Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for July 21, 2017

If Luann’s foot wasn’t broken, she might have a new “want” right now.

lemme guess… Axel’s parents made him join this theater camp

Fay seems shy, let’s see if she can overcome that through theater arts. :)

Why is Axel even there …?

I like Axel, the rebel. Should be interesting. The young girl is sweet. He needs an outlet, she needs confidence. Can Fuse, Pru and Luann do that for them? Time will tell.

Ha, funny that Lu actually did go for name tags!

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That Fay seems a bit like melted butter- kinda soft, and potentially “great for popcorn” (an aspiring actress, maybe with talent, just needing the right opportunity to stand out and shine)!

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Axel doesn’t seem so “geared up” for this here setup. Question is, will he “roll out”?

Whatever tunes Axel is listening to must be pretty lame if it can’t block out the sound of Prudence and Luann’s voices.

So looking forward to what Pru and Luann can do with just two campers, one of which doesn’t want to be there but was made to by parent(s). Looking forward to see how creative the girls gets to make the camp good for these two and perhaps manage to put together a play. I won’t be at all surprised if they decide to put Shannon in the play.

There are plays with a 2-person cast, so I think Luann and Pru should start looking for one,

“Greet Expectations”

“Hello! I Must Be Going!” (♩)

“You Wanna Be Startin’ Something?” (♩)

“Ho-la Land”

“There’s Always One….”

“Nobody Balks, In Allay”

“Mind Your Ease, And Cues”

“Fruit Of The Loon”

“Academy Awkward”

“My Little Introduced Coup” (♪)

“He Didn’t Start The Desire” (♬)

“Incept-shun”

“Ladies And Diver-gents”

Or

“Want Is The Loneliest Number” (♬)

Axel’s already running out of gear

Say, I hope Faye gets to stay in the picture for a while…if she were a real person, I’d be rooting for her to realise her dream!

Are they going to have those two kids do romantic roles opposite each other? Somehow, that looks pretty iffy.

Axel, Knute, Nil(s) – there are a fair number of Scandinavian names in this strip…

Axel seems to have some sort of problem with his lips – they seem to be in a permanent pucker.

I don’t understand. Luann made name tags for three people but expected 100? And where is Ms. orange shirt?

I like the way Fay runs slowly out of steam as her sentence progresses. If this “camp” increases her confidence, it was all worth it. Maybe Axel will drop “the attitude” as a boon.

Well, this is going well!

Ah. “Axel,” is it? What a “delightful” lad!

(PSSSST, Les! This kid’s got an Expensive Smartphone and His Bulging Pockets Jingle with LOOT! RELIEVE Him of His Expensive "Burdens!)

It is telling that Pru wants to “act”, but retiring violet (-shirted) Fay just wants to “be in a show”. (Good job on the lettering, showing how her voice tapers off as she speaks. This girl is not a natural performer.) It’s too bad that this camp doesn’t have enough kids for a chorus, because that’s where she belongs. Maybe Luann can instead share with Fay some of her (completely untrained) ideas on set design and other show-production talents that don’t involve stepping into the spotlight.

I’m still having trouble buying into Luann’s wanting “to be a teacher”, though. She was at best a mediocre student with no interest in school, and she would be terrible at inspiring a class with any desire at all for learning. She’s in her element at Kidz First, where she’s conducting day care rather than actual teaching.

There’s the door, Snark Man – your secret is safe with us!

Why are they even doing this? They have two campers. If 15 was the break even point you are losing money. As greedy as Frank is, he would put the kabach on this idea.

Just curious to see if Les, who was on hand the other day, might have some interaction with Axel. Could be a way to either bring out the positive side of Les….or have him bond with Axel as an outcast. Let’s see.

Maybe Axel has a band he’d rather be playing with.

Axel’s “want” is to make an annoying impression. His every word has been dripping with passive aggression & sarcasm. Maybe he’ll find an older soul brother / father figure in Les. Potential there!

Does anyone really blame Axel (or anyone else) for being disappointed in this “camp”, consisting of two campers? Both Fay and Axel should ask for their money back and then go home.

Might have been even more of a problem if the girl said, “My name is Fay – and I want to direct.”

Let’s hope this does NOT become a Luann-version of ‘Step Up’ – the ol’ good-girl-meets-bad-boy story and happy ending ensues – (didn’t see any of ‘em – don’t want to, neither).

Actually, about the ‘Fay’ character: I wonder if the reference is toward Fay Wray of King Kong fame, perhaps?! (Then, Ox can do a cameo!!) :)

Plaza Suite. Three two-person sketches, with a few other very small roles (like a waiter bringing a tray).

There are four person plays – Butterflies Are Free, The 39 Steps – but I can’t think of any with only one male.

I’ll assume Axel, probably not his real name, is there because his parents did not want to have to deal with him.

Pru needs to notice when she’s poking into the edge of the panel in profile. She’s already rocking a kind of latter-day Fritzi Ritz vibe.

I don’t really see Luann being a teacher. Bernice could be a classroom teacher, and maybe even Tiffany could be a gym coach or ballroom dance teacher or an art therapist. Gunther is more the college professor type, or perhaps an inventor who works in a lab. As for Luann, I could see her going into stage design or some other kind of design, or becoming a singer/songwriter (the directions she seemed to be heading when she was with Quill). Or maybe be in artists’ management to keep things together for her arty friends.

Fay’s eyes… she’s a heartbreaker in the making.

They should have marketed the camp better. If they only have 2 of 15 kids needed to break even then how many people even knew it was happening?

Where is Shannon? Hey, Princess Powerstick, meet Prince Power Pout. Somedaaaaaay your prince may come…

Fay is going to need some confidence-building exercises. I’m sure Pru must have a bundle of them in her repertoire. Axel will need to be coaxed into some enthusiasm. Leave him to Luann; she has a proven record dealing with little kids!

If only Mr. Fogarty was here to hear Luann say that out loud.

Tomorrow: Axel opens up about his feelings.

Luann’s face looks a little distorted in panel 2

If Luann wants to be a teacher, why do we constantly see her taking art classes? Even if her goal was to be an art teacher, she would have to take some education classes, but she has never mentioned doing that, nor has she talked about transferring to a 4-year college where she could major in education.

Now, I know that we don’t see all of Luann’s academic life in the comic strip. But the part we do see would lead us to think Luann was planning to become an artist, not a teacher.

Luann’s teaching is relegated to a group of very young ones.

Ooh, a sideways baseball cap, which no one actually wears anymore. He must be eeevil. (I am being sarcastic.)

“I wanna be anywhere else” same here.