Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for December 28, 2015

“Helping your folks!” I’m needed here, to gather sticks and rake rocks!

This is going to take some time for Luann to swallow.

Pru has no fashion sense.

I find Pru’s fashion sense in this installment disturbing.

I would love to move to the next arc now…anything but this arc

I’d like to hear more of Pru’s back story before passing judgement.

There was this movie, I think it was called “The Hand That Rocks The Cradle”…anyway, it suddenly comes to mind.

Hide the knives, Luann. Hide them now. She’s coming for your life.

Wait…wait…now if anyone is familiar with Beverly Hills, 90210, who remembers Tara? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZEQmRI_T64

Is Pru a wannabe Lu?

SF1972,How about Fatal Attraction? (Who knows what happened in New York?)

From what clown college does Pru get that wardrobe?

Okay, we’re off on a mystery trip. No comment.

If it is a family pow wow Pru should not be there: she is not family.

nice outfit, pru

she sure likes to touch a lot Lue, doesn’t she?

This whole family needs to grow a backbone. -@SF1972 If Pru was like Tara, she would bleach her hair and color it like Luann’s. She would draw in eyebrows and dress like her too. -

Luann should lay her concerns on the table. She is a member of the family, too. Say it right out Luann. “What are your intentions toward Quill?” If Pru admits anything other than friend only, object her staying. Nancy will back her up.

Pru rhymes with Lu. Who knows exactly where this is going to go? I sure didn’t think it would go in this direction.

So. Pru grew up in a foster home? So much for rich parents. So, who pays the bills…….?

Since Pru grew up in foster care, then that is why she comes across so strong. She probably wants to be noticed and act like she’s doing everyone a favor (like they “need” her). Also, she looks too old for Quill by about 10 years. Although age doesn’t stop some people. If she is after Quill, it takes a lot of nerve to move in with his girlfriend’s family!

“Fostering Feelings In Others”“A Discovery, A Capital One, At That”“Playing The Visa Card”“Everywhere You May Not Want Her To Be”“Personal Space Invaders”“Invasion Of The Potty Snatchers”“Every Home Should Have One”“Some Setups Upset Some”“Grating Expectations”“Friendly Fire”“Going On A Pow-Wow Trip”or“Family Matters To Her”

“the stage shouldn’t need to be “upgraded”, it was literally just built.”^True, it is a newly built stage. But in her mind (with the indication that she’s an expert in these matters), she sees “untapped potential” in the whole thing….. – “And who’s paying her?”^It’s been surmised that she could possibly have some sort of money of her own (maybe not oodles ), perhaps she already has a way to finance her room and board and work proposition. It wouldn’t seem likely she could even offer to pay rent, if she didn’t have it to give…

Is Pru already so at ease with the DeGroots that she’s running around the house in her underwear?But, seriously, we do get one important bit of information towards understanding her character, that she “grew up in foster care.” I wonder if that negates my suggestion Saturday (26 XII 15) of her personal wealth?

urgh is this the part where we start accepting her?

The adage keep your friends close, but your enemies closer comes to mind as well…

“Foster Care,” Huh? Well, THERE You have it Lu. The Much Anticipated, PREDICTABLE, Underlying “Sob Story”, Wherein YOU, and Indeed, Many HERE, Will Feel Very SORRY for Pru and Not Feel too Terribly Awful Bad, when SHE Gleefully STEALS Your Sorta “Boyfriend.”

Oh, please. Not even LuAnn’s mom recognizes the old “All About Eve” ploy when it’s right in front of her? Pru has studied theater, you know.

Pru is playing the Degroots ( and Quill) like Eve Harrington played Margo Channing and Company in “All About Eve”. Wonder what her angle REALLY is ? Perhaps she and the Mysterious Mr Gray have some arrangement about repayment?

Didn’t Quill awhile ago ( when he and Moony U drama dept were rehearsing for a show) indicate that Pru was working on the same show in New York? Is she in college too or older? If so, doesn’t she have school or a job that she would need to go back to NY for?

2016 is going to be a year of growth for Luann. I think she will do well. I am in my forties and I learn something new everyday. I can wait to see what developes and how Luann handles the situations.

Nice stretch of an arc. I was sure we would find out Pru was lesbian, by now. This could go on for months. No reason for Pru to reveal her sexual orientation. So, she can just keep being just a little ambiguously threatening.

Oh for the luva-, it’s a COMIC strip people! I swear, there were fewer conspiracy theories over the Warren Commission.

I see Pru and TJ…Pru and TJ…

Hey I am still withholding judgment until, like the commander said in a Revolutionary War conflict with the Brits, “don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes.” Clearly a denouement of some kind is being set-up, as are all of us, and I still think it’s harmless overall, but on the other hand I would think a grown woman would want to find her own place to live in. What are her motives vis-a-vis Quill, if any that are harmful to Luann’s love life? The foster child angle is interesting, along with the willingness to pay rent. Maybe there is a real need for family involvement. I still would personally be negatively inclined to have a young woman rent a room in my house, also keep in mind that Luann is going to college, so unless I am mistaken she has a room on campus? Anyway, withhold judgment for now I think. Those eyes are pretty dim thus far.

Of course she grew up in an orphanage, that is until the rich guy adopted her and made her dye her blonde hair black and lose the dog

> the backstory of her income / funding source is irrelevant.>When so much of every story line is left unexplained, the readers must either settle for their own speculation of why the characters do what they do, or they must simply give up by deciding that it’s “irrelevant”. However, when it happens so often in this strip that characters’ actions are unexplained, most of what goes on then must be dismissed as “irrelevant”. How long can that continue before readers decide that the strip itself is irrelevant? After all, if you have to fill in some many details, you’re basically making up your own story. Who needs this one, then?

Can’t you tell?

I’m dying here today. Buck, you know why.

Well, well, well; I’d make a comment but don’t want to get deleted (again) for suggesting something too adult for Luann’s readership’s delicate sensibilities. Pity.

“The drama in this strip boils down to “drag it out forever”

May i suggest that, if you thought of this strip as a saga instead of a drama, you might have less difficulty accepting the narrative style?

What the….!? Why is Pru the one calling Luann to a “family” conference. After all she is not family.

Great idea, that household is nice but too normal, a colorful character gives it a lot of flavor.

“just so you don ‘t take Quil from me. " . . " Wouldn’t think of it, although I DO find Berneice attractive." . . “You spelled it wrong.” . . "How could I spell it wrong? I’m just talking. "

This will either end badly or very up beat.

Pru seems to be taking control of the DeGroot household!Enjoy the final week of the year!

Pru almost looks like a caricature of a real person.

Of course Pru wants to stay and she’ll continue to stay until Luann speaks up to Quill. I would much prefer it is done sooner – as in tomorrow – than later. I don’t much like Pru. She stirkes me as insincere.

-perhaps she’s simply informing Luann that the deGroots are having a family meeting to discuss her staying

If you were still living with your parents while working part time and going to community college, how comfortable would you feel with a ‘guest’ of the family coming to tell you that your parents and the guest were inviting you to a family meeting to discuss the guest becoming a permanent boarder? Especially if that guest seemed to be moving in on someone you hoped would be your future spouse?

To me, the saddest thing is Luann’s reply to Prudence in the last frame. Luann does not yet feel like she’s where she wants to be, because she no longer feels like she matters very much to those she cares about.

This is veering so much into an old-style silent movie called ‘The Perils of Pauline’ that I am finding it almost physically painful to read. I’ve given up on a number of writers who keep imperiling their main character by having that character march resolutely into the basement where the murderer is hiding, time after time, while the murderer succeeds in discrediting the main character so no one is backing him or her up.

This is as disappointing to me as Brad’s celebratory announcement that he and Toni will get married on the next 9/11.

I’m not sure who is pushier, Dez or Pru. I’d love to see them meet.

Was that Greg’s intended look for Pru, or did the colorist just decide to go a little nuts? Oy.

I’ve never seen such agonizing and hair pulling. Dante must surely have a special Bolgia in Circle 8 for fraudulent comic strip writers. He (she) who leaves unfinished arcs and wispy back stories are condemned to write on their own palms using lava for ink. Aieeeee!!!!

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

Pru’s outfit looks like something a woman would sleep in, including the slippers with the fuzzy cuffs.

We haven’t seen Pru talk to Nancy yet about staying. She may not be such a pushover.

Poor Luann.

“If you drag a story out for a year, there needs to be a good payoff.”

In For Better or Worse, the story of Elizabeth went on—I will not say dragged out—for MANY years, before it came to a very satisfactory payoff (regrettbly just as the cartoonist’s own marriage unraveled.)

“Greg would have done something interesting, but ever since Karen started it’s been a fanfic,”

Won’t you PLEASE stop this odious comparison (which is the reason I asked you the unwelcome question I put to you. That one thought Greg could do no wrong either.)

Luann grow a backbone!

Strong GirlzStrong World?Rip that poster Off the wall!

-hidden agenda

A person doesn’t have to have a ‘hidden agenda’ to intervene in someone else’s life and cause grief. Sometimes just arriving on the scene and attracting a third party’s attention significantly is enough to derail the plans of a second party, ok?

Like I said earlier, this is too much of a ‘Perils of Pauline’ thing for me to enjoy it. There are a number of mystery writers I’ve given up on, because they keep dragging their main character (usually a woman who is not a cop) into danger and having those causing the danger discredit her so that she is left to solve the problem by endangering herself. It gets old…

-Luann’s “peril”

Like the peril of the characters in the mystery novels I used to read, the peril of the character ‘Luann’ has been created by the writers. To the best of my limited knowledge, they haven’t really gifted Luann with much of an imagination, or she would have figured out what her future should be by now.

The writers of this ‘toon, like the posters at ArcaMax, seem to have lost interest in Luann. I’m sure they prefer arcs about Gunther yelling at his mother or some such.

Posters at ArcaMax keep suggesting new names for this ‘toon, to replace ’Luann’. Maybe you can fabricate one.

Any chance we are being introduced to a character who really isn’t interested in Quill romantically because she isn’t interested in men?

Maybe she can be there for the 9/11 wedding. As a New Yorker, she’d definitely be favorably impressed by Brad and Toni’s choice of a celebratory event on that day.

Foster care? Now she’s using social extortion. But if Frank & Nancy & Lu don’t let her stay, bet she moves in to the Burger B&B.

Actually, I think today’s strip explains a lot about Pru. Obviously, the foster home she was in was run by colorblind people with no fashion sense who had her eyebrows permanently removed when she was young.

Actually I think what you mention in the last paragraph is exactly what the strip is doing, and I don’t see much of a change from before, although I know there can be a lot of passionate argument on that score. I agree with the other paragraphs though, millinnials are just not into print papers in general, and in newspaper comics in particular, And while I am not one of those Baby Boomers who constantly criticize the youngie’s in terms of “back in my day” type critique, the reality is that they do not have the patience to stick with a comic that takes a long time to develop characters and story. That being said, most of us have been following this comic for years, and the characters have been developing, and there seems to be a distant future out there—Toni and Bwad’s marriage for example possibly on 9/11/16, as two first responders doing the second most important thing—other than having a new character born after doing the wild thing, like normal—that one can do in life, getting married. I think a lot of the disquiet has to do with the fact that there are a lot of characters all of whom are literally virtually screaming for fans to have their story said. For example I would love to see the Knute/Crystal story developed, or my dear sistah Delta. And how about Rosa? I just can’t believe that Greg/Karen will leave Rosa out in the Gunther/Tiffany/Bernice saga. RIght now I think the overarching arc, if there can be one, is actually Toni and Bwad (sorry I can’t resist that -:) getting married in the Fuse, if not in the firehouse. But even more overarching than that is Luann who is always insecure about her relationships, more than anything else. Is that insecurity based on real things happening in her Luannverse? Or is it just in her own mind?

But I do agree with your overall statements about comics. They are dying but that is I think because print is dying more than anything. WHen we are gone, they will be gone. However since I plan to live at least 30 more years maybe Luann will get a chance to get to at least Generation X age (lol).

The bad news is…Pru is staying. The good news is…Luann, Pru is your competition. I mean seriously, look at her style of dress.

And don’t forget that even when characters DO say they’re going to do something, they forget about it as soon as they go off-panel. Remember the December 3rd strip when Gunther suddenly decided he liked Bernice? He bolted out of Tiffany’s room with the phrase “I’m going to go see Bernice RIGHT NOW” but never actually spoke to her, instead still making creeper eyes weeks later. Instead of following up a character’s action (or even acknowledging that such action took place), the author decided to spend the next week focusing on Bernice’s conversation with Dez. Gunther sure seemed like a man on a mission right then, so what happened?One of the major problems with this strip is that the second the problem might be solved (or at least the situation advanced a bit) by a character actually addressing the situation with someone like an adult, either they get all flustered for no apparent reason like they’re still a child (see Tiffany around Gunther), they ignore the situation entirely in the hopes that it will magically solve itself (as in how the Degroots expect to run a business that depends entirely on friends pitching in for free as a favor), or the storyline just skips past it and moves on to another subplot, leaving it hanging.And then there’s Luann herself. She addresses all her problems the same way: by obsessing over them with people who can’t/wont do anything to help fix them. She’s dating a guy, but every time there’s an issue she tackles it the same way: whine to either her friends or her mom. Sure they may offer sympathy (or in Bernice’s case, snarky comments) but it does nothing to actually fix anything. It never seems to enter her mind to actually talk to Quill about it. She’s still treating him like some guy she’s crushing on from a distance rather than her partner.Then again, the one time she DID talk to Quill about an issue (him spending all his time on his theater career instead of her), she just threw a fit like a toddler instead of engaging in a two-way dialogue. So maybe the reason she only goes to her friends is that Quill knows it would be a waste of his time to make himself available for a discussion with her.It’s just frustrating to see that the writers have absolutely no idea how to handle Luann being in a legitimate relationship, so they keep treating her and Quill like he’s just the latest boy she has a one-sided obsession with. Especially since Brad+Toni shows they do actually know how to write for a couple.

I have to confess, I’m finding this particular storyline to be a little tedious at this point.

100% agree, especially the last sentence.

This is getting frustrating. We haven’t seen Quill at all except for the cameo in the Christmas Day strip, and unless there’s something planned for NYE, there’s no indication that he did anything to make up for Christmas.

I’m personally hoping the trip to NYC happens…but that it’s a trip Luann ends up making by herself, having shown Quill the door. She’s good at a lot of things: art, stage design, teaching children. But she hasn’t decided which path is right for her yet. Maybe in NYC she can find a children’s theatre to work at while finishing her college education there, and experience all 3 options at once, before deciding what she wants to do. The strip wouldn’t have to end, but it would be something that would strengthen Luann as a character and open up a new world and adventures for her.

Equally frustrating is “Mr Gray”. No one, not even Gunther’s mom, knows this man’s first name, and yet they invite him into the homes, their lives, and their business decisions.

The dog doesn’t seem to like Pru, I wouldn’t trust her either. Dogs are usually right about people.

> there’s nothing of material consequence being un-explained>Obviously, this depends on your definition of “consequence”. For instance, is it of no consequence how Frank was able to finance what is clearly a project costing well over a million dollars with just $70K of seed money from TJ? Frank already told Nancy that they don’t qualify for a mortgage, so how did he get the huge loan from the bank that he would need to purchase and remodel the Fuse? The answer given by the strip’s defenders herein is, it doesn’t matter. Maybe the loan officer was drunk and mistook his application for one from prominent businessman Fred DeGrunt, or something. Who cares, it’s irrelevant, all that’s important is that he now has the money to make the project happen, so let’s just ignore where it came from and move on. Well, if that’s your idea of “storytelling”, then I suppose that’s all there is to it. However, for people who actually care about buying into a plausible story, having a huge sum of money appear from “somewhere” for “some reason”, and never being told where or why, does matter. Is that too much to ask of a writer?

What if, just for the sake of argument, that Prudence is just as she appears, with no hidden agenda?>So she pays Frank rent for the privilege of working for him for free, and she has no hidden agenda? Then she’s loony. How else could you explain it?

Maybe Pru can be paired up with TJ?

She needs to confront her boyfriend and confirm there is nothing going on.

I’m sorry, but the math for the loan-to-collateral ratio just doesn’t work out. However, that’s our math. We, the readers, have to figure out among ourselves just how such a loan could be possible, because of course that’s our responsibility as readers. We shouldn’t expect the writer to allude to it.

> so what’s wrong with being loony?!>Well, for starters, the DeGroots have taken a loony person into their household, without doing any background checking, This scenario could end up with Puddles in a stew pot.

It works out, only if one is very generous in assuming how little money is needed for the project. The very minimum assumptions are that buying just the property (even if it were a vacant lot) would cost say $300K, the warehouse itself (which could be used as a warehouse again, with just a little work), would cost another $300K, and the build-out would cost a final $300K, allowing Frank to do the project for about 13 times what he’s got. In actuality, all these figures could easily be doubled, in actuality,. But again, this is us, writing our own story, to try to justify the one that was published. Why should the readers have to come up with their own assumptions to justify what’s in the strip? Can’t the writer do this for us?

Wow… this is the first time we’ve gone into week 3 of an arc. Luann is staying low key which may be good move for now. I think this is a prime opportunity for Nancy and Frank to approach Quill and ask him just what his role in all of this is. He was the one who brought Pru. He’s the one who needs to do some explaining.

Whew!! With legitimate complaints lodged like all of these, it’s a good thing I took the Evelyn Wood speed reading course*! And you can, too! If, you get your own (can’t have my copy, sorry!)…

(*Disclaimer: Said EWSRC, as referred to above, was actually crib notes. Crib notes were notes, not an actual crib. Not musical notes, either. Results may vary. Commenter was not an actual paid endorser of EWSRC. Though he did try. A lot. You can’t really touch your elbow with your nose, no matter how hard you try. Stop trying. This disclaimer was paid for by the person typing this disclaimer, but then dropped all the change, and it fell into the sewer, before the coins could go into the counting machine. Are you sure you read all of this, and counted all the letters? Make sure, and check, again. Sometimes I might have missed one, you never know. Back story to this disclaimer is pending, just in case you wanted to know. Did I mention that results may vary? Oh…Yeah, I did. Sorry.)

One wonders if “The Simpsons”, “The Sopranos”, “Game Of Thrones”, and a few other shows worked their technical writers to death, just in case a bunch of people called up, to complain that Homer and Marge’s bank account wasn’t accurately depicted as being overdrawn.. with all that hairspray that Marge had to surely have needed to purchase, to keep that “pillar of knap” up straight, for, I don’t know, twenty years on TV, or more? And just how did she and her sisters end up with blue hair, anyway? I mean, really? Not knowing is getting on my nerves! – And I’m sure that they’ll be calling for Goff’s, Roberts’ and Aaron Spelling’s family’s heads, since it was never explained how Charlie Townsend could afford to have, since "nobody’s ever seen him work a case of his own "…. – And what about Ginger Grant, on Gilligan’s Island? Yeah… I’m sure everybody was concerned about her life’s details and fictional background… – Actually, good thing there’s still good ol’ Mark Trail to get at least a comic story right, complete and- no, wait… I just remembered that he missed a few stripes on that mountain lion. Actually, I think he got that whole species wrong- it must’ve been a puma he was intending to talk about. I think he’s been slipping, lately, to tell you the truth…

And on the subject of back story, since that seems to have been the theme, today, don’t get me started on how much back story gets left on a movie’s cutting room floor….er, guess now it’s a digital cutting room floor…

“…….Why doesn’t somebody just email Greg Evans on what he’s going to do with this character…..”-————————————————————————————

Why not just read the strip?

SPOILER ALERT

Someone has suddenly noticed that someone else isn’t happy, even though she’s stapling the word ‘happy’ to a wall…