life.

Oh great,this is going to be a bad week to read. Are we supposed to sympathize with this girl-child? I’m not saying he should be the sex-crazed macho type but not the other extreme either.

watch Gunther actually be ripped under those long sleeved shirts.

Is it me it seem all the girl faces seem to be drawn alike

Two more things I have in common with the G-man:*1) I too don’t FB, just e-mail (with a hyphen)*2) Pool parties weird me out too because I’m the only one who gets in the water. Seems to me we ought to be swimming, but everyone else just stands around in a bikini/trunks and talks like it’s a cocktail party. (They do keep their hair looking nice & make-up from running.) G-Man, bet you’ve got some cool checkered trunks with a cute little bow-tie on them.

Oh boy…. even though I don’t have a girlfriend or anything, I know exactly how Gunther feels… Good luck man… I hope this doesn’t ruin anything…

Okay, Rosa, Luann, Tiffany, Crystal, Delta all in bikinis. Of course they will need supervision. That is where Toni comes in. Of course, she will be more skimpily clad than the other ladies._____

Maybe Nancy comes to chaperone? One piece Speedo anybody?

Rosa tells Gunther that she bought a new bikini just for him, and he tells her that he does not want to go where there is skimpy swimwear, and he is afraid of her body. Hang up the phone, Rosa, erase the number from speed dial, and never talk to him again.

Rosa continues to push the relationship. Come on Gunther, when you see her in that bikini, stand up for yourself!

Perhaps this arc will include a further social growth and maturation on Gunther’s part? He and Rosa have been pictured kissing in the background several times lately. I have faith in Rosa—that button is coming undone!

Gunther is pathetic.

You might be surprised. Polka originated in pre WW I Poland and came to the US along with immigrants from the Slavic parts of Europe, but has evolved into many versions in theUS — including Mexican and Papago Indian versions. There are fans of this type of dance music all over the US who are younger than you are, Levi. (I’m originally from Pittsburgh; there are kids who dance in polka halls there.)

Does Gunther have a slavic background?

Save that one (and other surfing songs) for beach parties.^Believe me, I tried…. figured since “summer” as we (they) know it is drawing steady to a close, and it seems for them the last hurrah..-That’s the reason I tried to go for the privacy/water theme with the sponsors, to have as much "pool’ related as possible…=But that song was just too catchy to resist.,.Lol!

You still aren’t understanding what I’m saying. I often call out the anti-female comments on this board as being Taliban oriented. The Taliban believe women are not only inferior, but that just seeing a woman’s ankle contaminates the pure soul of a supposed superior gender. That isnt’ an ‘effeminate’ behavior, it’s bigoted behavior. The constant negative comments directed at Brad and Gunther that suggest they are ‘girlie-men’ differ only in degree, not kind, from what the Taliban preaches. We need less hate, not more.

And yes, we need a lot less emphasis on pedophile behaviors, too. Those aren’t just inappropriate, they are celebrating crimes.

never been a fan of boys in bikinis.

What a dweeb. In real life, these two wouldn’t even be friends.

Something to consider, too: Gunther has insecurities about his personality, or his ability to be admired by a girl for romantic reasons…. Rosa has shown (with the help of Lu and Quill) to Gunth that he is not as bad as he may have thought..-But in addition to this, he may have insecurities about his own physique, as well as the other insecurities, but he may just worry that Rosa won’t “like what she may see”… some women don’t all like the “bodybuilder” type, they like a more natural physique, or even the “swimmer’s build”… while maybe Gunth may not be “’chiseled”, he still may have features that some girls would go for, perhaps closer to the “swimmer’s physique”… he just hasn’t had anyone to appreciate him the way that Rosa seems to….=And of course, there may be the other… (ahem) problem that he fears, where he may not be able to “disguise” just how much he likes her swimwear…. which comes along with being in the prime of his growing up…

To me, females are still a lot of mystery to Gunther, alien creatures. In that light, I could relate. I liked to look at guys as teenager but they scared me with their raging hormones. The boys I grew up with from kindergarten turned into those sexual beings. It wasn’t until college before I relaxed around guys. Thank God because otherwise I’d not have 2 sons and a husband of 22 years.

I am coming around to the Rosa/Gunther pairing. Rosa seems ok. The strangest paring at Pitts has to be Knute/Crystal. Compared to those two, Gunther and Rosa are as ordinary a couple as you can get.

I think both Knute and Crystal are still under-developed characters. Other than Knutes bathroom fetish (what was THAT all about) we haven’t been given a lot to go on about who these two really are. I think right now they are Evans’ “perfectly mismatched couple”, sort of comedy relief (do you need that in a comic strip?), sort of change of pace. If Greg and Karen ever get around to exploring what makes the two of them tick, they may be perfectly suited for each other. and DW might win a pulitzer prize.

Gunther will never be comfortable with sex, some people are like that. If Rosa is looking for sex eventually she is wasting her time with Gunther. He should look for a woman who is equally repressed. People of dissimilar sex drives should not marry each other.

“I have no way to prove this, but I believe that we are getting ready to see Gunther emerge from his cocoon.”

I sure hope so. He has already grown emotionally in that he actually has gotten to the point of letting Rosa kiss him (I don’t know if he has gotten to the point where He kisses Rosa…). Its about time he expands his universe to be more comfortable with himself and also with some really nice young women, especially Rosa who seems to understand him and his hesitations. However, she Is going to wear a bikini just for him…he needs to let go of his anxiety and start becoming a healthy young man… ;)

“Was she (Crystal) involved with the incident that put Josh in the wheelchair?” I thought I knew almost every character in this comic strip…who’s Josh and why would Crystal have anything to do with that?… ;)

YOU CAN DO IT GUNTHER!!!

Thanks! I am just amazed how some of you are Luannencyclopedias!!! ;)

Grow a pair, Gunth… before Rosa is compelled to look elsewhere.

I suppose the Evanses want for us to root for this couple of crazy kids to get together. Sorry, but no. I’m rooting for Rosa to get on with her life, enjoy her senior year as an unattached girl, then go East to college next fall and not look back. She deserves so much more than Gunther, who is not the diamond in the rough that the Evanses obviously want us to believe he is. Gunther, just tell Rosa that you really don’t want to go to the party (which, as you admit, you don’t), and stay home. You’ll be a lot happier in your comfort zone, surrounded by the idea of romance instead of the actuality, which you find terrifying. This is your karma; 40 years from now, you’ll still be living alone in your basement, but that’s OK – it’s who you are, so just deal with it. Wish Rosa well, and leave her alone. It will be better for the both of you, the Evanses’ match-making schemes notwithstanding.

Isn’t it about time for Gunther to evolve and start moving out of the ‘petrified of women’ phase?^^I turned 52, last week, and I am STILL terrified of women… if it’s bad enough, it never goes away

No Skinny-dipping? If Quill is around, there may be some…action^^MPQ is over in Oz, making out with his other GFs

why is it that posters like Levi and others insist on engaging in pedophile behaviors? It is very inappropriate to fantasize about sex and sexual attire regarding minors.^^It’s ok, they are all turning 18 any day now :P

I doubt it is a particularly skimpy bikini. Rosa is more modest than flashy, and she knows the boy she most wants to impress would be intimidated by that much skin.

I always say that it’s nice when a female isn’t trying too hard to get people to notice her… revealing too much flesh at one time is like ruining the plot to a good book… I appreciated that when my wife and I got married…. it’s worth it, to keep ‘em in suspense until it’s time to turn to the last page…

I was wondering “Why More Scary?”Then it occurred to me that his teenage hormones may cause some physiological change that he would be embarrassed to show to Rosa and all the others at the party.Believe me it happens (or at least it used to happen).

The point I was making was “who surfs at a pool?”^Well, nobody… unless you are rich enough to be able to afford a large enough pool and wave maker… at the amusement park we have close to here, there is (or was) a wave maker and people could go and “ride the wave”, and it wasn’t PCH pipeline worthy, but it had big enough waves…=As far as surfing at a regular pool, “King of the Surf” is not going to be a literal connection, no… but poolside is the closest some people come to pretending they’re at the beach…. which is why I did list it, apart from wanting to throw out a catchy tune… it’s kind of like the “Hawaiian barbeques” some people have at summer parties… it’s not at an actual Hawaiian beach, but for that moment, they can put themselves into the feeling…..

Is it a, glory be!!, a black string bikini?

And don’t forget Blue… Without persuasion….

There are lots of questions I have about Crystal….What is her last name?As I recall, the choices were Ball, Chantelle-Lear, and Clear.

It’s been suggested that she’s a first cousin of Patriots O-lineman Todd Light, or a different spelling of Burger, or my personal favorite, Meth.

Well said about DimWit. Too bad he isn’t capable of understanding what you just said though.