Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for January 06, 2016

And we still have three days to go …

How nice of Puddles to lay butt-first next to Luann’s face.

-I thought a big breakthrough was about to happen, but I guess not…

Well, communication is key.

Good, old fashioned Luann. The two girls jabbering away and Puddles getting a lot of “ink”. Sounds like a therapy session and we’re getting a tidy re-cap of what’s going on.

You know all this serious stuff we have been throwing, and along comes GE et. al., and disarms it so quickly, and typically. Remember these two are life-long friends. Of course it leaves the story arcs open for another day. Puddles always seems to respond to Luann the way he is drawn. I don’t know is he really some kind of dog savant or something? Dogs are very sensitive to your masters. i babysat my daughters dog for two months and we became so simpatico. I miss that little mutt.

You know all this serious stuff we have been throwing, and along comes GE et. al., and disarms it so quickly, and typically. Remember these two are life-long friends. Of course it leaves the story arcs open for another day. Puddles always seems to respond to Luann the way he is drawn. I don’t know is he really some kind of dog savant or something? Dogs are very sensitive to your masters. i babysat my daughters dog for two months and we became so simpatico. I miss that little mutt.

Greg, are you listening? These last few panels have been Uber! You’re up on Walt Kelly/Bill Watterson/Jef Mallett level. I’m impressed and pleased.

Sorry to say, relationships get more complicated when people DO communicate.

If only Delta were still alive. She could smack them both upside the head and maybe knock a little sense into them.

And Puddles is showing both of them what he thinks of them.

Luann, your question has been answered by Bernice.

Lack of communication is the troubles for allot of problems in our lives.

Continue to work through your problems. You will find the answers.

It may seem like a “slow week”, but who isn’t glad for a “lull” here and there, whether at work, our kids’ school schedules or such, or even a vacation- just for a quick “change of pace”, and then go “back into the grind”, right after? – That’s the beauty of writing stories. Every week can’t be action packed, every week can’t all be dramatic. Sometimes, it’s important to get to the destination quickly, sometimes it’s good to take the time to just stop and smell the roses, literally- or even to get the landmarks and details on our travels straight, – The thing is, there are plenty of details and a quick “catching up” in the form of tiny bits of info that can be gleaned from this week, so far, things that perhaps some later on may have been unclear on (not talking about our perceptions of the nature of the relationships, but the facts about the who’s and what’s of the the recent stories), and who knows what the rest of the week may reveal? For instance, some have been unsure if there was a major falling out between Luann and Quill- well, the details given today was that they didn’t break up. It may seem like a “We knew that already !”, but think about some of the uncertainty by many commenting, when Quill walked away last week. Well, you’ve got a new piece of info that tells you what the current status of their relationship is , at the moment. And that’s just the one example. – And secondly,. the past strips today, served as the set up to the ironic punch line, that they have spent a lot of time talking, just to have misheard the other, and yet Bernice was resolute that it was communication that was the key (which involves listening, it’s actually the key element). Perhaps there’s a set up to a second level to this, later in the week- or perhaps it’s just until we get another aspect of the story, and this would serve as the quiet transition to it, much like when Charlie Brown would stand and talk with another character at the wall, or when Forest would be talking to someone at the bus stop, before the next major scene occurred…. – So be glad for some “down time”, here and there. or wherever/whenever. With this jaded, 24-7 in- your- face world, we get so much thrown in our faces, almost non- stop, and everything is so instant. Let us not forget the value of patience….

I find that married people seldom communicate. They talk to each other but don’t seem to convey anything of importance.

“Not From Concentrate”“Two Way Street”“Lost In Translation”“A Divergence In Divulgence”“Stay Tuned”“The Conservation Of Conversation”“Open To Disclosure”“A Dialogue In The Fire”“Transmission Statement”“A Broken Conveyor”

“Deep Waters, Sinking In”

“Dense, Dense Revolution”or“There Must Be Some Misunderstanding…” (♪)

What happened to Gunther’s resolve to find Bernice and profess his affections to her?

THIS has Gone on Long ENOUGH!

Gunther? Come out from Under Your Hiding place under the bed and WORK Your “Magic” on these two Sob Sisters, and get ’em all Googly Eyed like You did Tiffany a few Months Back.

Then AVOID Them Like the Plague when They Come over to Your Mom’s House Desperately Seeking MORE.

…..Just Like You Did Tiffany….,

Is this the first time ever that the Luann comic strip has mentioned sex?

A word here & a phrase there and . . .

The strip is growing up. The ladies have actually spoken of sex directly do the the first time.

Where can you drink at 19?

6Bernice said something profound….“Because people don’t communicate.”The reality is that communication is the key to success in a relationship. Communication consists of both LISTENING and SPEAKING, with arguably listening the most important of those two. Luann and Bernice both have failed at communication with the boy each is interested in. Luann’s rage fueled tirade last week does not count (IMO) as actual communication, but instead is simply venting and spewing. Bernice’s unspoken thoughts about Piro are unfortunately not communication either.Bernice and Luann yammering together in the same room ALMOST is communication…. it has a helluva lot of the SPEAKING component, but tends to severely under-represent the LISTENING component.

Communicate? But….that would make sense!

This was actually funny. Could have gotten to this punchline earlier.

You’re mischaracterizing. There was no “great minority purge”, there was no “great purge”. Delta and Rosa were the only main characters. Luiz, Sophia, etc. Were only ancillary, and only necessary to the respective arcs they appeared in. Furthermore, Mr. Fogarty, Miss Phelps (and presumably Les Knox) also left the strip in the same period of time, and that would “fly in the face of” characterizing this as some… “minority purge”.

Awww. You two woke up Puddles. That’s not nice. FIRE AWAY PUDDLES!

After almost 28 years of marriage, my wonderful wife and I communicate very well. I talk and she hears ’wah-wah-wah——wah-wah-wah" just like in the Peanuts cartoons on TV. LOL ☺

You originally said:

“Delta was removed in the Great Minority Purge™ that transpired over a multi-year period.

Casulties:

DeltaRosaLuizSophiaSanchezSun”

– You are now saying:

*_"Sorry, there clearly was. The strip has very few minority characters to begin with, and they’ve all but been kicked out. There clearly was a purge. The only main minority characters now are TJ and Dez, who are both ambiguously diverse….

…White characters were removed, but replaced with other white characters. Fogarty and Phelps have been replaced by Zebo and Manzeon, Knox (a student character only) has been replaced by Jock and Emo. Then we have Hair, Viper, Piro, Prudence…all white characters. Sun has been purged."

– Again, listing different characters who were ancillary, and trying to “figure out who replaces who” is irrelevant and irrespective to what the basis of your point was supposed to be: some “minority purge”. And again, when Fogarty, Phelps and Delta left, it was all at the same time. Those were the only main characters who left. The other characters were only depicted within the scope of those stories they appeared in, and nothing more. Rearranging names, adding in the names of the other ancillary characters doesn’t change the fact that there wasn’t some great purge. – Furthermore , trying make a statement like what you’ve made, namely: “…White characters were removed, but replaced with other white characters…” in itself is a precarious statement to make, and a serious accusation, at that. In effect, it amounts to slander and impugning the motives of the artist. Would you even dare to make that statement on the daily FB page? Such a statement is bold and ought to come with some actual proof of motive .

Also reminds me of an SNL skit, lampooning CNN, having their reporters only using puppets, interpretive dance and a video “strikingly similar” to the one produced for “Money For Nothing” by Dire Straits as forms of reenactment or demonstrating “what just happened”, as a way of reporting the news….

LOL!

Or going to court (a la “Judge Judy”, etc) and the only evidence you bring is the video that shows you talking to Person X Y and Z about your issue, and none of them were even at the scene…

Oh, man, I’m done whitcha!….

And I also want to add that in real life, people would easily get tired of those like Luann and Bernice, who are either constantly snarking on others or always obsessing over the opposite sex without much else going on in their lives.

“When you get done insulting me, let me know the number of minority characters, then vs. now. I’ll be waiting!

"Imp – Great tally of characters who have been “erased” today. Thanks!

“When you get done insulting me, let me know the number of minority characters, then vs. now. I’ll be waiting!”^Where is the insult? There is none! I said: Where is the evidence? You keep making “straw man arguments” and talking in circles, bringing up this, that and the other, after your original statement, ““Delta was removed in the Great Minority Purge™ that transpired over a multi-year period.” was disproved . You can say that many characters have come and gone, and show proof of that, but you have no proof that there was some minority purge, and you can’t say that those ancillary characters are some great purge, as many ancillary characters of all walks have left, and the four that left last year, are also of varying walks of life… and also it can’t be said, since you yourself admit it was over a long period of time! Straw man arguments, talking in circles, and on top of that, suppositions that the creator of this strip is “purging minorities”. Add to that, the fact that you wouldn’t make that statement to them directly, in the avenue made available via soical media (e.g., Facebook), and the fact that several people have made the suggestion that you make you own strip, since you know so much about the subject… that’s why I’m ’done wichya!"

ROFLOL! That would have been interesting!

Greg must be on vacation??? The last few day’s comics have been pathetic.

LOL! – Yeah, and I think their servers are located in Area 53…

“What we have here, ladies girls, is a failure to communicate!” Get off your duffs and do something about your petty, miserable lives rather than blabbing ceaselessly!

Disagree with the pack.. Last three days have been nice, specially having Puddles moon the girls.

Don’t know about L.J., but T.J. is still around…

Delta was removed in the Great Minority Purge™ that transpired over a multi-year period.

Casulties:

DeltaRosaLuizSophiaSanchezSun-—————————Sophia and Sanchez are in Peru and don’t count. Luann never even met them..The others DO count.

No humor in the storyline today.,BUT humor exists in the illustration.

@ Pipe Tobacco

Could not use the reply function. Please read this posting and understand that I am not disrespecting you, but I am finding you to be somewhat harsh and perhaps overly critical in your understanding of these characters.-rage fueled tirade

venting and spewing

yammering

You and I seem to have read entirely different ‘toons, prof.

As a former volunteer on a crisis switchboard, I thought I saw in Luann the past two weeks the beginning of the confusing spiral into depression that a lot of kids face when suddenly dealing with many changes in their lives at the same time.

They are expected to make decisions that can affect them for a long time (’what classes should I take, what job should I be aiming for? Do I want to be a counselor?‘), while achieving much more in those classes than expected of them before.

At the same time, friends and relatives who they used to be able to spend time with get deeply absorbed in their new aspects of their lives (Quill getting more and more involved with theater, Luann’s parents getting more and more involved with the Fuse).

As volunteers, we were told to look out for people who said they felt ‘lonely’. Both Luann and Bernice said that. I believe much more was and is going on here than just two young women ‘yammering’ about boys.

T.J. is supposedly half italian, not exactly a ‘minority race’ these days ..Archie Bunker is long gone.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOnTZipv03M.But T. J. is always colored darker than the others.

There is NO chance that Evans is at all racist..But there may be worries about the “politically correct crazies” on one side and the throwbacks on the other.

Note that this arc began on a saturday..A good thing in my view. I’d prefer variation.,Maybe this arc will end today. (At least get off the bedroom floor.)

-I have little or no interest in debating whether there should or should not be fewer or more white or nonwhite characters in any given ‘toon, whether it is ’Luann’ or ‘Candorville’ (Darrin Bell’s ‘toon, which I also follow.)

Just want to inject a bit of information here. Worldwide, those who are characterized as ’white’ happen to be in the minority.

Here’s another bit of info. As a short story (unpublished) writer, I’ve always been told that we do the best when we write from some part of what we know. This is probably why many artists tend to write or create stories around people who share their characteristics, whether ethnic, religious, gender or what.

Not that I haven’t written from the perspective of, say, an ancient Egyptian ghost haunting a mummy-filled museum (which is a stretch, since I’m Jewish). But it’s a lot easier for me to create a ‘realistic’ Jewish ghost.

So where is the surprise that an artist might not fill his or her ‘toon with folks he or she doesn’t have that much in common with?

Time to put this pointless dialogue to an end:Bring Puddle’s {{{ fwoot! }}} spot into play already!

“People don’t communicate” – in more ways than one.

I used to date a Japanese woman.She and one particular Girlfriend used to have conversations like that which could go on for Hours..Both of them chattering away at 90MPH and apparently both able to Follow what the other was saying while continuing to talk herself..Well, unless they also had a couple glasses of Wine at the same time.

They kept on Doing it, but I suspected that they were Losing Track occasionally once the wine kicked in.

I think this a is a good arc. By the end of the week these two will (hopefully) resolve to improve their ability to communicate with key people in their lives, so that going forward, we don’t have to re-live the same drama over and over. They can practice on each other. Dez told Bernice to take a few more risks in her life and have an adventure. She told Luann to (essentially) exercise some prudence; Luann’s recent interaction w/ Quill showed no prudence. I think Bernice did try to communicate w/ Piro. He’s a harder nut to crack but she could try again and she needs to communicate more nicely w/ the students on her floor that she’s in charge of as RA.

Had a dream last night where it turned out that Pru was a mentally ill serial killer. Please let this be true.

Wonder why that is?

A while back where you posted that Frank was an idiot for starting a business that would fail, 2 days later you complaining that Frank would not fail, the writer wouldn’t let him fail. When I called you on it, you said nothing.

I’m going to say something I should have said long ago. Maybe it will still help.

I never report anyone for anything they say here. I get whatever I can from every post and move on. And I try to appreciate the negative as well as the positive.

But the posts I skip fairly quickly are the ones where posters snipe at each other … especially the ones that threaten to report each other. Those do nothing to advance the actual discussion and are (at best) an irritation.

¿Comprende Ustedes? (I had Rosa help me with that.)

SPOILER ALERT

Instead of comfort, commiseration, confiding or communication, Bernice seems to be starting an interrogation. Or is it an investigation?

What is isn’t is soothing…