Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for December 29, 2018

Oh, we can hardly wait for Christmas in the next twelve months.

Brad, she answered your question about whether she liked her toys. She didn’t and wants to help you plan better for next Christmas. Save up, Brad. Betcha these are expensive toys on her list.

Unlike most children her age, Shannon likes to plan in advance.

She needs to accessorize her new toys!

It is never too early to plan ahead.

I thought Bratzilla was too young to read. She rejected the prototype of the Energizer Bunny because what she really wanted was a Chuckie doll.

God I would love to see her knocked down a peg or 2

Yesterday, Mordy compared Shannon to Les. I think a much better comparison may be to Gunther. I happen to believe that she is good, deep down inside.

Of course, G&K want us to interpret her as a brat, but what I see is a rather bright – and terribly bored – little girl. Is the G-man bored? I don’t know. But I do know he is not satisfied.

But the tie-in for the two characters to me is, they are smart, but they are also lacking in people skills. In Gunther ’s case, apron strings still need to be cut; in Shannon ’s case, apron strings were never attached in the first place.

I’m still dying to know her back story. Yes, it appears that her father is useless, but what happened to her mother?

Shannon needs something she is interested in. When my oldest was 5 years old, she was interested in birds. I bought her a comprehensive field guide to all birds of North America. It was a thick book with pictures and descriptions of every bird in North America. She was too young to read all the descriptions, but she devoured that book. She got so she could recognize any bird she saw, and sounded out the name of it from her field guide. The book was in tatters in only a few years. You have to pay attention to the child to get appropriate gifts. Shannon was 6 years old when Brad and Toni were married. She is at least that age now. She needs something more stimulating than a wind up ball with eyes and feet.

I’m willing to guess she wants a sibling to play with.

How mature of her, planning that far ahead!

Shannon has you get older time fly’s by so next Christmas will be here sooner then you think.

I’m pissed with Shannon but for some reason I’m also laughing!

“Next year’s list.” Boy she has a lot of chutzpah! Still LoL’ing!

Shouldn’t the list go to her Dad?

Gee, I love it when someone young plans for the future.

So the little cutup is living with her aunt and uncle on a permanent basis?

For their otherwise fairly adept handling of Shannon, Brad and Toni seem strangely unaware of her likes and dislikes when it comes to toys and playthings. Shannon is ready to fix that, it would seem! :)

Beat the rush, huh?

Ugh!

OMG – I so wish shannon would show up in this strip as “often” as her father does.

Think it’s pretty cool to have a not-very-likeable-kid as a character in a comic. Shannon is a budding Lucy van Pelt.

I’m waiting for the holidays to be over to give Amazon my list.

Already, it has unleashed her creativity!

Shannon acts that way because no one ever corrects her.Too afraid she won’t “like” or “love” them anymore.Brad/Tony aren’t her parents but they need to act like it more.

Cheapskate0 caused somewhat of an epiphany for me with his observations, above. (Yes. Epiphany was a seasonal tie-in.) Let’s examine what we know. We have a precocious little girl whose mother is absent from an early stage and whose father is emotionally absent. I would say we had another Tiffany in the making. She certainly has the model for exaggerated attention to appearance issues via Toni.

Gunther and Les do not fit that pattern. First there is an absent father with a heavy mother influence and Shannon is female (Duh!). Speaking of mothers; Irma and Ann remind me of Glinda the Good Witch of the North and the un named Wicked Witch of the West from the 1939 Wizard of Oz movie.

While we’re at it; we have two males with absent fathers (Gunther, Les) and three females with absent fathers (Tiffany, Shannon, Fae). Wow! Leitmotifs much, Greg?

Shannon is a character who appears whenever the strip needs a kid and then goes away when it doesn’t. (This is G&K’s doing, not Jonah’s!) If she goes away until next Christmas, that works.

cute, in an irritating way.

It’s truly sad when a kid is THIS difficult to like.

Hope the colored pencils didn’t break the bank.

I would say that since she is giving her list to brad and toni, not her father or santa claus, Christmas is a totallymercenary holiday for her. shannon is at the age where she is developing her morals. they better start doing something now, or a see another kim kardashian.

Here’s a tip for you childless couples out there: skip buying gifts at the dollar store!

So her dad never showed up? Sad.

“The Write Stuff”

“Pencil Vain? Yeah!”

“Wait Till Next Year!”

“Present For The Future”

The important point here most people seem to be missing—Shannon is spending the Christmas season with her Aunt and Uncle-in-Law, not with her father. What does that mean for the development of the Shannon story in general? Also, Shannon is a kid for crissakes!!! I actually think all she is doing is saying to the two people who care so much for her, I want other kinds of toys for next year, not colored pencils or mechanical walking toys. There is nothing particularly unusual or out-of-line about that for a 6 or 7 year old kid. But hey, one of things this blog allows is for people’s real life perspectives to show through, and as I keep reminding myself of what my 8th grade Sister of Mercy teacher told us, some people always see the glass half empty on everything, while others see it as half full. The internet makes that so clear. Happy New Year to anyone I miss.

Shannon is much better behaved than many comics children. Much worse are : Calvin, Dennis the Menace, Jeremy from Zits, Danae, Curtis, the kids from Fox Trot and Family Circus and many other poorly behaved fictional children. I would take Shannon over Calvin or Danae any day.

A stunt like that would have gotten all my Christmas gifts taken away until I could appreciate them, and not be such an ungrateful brat!

“And here’s a list of what you’re getting.”

“This is a blank paper … Hey!”

One small lump of burned coal.

All right Greg… time for a Grandchild next year. Let’s go!!

tomorrow: Knute and Crystal wait in the returns line, and decide to exchange with other people in line instead.

I don’t know what story arc we shall return to next week, but I sincerely hope it’s not Les’ and Gunther’s taking down all those Christmas lawn decorations.

For 2019: what’s out: Shannon. what’s in: Fay. What’s out: Les. what’s in: Piro. what’s out: Gunther. what’s in: Jack. What’s out: Bernice. what’s definitely in: the, new, robust, tiger lady, Tiffany. Out: Irma. In: Nancy (always Nancy)

Creative toys are best. One of my favorite “toys” as a child was a huge box I found in the alley. I lugged the thing home, and for the next month, every kid in the neighborhood was at my house, playing with the box. We used it for everything—props for houses and ships, carnival rides (we’d put someone inside and roll the box all over the yard)—we’d climb a tree, jump in the box, and turn it on its side—we’d get inside and roll it from inside, chasing other people while inside it. We were all so unhappy when it was in shreds after constant use.

Really, Shannon? —As though we cared! Just GO HOME and stop bugging Toni, Bwad, and lots of readers. Make your bug-out Dad do his duty!

Shannon is just doing what other kids do too; thinking about what they want. It’s nice to see that she can write (good for a 1st grader), maybe not sentences but a list of words at least and she is not looking them up. As for Toni’s comment, it isn’t hard to please someone with a gift if you do your homework (like, if you are not sure, ask someone). Frankly, I don’t think Toni put much thought into her gift. Brad (I believe) did, just like he did for Toni. If you don’t know what someone might like, ask someone who would know. Colored pencils are always a good choice for a kid; they aren’t a ‘spectator’ item; you have to engage.

The interesting thing to me is that Greg consistently writes Shannon in this extremely polarizing fashion. About half of us mainly feel sorry for the kid, and the other half of us consider her an annoying brat. Very, very polarizing as a character. And, she is portrayed as part of the humor in the comic quite sporadically as well… her actions may lead to a humorous (often backhanded) comment from another character…but it is generally rare that she, herself as a character, is BEING humorous.

In this new realization for me, I wonder more now about Greg’s plans for Shannon?