Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for August 14, 2018

livin’ the life in two different points of view

It’s seems like Gunther’s mom liked to serve a green of some sort with every meal.

Next up: Gunther discovers cup noodles!

Enter TJ—the guy who might need a new place to crash soon…and he can cook!

Well, this answers the question that the last two weeks of the strip have indeed encompassed one single day.

Can someone tell me what happened to Quill? He was staying with Gunther and his mom but just disappeared. In fact several characters disappeared like Knute, Ox, Sun, Delta, Piro and a couple others. What’s up with that?

That’s interesting, they both don’t see themselves as adults. Gunther is going through mommy withdrawals while Les seems to have the cliche rebel teen attitude.

Irma isn’t likely to deal with Empty Nest Syndrome any better than Gunther. (He didn’t seem to miss her poached eggs down in Peru, but we’re supposed to forget that.) Gunther has only moved to the back yard. I’d guess Irma will be knocking on the door regularly with stuffed zucchini for her Gunthie.

@And Your Point: Have you forgotten the dinner parties that Irma was having, with both Les and Gunther invited? I’m sure she is expecting to continue them, rather than carrying meals over to the ‘guest house’. And since Les is basically saying that without adults to bother him, he’ll eat pizza for every meal, I still think the problem of Les leaving dishes for Gunther to wash has been settled, KenHense….

Someone is missing some down home cooking.

As for the poached egg and green tea, half the battle is boiling the water!

Um, you two ARE adults!

….technically speaking, at least.

Gunther is really a sad case. I don’t know if there’s any hope for him at all!

Smelling of garlic is no way to go through life.

In the first panel, Greg is in the box on the right. Is he a Schrödinger’s Cartoonist?

Gunther mentions that 24 hours ago, he was at home eating his mom’s cooking. To those who were wondering, this gives a time frame as to how long it took for the flight to Vegas, the wedding, the return flight, and the furniture sale.

It’s taken a bit too long for 24 hours to pass. Yet too much has happened at the same time. A bit draggy, yet reality still beckons Gunth to do his greatest work yet. And quoting a certain pointy eared man Gunthie likes: “resistance is futile.”

Uh excuse Me.

Le$? Le$ Knox. I’m going to “allow” this just this just this one time and one time only.

But would you PLEASE reach over and SLAP some Sense into Your “Roommate?”

Thank you.

And don’t You DARE touch him again!!!

so, learn how to make those things…

Good lord, this guy is pathetic. He’s pining for his mommy like a ten-year-old who’s been at summer camp too long. You want poached eggs, Gunther? Learn to make them!

I feel bad for the woman who ends up marrying this clown, since apparently he’s not happy unless he’s having home-cooked meals placed in front of him with no effort on his own part. Does he get his napkin tucked into his shirt for him too?

Gunther knows how to make clothes but he did not learn how to cook?

Cooking poached eggs and making green tea are a LOT easier than sewing! Sheesh, Gunth!

I bet they really regret getting rid of that dining room table and chairs right now.

Well, that answers why they are wearing the same clothes for two weeks.

Looks like they’re sitting at an office desk. What’s up with that?

It’s not the poached eggs per se, Gunther’s whining for his old life, for mommy to do things for him, to baby him. GnK have spent – are spending – a lot of time setting up this character for a life changing moment. I hope it is good, because at least for me, the arc has been rather excruciating.

How much longer will this episode of the Odd Couple last?

I hope Gunther comes to a new Epiphany… that he needs to “find himself,” rather than live inside his mother’s shadow. Not sure that Les is the best of references, but maybe he can see Les as the opposite “extreme,” and find something in the middle. We’ll see.

I had very caring parents, and I was still extremely excited when I first moved out of the house. Gunther pining for mommy to bring him a poached egg in the morning is just weird.

And I still don’t why they had to move to the back yard instead of just staying in their rooms, which (presumably) still exist.

THAT I would find insulting, now that I think of it. Mom making me move out and live in the guest house in the back yard.

I would like to know how they sold everything with one single yard sale. Did they higher 3 more sign spinners?

For some reason Gunther has been regressed into a loser trapped in a situation he can’t control. He has come a long way down from that mountain in Peru. Maybe it’s time, not for Rosa to come home, but for Gunther to go back to Rosa.

Cutting apron strings is a process. Not an event.

Sure looks like, of the two, Gunth is going to be “learning” more from Les than the other way around.

I’ve already said, one Les is one Les too many in this strip.

And it looks as if Greg intends for Gunth to become Les 2.0!

Too painful to watch this!

Gunther never works. Does he go to college, or just depend on mom?

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

This arc is starting to remind me of one of those pilots placed within an episode of an established television show that is going to be spun off into another series. (I think both Mork and Mindy and Laverne and Shirley started out that way in an episode of Happy Days.)

I have heard, and it’s probably true, that if you put two people of different social and educational levels together, the person of higher qualities will sink to the habits and language of the lower class person. So, keep your kid out of urban school districts, the Blackboard Jungle.

Grow up Gunther. Mom won’t be cooking for you and wiping your butt forever.

Gunther has grown up eating real food and not junk. Boyo is going to have to cook for himself now (IIRC, there have been strips showing that Gunther does cook.)

5

Even though Gunther “pining away” for his zuchinni, rice, poached eggs, and green tea appears at first glance to be somewhat “pathetic” as many commenters have stated. I think today’s dialogue and actions by Gunther are actually much more important and potentially hopeful than what we have been experiencing through much of this “Odd Couple” arc thus far:

To me, I read Gunther’s listing of all the various (somewhat cringe-inducing) foods to represent a sort of “epiphany” by Gunther. A more complete realization that sure, there are things he will miss about his old life…. but more to the point.. an epiphany that he needs to begin making decisions about his current life. He cannot simply drift into this new environment and mold himself into Les’ plan (basically a pizza & “beer”, frat-house style “bachelor pad”) like he molded himself to fit into Irma’s lifestyle again that he was comfortable with when he returned from Peru.

No, instead, I believe that today Greg is suggesting a hint that Gunther is waking up to the notion that he needs to begin making decisions day-to-day that in this new environment that are not simply acquiescing to others, but instead Gunther making decisions for himself.

I mean, if you think about it, acquiescence is in many ways Guther’s middle name. 1) Initially he acquiesced to Irma all during childhood and high school. 2) His primary M.O. during Peru was to acquiesce to damn near anything Rosa suggested. 3) He came back from Peru to “save” his mother… but ended up acquiescing back into whatever Irma wanted (including the guest house with Les). 4) He has been mostly acquiescing with Les up to this point as well.

But, maybe, just maybe… we are seeing the beginnings of a true realization in Gunther that he has to start making choices for himself for the life he wants. This may be a pipe dream, but it is how I am reading the comic today.

Given Gunther’s seeming obsession with home cooked meals, maybe the Big Change we’re about to see is not Gunther deciding to use his computer skills for a job and apartment, or even Gunther taking up with yet another Rosa. It may be that Gunther abandons his Life Plan of engineer-married-to-bookworm-with-2.5-kids, and decides to take up a career as a chef. I can see it now. He is admitted to the Culinary Institute of America (aka ‘CIA’), achieves greatness, and becomes the first ’toon to have a show on the Food Network…

My God.

Gunther Berger! Have You FORGOTTEN that You are Living with Your Mortal Enemy? The Guy You once described to Tiffany as being “Dangerous?”

So WHY in the NAME of All SANITY are You confessing every single WEAKNESS You have to some Thug Who Will Happily and Gleefully USE-IT-AGAINST-YOU at EVERY Opportunity??

What You’ve Done today (And Probably the rest of the week) “Herr Berger” is the equivalent of the WWII German Navy Willfully, handing over the ENGIMA Machine and all of it rotors over to the Allies and telling them to “Use it Wisely.”

And Yet another day goes by and Gunther is STILL deprived of His Self-Respect……,

#GUNTHER’SFINISHED

One More thing, and Question for Le$:

At what point did You two “Enemies” become an “US??”

Hope they have some root beer: if you eat cold pizza for breakfast, gotta wash it down with root beer…

during the summers stuffed zucchini and the like I had to my gills as a teenager. My mom loved squash. So I side with Les on this one

Ugg. This is why no female should EVER date Gunther. “Honey, this dinner you lovingly made for me on the table at 6pm to accommodate my job isn’t the poached eggs and green tea my mom used to make!”

DAY OLD Pizza… the best.

Gunther can make steamed okra with free range tofu…

Pizza eggs! RECOMMENDED!

Al seems pretty well off. Maybe Irma doesn’t have to work any more. Maybe Irma will preoccupy herself by making every meal for Gunther – and running over with cookies between meals. That’s the good news and the bad news.

This is about the only way he would grow up and become a man, thank you Mr. Gray.

tomorrow: IKEA !!!!!!

Saturday ( pouring over plans) : "What’s a "spade bit? "

Gunther is free to cook or not cook, share or not share, stay or go.

Life is good.

@Schrodinger’s Dog: You must spend a lot of time at IKEA, you sure keep suggesting it for these two. I don’t see Les as the furniture assembly type, myself. Maybe Gunther could handle it, since he likes creating costumes and might see it as just another puzzle to solve. I’d rather see Gunther Googling want ads, but that’s just me…

Will Gunther ask Les to bring him a plate of fresh-baked cookies and milk at bedtime? As soon as Irma returns from her honeymoon, will she be carrying that tray to Gunther in the guest house every night?

Move to the dorms, and learn to subsist on cafeteria food, G-man.

Like I said a few days ago, Gunther is more upper crust sheltered type, while Les is animal house. My theory is that both experiences will or I should say would meet in the middle. Contrary to a rather unfortunate racist tinged comment by another person here, that does not mean that Gunther is sinking into some lower class habits, since the higher class will become lower class if they are around them. Fascist thought persists I guess. I rather think that young bachelors tend to be rather, shall we say, unrestrained in all kinds of activities when left to their own devices, but that can be modified by normal events like romantic pursuits—girls-and generally normal growth. I really think that is what this is all about, and ironically this “odd couple” will become friends and have good influence on each other, which means that Les will be less larcenous, and a bit less doofus, and Gunther will finally learn to be a man. No sinking into lower class habits.

Longest 24 hours in comic strip history. I keep hoping for a change in script, instead, I get sucked into this miasma of mediocrity. HELP!

The sun needs to rise on this arc. Just to paint a nice picture: Gunther can’t find green tea in the packed boxes, so he decides to splurge and go to a little coffee place to get a tea. Standing in line with Gunther is the young coupon lady. She asks him if they sold their furniture. Gunther tries to explain to her that the coupons are a rip off. She bows her head and says, “I know.” She asks Gunther what he does for money. Gunther bows his head and says, “My Mother gives me money when I need something.” After a moment, she gives Gunther a hug, and then they sit down together to talk. A new website offering services could emerge, with Gunther’s technical knowledge and her salesmanship…

Come on Gunther, snap out of it. Anyone can make a cup of tea. Get a rice cooker. Slice up some zucchs and put them in a pan to sizzle (with olive oil with garlic and onion). Poaching an egg takes all of 5 minutes.

It’s quite sad that at age 18-20, Knox does not consider himself an adult. Of course we realize he doesn’t act like one, but that he doesn’t even subscribe to the illusion.

⇧ good to see that pipe has discovered bold because it’s important to bold every other word for emphasis…

It makes no sense that Gunther receives more disgust than Knox.

Make comics fun, again.

I never thought I would want to know what Bernice is doing, but now I do, since whatever it is, it has to be less pathetic than this.

Leslie has an impoverished palate. Pizza is good, but so is stuffed zucchini with steamed rice! And poached eggs for breakfast—on toast and with Canadian bacon and coffee (skip the green tea)!

Pizza that had to be delivered there. Just imagine the delivery person’s reaction having to deliver a pizza to a shed in the backyard.

Apparently Les will continue to power-down and bully Gunther -after all…. it’s Les’ rich Uncle that is financially supporting and housing the boys.