Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for January 10, 2015

“Huhmmmph?”…Well, will ya lookit dat?… last year near this time, Gunth took strides and finally took some initiative to kiss her, and take steps to be bold. Now, this kiss is their last… Sadly ironic…. – But I guess Gunth was enrolled in a “crash course” at the “School of Almost As Hard Knocks”…and for that, she gives him some…"credits"…..

Ooh-la-la! (But still disappointing, isn’t it?)

I guess that is all between Gunther and Rosa…but no wild kiss shared… ;)

No joke. Gunther could have stayed home and gotten jilted by women, but still earn a degree in the meantime.

“A Bold Statement”“A Crash Course In U-Turns” “2 Peas In A Split Soup”“Out Through The In Door’ (♫)“Unsealed With A Kiss” (♫)“We’ll Always Have…This Place….”“Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)” (♫)“Will I Be Alright, Without You?” (♫)“Once In A Lifetime” (♫)“A Parting Of Lips, A Parting Of Ways”“50 Ways To Leave Without Your Love” (♫)“The Long And Unwinding Road” (♫)“Where’s The Good In Goodbye?” (♫)or“Life Walks On”

“If those two have been working, why aren’t those gloves dirtier?” Good point! ;)

The very first thing Gunther is saying in the first frame is that ’we’d always planned to go our own ways.’ Doesn’t sound like someone who is heart broken over the fact that they are parting.- So Rosa is the one who does the kissing, while praising Gunther for having the courage to step outside his comfort zone. Gunther isn’t even putting his arms around her.-And yet the Rosa haters will find some reason to insist that she’s some kind of ‘Dragon Lady’ and selfish and uncaring about Gunther’s goals.-Someone posted yesterday that Gunther is better off without her. I think she inspired him to start to figure out what he really wants, and if she hadn’t been part of his life, he would probably never have started to do that.-But I’m truly sorry that it looks like Rosa won’t be seen anymore…

Perhaps this was the morning time (a bit after the scene where they played “pick up stix”) and they were about to get started, when the driver came up…

My niece and nephew both graduated from Princeton, specializing in the foreign languages that helped them get jobs overseas. Far as I know, raking and gathering weren’t part of the Princeton curriculum…

I sure hope he hears what she’s saying here. I want him to understand that he benefited from this trip because he defied expectations and took a few chances. And that she benefited from him going on the trip because she’ll remember him as a guy who was willing to step out of his safety zone for her even though it didn’t work out, rather than as an unsatisfying, frustrating high school romance that could never have gone anywhere.

I’d be pretty sure that Evans will have something specifically “lined up”. He sure didn’t miss the past couple of “Marches”…. to query further, How/Who will the celebration involve?….

So… Gunther lost a few months at Moony U but gained some backbone and self-knowledge, and got to see a different part of the world to boot. Not a bad deal at all. I do hope he took some time to see the sights (esp. Machu Pichu) before he left Peru.

I’m still waiting for Rosa’s uncle to step in and pull her back to his place..Never heard if that area is a safe place for Rosa..Sorry for Gunth, but he did step out of his comfort zone.

I wish he’d kissed her back a little more vociferously. But instead, he’s standing there like your standard Gunther manniquen. I’d hoped he’d say something like…remember always, at least I loved you enough to come out here in the first place.

But no, the Gunther getting kissed there is typical wimp Gunther, not manly been out in the boonies for a month and a half Gunther.

Or, Brown University… ;)

“Luis would leave in the morning and come back in the evening.” ?^No, I meant Luis could have gotten there (as shown in the previous strip) just as they were "just beginning’….

" I think the ‘who’ will be us. The ‘how’ is the question.." ^It’s been a while since he’s had a contest…

Sad story. Too bad Gunther and Rosa had to part. They were one of my favorite Luann couples but I’m glad Gunther decided that he belonged at home and not in Lima imagine him being stuck there his whole life. … Still there’s more to the story and I want to know how Gunther got his new look. I hope it will show next week instead of giving us another cliffhanger!

Different Roads (Joe Cocker)

But more appropriately….

As I said yesterday…

Sometimes love just ain’t enough.

Selfish little …. he is well shot of her and I am glad to see her go.

I fail to understand why Rosa thinks she is learning far more in the Peruvian Andes than she would in Yale… I think she can learn as part of a Lima University internship. But, be there on her own without an internship program backing her up? I don’t think so… She needs to earn a background diploma so she can earn her Master’s and truly help the people who live in that remote Peruvian village… ;)

-Maybe Rosa could be a pishtaco.-zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

@Moordock999-Reply function didn’t work.-No, nobody had to say what you said.-And as far as ‘meeting someone halfway’, it was Gunther who didn’t even participate halfway in a kiss, let alone anything more active…

Count Yer Blessings, Gunth. This Gal’s Priorities are Completely skewed. Besides You DIDN’T Deem Happy at All during This So-Called “Relationship” so You’re Better Off Now, IMHO.

Hey, Why You Help Bernice Find this Dez Person?

……,Then Call INS and Have Pretty-Boy DEPORTED….,

I saw THAT, Brdy. THAT Kinda COFFEE would Set Your Hair On Fire and Enable a Person to See Through a Brick Wall!Got Any Left???

Frankly, you and I see the world so differently that I’m not sure we’re on the same planet.

Well, its time to find IS Katie and schlep up to bed! (Which makes me wonder, who in the village is giving Rosa food and shelter?!). Perhaps there are missionaries there who are doing that?! After all, these mountain people probably don’t even have enough money to buy their own food!). ’Nite all! ;)-———————————————————— “Beauty in things exists in the mind which contemplates them.”(David Hume, 1711-1776)

OK, so what is Gunther going to do now? His mother gave him his college fund to pay for the trip?

Drag him all the way to Peru just to break up with him? She’s a class act that one is. He’ll be scared to ever trust again and all he got was a kiss.

At least you didn’t cry, Gunther.

A kiss he didn’t even bother returning. Notable because he has properly returned kisses before.

Like I said, that’s Mannequin Gunther, just taking whatever she dishes out. Completely, totally passive.

Why didn’t I think of that?

people, rest with the stick stitch, they probably had to get them to heat their room with the room stove, the only way the stick thing might have been to help would be to get some extra ones to give the old lady who was neighbor to them as she was too old to gather the sticks for her stove……. not saying that Rosa is not a fool to try volunteer by herself without any organization backing her and training her, all she has become is a new boarder of that village, she is basically doing the same things any local villager does…………. is like me going to any farm in the USA, and start helping them gather the harvest, exactly the same as any farm head, except the fact that I doing it for less money than even an illegal

@howtheduck … I think it isn’t a slam really at Yale. More her feeling she’d learn more hands on and in real life than sitting in a classroom. In many ways, I agree with that statement.

I suppose this is common in relationships. Disappointing, because we like both characters, and expected them to find happiness together. But, like real people, selfish folks don’t make plans that are mutually inclusive.I am not prepared to romantically tie Gunther to Bernice, though. GAK! The whole turn of events puts a lump in my throat.

Poor Gunth. Not even a roll in the hay.

Ohhhh…so that’s what happened to the plaid shirt. She ripped it off him when she said “goodbye”.

Good for you,Rosa and good for you, Gunther.

They should have both gone to Detroit!

A question for all of you Luannites out there. In a couple of months it is going to be her 30th anniversary. Are we going to celebrate in any fashion or will it just be another day?

Celebrate. How, you ask? Oh, I dunno… maybe…. Brad and Toni’s Wedding?

;-PPPPP

Yes Gunther, go on to college and become an engineer, a teacher, a doctor or acquire some other useless skill that could change lives and transform communities, because I will learn so much more through my good intentions. Because that’s all that really matters — a desire to help, not the skills to do so. And no, I am not incredibly self-centered and selfish because I will not spend four years learning something useful that will actually help this village — what they really need is unskilled American teenage labor! So go on your way little man. I shall sweep and pick up sticks for humanity. And when some young person from this village expresses a desire to go to college, I shall tell them how blessed they are to live in this wonderful rural setting where they too can learn more than they would at Yale.

Uh huh, she was just using him to accomplish her narrow minded goals.

I still think there ay be a little latent lightness in the feet with Gunthie.

I think it is interesting that in this scene gunther still is clean shaven and plaid shirt wearin’. So did those changes happen on the plane home?

The irony is that Rosa may be the most unskilled person in the village. She will probably need more help from villagers to survive than they will need from her. Well played, Rosa, well played.

I don’t think so. It looks like all she’s learning how to do is gather firewood. I’d think a medical degree would be more to the point.

and he is still stiff as a board. I’m tired of hoping for Gunther, Greg. You may as well just let him be a full fledged pansie.

Seems to me more like someone really had trouble figuring out how to end that arc.

would not be interesting if G took college, graduated as rural engineer, and came back to the village 4 years later, where Rosa still there, and seeing Gunther, she runs to him and says “I have been working so hard, but it is still in same situation here”, and he says “move out of the way, let me get to work” and 4 months later he has put solar panels so the village has electricity and built better homes with green methods of heating which allows village not to have to get sticks, better irrigation systems to improve what they grow on the fields, and even got a few teachers from Lima to start an incredible school for the village after he builds it and than after having done that builds a headquarters for a new company that helps villages around South America and a home and than asks Rosa to marry him and that she has to go to a Lima university to get a teacher’s degree so she can be the boss of getting new and better schools for the villages around South America…………….. sorry Rosa, I love your noble heart, and desire to help people, but you, all by yourself and without any financial sponsor.. YOU DO NOT MAKE A DIFFERENCE at all

Rosa’s being very mature, and Greg is being a very good writer. Too often, in real life and in fiction, we treat disagreements, and having different points of views and goals in life as being, well, wrong, being oppositional, or sometimes even a sign of madness. Seeing that Gunther has a niche in life somewhere else but has given time to seeing her through to the end of finding her own niche shows a very appreciative side of Rosa that, frankly, we don’t often see too often in our regular cast of characters.

We’re just seeing the backs of them; the palms and whatnot may very well be filthy.

This proves they have never been physical. Rosa is touching him in the second panel, but he is still surprised when she kisses him in the last panel. His body language shows that is not attracted to Rosa at all.

TBH, I’m not happy with all the Rosa bashing, either. I don;t think she’s seeing the “big picture” here… that sacrificing those 4 extra years and getting the degree from Yale might actually put her in a much better position to help those people. I think something else is clouding her vision.

I believe Rosa is suffering from CFS (“Control Freak Syndrome”). At 18, she’s now a legal adult and able to make some decisions on her own, and she’s chafing a the bit to do so. She wants to be “in control” of her life, and out from under her family’s control. So much so… that she’s willing to cut a few corners to get that freedom. But she doesn’t understand the fundamental things about family “control.” Yes, parents have control of their children’s lives, legally, until they turn 18. But when they do (turn 18), parental control doesn’t just stop… it “morphs.” It becomes “financial control.” One might be a legal adult at 18, but still dependent financially on their parents/family (unless they’re a teen millionaire or celebrity, etc. etc.). A teen could also join the Military for a bit, but even they are cutting back and, as a result, becoming a much more “selective service.” ;-)

Rosa needs to realize that until she can support herself, she’ll still be under parental control in one form or another. Accept it, work with it, let them pay for college, and then, when you have some ability to function on your own, then you can gain your independence. Well… sort of.. because it doesn’t stop there, either. There is also “inheritance control” for families that are wealthy enough (and I think Rosa’s might be). But we’re nowhere’s near that point, yet.

Rosa, look at the big picture. Use your family! Let them pay for you to get where you want to be. It’s a small sacrifice. And it’s not like you’d still be living under them. You’d have a bit of freedom in New Haven.

But, then again, it this hadn’t happened, Gunther would never have transformed… I think, perhaps, this may be Greg’s “end game” for the Rosa arc. Still, I want to see her further in the strip. I hope she gets where she wants to be…. the easy way.

Maybe they are to keep them from being contaminated. Do they have ebola in Peru?

Maybe Gunth’s unkept hair & 5 o-clock shadow is because he is more distressed over the parting than he realizes. His mom is bound to saysomething about his appearance soon.

Re: yesterday about the day before: I read your post, was just referencing the daily postings.BTW love your ballad yesterday.

Well, there’s a kiss to put hair on your face.

Rosa could have done office work for the Red Cross in Lima, or cook and serve food at a soup kitchen, or drive around in the city to collect donations of clothes and food for the homeless. or (since she is a receptionist at a clinic during the day!) she could have volunteered to be a receptionist at a free clinic in the evenings. But no, she has to come to the mountains, where she will step off the van and tell the medical worker at the clinic, “I’m here!” The response, of course, will be “So what?”, while everyone thinks, “Oh great. Just what we need – a couple more mouths to feed.” Rosa looks around and exclaims, “The mountains surrounding this village are so large! there’s just so much here to… rake!!!”

After all that, and all Gunther ends up with is a “pity” kiss? Oh, and an extremely expensive last minute plane ticket back to the States; Thanks Rosa for nothing.

All right, so Rosa decided she’d rather spend time doing something she really wants to do instead of eating space in a classroom because she was EXPECTED to. How awful. Ask anyone who’s been a Mormon missionary for two years if they thought it was beneficial to them beyond spreading word of their church…I suspect most would say they grew a lot as a person AND were still able to go to college when they returned. Besides, look at how many people with BAs are serving coffee at Starbucks now. How much are THEY growing working as baristas? It’s all relative and, more important, it’s WHAT ROSA WANTS TO DO WITH HER LIFE RIGHT NOW.

As for Gunther, nobody put a gun to his head to travel to Peru with Rosa. Yeah, his “romance” fizzled before it really get started, but he did step outside himself for a time, he’s seen a part of the world that’s nothing like the cocoon that Pittsville has been for him and he missed one (1) quarter of college. Sad as Gunther is over how things ended, he’s grown a little, too. I guess that’s Rosa’s fault, too.

People here seem to love to bash her, but in her short time in the strip, Rosa impresses me as one of the most genuinely decent people in it, albeit a bit self-absorbed (and we NEVER see that from teenagers, do we?). Delta goes to Howard to spend four years sitting in a classroom in order to help people later, and people applaud. Rosa says, in a sense, “Why not wait for college and help people NOW?” and gets hammered for it. Lighten up.

I love all these “bow to the pressures of his mother” last time I checked Gunther was ready to bail on Peru because he thought mommy had a boyfriend. As for him hooking up with Bernice I’d be a bit disappointed. Everyone is out of high school and still can’t associate with anyone besides who they went to high school with.

This is a comic don’t ya know. Read a crotch novel if you want that.

Gunth will never be the same…That’s GOOD by the way!

Tap it Gunth

Maybe his disheveled appearance comes from the trip home. His journey is ending sooner than he thought. I really don’t know what his return plans were, if he had a return ticket, etc. Maybe he had to take a longer, harder road to get home (taking different vehicles, being on standby forever, etc).

I’m glad this arc is over. I hope Gunther is able to use this experience and figure out where and what he wants to be in this life.

Wonder why this strip attracts those who can not leave the real life and enjoy the comics for a few minuets. Other comics don’t have this type following that try to make a comic real life. Seems sad that there is no make be-leave place they can get away to. So serious. HMMMm wonder why that is???

We haven’t seen Delta during Christmas vacation. Probably she and a bunch of students from Howard U. went to Peru with Habitat for Humanity in an organized program to learn how to build shelter for homeless people there, rather than going on their own to collect sticks.

Good one. With a Yale degree, Rosa could have prepared herself for any number of jobs that would fulfill her personal requirements of living in the Third World and helping people, and she could have done more to help them with that education than she’s doing now, sweeping floors and cleaning toilets.

Depends on what kind of work they were doing.

She’ll learn more there than at Yale??? All I would learn is why over 99% of all people asked would rather go to Yale.

Poignant and bittersweet. Applause, Mr. Evans.

You are indeed Charlie.Je suis Achmed.

These people will still be living in poverty, hunger, disease, and abject human suffering. But at least now they’ll live on the best-raked mountain in all Peru!

This is not a bad story! I feel bad for Gunth, but maybe Rosa will change her mind about being “down on the farm.” Sure, she wants to help people, but I feel like she’s at the good age of being someone like a doctor who can help her village. Oh yeah, it looks like Bernice’s eyes are set on :“Grunge Gunth.” Maybe there will be romance there for the G man.

One more thing, Je suis’ Charlie!

If you truly understood what the battle between the terrorists and the magazine ‘Charlie Hebdo’ was about, you would also understand the need for people to be allowed to worship as they feel called to (and not as a bunch of rigid ultra-religious self appointed ‘rulers’ say they must.) Ignoring such self-appointed so-called religious leaders leads only to the eventual slaughter of those who practice other religions, a practice often seen in human history. -Satire such as that published by Charlie Hebdo is about puncturing the ego of these self-appointed rulers. Those who murder while claiming that they are protecting their prophet are not only not protecting their prophet, they are just killing anyone who doesn’t worship as they do (yeah, I know, you’re thinking ‘duh!’)-Similarly, though, satire is aimed at those on the secular side who believe that people must behave in only one way, and if they don’t, they are to be scorned. This does not just apply to government figures who use their positions of authority to further worsen the lives of those who, for example, have lost their jobs and need temporary assistance. -This applies also to those who insist that a teen girl or any woman must have as her highest priority whatever her boyfriend or parents want her to do. The philosophy of the so-called ultra-religious is that women are not really full-fledged humans and exist only to do what the men in their lives tell them to do. That is as dangerous and wasteful of human lives in the long run as slaughtering people who worship differently.-Je suis aussi Charlie.

Looking at the kiss, I am thinking it led to…the reason Gunth was able to grow a beard. :)

I…think.. I’m gonna puke.

In favor of Rosa – maybe she thought Gunther really needed something to pull him out of his nest.

Who remembers what Brad did when he felt the call to serve?

IS OKAY TO HELP PEOPLE NOW!! IF YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TOOLS AND ORGANIZATIONS, it’s not about Rosa choosing helping now vs going to college, is about her choosing to do it by herself and without resources vs choosing to do it as part of a well planned organization…………… her “help” is like someone choosing a small toy rake http://www.adventuretoys.co.uk/products/7817rakeandtrowel.jpg and no container(bag, trash can etc) to pick up leaves in a big yard in Chicago while we have fast winds, it is a huge amount of effort, but it does not make any difference

Don’t let the car door hit you in the arse Gunther.

He is a mediocre person.

“I’m so proud of you…” huh? as if Gunther was her little psychology experiment; the results are in and now she can move on.

That said, Gunther is equally accountable for his own actions. He knew that this is what Rosa wanted to do and that in accompanying her he would have to adapt or move on. Going to Peru was his own experiment. and the results should not be surprising

We we still haven’t seen how Gunther transforms himself physically. So these flashbacks need to continue.

I think it’s sweet still.

This is important to Rosa’s education because she needs to get it out of her system. She might learn what it is she needs to learn, in a university setting, to be most useful in a rural poverty setting. She might learn “on-the-job” skills that will allow her to be useful and fulfilled in that little clinic. She will almost certainly learn some humility, and that her parents plans were not intended to limit her, and that she still has a lot to learn. A lot of college students flounder in their first few years, or end up choosing a major based on little more self-knowlege than they had when they identified themselves as “undeclared” as freshmen. I suspect that Rosa will end up going to college, and when she does, her college career will go much better because of this excursion. And I too am hoping that Greg will share the rest of Gunther’s story with us…

could have overseenWrite more gooder

WHY DIDNT HE JUST STAY IN LIMA…. HE WAS WELL LIKED AND NEEDED THERE AND HE COULD HAVE SEEN HER WHENEVER HE WANTED

“I agree. Their whatnots are probably filthy and disgusting.”.THAT was actually funny.Congratulations.

“Now, how many have heard the wakeup call? We can’t just go back to sleep!”.What wake-up call?That there are people who will kill if offended?Most of us already knew that.That there who will throw themselves into hell expecting Paradise?We knew already.That bad guys will kill the unarmed and helpless?DUH.That people will kill police, even if they are Asian, Hispanic or Muslim?We already knew.That some Muslims will protect us “infidels” from other Muslims?There have been other examples.Expound further.

AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the issue is not College vs volunteer work………………. is “all by myself volunteer work” vs “along WITH an organization volunteer work” that leaves a bad taste to lot of common sense readers………… Greg (if his goal was to have Gunther explore going abroad and learning he wants to study but at same time feel more adventurous and edgy" while breaking up with Rosa and make Rosa as a “noble heart that thinks of others” ) could have EASILY tweaked things slightly, where Rosa got hold of Habitat or whatever other organization going to Peru that accepted her as a volunteer and Gunther decides to go with her(basically same story, except who she was going to work for), he helps her with whatever organization but learns it is not for him, he needs to go back home and study so Rosa and him decide their paths are different, and say goodbye, maybe our paths will cross again, maybe not………….. and 1- We see Rosa stay being part of a great organization and she actually helping villages, and 2- we still get the no plaid and with shadow facial hair Gunther……the way it is right now, IT DOES NOT FEEL THAT ROSA IS ACTUALLY HELPING ANYONE……………… SHE IS ANOTHER BODY THAT THE PEOPLE OF THE VILLAGE HAVE TO SUPPORT

@argythree@Charles Smith“If you truly understood what the battle between the terrorists and the magazine ‘Charlie Hebdo’ was about, you would also understand the need for people to be allowed to worship as they feel called to (and not as a bunch of rigid ultra-religious self appointed ‘rulers’ say they must.) Ignoring such self-appointed so-called religious leaders leads only to the eventual slaughter of those who practice other religions, a practice often seen in human history.”.There is a problem here.Some of the “self-appointed” leaders have many willing followers.Some existing religions preach killing of nonbelievers and/or converts.Remember the lady sentenced to be hanged by her GOVERNMENT as an apostate for refusing to renounce Christianity in favor of Islam (submission).There are ways of thinking which reject “live and let live” and “treat others as you would like to be treated”.

Isn’t gathering wood and raking the ground kind of strenuous and dangerous for someone who isn’t acclimated to thin mountain air?

This is kind of Pygmalion in reverse, Rosa wants to change her nerd into Indiana Jones. Soon, she will be sitting alone in her mountain hut singing, “I’ve grown accustomed to his face…” In the meantime, Luis, the driver will haul Gunther higher up the mountain, give him a hang glider, and push him off the edge. Then he will catch a tramp steamer, filled with bananas, and work his way home.

That’s all he gets? A kiss?

Rosa will learn The Ways of Deportation .Unlike her parents, she has no diplomatic immunity.She could easily be back in the States before Gunther grows his first chin hair.

He could have had a more likely chance to see Rosa again if he chose to head back to Lima to continue to work in Rosa Uncle’s office as those people surely needed his help and he was good at it. I’m for sure Rosa would have travel to see her Uncle a few times a year and could have had a better long distance relationship with Gunther that way .

if they’re supposed to be medical gloves, they could change them often