Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for December 21, 2020

Ugh. ✨

Yep… nice and slow, long in- and exhales can ease stress.

Speaking more of December birthdays from yesterday, today is my twin uncles’ 89th birthday if my father’s older brothers hadn’t died in 1956 and 2011.

Reason #1,002 never to have kids.

To whoever predicted we would be with Shannon and put the jinx on us “Thanks A Lot!”

“And be SURE to tune in tomorrow and indeed, the rest of week when Bernice learns that her intense dislike of children was MORE than Justified, in a very special Holiday Edition of Luann!! ;)

As I wondered last week GnK decided not to add four new characters to the scrips. The senior Halpers and their grandkids remain faceless entities.

Bet she thinks Ben’s kids are better behaved than Shannon.

SO, Bernice does not like noisy kids. Well, most people don’t, but family members are used to them but not so much for people like Bernice. One way to shut up a noisy kid is to give them something else to do – watch TV, play a videogame or send outside. With my boys, if it was day time, it’s outside time and the TV at night before bed. They did need to wind down anyway. Before you jump me and tell me books are better than TV. Of course. When they were little, I read 2-3 books to them before they fell asleep. Then they read a book on their own. It wasn’t until they were tweens when they abandoned books for TV. Some people are just not readers. I am the only reader in the family.

Supposedly all’s well with the Halper siblings now. There may be more discussion from the dinner this week but probably more Shannon-i-gans. Maybe with a Christmas theme.

Yikes! The source of the dislike of children.

Next on Bernice Halper’s list, Jack.

Put the kid on Ritalin. That will dial her way down!!!

Focus on the loud, expressive kid, an obvious lead predictable projectors around by the nose dramatic ploy. The story is about how Bernice got over her self-esteem issue getting in the way of getting to know her brother, and her twin nep/nieces. Also, about what a wise friend Luann is proving to be. If you focus on such an obvious artistic McGuffin one gets to moan about children and the monsters they are, while totally missing the story.

I assumed you meant to ban Bernice from the strip. I think she’s more annoying than Shannon. Shannon just needs some parenting from someone.

Shannon is the poster child for abstinence.

Hey, Bernice, you could take Shannon out for a walk and follow Jack’s advice about exercise! Heck, you might even run into Jack. I’ll bet Jack would be great with Shannon—he could put together a kiddie workout that would let her run off some of that energy that makes you nuts.

No Thanksgiving Kumbaya dinner and now, no Christmas Kumbaya dinner.

Short circuited once again. I side with those who complain that for all the dramatic build-up, all we get is an instant – and often faceless – “it’s all over now.”

Re: Shannon: Proof positive that Jonah no longer exists! When Brad and Toni need a break from Shannon, Luann is the babysitter, not Jonah. Seriously, G&K need to “out” whatever it is that happened to Jonah: It is clear that he is gone – and that Bernice’ long lost brother is far more likely to return than Jonah. (Oh! That happened already! Oops!)

As for Shannon, I’ll borrow from another rabbit: She’s not bad, she’s just portrayed that way. Fix the Jonah problem and I’m okay if she stays.

As for the “instant ending” (Sweatbox Express we say over at Dick Tracy), one could see that with the Ann Eiffel thing – years in the making – yet over in the flash of a fake sonogram.

And the arcs since have caused a few (not many, hopefully, and certainly not me) to wish for Ann Eiffel’s return. We don’t need Ann, but we do need something – and hopefully, not another über villain.

I’ve been going “whooo” for 4 years now. Now I can go “DEEP INHALE…….DEEP EXHALE….Ahhhhhhh.”

Peace and good health to all. And I mean all.

Those green pills from The Queen’s Gambit would come in handy right about now to sneak into Shannon’s milkshake.

Being the season, Shannon switches singing to:

A mall and the knight visitors

with:

This is my pox.

I. Don’t. Want. To. Hear. That. Song. EVER. AGAIN!

I agree with what is on the cookie mix box. “Kook – ie”

Shannon: another name for birth control.

Back to reality.

Thanks a lot, Greg. Now I’ve got that song stuck in my head!

Shannon can be everything you imagine in a girl her age. Sweet, adorable, and, then next a total pain in one’s rear.

Do Luann and her parents know that Shannon ruined Brad and Toni’s couch and probably a good chunk of their living room?

Is Shannon making a commentary on consumerism in modern America?

From your lips to Greg Evans ears! May it be so!

Send her outside. Into the snow drifts.

Oh goody, the brat is back. Why is she even there, anyway? I can’t imagine that Nancy was craving her presence. Luann had better be getting paid for this.

Shannon speaks the truth (at least for the late 70’s-90’s when it was truly a Mall world!)! I used to take my baby girls, in their double stroller, to the Mall down the street to walk them around where it was air conditioned, there were bathrooms with changing areas, and plenty eating places.

If she’s getting away with terrorizing the house now, with no consequences, just imagine what she’ll be doing at 15. And btw, the cops won’t be so forgiving.

Stupid Shannon. You’re always ruining everything!

Ditto

Why is Shannon at the DeGroots’ ?

Her singing is better than painting the couch

She’s been in the strip over a decade now; can we at least age her a couple of years and get past this stage?

That song again, really?

So all the buildup with Bernice leads to nothing, and any character development takes place off-panel, so we can rush over to a heavy-handed gag with Shannon, who is inexplicably at Luann’s house.

Shannon, you’re about forty years too late with that malpaprop…

Totally agree get rid of the brat

Now that Shannon is back, somebody on this strip better hide the matches. Couches painted with enamel paint burn quite well.

Leaving the discussion about her obnoxious behavior aside I don’t get how Shannon having a speech impediment is considered humorous or necessary . I know that for toddlers just learning to talk they will have issues with pronunciation which is where this started when Shannon was introduced but at her age talking baby talk isn’t funny and is actually approaching offensive the older she’s getting . Kids her age still having speech issues would be receiving help from a speech therapist .

Shannon would make the best lover of children do meditative breathing!

Brava Bernice! Luann looks so proud and happy for her best friend♡. But years will have to pass before Bernice can be able to reach Luann’s level of patience and calm. Let’s hope she never needs to. Her nephews are probably calm children. And if she will have children… who knows?

Seriously? Is Bernice such a neurotic bag of mess that she requires psychological exercising to see her family? And no one wants to see Shannon. They need to just have her move away permanently. Maybe both of them can go into rehab together and not be in this comic strip all week.

Foster care here we come!

Relax, Bern… you’re lucky that Shannon doesn’t live at the DeGroots’ house… though everyone else seems to have..

Have to love it, Shannon’s back for the annual mall trip with Luann and probably Jack. Having read through the comments one of the things I wonder on is how many primary arcs do GnK “balance”. Tiffany became a major arc (will she continue?), Gunther/Les/Bets is another arc, Brad/Toni (Shannon too) is an arc, K2 is an arc. Luann and her happenings has also been an arc (not really visited in a while but still) and it appears Bernice is now "worthy of a primary arc. Wow, lots of arc and given how GnK like to provide “little things” as arcs develop it tends to mean you got to wait for big things to happen (after all, how long was Tiffany “abused” by Ann? Mordy will answer that…). Anyway interesting because with the number of primary arcs supported and the "sub"arcs that develop it’s interesting seeing peoples reactions to things, include “cross overs” like Shannon.

I’ve always maintained that the best form of birth control was being around other people’s kids…. Bernice is getting a heavy dose right now..

kookie mix?

What the ### is she doing there?

It’s an Amazon world after all.

Breathing had little to do with the good time. It’s called Love of Family……

He knows if you’ve been good or bad and this means you, Shannon!

Shannon is getting overly obnoxious; who is going to discipline her?

Not again!! Get that little brat out of this comic strip permanently!!

Write the little monster out of the strip!

Luann should get paid for taking care of Shannon. But some would say that Shannon is family – it’s horrible to take any money from family. Brad & Toni are both working and saving money for a house. I doubt Luann has much money for herself. That should be taken into consideration. Luann shouldn’t have to help Brad & Toni get their house.

I got stuck on that ride because of some technical difficulty for twenty minutes but it seemed like an hour. They never did turn off that song.

If that’s the only one she had personal experience with I can see why she thought she hated kids.

We never see any adult teach Shannon HOW to behave properly. They could say Stop making noise, or Use a quiet voice or many other words to show her what is expected. Any child treated this way will behave this way.

Shannon is creative and can entertain herself without staring at a screen. She needs some discipline and should be told how to behave, but she is not that horrible. I’m sure some of the commenters here were much worse as children.

Luann just needed to give Bern a quick kick in the pants to get her moving.

Um…so where is the, “Thank you Luann! I did it because of your help! I was a hot mess and a bundle of frayed nerves until you stepped in! If it wasn’t for you, I’d still be miserable and cowering and hiding from my own family. Let’s go to that new Italian place… the reviews are really good!”

My beloved Shannon reminds me of my grandchildren. They are coming over tomorrow while their mother has a doctor’s appointment.

I often call the 23 month-old “The Little Hurricane,” as she leaves a path of destruction behind her. Sweet, sweet children.

A really bad child would hurt animals, set fires and injure parents and other kids. Shannon does none of those. A friend had a 7 year old boy who would kick her and scream at her when she took his IPad away. He was a brat.

What’s Shannon doing there?

NOOOOOOOO! The Worst Earworm Ever!

Looks like Shannon already ate lots of the Kookie Mix.

Remembrances of the Disney ride…

I’m guessing beb01 got to that state of “kill her now” when he/she was riding in this ride and it stopped…

Does this kid ever go home? Inside voice! Inside voice! Even folks who love kids might find this one unruly and over the top! 8-o

It struck me today that the Toni character is incredibly unfair to Brad and her marriage. She makes him put up with, and raise, this arrogant little brat who is not even his child, but won’t start the family with him that he wants so badly. Any of the excuses like buying a house, saving money etc. are no longer valid because they have taken Shannon on full time.

Childhood is temporary, enjoy her while you must. Soon she’ll be a teenager.

Shannon-Brat needs to grow up a little.

Maybe Bernice can discipline Shannon since everyone else is afraid to!

Nothing wrong with the girl just the people who detest children than aren’t quiet as they deem them should be.

Children should be seen and not heard… stuff a towel in her mouth and sit her in a window.

It was going good for 2 panels, and then it came to a screeching halt. Shannon is a pest, and not accounting for Jonah is just plain lazy on J & K. Or, this is a ball they cannot juggle. Whatever the reason, Jonah come get your kid and get out of this strip.

Coincidentally, right below today’s Luann on my comics page, is Luann Againn, with a somewhat younger Luann and Bernice asking Luann’s dad to take them to the mall. Mall world.

“Shannon” is a metaphor for COVID-19. Happy endings for 2020? Are you kidding? Now we are told, “masks until 2022, at least”!

i love Shannon

I have a saying: Either the adults in your life will teach you how to behave, or society will. Society doesn’t love you like your family, so if you go that route, buckle up.