Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for March 04, 2023

WTH? So after Luann was humiliated in class, for talking to Tara… she keeps right on talking to Tara??

I guess this is G+K making a statement on how sad and dysfunctional families are, in 2023.

New arc on Monday or will they continue with this one?

If your family is dull, Luann, how do you propose to make it more lively?

Really, who’d want to be bored to death hearing about what your family does?

Ah yes, the number one complaint of every whiny teenager on the face of the planet that transpires through all generations: “My family is dull.” In this case, Luann could do what many kids have done in her position: just make up an entire alternate fantasy in which her parents are undercover spies who work for the CIA or something; Francine Frensky did it, Ashley Spinelli did it.

Nancy is a far cry from dull. She was all atwitter when she got hit on while tending bar at the Fuse. She and Bernice have formed their own Bodice Ripper Book Club.

So what are you going to do Luann? How are you going to un-dull your family?

Tune in next week… maybe!

I would not say a family is dull, I say a family is complicated.

Family sadness is all over Facebook. Next!

After decades of inexplicable drama, the last word I would use to desribe this family is “dull”.

Now they’re both interrupting. But I don’t know if this class is worth credits, anyway.

I think Luann could find a lot of sadness if she looks at Toni and Shannon’s personal histories.

An interesting drawing in frame three. Maybe the other students are all sad – but maybe just concentrating on their work – trying to advance in life. Luann is still spending too much time in the nest – and not thinking about what comes next.

If all else fails, make something up.

Luann makes something up.

“If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap. I was born the daughter of a sharecropper on a dark and stormy night, the rain fell in torrents, and the clocks were striking thirteen. Of course, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, but mostly foolishness, the circus arrived without warning, and I have remained in that state ever since…”

I’m a bit disoriented. In yesterday’s strip, Luann and Tara appeared to be sitting in the first row at the front of the class, where Ms.Horner subtly chided Luann for not paying attention. In today’s strip, they appear to be at the back of the class, looking at everyone else in front of them diligently writing about some conflict based on the key words “sad” and “family”. On the other hand, behind them is a whiteboard where the title of the class and the teacher’s name are written, which suggests that it is at the front of the class. The only resolution I can envision for this conflict is that at some point between yesterday and today, Ms.Horner instructed everyone to move their chairs to the opposite side of their tables to face the rear of the classroom, perhaps as a change of perspective to facilitate the new writing assignment she was about to announce.

Ennui as a theme? Luann’s family is the most boringly normal loving family too. What to do, what to do? Will be here a hint Monday? Time will tell.

Luann is really lucky. But a similar statement at the weekend makes me think it could be the foreshadowing of a family drama that will soon happen to her. Maybe not between her parents but with her sister/BFF Bernice, probably due to Piro’s letter. Bernice who doesn’t want to tell her what he wrote because it’s not her business, Luann who finally replies by pointing out to Bernice how much she watches over her constantly and always wants to knows everything she do even spying over her. That would be an exciting story to tell!

I guess every family has a couple of issues.

That could also apply to things like funerals or moving. It doesn’t have to be strictly personal conflict.

I’ll take slightly dull over toxic drama any day of the week!

Luann, write as if you are Tiffany or Al and his family.

Panel 3: Reminds me of the City of the Dead, at the end of the Dimholt Road.. where Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas traveled to find the cursed army that betrayed Isildur..

As I became older, I realised that my ‘dull’ and ‘normal’ family was anything but. The number of friends I had with disfunctionnal families or with relationship difficulties stunned me. That’s when I realised that I had received the winning ticket in life.

Sunday: Nancy and Frank wonder about their daughter.

You could put in a few words about how sad of father Jonah is to Shannon. I mean you love your niece. But it does seem at times that she lives full time with Brad, and, Toni.

And just like THAT, Greg and Karen Officially acknowledge that the DeGroot clan is the ONLY non-dysfunctional family in the entire Strip.

But, do you know% what’s really Sad?

There’s a bunch of interesting looking “folks” in shadow, in the last panel of today’s Strip that We’ll probably never meet.

Many are obsessed with “the letter” & speak of “steaming”. Reminds me of Nancy.

This strip has an air of finality to it. Next week we will be somewhere else, leaving the Bernice note as a cliffhanger.

Dull is a word never used for Ann ❤️ Eiffel,

Yeah, as a college professor I always write both my name and the name of the course on the whiteboard well after the first day of class! LOL j/k (I know, it’s for readers just joining the story, not the students, but it still gave me a chuckle.)

Luann…still not writing anything, sitting back with her arms crossed, continueing to talk in class even though she was asked not to. This is showing another example of her attention deficit disorder. I don’t know why they have her character attending college, she would be much better off in a technical school that would keep her on track, learning an actual trade she could perform within her level of ability. She doesn’t have the mental accuity, responsibility or concentration skills to be a writer, a teacher, or anything that would require self-motivation.

If Luann is unable to just make something up, perhaps being a writer isn’t for her. Who’d have thought a creative writing class might require some creativity?

Harmonious families do seem to be the exception.

Luann you are the one who is being dull right now. Don’t blame your family. and how about shutting up and doing the assignment like everyone else.

Perhaps a new chance for Luann?

Our heroine seems so young, immature, and cartoonish when compared to her friends and classmates. Everyone in this strip has progressed except for her and Tiffany.

Oh, stop with the self-pity party of one, Luann. Lack of drama makes you lucky according to Tara but it makes you unexciting. Reinvent yourself. On another segment, while I don’t care much for Tara, I like that she takes her education seriously…more than Luann, anyway.

Is something wrong with Luann? She does not have a full family. Between Nancy getting smart with rude customers, the Brad, Toni, and Shannon drama, and Bernice, there is nothing dull!

Everyone in the class is someone who has ideas for stories or lived experiences that they want to write about. They just need the skills which they are learning and practicing. Bern helped Luann to realize (on listening to her tapes from grade school) that she had material to write about and she encouraged her to do so; and Luann did that. But Luann is not self propelled; she needs a strong and constant external power supply to push her along. By herself she’s just this unaligned random walk system.

Happy families are all alike. Unhappy families are unique in their unhappiness.

I’m with Tara. Dull is not a bad thing.

“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” riff off that, Luann.

“Valley Of The Dulls”

“Combo Schlemiel”

“Prompt Attention”

“Interest Of Conflict”

“Did Juicy What I Saw?”

“Something’s Not Write Here…”

she’s too close to the forest to see the trees.

She’s proving she shouldn’t be in that class.

Luann is too dumb for Mrs. Horner’s Creative Writing class. She is so short on smarts that she belongs back in kindergarten….

Think girl, think.

Write a story about a sad, bored middle-aged housewife who frolicked with her studly husband when they were young, but now he’s a passive-aggressive bump-on-the-log with signs of early dementia. Her layabout oaf of a son has left home, but she still has a self-absorbed nitwit of a daughter. So she turns to reading romance novels to vicariously live the fun she’s missing out on in her real life.

But the conflict has a happy resolution. She cooks up an excuse to give herself a job in the family business to get out of the house. And jumps at the chance to take in her daughter’s friend, who proves to be the helpful daughter she never had. She can even share her love of romance novels with her new daughter.

This isn’t a speed assignment so Luann not starting immediately means nothing.

That she keeps talking in class is necessary for there to be a cartoon.

That she finds her family dull means it will take her longer to find a sad conflict in her family.

This is the second week of this “Luann” story. we’ve got two more weeks to go.

Considering the Glacial pace of this story we will be bored to tears by next week.

I feel sad that everyone else is not part of my family.

I looked back at the previous panels. She wasn’t “HUMILIATED” just a soft, please pay attention while I’m talking. I think she thinks Mrs, Horner wants her to write from personal experience and hence the talking to Tara, plus it doesn’t help that her peers seem to have no problems with the topic. I’m working my way through the past strips to see why everyone is so HEAVY on the Tara hate…

The number one reader complaint turned into an asset.