Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for May 09, 2018

Another innuendo in the middle panel. Fay should have said, “Would you like to go with?”

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May 9 – my birthday…

Listening — whether in acting or having a relationship (like Luann and Quill) — is key.

“Acting” is “Reacting.” ✨

Listening might even come in handy in other situations. We’ll never know.

Not my favorite story line, with the drawn-out (and largely pointless) flashback last week. But it is kind of fun to watch Greg draw the mannerisms of one character onto the physical body of another.

Cute Kid.

But Fay? What if:

1) Your Mom says NO to all this?

2) Axel already has a Girlfriend?

Worst time to not listen:

“Did you hear something go snap?”

That second panel Luann as Axel down pat.

Jeeze, isn’t there something more relevant going on with Luann during her college years than this banal storyline? The only ACTING going on here is anyone pretending that this whole “Faye wants Axel; Axel couldn’t care less” plotline is in any way the least bit interesting.

I think this is the funniest, sweetest set of panels in a while. I don’t really care if many of the posters like to make cynical, puerile, dissatisfied comments (if it floats there leaky boat cool), but it’s clear to me what is being drawn in the story. Luann is showing how good she is at empathy, sharing, by play acting, the kind of angst and trauma she went through when she began to be attracted to boys in her pre and early teens. Trying to become more advanced in relationships is a natural thing, and her funny misadventures were/are part of the idea of the comic. I think Luann does a really good job of mimicking Axel, including the looking away when he would say "sure’ and his whole “I am too cool to care” physicality. He is just trying to keep his cool, because he is more scared and awkward than Fay is not confident. Saturday will be the denouncement here: she will ask and he will say “sure”. Axel, little Fay has plans for you. At least that is the way I call it anyway.

Luann looks as if she’s attempting an Ed Sullivan impersonation.

Luann does a great Ed Sullivan impression! She looks like she’s about to say: THE BEATLES! anytime now.

Didn’t they do this storyline already?

Luann should definitely emcee on America’s Got Talent and say, “Tonight, we have a really big SHOE for you!” (channeling Ed Sullivan).

Fay’s mother is going to fire Luann as soon as she finds out that she was talking to Fay about boys again.

It would seem Lu has a point. Fay is being a tad pessimistic, there. Then again, I wonder what Fay’s reaction would be if Axel did say “yes.” {Popcorn}

“The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain! …..”

This is moving so slo-o-o-o-o-owly.

Plan for failure, hope for success?

Guys, this is a strip about a young girl, Luann, coming into young womanhood. Greg brought in Karen to provide feminine insight into that transformation. (Ask a young person these days what ‘feminine’ means, they have no idea) Now we have an arc where we see that plot line in two characters. Given what we’ve historically seen from Greg, we will see this arc subsequently used in the future. But for now, don’t be surprised that the women folk enjoy this arc.

2

Again, this continuing arc is not my favorite. It bothers me that Luann is going against Mrs. Garcia’s wishes. It would be much more bearable if Luann and Fay had first made a plan to talk about this and get Mrs. Garcia’s approval. As it currently stands, the arc leaves me feeling disappointed in Luann’s judgement as a mentor.

That said, however….

1) Luann’s “Sullivan” impression of Axel is funny and good. Her rendition of the “too cool for anything” attitude is done very well by Greg here in that he has nuanced the drawing style just enough to have Luann show the attitude…. but at the same time show the absurdity of the attitude. I like that.

2) Luann’s advice about “Listening” is far more valuable than just regarding acting. It is unfortunately the case, I feel, that a lot of folks in the modern world are struggling more with the concept of listening to others than had been in the past. I attribute this to a few different distractors…. a) the generally more rapid pace of day-to-day life, b) the easier access of diversions such as phones, tablets, etc, and c) a generally more polarized mindset of folks in terms of opinions (political, social, and otherwise). All three make it far easier for folks to avoid listening to each other.

3) It is interesting that at least to me, it appears Fay is taller in today’s panels than Greg had drawn her previously. Probably just an artifact of a particular day of drawing, but now she is much more on par with Luann, even when Luann is not adopting the “too cool for anything” posture.

4) With Fay being a pretty sensitive kid, I am wondering if perhaps the greatest impact of what may transpire if Mrs. Garcia is incised….. is that Fay may not only be upset about the severing of the mentor/mentee relationship…. but that Fay may also feel guilty about it because she too did not try to convince her mother about the value of Luann’s guidance, prior to discussing dating issues?

What I find interesting today is the “fake it till you make it”, or acting, approach to overcoming our inner scaredy cat. My initial response to this was negative, because I prefer all things authentic. But now I think this is good when personalities are still being formed, or even later This would also be a better approach to learning a foreign language. “In this scene, you are to act like a rude French waiter … .”

I’ve never been a teacher myself, but had several in my family over the years (most are no longer among the living, unfortunately). I find it interesting that Luann is facing a situation that my cousins always faced, a situation where the student was interested in something and the parent or parents did not approve. Usually it was more that the student was interested in a type of career that the parent didn’t want them encouraged to pursue (like the young woman who was terrific at math and wanted to be an engineer and her widowed mother thought this was totally unrealistic, and that she should be steered in the direction of being a nurse or teacher. The kid DID end up in engineering and did well.) In this case, the conflict is not about academics, but the issue is the same: a teacher or mentor is sympathetic toward a student’s interests, and has to be careful not to push the kid too much in a direction that the parent doesn’t support…

For what it’s worth. For decades, Luann was about a teenage girl, her parents – and sibling, sort of. Luann was famously boy crazy, as most seasoned readers will attest, as well as revisited last week with the Aaron Hill arc.

My point: Often, artists draw upon their personal experiences. Here, parents and daughters.

Greg: Parent. Karen: Daughter.

Makes me wonder what their personal life was like.

To quote an ambulance-chasing lawyer’s commercials here in town, “Get the picture?”

at this rate the film will be over before she asks him.

Fay should be exploring this fantasy with girls her own age, (like Luann had Bernice). It’s a little too early for her to be exploring the physical stuff with a boy. Someone keeps saying that this is a family comic, but Greg keeps teasing us with suggestive dialog, so don’t be mad if the comments reflect that. Mr. Evans is a California boy who’s been around the block a few times and knows exactly what he’s doing. Tiffany is a perfect example. Do guys want to date her, or protect her. “Or have it both ways”?

Luann’s Axel/Ed Sullivan is too delish! But she is right that Fay needs to pay attention rather than let her anxiety take over and speak its line out of her mouth.

Dating, especially early dating, is such a quixotic thing….