Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for February 08, 2015

Enlightment….or entrapment?

In the first panel, I’d like to know what the name of the painting under Leonardo’s “Mona Lisa” is as well as its artist.

“Cathy’s Clown” (♫)“Stripped Of Comics”“Van Gogh’s A No Show”“MunchAdo About Nohting”“Picas-so What?”“Pro-vocational Training”“A Sunday Comics Driver”“Oh, No He Rodin!”“Aak!-centuate The Positive…” (♫)or“Felix…Nothing More Than Felix….” (♫)

Psh. Comics are the lowest art form, anyone who laughs at such cheap humor are peasants. Great comic today Greg, loved it! :D

We’re getting a little Meta here, aren’t we?

Perhaps continuing in the vein of the teacher that belittled cartooning, inspiring Greg to create a character or two, as shown on Luann’s Facebook page here …..

Pshaw, nobody needed that 4th wall anyway.

This is the second time I can recall that GE has “broken that wall” – the first being Luann’s birthday, when Greg and Karen stepped into the strip to wish Luann a happy birthday. I appreciate the conceit when used sparingly, and done well… but I have to admit I don’t totally get the joke here. :( Maybe it’ll come to me later.

The black circle MIGHT be a Kazamir Malevich painting.

LOL!!!!!

Actually quite suspenseful – waiting until Monday to see if Luann has a good line. I hope so. She is becoming a big girl now. I see Evans snuck in a Doonesbury character. Doonesbury (Trudeau) has the best sense of theater among all the cartoon artists. But Greg Evans & daughter are very good and this arc is getting interesting…

It’s hard to take this guy seriously when his eyebrows are thicker than his moustache.

And what’s with the leading question?

Is provoking “a chuckle” a valid artistic goal?

He’s already implying that comics have only one goal. To be funny.

He’s definitely had some collagen injections on those pouty lips, too.

Luann, if you’re in America, yes, you can speak freely. But whether you may speak freely is a different issue…

I like what Wiley is doing with today’s Non Sequitur. It’s a reader-driven comic…

I am backing off from thinking maybe Malevich. That image feels too static.

wow! Greg is putting himself on the spot with that final question! !

She doesn’t have to be even acutely aware (or at all ,for that matter) for it to work… the benefit is for us , not her. She’s just the “vehicle” for the concept…. it’s not that she herself is aware… – It’s funny, because we’re aware that she’s going to speak about something that we look at her as being a part of …the humor is that we know that she has more “authority” on the subject than she even knows …

And there have been strips when she comes close to “being aware” of her “living in some comic strip”… one was when she was talking to Gunther in the Library when they were both employed there…..

This is one of the first Luann’s that I’ve really liked in a very long time. All of the other art panels look like the original art, and I love Jock’s Cathy shirt. The answer to the professor’s question “What is an artist’s purpose” is: “Yes.”

The sanctimonious and haughty Zébo asks some interesting questions, for which I dare say he has no convincing answers. And of course Luann may not speak freely, because [since we are going meta today] she is a cartoon character and can say only what her creator allows/forces her to say….

As the great Deadpool said you break the 4th wall you kinda own it

Answer: All of the above.

Where do you live? Where I am, all that’s taught is a bunch of numbers that kids can spit back on frequent tests.-And nobody here uses the word ‘comrade’ to describe fellow taxpayers…

Well comics do all the above (frame 1 and 2), and I think they are art. They can help when you desperately need to smile.

Let’s see Mister Zébo dismiss Winsor McCay or George Herriman so cavalierly.

Or even Walt Kelly, Bill Holman and Chester Gould, given their impact on popular culture.

“Duke” would go over like a lead balloon in Luann’s world.

This cartoon is a comment on the Charlie Hebdo cartoons. Everything the professor is saying about artists is embodied in the cartoonist. Luann’s comment is about free speech.

The current Luann strip has gone sharply downhill. The old “Luann Again” strip is funny and fun!! Greg Evans has lost his sense of humor, and sense of comic relief.

I commented with 22 pages, not including references, on this subject a few decades ago, that art imitates life and in come cases the reciprocal is true. Greg’s series on Luann’s first period falls in that category.

The main thing is that Uncle Duke made the cut.

He has no hair because it came off during all the swirlies he’s been given

Wow! Felix made it into two Sunday strips. See Lio.

Considering Luann has been in the comic strip business for over two decades, she should have a good insight on the question.

Cartoonists ARE artists since the best ones provide more than just a cheap chuckle.

Did Scott McCloud guest write this strip?

Any comment that begins with “Can I speak freely” is going to guarantee that you are repeating that course with another instructor ( especially if it’s grammar).

I highly doubt this was about Charlie Hebdo, and if on the off chance it was way to be evasive about it.

You are a cartoon character, Luann, you have no free will. So, no.

Reference Charlie Hebdo. No one noticed eh?

The punchline is that the fourth wall is already down, so Luann can speak freely about what she, as a character, thinks of the strip. Pastis does this all the time. I think we are to assume that Luann has been soldiering on in her part as written, but underneath, she has some complaints for the cartoonist. What are they? Make up your own!

Martin, i do not know if there is a link w all of his art anywhere. Like you, i wound up deciding it was unlikely. Malevich’s paintings give a feeling of motion being involved. So, whose painting is being replicated in that image remains a mystery.

Martin, i had another thought but that did not pan out, either. Rothko did some paintings designed to also affect vision afterward if stared at, and this image might have that property, but it does not seem to be his. Other artists have done paintings w that property, but i do not know much about art, so nothing is panning out. Do you find yourself wondering if the grays, black, or both are highly textured in the real painting? I do.

Sorry. Sent too soon then got interrupted. If it is not textured it could cause an optical illusion such as a central dot which does not exist appearing so it might be an op art painting (Took a rigorous course long ago in college on vision processing and illusions, fun stuff i mostly can no longer see due to field loss from glaucoma — boo hiss) but if it is highly textured then it might have a feeling of stasis from afar but motion when closer and be an abstract. I REALLY hope someone figures out whose it is.

My question has always been: What makes someone’s art catch on during the progression of history? Snoopy is probably better known than VanGogh or Monet. Toulouse Lautrec’s Follies posters are more catchy than Rodin’s “The Thinker” Peter Max came and went like a flash in the pan. He probably appealed to the Hippy Generation of the 60’s and then just faded away. I would define cartoons as semi-abstract but only some of them are actually good art. Often Greg’s “backgrounds”, like mountains or buildings are quite attractive to the eye. Prince Valiant is way overdrawn, too crowded, and frustrating to the eye. So, Professor Bozo’s question might better be, What makes art appealing?

Certain Lillian Schwartz video art pieces are designed to cause problems w motion sensation and in people who are sitting still they often can cause nausea, so i hope the prof does not use any of those unless he hands out air sickness bags.I do hope he slips in some artists’ names so that people who like learning can do so. I want to look up some of these.It surprises me that more do not realize that some profs who on the surface display an interest in individual expression become pufferfish when it actually appears. We are left wondering which type he is, which can bring chuckles, and if Luanne is going to ask if they are going to acquire information as well as practising HOW to think freely and learn forever for themselves. The first is what is usually expected from a course for one’s money’s worth, but done well the second is more powerful long term. All good profs and teachers aim for the gild standard of achieving both, but few are great at both goals. So, is he the real thing or a poser?

Yup, that’s the one…. thanks!

Ha ha ha ha!!!

BTW, i knew of an English prof who woukd challenge his first year college students into thinking by declaring that he thought the Queen Elizabeth was actually a man. It was how he separated out people who bothered to THINK (and therefore were willing and able to point out the MANY reasons that premise makes no sense) from the people who thought they were supposed to be nothing more than sponges. Yes, done right that can be powerful.

I meant to show this earlier, but if you think that “dot” painting is unusual, check out these paintings that are of the most simple designs (a square, a dot, “a canvass full of nothing but blue”, etc), and yet sold for millions …..

Oh, and i mean Elizabeth I. The answers involve little more than very basic knowledge of life in the Tudor court such as how Ann’s life would have been different, how grooming and dressing were done, etc. He did bring up the heavy make- up which involves a bit more information such as knowing that Elizabeth I almost was lost to small pox.

Nice collection of characters! Bart Simpson, from my favorite TV show, and Cathy with her “AACK!” are my favorites here.

“So again, the joke is lost today. "

Readers who expect jokes here would be well advised to think of this kind of strip as cartoons—a kind of drawing—rather than “Comics,” a term of convenience for newspapers.

Sorry. My brain today is still waking up. Yes, for those who are familiar w gender being on a continuum rather than discreet, i suppose it is possible that English prof i mentioned was thinking in terms of an XY female, something which occurs when a genetically male fetus fails to produce the hormones that cause the form to shift from proto- female found in all first trimester fetuses to a male form. Back in the 1970s a bit of documentation on mismatches of genotypic (genes) and phynotypic (the actual form the individual has) gender existed, but much was still unknown, so perhaps he was widely enough read, and therefore the concept that not only gender identity and atteaction were biological continua, but also the gender itself is a continuum, tickled him. Mostly, though, i know from others that he just was trying to wake up students. (And now we actually are getting closer to my own strongest interests and into territory where i am better educated…)

Never promised i coukd spell, though, nor hit the right keys all the time due to vision damage. For tjose who want to look up use e instead of y:Phenotype…

Jay, do you mean there is a link to the actual art works on the strip? I saw your link to some others, but my visual acuity is low enough these days that i can not see small fonts or light colors well, so when the two combine then i see nothing where they are so totally miss them, and yes, that causes no end of troubke for anyone with reduced vision or low vision ( which is worse and luckily i am only borderline on that score) when places do not use larger font and put their live links into buttons that contrast w the background.

Jay, if there is a link in the strip coukd you, please, say where to help me find it?

Sorry! Yes, here is the link for you! Just copy and paste, in a new window, and it should take you right to the page! – http://www.artsumo.com/blog/post/4/They_Paid_What_Top_10_Absurd_Paintings_that_Sold_for_Millions/

Silly question.

Some of the greatest artists of our time worked on comic strips – F. Frazetta, B. Hogarth, S. Lynde, B. Watterson….

Comic strips help one to develop a strong work ethic and introduce the artists to a wide audience as well….

Of course not. We all know that true art is angst.

Hey, Greg, why don’t you give us a chuckle once in awhile.

Thank you for your kindness, Jay!Personally, i really want to know what Lwill ask and what the prof will answer. Earlier i said one reason why.The second reason is that i am wondering if L has a mismatch w her school. There are a lot of us who have previously usually hated school (except for certain classes) who later find that we blossom and love school IF we find ourselves in a HARD university. If L begins asking intriguing questions she may at heart be one of us nerds who learned mostly outside school until we were properly challenged. L has some great abilities and insights gained from hard work in thinking in space and time as w her stage design concepts, in word play, in comedy, in human interactions. Presented w the right challenges she coukd blossom into a grand nerd in her own strengths. So, i want to know if she will ask interesting questions because it all is much more in the questions than in the answers.

When your work is “in demand”, it just means that it’s “in” for the moment, or suddenly becomes a “sensation”. Taylor Swift’s work has suddenly become “popular”. After a certain period, “John Doe”s paintings start to sell. But if they stop buying a performer’s albums, if they stop selling a person’s paintings, if they stop talking about that writer’s book, if museums transfer sculptures to a “lesser known” museum (i.e. “move it on down the chain to eventual storage”) does that, in itself, negate it’s “status” as art? – Conversely, when your work is appreciated by someone and causes them to think and/or act in a way that promotes further creativity, stimulates one’s thinking to explore other areas of positive note previously unheard of (either collectively or on an individual, personal level), despite it’s “popularity”, despite it’s discussion abroad, does that count as art? – These have (through history) been the two “main determinations”. Some view it’s “demand” as being art, while others “scoff” at that, and count it as art, because of the “perceived quality” of such. But in the end, both of these are “subjective”. Popular does not assure quality, quality does not assure popularity.

Love the artwork of the artwork. Of course cartoons are art! Anyhow who’s to judge what is art and what is not. Where is the line drawn? (smirk)

“Because, again, it’s all subjective.” ^Did I not just say that?

Jay, it appears that both the gym of the mind and the gym of the body (and here i include very healthy activities like walking or biking more) if both are used provide the most effective way to avoid or delay dementia, especially in combination w some other markers for a healthy life style. That may not matter much to youth, but it sure does as we age. A huge British study by Peter Elwood et al at Cardiff is the most convincing recent work in a string of such studies with similar conclusions. So, “gym of the mind” indeed, and let’s keep having that in our lives.

For me a well done comic visually gets across nuances in few strokes and also involves some visual charactaturing. Some keep it very plain and focused as happens w some other fields of art, while others like Kory Merritt get deeply into mood play with colors and shapes in the environs, also seen in other forms of art, for example in the Scream.

“You can call yourself an artist if you want, and you’d technically be right, but what’s the point if no one else sees you that way? You would need to create something others would want to be called an artist.” ^Again, the fact that it’s subjective negates that. That’s why there’s “Pot Art”. John Mellencamp and others made music that later became categorized as “Roots Rock”, because some felt that to be “commercial” wasn’t _"real art", but instead to them equated to “selling out”. The same for some in the “Punk/New Wave” genre. The same for what some “derided” as “Arena/Corporate Rock” (Styx, REO Speedwagon, Toto). Art can be something that can be “taken for granted”, and only “in demand” upon an artists’ death. Art can be the most popular thing. Art can be the least popular. It doesn’t mean that all artwork done by people is good, it doesn’t mean that all popular artwork done by people is good. It doesn’t mean that it’s all bad, either. The scope of human artwork is all subjective .. One group appreciates this, another, that. But you will get different people saying different things is art, to them ….

Recapturing the view from the artist, in the last moments of the planet, known as “Dodge”, before they all got out of it….

Hmmmm, it just hit me that the prof depicted might ask in response to what i wrote if that means that cartoons are art, or if they merely use the skills and techniques of art. I have heard cartooning and crafting referred to in both ways, and have heard different levels treated as either.So, i guess what is happening is a move into philosophy or critical analysis, with the answer being, “How do you define art?”

Jay, i appreciate your chosen definition, especially if the aim of art is to arouse a response in the viewer.

LOL, either I need to put my hand to my forehead, or I need to go get a “V-8”…

And, as a bonus, seems it was an homage to the 5 “Charlie Hebdo” cartoonists. It actually was a month and a day ago! - https://www.facebook.com/luanncomic/photos/a.419496828110617.96827.375722822488018/875436709183291/?type=1&theater

Really Bad, Picasso had a strong foundation in classical art forms before becoming so inventive (parallel to Mick Jagger having his strong classical music background first) so i kind of doubt he woukd ever have considered your poop scooping trick. LOL!Looooooooong ago i actually held a Picasso in my hands. A friend’s father was a fine arts dealer and he had acquired the journal of a Parisian Intellectual Salon. I was involved because my friend translated an off the cuff commemorative poem by a famous French poet, but they needed the English translation to flow as poetry itself, so asked me to modify the translation. (Back then i could; i was one of those award winning kid poets who left poetry because it did not mesh with happiness in life — and i chose happiness.). Anyway, the book contained a true to life Picasso sketch of a young girl. He had mad skills before and after his creative flights.

Yes!!!! – Here’s some interesting ones (of the more “famous” variety): http://gizmodo.com/5-lost-images-found-hidden-beneath-famous-paintings-1592796080 – And a BBC done on the Picasso one:http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-27884323

Luann, get out of this class. This guy is a weirdo.

It was actually High School .. though that may not matter, you’d still probably say it, anyway….– And the link to that FB post of “Greg’s HS teacher- inspiration” is up above…..

He should check today’s Red and Rover…

BTW, no Calvin? No Little Audrey? No Yellow Kid? No Alfred E. Neuman?-Also: no little Lulu? No Nancy and Sluggo? No Little Iodine or Gasoline Alley?

Chevy Nova, Super Sport…. Vrooom!!!

Ohhhhhh, guess what just hit me in relation to the prof’s question whether provoking a chuckle can be an aim in art? Luann is involved in Comedic Theater! Certainly, that is an art! I wonder if that is what she will mention?

To translate a Latin Phrase: Art is long; Life is short.OR, “Art imitates life.”Waiting for tomorrow’s script.

Then I’m removing my query of the whole query. I took a “wrong turn at Alberquerque”, and ended up at the OK Corral. I just wanted the “Semi-Decent Corral”….

“It’s only when your art is in demand by others that you can safely call yourself an artist.”.Nah, or else the term “starving artist” would make no sense. Many are obviously artists but not in demand.Artists come in many flavors: good artist, bad artist, so-so artistSome of the bad ones can get governmental assistance, so we get to enjoy all kinds.

@ReallyBad2“The key to being called an artist though is creating things that people are willing to spend money on.”.Although it helps if the artist isn’t ashamed of the final product.Even the worst slob starts to develop some sort of pride of workmanship eventually.Some also know they are and will always be low grade artists.Not like Evans, of course, GENIUS, PURE GENIUS.

“Having a syndicated strip that you started yourself is definitely something to brag about. Not like whomever got control of B.C. and is just re-purposing old strips, for example.”.Most of the complaints are related to them going into directions Johnny Hart wouldn’t have done. Which is to say, they believe nobody should ever grow or change directions.Cursed if you do, cursed if you don’t.

I am eager to hear what Luann wants to say.

@sukiec“I have heard cartooning and crafting referred to in both ways, and have heard different levels treated as either.”.So Is a craftsman an artist? Is an artist a craftsman?.Interesting that any would wonder at the obvious. (Although I agree some do.)

Luann may be about to ask the first serious question of her adulthood. We’ll see tomorrow. (unless we’re back to Gunther & mommy!).

Professor Zebo obviously has never heard of such artists as Thomas Nast, whose political comic strips about “The Tammany Tiger” helped bring down “Boss” Tweed back in the day. To artists like Nast, the pen definitely is mightier than the sword.

Wow, nice!

I enjoy seeing what readers think about here, but I have my limits and I am beginning to think it might be nice if there were daily limits. Not seriously—but there is a point of diminishing returns in my attention. No names, but one person today had 30 things to say; another had 19; one had 11; other frequent posters had as few as 7 or 8; a very few people had 2-5; and about 35 people had a single comment.

Fox Trot does this from time to time as well, including in subtle ways like a headline that might start “Cartoonist—”

That’s true! – One fairly recent example being “the Offspring”…

Art is good, bad, attractive, unattractive, but ultimately subjective. I like dogs, so I would prefer dog pictures over the Sistine Chapel art. Sometimes we are told what art is good, like Andy Warhol, whose work is not good. He just wanted it to be affordable. A soup can? Who was he trying to kid? Perhaps the key is; Does the “art” bridge generations? Peter Max was more of a fad, rather than lasting art, but The Scream lives on.

Airman, remember, though, that Warhol helped other artists of various types, including the Velvet Underground. The Velvet Underground in turn provided a strong musical foundation for hard rock and its offshoots.

OK, this strip does make sense to me as a response to Charlie Hebdo, especially when you juxtapose Luann’s question * with the last part of Zebo’s question in the first panel – is the artist’s purpose (0r at least part of it) to agitate? Then moving on to the second panel – of course cartoons have been used for more than chuckles; they have been used to agitate, to varying degrees – including the Simpsons and Doonsbury, which have commented on and parodied American society and politics and which have been censured for doing so. * I do think Luann’s question is whether she may speak freely, though. ;)

It’s “May I” not can I!

Well, in the case of “Doonesbury”, no. Doonesbury was never about “art” or “chuckles” but propaganda delivered via the funny papers. But the others in the background, yeah.

And, then… there’s… “Tank McNamara”……

No, ReallyBad, that’s the key to being called a PROFESSIONAL artist.

Oh GOD not Col Zebo again!

SPOILER ALERT-Gunther learns about embarrassment. Maybe…

Jeez Luaan. You’re in a class, not the military. Speaking freely is what it’s all about. Maybe the joke is the subtle inference that the “boss” (Greg) is listening, which is kinda funny.