Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for July 12, 2014

Wow. Gunther seems really calm. Is he really looking forward to Peru with Rosa for a few weeks?

Yay! We get to see G & R on the plane…he looks like he is about to get air-sick! Or is the reality of what he has just done finally hitting him?! ;)

looks like another week of Gunther, but Greg might surprise us, and make this the last time we see em for a while

Yes, I don’t think we’ll see them for quite a while…if ever… ;)

“♫…And it’s gonna be an endless flightUntil we reach the ground tonightYes it’s gonna be an endless flight I know…♫”(Andrew Gold, Leo Sayer)

Rosa is thinking, “What have I got myself into?” Gunther is simply in shock.

Well, at least we know Gunther didn’t chicken out. He’s on the plane. The plane has left the airport. He’s really truly done it.

Those raised eyebrows are saying something . It may be just a bunch of thoughts and not a worry at all…. but it sure don’t look like he’s relaxed!

“310 To Lima”“No Country For Bold Men”“All Quiet On The South American Front”“Close Encounters Of The Worried Kind”“Clam Hands Luke”“Think Silent Think Deep’or“Great Expectorations”

Though the good thing is that he’s not seeming all nervous. Probably deep in “composing” mode.

I am amazed that Gunther went through with this seriously ill-conceived plan. I was sure he’d bail before this point. Really, very surprised.

Heheheheheh! ;)

That’s what I was going to say!

;)

Thanks! Looks like it is simpler! (with me “simpler” as refers to computers is a life-jacket LOL)

I really think Greg did a great job depicting the airplane in the sky… I wonder if the greeting to the passengers was also in Spanish… ;)

Mayhap Greg’s starting to break up that old gang of theirs.

I like the sun-touched clouds depicted here, myself….

This is as far outside of Pitts as anyone in this strip has ever been depicted.Will it last all the way to Peru, or is this where we fade to black on Gunther and Rosa?

Is today’s “Zits” taking a jab at the “Luann” strip? Weenie World!

Whoa! All of you seem to be discussing some kind of a horrible fate for this Gunther. Take a look at what a beautiful girl Rosa is drawn to be, and then remember that she really likes a geek like Gunther. Yeah, the guy really has a terrible fate ahead of him! Yuk! Yuk!

Was waiting for luann to wake up from her dream…

Ha! I guess there are mile-high mountains there like in Colorado USA… ;)

I wonder if the plane will have to turn around due to ‘mechanical problems’ and return to Pittsville?

This strip in particular reminds me of the first day I was in the military. It didn’t feel truly real to me until tjhe moment the plant left the runway

I just have to put my two cents in on this whole arc. Usually they finish on Saturday, so this being Saturday I wonder if we move on to another character. Some people say its the end of the strip, but I think that is totally unwarranted. After all there is Toni and Brad who are getting married, then there is the Luann and Quill relationship, not to speak of of all the characters moving on from high school to college, or to other parts of life. So I think there will be a lot of this kind of change coming, although with Greg Evans there are a lot of surprises as well. As far as Gunther and Rosa I say bravo!! After all these smart beautiful kids—yes Gunther is handsome in his own way, and if a babe like Rosa loves him, who are we to question it—are only 18 or 19. Old enough to get a passport and join the Peace Corps I believe. They have plenty of time to go to college, to get married or not, and to embark on life that requires getting up and going to a job, and bills, and all the reality we all face. Besides, Rosa is going to make a man out of Gunther. If that is the way the arc is meant to develop get ready for a 360 degree change in Gunther the next time you see him. He will be a confident, dare I say manly kind of guy, in a quiet way.

And I don’t think they are being written out of the strip. The characters are going all over the place, as people tend do when they leave high school—duh.

The romance in this is too great—here a hesitant momma’s boy falls in love with a smart adventuresome girl, and goes off with her, getting over all of those fears to be with her. Everything else is, in my opinion, just irrelevant.

Oh one more thing: I doubt if Quill and Gunther’s mom are carrying on anything. Anything is possible,as I said, Greg likes to surprise. But I highly doubt that in this family strip. Gunther’s mom is looking forward to doing some things she wants to do, and Gunther is becoming a man. Lucky dude!!

I wonder why everyone thinks this is the end of the line for Gunther, like he’s going to spend the rest of his life in Peru. Planes go both ways. Summers do end (ok, winter in Peru), and people do come back from their excursions and start college.

Hahahahah! ;)

I’ve this great brand-new book waiting for me next to my bed…guess IS Katie and I will sound off for now! Enjoy your Saturday! ;)-——————————————————————————————“You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all of the time.”(Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1865…this from a speech given on 08 September 1858. However, this quote has also been attributed to Phineas Barnum, no date or place given). ;)

As I adverted to some days ago. It would certainly bea memorable “first” for Gunther.

Gunther was on his way to a predictable, dull life where he would have been too barely alive to even realize it was unsatisfying. He would remember having loved Luann, and he would remember having loved Rosa, but he would not have bothered trying again because he would be too busy snoozing in his comfort zone. Whether things work out in the long run with Rosa or not, he is now headed toward a life where he knows that whatever he does is something he chose, rather than something he just fell into. He is now heading toward a life that he actually lives, rather than just existing.

Two seats only in each aisle? And they have leg room? What airline is this?

Left one more, for yesterday’s sake…

I’ve just been watching this story line unravel and wondering “Huh”…I know it’s just a comic but over the years it has had plausible story lines ..this one however…? " Huh.."..

With only two seats together, perhaps it’s first class?

I think the Peru trip is really a great idea for Gunther. After my second year of law school, I took a year off to pursue language study in Hungary, and it turned out to be a really good decision – I learned a foreign language, met my fiancee, and came back way more focused than I’d ever been before. It even worked out well career-wise. I’d definitely encourage my future children to take a gap year to study in a foreign country before going to college – it’d give them a chance to adjust to being away from home when the stakes aren’t as high (as in, they won’t screw up their grades), and they’ll come home with fluency in a third language that they could never develop in a university foreign language class, and a lot more maturity than the average freshman…

Why do I think that something is going to happen to this plane that will permanently change the way we see Gunther… The calm before the storm…

@luannfan1212: I’m sorry to be rude, but a pet peeve of mine is that 360 degrees really means no change at all. 180 degrees is a complete reversal, at 360 degrees you’re right back where you started.

My take on this whole arc is that Greg really is trying to take this strip in a new direction. As Meh-thodology said, this is as far outside Pitts as any Luann strip has ever gone. I don’t see any reason why Greg has to stop showing us what happens to “Guns & Roses” in Peru.

I will feel cheated if we get no reaction from the elder Aragones generation. Are we really supposed to believe that Tio Leo didn’t let her folks know about this development? Or did Rosa “forget” to mention to her uncle that she was bringing her boyfriend along? And that said boyfriend had no other place to sleep?

The Luanniverse isn’t always concerned with mundane details like employment law, work permits and such. It’s a cartoon; I get it and normally I’m OK with that.

But ignoring the reactions of Rosa’s parents and uncle just feels, to me, like a completely different level of (un)reality. Besides, there’s way too much dramatic and/or comic potential to just wave it away, particularly when this whole arc is about Gunther’s “rite of passage”. He’s come this far, it would really be a letdown to have him roll over and run home at the first glare from Senor (or Senora) Aragones.

I know where the tilde key is, but is there a way to put it on top of an n?

Why do some people think this is ill conceived? This is the best thing Gunther has ever done, and more often than not, the best experiences are those that happen spontaneously, especially when young!

We got ripped! We didn’t get to see them go through security and take their shoes off. I wonder if Gunter “opted out” and got the “Karate Chop” to the groin by the TSA goons?

The plane ride will not be “a smooth journey”. Gunther and Rosa are going to be permanently written out of “Luann”. The remaining characters will all have to deal with the fact that they never had a chance to say good-bye to Gunther and Rosa. Heartache and grief are, unfortunately, a part of growing up and of life.

Good observation Detroit 1967. We will see.

Is that William Shatner I see two rows back, looking anxiously out the window?

The kids are in first class?

Stage 1: stunned, missing everything familiar, only have each other.Stage 2: Bonding, sex, and consider if they have a future together.

Can’t he back off the huge lips on female characters just a little?

I really expected Gunther to back out at the last instant. I’m glad Greg is making him go.

And Gunth sees Peru poverty up close and personnal…is outraged…and becomes the next Che Guevara.

Uh… I hate to bring in the real world, but where did stay-at-home, stick-in-the-mud Gunther come up with a passport that fast? (Yes, fast processing is available for a fee, but still). And they both plan on staying in Peru and working. That requires a visa and usually proof of financial responsibility in most countries on the planet. You don’t hear much about it, but immigration control isn’t just a U.S. thing.

Ok, let’s try reverse psychology.*Whatever you do, DO NOT put “Luann Spanish” in the Go Comics search box. Just DO NOT!*JayBlue, I don’t do FaceBook. You say they’ve been talking about expanding to Spanish speakers?

Oh yeah, there were a huge 293 comments to yesterday’s strip. Anyone want to go for 300? (I think that would break a record.)

You go Gunth!

Their thoughts are about opposite subjects. Rosa has nothing to talk to Gunther about, he is on his own from here.

Plane is lost in the Peruvian jungle – a year later Gunther the strong survivor returns triumphantly to Pitts to once again throw Luann’s love life into confusion.

I thought Gunther was scared of the whole “going to a foreign country where he doesn’t know anyone or speak the language or have anything to do”. But many comments suggest that Rosa may be expecting sex from him or at least sleeping in the same bed. That is what he is really terrified of.

Now that we’ve seen the finale to “The Graduate”. maybe on Monday we can get back to the “Mrs. Robinson” part, when Mama Berger brings Quill! his bedtime plate of cookies and milk…

Naw, Dustin Hoffman was gonna be okay as long as he remembered PLASTICS

Ok, so about a year ago (and more recently) I said that it looked to me like Greg was writing Luann to it’s end. Now it would appear to me that Greg is giving himself a whole bunch of different comics to write. I think they will all be under Luann but they will each have their own story lines and personalities with unique geographical regions. And if true I would think that would be a ton of fun for Greg to do. I’m sure looking forward to reading them if it goes down like that.

Are the flying first class?

You can always comeback if you go, but you can not always go back if you stay.

310 to Lima? Movie reference here?

By the standards of LOST IN SPACE, most actions are completely reasonable.(I used to enjoy that rediculous show)

Notice that they’re either in Business or First Class? Two seats across.

Let’s see if I got this right: ñ

Thanks, Seismic-2, but I think I’m still missing something subtle. Do I need to type an n or a ~ at any point?

And DavidHuieGreen, where did you get the “degrees” symbol?

I’m ignorant, but attempting to pursue enlightenment.

And as happy as I am with Gunther’s newfound maturity, I’m also ready to see what’s been going on with Delta, Bern, Brad&Toni and Shannon. Knute I could do without. He’s always been a pretty one-dimensional loser, and I don’t see much growth potential there.

But I could be wrong.

Oh, it did work! Cool!

Ampersand-pound-241-semicolon. Thanks!

Looks like a 737

My guess is a 767. Not sure a 737 has that kind of range to fly internationally (LAX to LIM) more than 6hrs or has the ETOPS rating for it.

A lady could do a lot with lips like those.Tuba perhaps?

Both Rosa and Gunther are alert and wide-eyed, while other passengers are already dozing off. Both have their apprehensions about what they are doing and where it may lead.For my part, I am a tad apprehensive that the arc is continuing after the plane has taken off; I hope there is no catastrophe in the offing! That would be too out of character for Luann, I hope!

Rosa’s acquired some excess baggage she doesn’t need.

Not me, it replaced silly idiocy with excessive darkness..That was part of the joy of Star Trek; even though Captain Kirk was obviously insane, going into the thick of danger, knowing perfectly the new guy was always going to die, there was a hopeful, playful possible future.

Mile-High Club?!

And you can always make extra stops to refuel — although the pilot would mention them. We never had stops on the way to Rio but stopped in Benin traveling from Luanda to Paris.

I suppose its time to rotate back to Luann, and that’s okay, but I’d sure like to see Crystal and Knute come up with plans for their future. Brad and Toni….not so much, they’ve outgrown the strip and have become like Hi & Lois. Boring.

The plane Greg drew is a Boeing 737. All one has to do is look at the engine intakes. In Greg’s drawing, note the bottom of the engine intake. It is slightly flattened as are the ones on a 737:

But they’re also a bit recessed underneath the wing, which conflicts with the design of the 737-300+ classic series with the flattened intakes. The whole point of that intake was ensuring that there was enough ground clearance given the size of the initial CFM56 engines. So they extended the engine cowling to be in front of the wing so it could rise up a bit. The 737 “Next Gens” *800-900’s) have the rounded intakes and are recessed below the wing. I don’t believe there are very many 300-500’s still in the air, today… at least not the major US carriers.

I said 767 because all the 737’s that I know of have 3-3 configurations in coach. (check Seat Guru. So, unless they’re in BC/FC. or perhaps the 3rd seat next to Gunther is “out of frame” in re: the last panel, then either they’re not in a 737, or Greg goofed on the engine drawing, or wasn’t paying attention to it.. Or, maybe it’s a bit of misdirection to get us gabbing about it! :-PPP

I’d never fly a 737-300 (with flattened intakes) anywhere internationally over water. I used to fly (then) Continental Micronesia all the time from Guam to several international destinations… the longest of which (6hrs) was to Cairns, Australia. But all in a 737-800, with rounded intakes and much larger CMF56’s (that met the 2-3hr ETOPS criteria). I don’t know of a 300-500 that ever met an ETOPS spec greater than 1hr.

Few weeks… FEW WEEKS???Where does it say a few weeks?This looks like forever!!

Forever…FOREVER???Where does it say forever?.TOUCHE!!

¡Sí!

ASCII tables abound on the Internet. Here’s one.

@ORMouseworks said yesterday:

Or an even more important phrase: ?Donde esta el bano? (sorry I can’t include the tilde on the “bano”)!!! ;)

:-)))

Those familiar with the 1990’s children’s cartoon series Animaniacs will recall one of their best episodes entitled “Potty Emergency.” “Wacko” is seated in a theater slurping on an “Abyss Boy” drink, when he suddenly gets that “urge to purge.” So, the whole cartoon is about his need to “go Potty” and attempting to find the bathroom in the theater (and how he disrupts the movie, theater, and the patrons etc.) until he finds it.

I HAVE TO POTTY! POTTY…POTTY…POTTY!

Point being, I mentioned yesterday that I had never been to Peru, but I have been to Chile. On the very 1st day I arrived in Viña Del Mar (see, you can do it OR :-) ), I checked into my hotel there, and started watching the TV. Sure enough…. there was Animaniacs on TV in Spanish, and sure enough there was “Potty Emergency,” also in Spanish. It was just funny hearing Wacko keep saying, ¡NECESITO EL BAÑO! ¡BAÑO…BAÑO….BAÑO!

Hooray for Gunther and Rosa! Yeah, it’s scary —That’s why they call it adventure. But think of all the people you will be helping, the things you will be learning, and the stories you will be able to share when you get back. A worse fate might be becoming a CPA, buying a mortgage, and spending the rest of you life wishing it was Friday.

I never paid attention to what I was on. Remember hearing L1011 one time and knew a Boeing mechanic in Luanda. (Not closely, just met him at a party and once while going home at the end of a 28-on)

Looking at the actual flights between LAX and Lima, there are only a handful of direct flights and all of them use the 767. I think you have a winner on the aircraft. Flight time is 8 hours and 40 minutes.

At one time (then) Continental had direct service from Newark NJ to Santiago Chile, which is what I used to go there. This would have been 1998-2000. For this, they had to use a DC10-30 as they did not yet have 767-400’s in inventory. They also used DC10-30’s for West Coast (LAX or SFO) to Honolulu. The DC10s with 3 CF6-50’s would negate the need for an ETOPS rating. Now, they use 767-400s. with 180min. ETOPS, I believe and can go direct Newark to Honolulu. Same thing for Honolulu to Guam.

Funny… the one and only time I was going to fly direct Newark to Honolulu on a 767, wouldn’t ya know…. someone had a medical emergency on board and they had to divert to LAX so the person could be seen by medics. Thankfully, the person was not seriously ill and in no danger. But they had to do all the emergency procedures like dump fuel before landing at LAX (which they then had to replenish at LAX, etc.) and the aircraft landed in Honolulu something like 3-4 hours late. Which complicated matters a bit for me, as I had dinner reservations at “La Mer” that evening. (Google it). But they held the table for me.

Goodness, I wish I still had that kind of disposable $$$… :(

True.The courts took my brother’s kids from them for a time.The oldest was around 6.Emotionally, he’s still 6 although now 40.Don’t know if it was the separation or the return to the newly divorced mother.(They were told to clean the home fit for human habitation but her lawyer advised they would return the children if the parents divorced. Seems to have been right; she never did clean up, never taught them to clean up, and used them to extort favors.)

We’ve seen no indication that Jonah Daytona is in fact a bad parent (other than that he has raised a brat). He just finds someone to take care of her when he has to go look for work, which is what all parents everywhere do.

“(Gunther’s) Comfort Zone”(sung to the tune of Kenny Login’s “Danger Zone”)

Taxi down the runwayListen to the engines roarFeelin’ all the tensionWonderin’ if you should go

So long to your Comfort ZoneWay outside your Comfort Zone

Headin’ south to LimaFlyin’ out on Delta FlightShe got you packin’ up your lifeShoved it into one overnight

Goodbye to your Comfort Zone She’ll take youRight out of your Comfort Zone

It never felt so real to youUntil you got on the 301 flightYou never know what you can doUntil you get away as far as you can go

Here beside my RosaIs always where I want to beIs this a runway orA highway to insanity?

Sayin’ …Adios a su Comfort ZoneShe’s gonna take youRight out of your Comfort ZoneOh yeah, GuntherYou can’t find your Comfort ZoneIt’s about time that youRedefined your Comfort Zone

(fade)

Stupid Comments app took out all my formatting :(

Eyes wide shut.

Have they ever mentioned taking Shannon from Toni’s brother permanently? Ever? The closest we’ve come is Brad saying he would be a better parent.

Directly mentioned it? No. But why setup her storyline that way and show all the progress Brad made with her (on his own) if that wasn’t the future intent? Was she just supposed to be a foil for Brad & Toni (i.e. to foil their “pre-conjugal” efforts)? All that was needed in that case, was for her to always show up at Toni’s place right when Brad was expecting some “private time.” Yet she was also shopping with Brad, and over at the DeGroot residence, even with Lu babysitting, and Frank & Nancy getting in on it. She is slowly becoming part of the family, without any formal announcement.

Ignoring the fact that taking a child from their parent, however irresponsible, is not possible unless he was somehow mistreating her…Brad and Toni don’t like having her around. They actually announce they don’t want her around with her standing right next to them.

When did they do that? And was that just Toni, or was it both Brad and Toni? I think there might be something to Toni not wanting to adopt her. But I think Brad is game for it. He just doesn’t have the history with Shannon that Toni has, or the relationship to Jonah (part of it is wanting her brother to live up to his responsibilities and her continued frustration that he isn’t). Having to adopt her would be the ultimate failure by Jonah and something I don’t think she wants. Which could very well be part of the “drama and trauma” we are to expect in re: the wedding.

And, yes, while it is quite Herculean to take away a child from a biological parent, it has been done, and I think Greg could easily provide sufficient “Deus ex Machina,” in this case, to make it happen.

Perhaps we’ll see more of G&R, with the setting in Lima, Perú.

Perhaps Greg is now in Perú and we’ll see Rosa’s uncle and his clinic.

Brad and Toni will adopt Shannon when her dad dies in a tragic freak stage accident at the theater.

Something will happen but, hopefully, not that tragic. I wouldn’t wish that on Shannon. She’s probably already racked with guilt over her mom’s death. I wouldn’t want her to lose both parents and compound the guilt.

I think the best thing is for Jonah to have a “legal” issue and be sent to prison for some length of time. He remains alive, and (theoretically) she can go visit him. But it would create the necessity for Shannon to be adopted (or made a ward of the State). I’d think Toni would step in before that happens. Brad certainly would.

I guess Luann is probably running to the airport too late. When she finds out Gunther is gone and if Luann is a country music fan (Taylor Swift), she would remember a song from Gary Allen called “Watching Airplanes.” “I’m just sitting around watching airplanes, take off, and fly.” “I’m just sitting around watching airplanes, and WHY you DON’T LOVE ME ANYMORE!” “I bet you’re a million miles away from me.” After all, Luann loved being flattered by Gunth in school. Might be dumb, but Mr. Evans has a good story.

Jonah Daytona will land a role starring in a play in Peru. Like everyone else who goes to such a distant land, he will never be heard from again.

Is this a Johnny Cash ONE PIECE AT A TIME car?

BTW, Happy Brithday, Bill Cosby!

Jonah and Bernice Daytona?

The 737-300/-400/-500 received 120 minute ETOPS approval from the FAA in 1990. The “Next Gen” 737’s were approved for 180 minute ETOPS. The CFM56-7 engine type, which exclusively powers the Boeing Next-Generation 737-600/-700/-800/-900 and Boeing Business Jet models, has an engine reliability rate significantly better than required for 180-minute ETOPS.

My bad… :( I meant 2hrs vs. 3. No point in having a 1hr ETOPS interval since that’s the base time anyway. It is [E]TOPS, after all.

Now, can anyone tell me how to put the accent mark over a letter

I keep a “unicode” Notepad *.txt file of characters on my desktop. Whenever I need a character, I just copy it from that notepad file and paste in in here (or wherever). So far, there’s no character I haven’t been able to paste in from that file. In fact, that’s how I did the “MOΛΩN ΛAΒE” yesterday. I now have all the Greek characters in that notepad file.

But I draw the line at Cyrillic! ;-PPP

you can defer for a year if you have a good reason, gap year, experience, adventure, etc. and starting college a year later, you’re likely more intentional. no biggee.

And Dirk!

So it’s okay for Brad and Gunther to change, but not Jonah?

Of course, it’s OK for Jonah to change. The question is, “will he?” He might, but I see no evidence of it yet. I have seen evidence of it in both Brad and Gunther.

Frankly, I’d much prefer to have Jonah do the right thing and raise his own daughter properly so that Brad and Toni can have their own family when the time is right for them. Having to raise someone like Shannon would be a tough burden on any marriage, let a lone a brand new one. Toni knows this. I don’t think Brad does, just yet. Still, I’d much prefer that Brad and Toni adopt and raise Shannon rather than she be left to the foster care system, should it come to that. Do I know that’s going to happen? No. But again, Jonah doesn’t seem to offer any evidence yet that he’s willing to change.

They’re so cute,I wonder where we are going with them,and the other sweet couples? Jp

I’m surprised no one mentioned this yesterday…

Where is Rosa’s luggage?

I don’t think that he final scene of The Graduate showed any remorse at all. I think that their initial giddiness calmed as they moved forward together, what they both wanted, instead of what all the parents and society had tried to cram them into. That jibes with what made the movie the voice of the generation.

why do so many of the girls in this comic have duck lips?

Surprisingly, Greg has decided that Knute is a more interesting character than Gunther.

Comments seem hard to open. Trying to post one to see if that helps.

I take it that this airplane, doesn’t have seat back TV.

He laughed and said, “That’s one bastard plane there.”

Well, Greg isn’t an aircraft engineer, designer or aficionado… at least not enough to pay that much attention to detail. So what can one do? And, as stated, it really doesn’t facilitate the story arc. As long as they land safely, the aircraft doesn’t matter. :-)

At least the airplane is more nearly realistic than the ones on “Mary Worth”, with the big rectangular picture windows.

"…All I have to say is: “It’s alive…!!” ^LOL!

Actually, way over 700…

In addition to the tables on the net (like what Seismic put up), there’s also one in your Excel or Word. Or if you use the new “Windows”, you can pull up the “search charm” and type “Character Map” in the search bar and it should come up for you. Either way, you can cut and paste from there…

“…Just like this car that is part ’57, ’58, and ’59”^“Duhn-na na duhn na -na… ♫… Man-bat… Man-tat…♫”

That’s why I said the letters were “backwards and out of place”….

Ignoring the way the engines were drawn, I took into account the wing design and the seating configuration. I believe the plane in question is an Airbus A330.

310 to Lima? Bad pun. Unless they end up in Yuma of course .,

I can’t be the only one picturing the bus scene from The Graduate. Where Benjamin and Elaine sit in the back of a bus, and their smiles fade, in a “did I make the right choice?” Kind of way.

♪♫Hello Darkness, my old friend…♪♫