Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for November 12, 2011

C’mon now! Y’all can’t say that Brad is totally stupid! This is very clever dialog.

I have never seen disgust so well portrayed on this strip.

Loved how Toni was drawn in panel 2 – her disgust well conveyed.

That’s telling her. Both Toni and Ann.

Brad is no longer being dumbed down. He showed everybody! Probably a good idea not to show what Toni did next. Greg, you want to keep your G rating.

Oh Man, Toni is so HOT. Brad get yourself a new job and marry this woman fast.

I like how Brad teases Toni in the first panel. Then after her reaction of dismay in the second one. He drops the punch line on her. :-)

Brad is showing some manhood in panel 3. “Grace under pressure” is the cliché. Toni should show some understanding and support now.

Does anyone really think Brad is going to let anything happen to his relationship with Toni? Why doesnt author let Brad grow up a little bit and go back to the fire dept. or something? Weenieworld was too much. Brad is a professional now. Weenieworld??

This arc has been such a change for Toni, she’s usually so calm and together but this arc showed that she cares for Brad as much as he cares for her. I actually really like that.

It’s good to see some real character development with Brad. I remember when her was just lazy loaf with his butt crack all but showing when he worked on his car. I am also really loving the relatabiltiy of this strip (I went / am going through something similar with manipulative boss from hell) I think one of the main points was how much do you take for the sake of a job? Is it eorth the respect, the dignity? Anyway, too sleepy to elaborate, but Toni’s expression/ reaction in the second panel is great. She’s really starting to become more rounded, too!

Oh, and for the people think the Brad/Toni bit is boring, I think it’s great that we are shown deeper topics and other relatable issue. I love Luann, but i can only take so much of the boy drama/highschool drama. I would like to see another arc with Delta as the primary focus of the story. She’s a good strong character, who you rarely here from. One arc I never ever forgot was when Delta got cancer. One strip had Luann and Bernice with an “OMG how horible” reaction, and Delta’s was “No mind, I’m gonna BEAT this thing!!!” A few years ago I had several diagnosis, and I remembered that strip. It’s odd to say that a cartoon gave me determination, but whatever it was, it impacted me for the better.

Brad has something planned.

hear

GOOD JOB BRAD!!!! U DA MAAN!!!!

Brad and Toni have had these “surprised ya!” conversations before… glad to see they’re back on speaking terms.

@sherpalepisto …. TMI, man. Lighten up and enjoy the strip (no pun intended)!

I wonder if next week we’ll see Brad & Toni, sans TJ, plotting their revenge against Ms Awful?

Like I said Brad will be back withthe Fire Dept.

I don’t think Brad counts.

No sucking off the system in this strip. UI doesn’t exist in Luanniverse.

Brad better keep his unemployment away from his mother. Nancy will evict him before he has a chance to return his WW uniform, whether or not he is payed through the end of the month or not. She had better be careful with that though. She tries to pull that again, she’s gonna find her little boy has decided not to move back home, but will be forwarding his mail to Toni’s apt.

I’d be so weirded out if their couple name merged thing was Broni since brony is the term for the fans of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic. (It’s a fantastic cartoon)

apparently Brad likes manipulative women, I am suprised he quit his job

I guess TJ’s involvement is going to have to wait a bit. Understandable, though. Toni is there. TJ appears to be out. Toni came over to seek forgiveness. Lets deal with first things first.

I don’t know if revenge will be plotted against Ann. After all, Brad quit. And Ann can spin the events any way she want’s. She probably has access to the security tapes and, if she realizes that her touching can be brought into question, may erase them. Brad was not her only employee. Seem’s the other employees are not having problems with this boss. I also checked back to the Borderline bookstore strips. Bernise had a smartass streak in her. If Ann wasn’t attracted to her, she would have been fired long before Ann got her transfer. And Ann’s history at Borderline was a promotion/transfer to Tokyo. No reprimand. Only Zane and Bernise know the truth. Besides, Brad needs to find his career path again. He’s been off track since the summer. Bigger fish to fry.

Ah, But FEAR not!

After fruitless searching for another thankless, menial job, Brad decides to SERVE His Country instead and Joins the Marines!

He tells Toni not to worry, its only a four year hitch and he’ll come back to her, STRONGER and BETTER than Ever.

Tearfully, Toni assures him that she will WAIT for Him No MATTER what.

Weeks later, at Boot Camp, Brad’s confidence is SHATTERED when he discovers that his Drill Sargent is none other than Dirk!

(Sigh) THIS has gone on LONG enough.

“Life Sometimes SUCKS for the ‘Good Guys’.”

We GET IT, Greg. Now Give Brad His firefighter Job back and lets MOVE on…..,

It looks like Toni is a little turned off by having her boyfriend not have a job.

I think that maybe princecharmeing should chose a more appropriate username because, frankly you are’t particularly gracious.

Anyone else wonder if Brad’s last line, “showed HER”, foreshadows a negative?

Not only does UI apparently not exist in this strip, but it’s 100% funded by tax contributions paid by the employers, so it’s not “sucking off the system”. I hope you never become unemployed so you never have to use it.

Oops, I probably shouldn’t have fed the troll, but I get so mad at people calling UI “sucking off the system” and saying people who are on unemployment while they look for other jobs leeches. Some of these people who say these things have never been unemployed, apparently, and think it’ll never happen to them if they just “work hard” and “keep their nose clean” or something.

Don’t jump the gun on Toni and Brad. He hasn’t taken her back yet. He showed her (Eiffel) but he might show her (Toni) also. He might hold Toni at arms length for a while. (Can’t imagine them not eventually getting back together but it might be interesting if Brad cooled it with Toni for a while and started seeing some other people and then got back with Toni. Toni might then realize what she almost lost as Brad has always worshipped the ground Toni walked on.

Toni reminds me of a very young Loni Anderson.

meanwhile- safety, moral and productivity are all up at the firestation AND weenie world

Actually Brad would have been smarter to have kept his employment stage at being fired. You can’t collect unemployment for voluntarily quiting a job. Being unfairly fired is another matter.

I thought he was going to propose…where’s his new hair? Going back to being the “Old Brad”? No-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

If UI exists in the Luanniverse, Brad’s would be discontinued because he quit a job. @StupidIdiotWhoShouldntVoiceHerOpinions, keep on doing so! Appreciate your “There but for the grace of God go I” insight.

Um, you DO know that this is just a comic strip and not real life right?Anyway, Brad showed Ann who is the REAL boss, and is getting back together with Toni, too.

Brad’s still playing coy.

There are some great comments here. I also appreciate the relationship that is developing with Toni and Brad. It is nice to see Brad being a man of integrity and strength. Brothers do grow up. :) Keep up the good work!

In last panel, Toni looks happy that Brad quit, then realizes that means unemployed. Conflicting feelings. Greg conveys a lot through drawing but we have to imagine the tone of voice.

“He needs a…man’s job, like a barber…or a police officer” Have you SEEN Brad’s haircut?? I don’t think barber is a good fit for him LOL. As for being a cop, well they’re probably in the same position as the FD, after all they’re paid by the same municipality. Now auto mechanic is a “man’s” job & he was good at that & liked working on cars, if I remember right.

“Nah – he’s gonna get a “wrongful dismissal” settlement (with a side order of “sexual harassment”) from Weenie World that’ll mean nobody in his whole family needs to worry about how to pay the bills for a few years…”.

Not in Greg’s world or in this one. Except for a few illegal reasons, which don’t count here, you can’t “wrongfully dismiss” an at-will employee. At some point you gotta google this and read it for yourself, because you keep insisting on it. In addition, Brad just quit, so good luck with that, too..

I’m frankly amazed at how many people have this common fantasy that you can’t be fired for any reason that’s not “fair”, and that suing someone means you can just walk into court and get handed a big fat check so you’ll never have to work again..

Is it simply from sheer ignorance? No experience with any type of job at all? Massive sense of entitlement? Anyone who’s not union or contracted management who ever lost a job has to have run up against this reality. People could progess w/in a company and not ever be fired, but at some point they must have seen someone get the ax and learned the truth. So why the continuing insistance that you can sue your employer because he took exception to how you handled the french fries?

You can get unemployment if you quit a job due to intolerable working conditions, but your documentation of the conditions has to be beyond perfect (and free from adjectives).

@StupidIdiotWhoShouldntVoiceHerOpinionsAnd you know what else there is about UI? It’s taxable income!!!!!! Yes!!!!!!!!!!

Exactly – no one’s ever dumb enough to give anything specific, so how come there’s all these “he can sue! he can collect bigtime!” posts? Especially for a fast food job – can you even begin to imagine what the courts would be like if every teenager was allowed to bring what they thought was a “wrongful dismissal” suit? It seems like there are a lot of people out there who’ve been “at will” employees but never knew it.

A couple of points: [good, then bad] Toni’s disgust at Brad’s taking back the job followed by elation that he stood up for himself (that’s the good part), then her realization vocally that his is now unemployed (which should not have been mentioned by Toni and it’s obvious anyway). Somehow in one comment, she praises Brad and in the next breath points out the next biggest issue. Note: maybe it’s Greg’s way of transitioning from one issue to the next, but I don’t believe that the Toni character would make that transition so fast if she were a real person. To me it seems out of character.

On another issue: Brad has mentioned in these strips that he both accepted and quit at WW. And while everyone seems to believe that that is was was depicted, I disagree. Brad – no matter what words he spoke in the strip – does not become an employee (also true in real life) until he signs the employment contract. But in the previous strips he balked at signing the mumbo-jumbo legalese. So in spite of what Brad “says”, he never was actually rehired, AND, he is still able to get UI!

“was was depicted” in the previous comment, should have been “what was depicted”. Sorry for the typo.

very tough to form a more perfect union with moronic attitudes and beliefs like this.

Wait, folks. A lot of you assume they are back together. They still need to iron out a few things. Brad still has not heard why Toni bypassed him and had it out with Ann. He still does not know she listened to his idiotic roommate. Will he still want to stay in relationship with her after he hears the story? They need to talk. Hopefully Brad will let all that be under the bridge, however, I believe he WILL be annoyed that Toni was gullible enough to be swayed by TJ to go and have a showdown with Ann. That WILL NOT be go over well with Brad. Toni better assure Brad she will never listen to TJ again.

For all you people who were wondering “where’s the humor in this comic strip?” you’ve got it today.

I laughed out loud when I saw that last panel.

“I showed HER!”

How incredibly childish!

i want a color changing wall on my house…

I didn’t notice the color-changing wall! LOL! I want one too!

Reading over the last panel, I realize that what I wish Toni had said was “You DID? Oh! Wow! I’m so happy for you!”

Toni was never concerned that Brad was unemployed, that was Brad’s issue.

Yah, you’re right. But it’s a fun idea nevertheless. :-)

YA now its mood walls. Next fad would be mood clothes.

Well, technically since Brad didn’t sign the legalese papers he wasn’t officially rehired. He just turned down the OFFER of being rehired—which means that he could still sue Ann Eiffle for unreasonable termination. So he got his moral revenge and now he can get his financial one too. Take THAT you underhanded, manipulative boss lady!

Dear Pwincie…yeah, it’s all their fault the financial boysiewoysies stole the money. How much did you get, baby?

Brad has had trouble at Weenie World before:http://www.gocomics.com/luann/1992/06/24

Prince WAKE UP. There are times when you need the (THE SYSTEM) . Better brad out of work than working for ANN. She was useing the job for her own personal reason.

Sorry your screeen name does not match such a vicious post.

Another twist story on this. Brad wins a multimillion dollar lottery and buys the restaurant and becomes her boss.

been there done that.. Had an insane boss blamed me for the fact that every one else had quit. I was the only supervisor in his department that had been with him longer than 3 months. The rest had shortly after I came on had suddenly found other jobs and left.

shrugs I walked out after yet another diatribe of why it was me that people were leaving and found another job with in a week. Was younger and lucky. Though the fall out for him was after I left so did 2 more members of the team.

Corporate finally woke up to who was driving people away with poor leadership. And fired him.

Sometimes the only thing to do is walk away. Good for Brad not being the willing fool for Ms. Eiffel.

Let them reconcile quietly. Brad is not a very bright bulb, and hasn’t developed emotionally past the high school sophomore level. Toni is too mature for him and has a solid future. Eventually, she will have to break his heart, because she’ll realize that he is a man going nowhere. Ann could then make her move, but she won’t because this is a family strip. Enter the gentle, little Bernice who will provide a willing shoulder for Brad to cry on.

You say po-ta-toe, I say po-tah-to, Everyone reads it their own way. :D

I also don’t pick up on the little, subtle, nuances of Brad’s facial expressions like you people do. As I said once before, he either has his eyes open, or half shut like Harry from 3rd Rock.

Although someone, (NOT ME mind you) several days ago said that they did not like the way Brad’s nose was drawn when he’s shown full face. They said it “looks like a pigs.” Now that they’ve mentioned it……..:P :D

@wytsox1Actually he was OFFERED to be rehired but he refused. He said,“I Quit” just to be sarcastic abut the whole thing. SHe was going to rehire him AFTER he singed the schemagle legle thingy but he refused to so he never got rehired. COrrect me if I am wrong but thats how I see it.

Read about 1/2 the comments and I am sure this will go OK. As to men’s and women’s work- my first supervisor at a large corporation only got his job because his mom was his boss’s secretary, but he said in public (before PC days) that he would get rid of me one way or another because women did not belong in engineering. I lasted longer because I had studied more.

!@figwitsmom; it occurs to me that when Brad said “Showed her” he might have been meaning it in an ironic way? that’s assuming he could see how ridiculous it was to say that – he showed her, and he’s unemployed again.

mojitobaby——

ROTFLMAO!!!

That was TOO funny!

Because it’s a wiseass retort, but it also scary because he showed Ann absolutely nothing, and gained less than nothing (if that’s possible – knowing Brad, it is) by quitting. It’s really no skin off her nose to let him “get away” – if Toni weren’t so forgiving he’d have a “messed up” relationship and no job to show for his hitting his “limits”.

I guess it’s the “limits” thing that get sme – it’s such a stupid and hollow boast, and it’s pretty covenient that he finally found them. Too bad it was after he made Toni pretty miserable about that crucial job that he “needed” and then tossed aside in the blink of an eye.

In the real world he’d be doubly behind the 8-ball – be thankful there’s no UI in Pitts, because he’d be screwed good and proper.

Never wise to feed the trolls.

Pretty poor “joke” if you felt you had to point out that the anatomy he’s making a joke about is missing. Trolls can make jokes just like the rest, still doesn’t mean they aren’t trolls.

Tell us more about the system if you are someday in the predicament as Brad. Sad comment to a cute cartoon with everyday highlights of life.

Actuallly, I do give Brad credit for a lot of things he’s done in the past, but not this time. I think Greg’s really done him a disservice in this arc.

As I said before, Brad’s method of dealing with female conflict (Toni/Nancy, Toni/Ann) so far is to pretend it’s not there – “conflict averse” is the term – and then if he really can’t avoid it, to ask Toni to just not to make a fuss about it.

So no, I don’t have a lot of respect for him staying after disrespecting Toni became part of Ann’s manipulation – and he had to be the agent to deliver it. He should have stood up to Ann then. If he was fired, so be it, it would have been for a worthy cause and he would have had his self respect. If it had been just him that Ann was abusing, it would have been a different story.

The reason I said he gained less than nothing is that he really quit over nothing. He got no redemption for anything, least of all throwing Toni under the bus and asking her to like it. The almighty, all-important job that he"heeded" above all else, and did it all for, was all of sudden, way too conveniently, worthless.

He still treated Toni like trash so he could keep it and placate Ann, so yeah, he was gutless. He gained nothing by quitting, except to brag that it was because he hit his “limit” – and since he’d accepted being hired back by a woman who he’d just accused of “messing up” his relationship, it’s clear he never took any responsibility for his part in that, and since he never even read the paper she produced, just what “limits” exactly, were finally too much for him to take?

All he’s come away with is a smug attitude.’

Not Greg’s finest arc, sorry to say. Normally he does a lot better with conflict issues like this, so I’m disappointed in how this one shook out.

brad is getting more handsome as time goes by. I guess his destiny is not to be a balding hinie-scratching sloth he was in high school.

But we can imagine them… :-D

For all the complaints about the colorist, I have to give them a star for this one. The background colors really bring out the mood – the depressed boston bean red, then the turbulent gradient in the second panel, then the blue skies in the third.

Was Ann trying to hit up on Brad? (yes, that’s the nice way of putting it!)