Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for March 25, 2015

Oh, that seems cruel. The teacher didn’t even get to look at them!

Wow! So one could have potentially done nothing , turned it in, and still would have gotten credit!!! – For the students, that time could have been better spent doing something else, if it were going to end up in the “Shreddy Max 5000, from Mega Shred Industries”, without being evaluated…. – And Luann even took the time to make a cover for her work, and keep it neat and organized! – Although the symbolism of it could be appreciated, it would seem it’s execution leaves much to be desired….

NOOOO!!! SHE WORKED SO HARD ON THAT!!!

“Shred Of Dignity”“The Lessen Plan”“A Token Of Depreciation”“Method To Your Madness?”“Time Mismanagement”“Flaw Inspiring”“Self Expression”“The Old College Try… Down The Drain”“Class In Recession”" Lost Stranded In Symbolism"or“Making Nothing, Out Of Something At All”

Sadism before pride?

Sadism before pride?

hes not even going to look at the pictures? how can you grade something that doesn’t exist?

hes not even going to look at the pictures? how can you grade something that doesn’t exist?

I thought the whole story when she was drawing the self-portraits was that she doesn’t know who she “really” is. That would then indicate that by the Professor’s criterion, there wasn’t a “self” blocking her true art, so the shredder is unnecessary. Of course, as Luann herself has admitted, she is rather self-centered (just ask Bernice!), so maybe the Professor has some insight here.

I think it’s attest of how much passion she has for her work.

It’s Art Class (-Class)….

But he’s very “artful” about it. He is a work of art, of his own design and creation. He considers himself to be his own masterpiece.

…artists these days.

It’s just a comic strip…

The instructor thinks this exercise will help them but I don’t see a shred of evidence to back that up…

This class is stupid.

What is the purpose of grading?

I think I actually kind of get Zebo’s point. He’s saying, “Forget what I think of you and how you think you should present yourself to me.” The next time she has an assignment, she definitely won’t have impressing Zebo in mind. She’ll just do whatever she wants in any way she wants to because who knows what the result will be?

Think of artists you know or know of. The sucessful ones are the ones who, as the kids say, give zero f’s. They’re not trying to impress anybody.

Or, think of it this way: barring mental illness, a good way to stop obsessing on your appearance is to destroy your mirrors. That’s what Zebo is having Luann do in this strip.

or van gogh or Da vinci

While difficult to work out ‘comic time’ I think it is fair to assume that this is just the start of the course, and so grading is not done at this time. Rather, this is mental preparation for what he wants to impart in the future.

Luann does not look at all happy about this turn of events. I think that’s the key to the arc going forward.

By this definition, Annie Wilkes was a creative writing teacher somehow. Be sure to have more than one draft of your work!

Luann has been introduced to animation. Back during Disney’s golden age, the top animators would produce a foot-tall stack of pencil drawings per week. Walt would glance them over, then say “I don’t like it. Try again.”You could measure the worth of your life in foot-tall stacks.

Whhhhaaaattt????

Plastic binding in a shredder. RIP shredder.

Says the guy who makes Narcissus look outgoing

What an idiot. Just leave, Luann. Drop the class, he’s a pretentious jackass.

Please drop this guy and his class!!

Or I’m dropping the strip. It has become very very lame.

Seriously, she needs to drop this class. What a thing to waste tuition money on.

Do I sense this is where she tells hom off and stands up to him.

A lot of people might say Norman was more illustrator than artist…perhaps including Norman.

If she shreds it, that says something about how she feels about her work. This, too, is a choice, and this, too, is part of learning. The choice in this strip has not yet been made…

I would refuse. It’s her property and he has no right. Plus he’s a hypocrite with his fancy purple jacket.

Don’t do it, Luann.Defy this nutcase and define your self in the process, Do not be a submissive wimp!

Self-absorbed is worse than self-conscious.

Luann should tell him to pound sand, he’s obnoxious.

My take: this is an exercise. Only those who are self-conscious will shred their self-portraits. And those who are confident will “pass”.

I knew a kid in college that had something like this happen to her. The instructor took her painting and said, “that’s interesting. What if we tear it in half and put the pieces back to back and see what it looks like?”. And he did…

I knew a kid in college that had something like this happen to her. The instructor took her painting and said, “that’s interesting. What if we tear it in half and put the pieces back to back and see what it looks like?”. And he did…

Or, the teacher is just a tool. She very well might get a better grade by refusing to submit to an order to “destroy” herself. Who knows what’s in that lunatic’s head?

Hey Wait a Minute, Lu.

MAYBE Professor “ZeBATS” Meant for YOU to Jump in the Shredder NOT Your “Art”.

Either Way I’d get the FLOCK Outta His B-S Class.

…..,After I set His Purple Coat on Fire.

The worst part of this is that he’s wrong.

A sense of self is critical to creating true art. True art is something only the creator could create.

That teacher doesn’t know one thing about art. He only knows about being a blankety-blank idiot.

This is so incredibly unreal.

Most community colleges/state schools exist to help students gain skills that will enable them to support themselves, or enroll in a more advanced degree program. Since almost all colleges (community or otherwise) have a basic curriculum, it’s believable that a first year student would take an intro to art or intro to literature class as part of that overall curriculum.-It’s not believable to me that a community college would hire someone who seems to exist just to hand out meaningless assignments and pompous statements. There are many artists who have created self portraits. An ‘arts’ teacher who believes than any subject (including the ‘self’) obstructs the creation of art is just a waste of time, and so is the class taught by this so-called teacher.

This guy reminds me of the Boris Lermontov character in the film “The Red Shoes.”

Fight, Luann! Fight for yourself— fight for your art. That’s what he really wants you to do!

Wow at the very least this prof is inventive!

Self-portraiture is a longstanding tradition in art, notably to Rembrandt who did many of them—and he is one of the greatest. So this prof clearly is in the tradition of Dada, the early 20th century anti-art tradition. I assume the goth with all-black pictures will get heavy praise.

No one with any understanding of the artistic sensibility would EVER ask an artist to destroy their own work, unless it was created with the understanding that it would be destroyed. This guy is either crazy or a sadist.

You are right; he is not even a Dadaist, on that account.

What a lazy teacher! He will have to give the entire class an A, since he did not even look at her work.

I don’t think so.

Shredding her artwork will not remove her “self”. Standing up to this pompous jerk would be better.

Good idea.

“Again, it’s all subjective,”

No it is not all subjective. For instance, skill can be evaluated objectively.

Ouch, dude. that’s harsh. On the other hand, I know nothing of art. On the gripping hand, art isn’t really being taught here – this guy is a pretentious, effete attention-whore.

Really bad advice, Really Bad, for C-students only, but it is in keeping with the teacher’s aim of destroying the sense of self.

All that work in the shredder. I’m surprised she hasn’t dropped that class.

Colonel Zebo is a pretentious [fill-in-the-blank].

If what Col. Zebo says is true about self blocking artisitic expression then he is one massively constipated artist because I’ve never seen anyone so full of themselves.

Did I mention how MUCH I HATE Col. Zebo!

I hope she made copies

She’ll probably be among the only ones to get an A because she has the hardest time destroying herself. What does jock care? He Xeroed himself. Sharpie boy is shredding a bunch of black pages, whoopie…

I think he is trying to get the students motivated to SAVE their art. If Luann drops her work into the shredder, the shredder will not be “on”. Her work will not be destroyed, but because she did not “stand up for” her art, she will not have learned Zebo’s point this time.

I think he called Luann up to the front of the class because he already knows she’s open to taking risks—and that she would put a real effort into the assignment, so that it would mean more to her to destroy it, which means she would feel the point more deeply, to get her self-preoccupation out of the way. As for “cruelty”, who’d get too attached to 17 works zipped out in such a short period of time? No way could they have been all that good!

An exercise in narcissism. Just peachy. What every freshman college student needs.

These Liberal professors are full of themselves and just about wrong about everything and it is being displayed here!

I don’t think he’d feel that way about all art teachers. Just the ones who have that similar mindset of the one that he referred to. – Much in the same way Roger Waters (through interviews) has said that he didn’t hate education, nor teaching… just that certain teachers seemed to “fall into” a stereotype as depicted by the schoolteacher in “The Wall”…

luann, welcome to the world of commercial arts

Will we get to see what’s going on in Mr. Rain’s (?) course in “Introduction to the Digital World” or whatever nonsense it was that Luann enrolled in for her other classes?

Zebo should have shredded the art he had hanging in the Art Gallery!

Mostly, “suffering for art” is supposed to mean becoming some “austere” character, becoming nothing, not daring to accept any sort of success, rejecting “any and everything” of society… some also would add that it means one must live in “near squalor”, and not accept “fancy living”, or even “happiness”, etc. That one must be “dour”, “never satisfied”, “never able to experience joyousness”…. all for the sake of “pursuing art”. That one does art to sacrifice “better living”, to pursue it. This is the supposed “stereotype” that comes with that phrase, “suffering for your art”. – In a parallel situation, the same was said of “corporate rock”, that it was “pretentious”, and “evil”, simply because of the fact that the music acts were successful in sales, or that they were backed by “the big corporations”. It’s the argument many made in support of “punk”, and “roots rock”. This leads to another aspect of “suffering for art”: That any time one becomes rich from the work created, that it’s “supposed” to be unacceptable, that it’s becoming a “sellout”. Therein lies the “Catch 22”. – So “suffering for art” is a “slippery slope”, and is a "school of thought’ that has many “holes” in it. Now, if Zebo is trying to “push that off” on the class, well…

“… I say kudos to her for sticking with it for the duration…”^Good point! – Maybe also this character is here to be the “permanent buffoon” in the strip, as “comic fodder” (to replace the role some would say that some of the teachers from Pitts used to occupy)…

The “Jock” character may be clueless, but at least he shows enthusiasm in Mr. Zebo’s class, which is way more than Knute ever did in umpteen years of Fogarty lectures.

Zebo is the best character he’s created since college started.^

???? – I don’t even know where to start ( or end) with that one…. so I won’t. – I will say this, though. It’s too early still to even say there’s a “best character”, when college has just started for them this past October, still only 41/2 months or so since, from 2014!

I have actually really enjoyed the Zebo / art class story arc much more than any other current story arc. Even though this art arc is seemingly quite controversial (note how this early in the day we are already well over 130 comments), it has been fun, enjoyable, and refreshing. In this arc, the addition of “Jock”, “Emo” and Zebo all have all been excellent. My second favorite arc currently is the one between Bernice and her dorm friends.

My bet: She refuses to do it, and the teacher says that was the point of the exercise—confidence in your work.

I don’t know where this shyster gets his ideas;it’s called SELF expression.Artist’s are individuals, their self apart from anyone else makes them unique, and their work desirable.

Sorry, but I see the difference between smashing a water balloon on a student and telling a student to ‘remove yourself’ by demolishing a work as a difference in degree of abusiveness. Both are still abusive acts.-If you have to sit still for having water balloons dropped on you to get a good grade, or have to be told to negate your ‘self’ and destroy your work to get a good grade, what you have is a teacher who is taking advantage of a position of authority to harass students.

But if you’re not careful, it could become the same as saying: Oh, “This relationship is the best one, ever!” and then, 3 weeks later, you’ve “broken up.” Then, a month later, you say: ‘Oh, this is the best one, yet!" and then, that one ends. Then, one week later, you meet someone new, and say: “This.. is……..”. After a while, it “waters down” what it means. – They say “a watched pot never boils”. They also say “a watched phone never rings”. The point of those maxims is that If we get too caught up in “the best” on a daily (or weekly) basis, without a longer period of getting to know everything involved (in this case, more familiarity and understanding of the character, dynamics/relationships, etc.) there could be the possibility that the sentiment won’t be as “definitive” or as enjoyable as when the moment arrives (over a period of time) or it could even be missed, entirely.

The issue I’m raising about the destruction of work has nothing to do with returning the work to the student, and everything to do with the need to maintain records of why grades were given.-More and more frequently, college level tests and quizzes are now online, and responses are stored there. Florida Atlantic University instructs its professors to back up all such student work to store separately (as hard copy or in other electronic files) in case the ‘Blackboard’ electronic program crashes.-In cases where student hand in hard copy material, though, professors are typically expected to retain it, or a copy of it with their findings, for the duration of the class. The records of student performance are part of what a grade is based on. -In the event of someone challenging a final grade, saying that it doesn’t reflect their overall work, these records play an important role. Scholarship students who need to maintain a certain grade point average, or kids who are in danger of being expelled, might all be expected to challenge a grade.-If the professor disputes a student having done work because he forced that student to destroy the work, this is an abuse of authority.

The water balloon was real, so I assume the shredder works, too. Luann will be graded not on the quality of the (unseen) sketches but on her willingness to become unencumbered by her sense of “self”. For someone who is as self-centered as Luann admits she is, this will be difficult!

“What do you think this board does, everyday?”^In some ways (but not all), it can be that way. But it can also be “apples and oranges”. In “Luannalyzing” the strip each day, it’s talking about a “bit of the story” (using the term you expressed), comparing it with what we have already known (up to 30 years’ worth, so far), and then commenting on the immediacy of the day’s strip, then seeing what tomorrow’s strip will bring. Of course, time proves (or disproves) whatever was deliberated.– But I was only originally saying it to address the “best of so far” thing. I’d say that perhaps a better one could be: “my favorite so far”. One could easily contend: “that’s not the best one!” but who could say: “No, that’s not your favorite character!”?… without a straight face, at least?

I get a kick out of the way the professor dresses.

i suspect she did not include that one. Her asking Bernice to help was rhetorical (I believe); yet everyone seems to dwell on it. Good grief 16 drawings of her own is a lot even still. 16..17, who cares at that point..

I have a feeling the shredder is a ‘dummy’. She will drop it in and maybe pass this test, but the notebook won’t be shredded. But he can only do this test with one student. She’s passed his other tests.. i.e. the water balloon.

But you know that when he said “Zebo is the best” he was saying “Zebo is the best to ME” so it’s really just splitting hairs!

Dear Colorist,*In frame 1, Prof. Zebo appears to be wearing a moss green turtleneck. In frame 2 the cuff appears to be white. Don’t the sleeves of turtlenecks usually match the color and front of the shirt?

if Lue showed her portraits and Zebo was able to know clown Lue was not done by her, would be only way i would be impressed by him, otherwise he is a wannabee who sees himself as huge just because one painting by him was shown during the find wedding venue week

was not able to find “men’s” under the name of Dickies(only women’s) so for men they must be called something else, but I got the idea, and was thinking the same, Zebo wearing a “fake turtleneck accessory”

at least using it the way he did is not as bad as this(for me anyway) http://www.articlesofstyle.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/12.jpg , Zebo should have used either same color t shirt or shirt or used short sleeves, or decided to go with an actual turtle neck shirt, one thing it is definitive is that the cuff is of a dress shirt(as it has cuff links) and can’t be part of a turtleneck shirt, unless you find a turtleneck that has slots for cufflinks

Or maybe the jerk is just a bad teacher.

maybe it’s a test and the shredder has no blades in it

My vote would be for it being a turtleneck….

there were no episodes where it was clear that Luann wanted it for her portfolio. Luann’s remark to Bernice "Help me out.. " or whatever was rhetorical. Folks here are so obsessed with this one drawing out of 17….the worst one albeit….who cares. I too doubt that Luann planned to turn it in. The cover of portfolio says “Luann by Luann”.

long sleeve shirt(maybe turtle neck, maybe not) and whatchamacallit around his neck than, today, a long sleeve dress shirt and either a Dickey or a short sleeve turtleneck on top of the dress shirt

Mr. Zebo has multiple outfits, since some of them fasten right-over-left and some fasten the other way. This is in contrast to Mr. Fogarty, who was unaware that most people don’t wear the same clothes to work daily until retirement.

LUANN, DON’T DO IT!!!

I saw no masterpieces among the sketches we looked at. The assignment was to create, not to preserve.

Excuse me but it seemed yesterday that she was the only one who actually did the assignment — so she get to shred it?!?

You’re right- it’s not. Last time was the ascot-like tie/“wraparound”, yes. – One of the reasons that I was putting forth the “turtleneck” option was that the collar matches some of the cashmere/fine fabric types that were big at one time in department stores. It also reminds me of the “sweaters” worn during the first couple of episodes of TOS…but maybe a bit looser in the neck/chest area. Looking at the collar, it’s not a definitive thing, but one of those possibilities could be turtleneck, which is why I offered that one up…

How fortunate I am that I never had teachers like you and Zero, who confuse the misuse of authority with imparting information.

This instructor is what is wrong with the teaching of art. It should be guided, not “taught”. There is way too much pretension here which only stifles. But ego is a powerful thing. It leads the mediocre. He is mediocre.

SPOILER ALERT!!!-Luann must have read my Spoiler Alert from yesterday. When “Professor” Zed asks how she feels, she says ‘torn’…

It isn’t art until you put it in a glass and charge $100K for it.

So Velázquez, Van Gogh and all the others that painted self portraits weren’t artists? I guess that’s some information Art Museums wouldn’t want us to know.