Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for October 06, 2014

When, oh when, will Bernice (and the “Luann” readers) ever get to meet Dez?

“Don’t Judge A Mook By It’s Owner”“She’s No Babbling Brooklyn”“Dez-tination Unknown”“A Ferret Weather Friend”“Something Boroughed, Something Blue”“In Another New York Minute”“The Sun Also Knocks”“First, Second, Third And Fourth Watch”or…“A Stand Up Sitter”

Wow! Well, outside of Dez’s sideshow friends going in and out at least Bernice has the dorm to herself.

Put that stinky ferret in the hall and be done with it.

Is this supposed to be the “more nuanced” depiction of Sun? Because it still has a long, long way to go, before it stops being a painful-to-witness stereotype.

I’m surprised that Bernice, who wants to be a counselor, isn’t showing more backbone here. Why would/should she allow accept this responsibility for the pet of a friend of a roommate she hasn’t even met yet? Of course, we don’t know how long she’s been ferret sitting, in Luann time.

Is anyone else getting bored with this comic strip?

Don’t fear everybody…I am Dez and I say that the ferret cannot stay

The strips get submitted months in advance. And Greg likes to do it as ahead of even that time frame, if possible. So it must be that the syndicate saw no problem, and they went through, as scheduled… – And if they were already “in the pipeline”, these were done before the “feedback” occurred (including this one). So if there’s any new changes, they would be “on the way”….

Sun didn’t even bring a treat for her abandoned pet?For SHAME!

No bedding, food, water, toys, or wheel. What kind of an animal caretaker are you?

They don’t seem to have any problem with gook in Japan:

Actually,Mook is a reference to “Mook”, the Japanese animation company, that does some of the newer “Johnny Quest”. It also did “Cyber Chase”, and “Transformers Animated”…– It is also a gaming reference… in addition to being the last name of some artists, etc….

I get a feling that “Dez” is a created persona, and that Bernice is actually with no actual roommates, and that other people of the dorm are taking advantage of her…………… she might have to do a switch of roommates, and have “Dez” by herself in Tiff’s room, and Tiff and Bern be roommates

In light of the (deservedly) negative reaction to the first strip in which Sun appeared, I hope Greg Evans hastily re-drew all upcoming strips featuring Sun and asked the syndicate to substitute them. They might not have had enough time for today’s strip, but surely the changes could be made before the publication of the next episode in which she appears.

I have been critical of Greg for spending weeks on strips that didn’t advance the plot, so I have to give him credit for the fact that it looks like this week is going to advance the Bernice-and-her-alleged-roommate plot.

Why is the strip spending much more time following Bernice at Mooney than at following Luann at Pitt CC? So far we have met (or even seen) exactly no one among Luann’s classmates, nor have we seen anything of her academic career beyond her answering a role call in an as-yet unidentified class. Is Luann to become this strip’s Barney Google to Bernice’s Snuffy Smith?

ReallyBad2: (I wasn’t able to reply directly to your graphics) The toothy smile is gone, the eyes are less slanted, and the clothing is more like normal college kid clothing. Her eyes now are not unlike the minimalist eyes Greg used on himself and Karen on Luann’s birthday. Personally, as an half Asian person (which means of course that many people I encounter think of me as just Asian) I think the potentially offensive “stereotype” elements have been dealt with pretty well – although rounded face is still more like those used to depict young children, and should probably be slimmed down as it would be for a young woman of Sun’s age (which I assume to be about Bernice or Luann’s age.) And as a woman, I’d prefer that Sun have a better haircut. ;)

I think Dez is Bernice and we have some kind of “Fight Club” situation happening.

I could find a lot more things to be offended by.

i’m sensing Dez is gonna be a MAJOR character in Luann!

Sun maybe be a stereotype…but I have lived on 4 college campuses have 2 degrees and the number of students that hail from asian countries outweigh white ‘Bernice’ sterotypes almost 2:1….If there WASN’T an asian student in the dorm I would be worried!!!

Bernice is looking well, but I am concerned that the mask-fetish on the wall that she addresses as Dez may be casting an evil spell over her. Mook may be a familiar in a ferret’s body….Is Dez a self-styled “high priestess”?

This is going to be like “Cheers” where you never see Vera, the wife of Norm.

There is no Dez, everyone in the Dorm uses this room for a dumping ground..Like it’s being said,..Tell them, “Sorry, Dez didn’t have the right to agree to this without asking her room mate. Please take the pet back.”

Hey Bern? Do You Really WANT to Meet Dez?

Well just MOVE All of Her’s and Everybody Else’s CRAP out of YOUR Dorm Room and Pile it up on the Curb.

I Guarantee That a “Dez” will Show Up IMMEDIATELY….,

Much better drawing of Sun, I think. I could live with that.

Yeah, I want to meet Dez soon also.

What’s offensive? Using an inverted v-shape for eyes? Are horizontal lines for eyes more or less offensive?

That’s better than my theory. I figured that the others made up Dez in order to have her roommate act as a resource, ferret sitting ect…

> it’s a cartoon – how much nuance do you want??>(1) Visibly open eyes.(2) A mouth the same size as Luann’s or Bernice’s.

The round mouse-ears are maybe a bit bothersome too, but I would give Evans the benefit of the doubt here and just put that down to the same drawing style that gives us Luann’s pig snout.

Does Dez even exist?

Yeah, I agree RWJAMES Dez does not exist. Wanna meet Dez? Be incredibly RUDE to all of Dez’s friends and kick them all out, do nothing for them. If Dez is real, the person will get back to you. It is my opinion that Bernice is being played like a second hand fiddle.

I’m not bored with the strip, just this arc. Bernice needs to grow a spine and tell these people keep their own pets and things. If she doesn’t, this will continue all through her college years and into her work years. People will dump work on her – and then take credit.

I guess Greg needs to place a Washington Redskins pennant somewhere, just to keep you two going. Gaining traction?

Almond shaped eyes, softer hair style, and oval face shape with a narrow but not pointy chin, beautiful, happy smile but not too big, and showing beautiful teeth would be a true, not stereotype, drawing of an Asian woman.

For a comic strip, the Sun’s eyes and nose are okay. At least Sun doesn’t have the long hair that is usually the stereotype, but it looks very stiff.

I know an old lady who swallowed a spiderThat wriggled and wriggled inside ’er.

This goes on through birds, cats, dogs and I can’t remember the rest

@Nermal M Still kind of a stereotype. http://clairelight.typepad.com/seelight/2006/09/almond_eyes.html

Greg, enough teasing already. We want to see Dez, please!!

Seriously, Evans? You won’t even let her have eyes?

Good explanation.

That’s assuming that she’s Japanese (as Greg Evans probably intends for her to be). It should be noted, however, that “Sun” is a significant family name in China (e.g., the famous revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen.

Some of you folks better take another look at the cast. Brad, Gunther, Delta, TJ, Ann Awful, Toni all have dots for eyes. It seems only Luann and her parents have open eyes.Sun is Asian so physically her only difference would be an epicanthic fold. To make her look like Amy would be completely out of character for his drawing style. If you think you can look at Kim and tell she is Asian because of the way she is drawn I would disagree with you.

I don’t even know where to begin to address your comments, so I won’t. It’s one thing to argue that Sun’s character is not a negative racial stereotype, it’s a whole ‘nuther thing entirely to argue that these things don’t matter. One can only hope that your comments give Greg Evans second thoughts about how this character is drawn. (And please, don’t bother with the does he or doesn’t he read this site comments. That’s not the point.)

Good one!!!

Two things: first, the longer Evans keeps Dez away to “build up suspense” the more difficult will it be to introduce her without it being a major letdown of the hype. Second, Evans is definitely not a racist (spoken as an Asian myself). I just think he doesn’t know very many non-white people, if any at all.

There are plenty of stereotypes that are NOT accurate (e.g., oversized lips, “savage” appearance, only partaking of a certain watery fruit and fowl and taking naps all day; or going around doing “rain dances” and saying “Me no go with you dere”; or saying that all persons from “x” race are “this way or that”)… – I am of mixed heritage (French, Native American, Hispanic, African American). I can tell you a thing or two about “inaccurate stereotypes” (at least as far as my own “adventures” go. Many have their own accounts). I’ve heard it in one form or another from at least 4 sides…. – I had a friend whose girlfriend’s mother needed to have her yard, walkway and car shoveled for the winter (at least 2 ft. of snow). I wasn’t working that day, so I agreed to go with his girlfriend and we walked to her mother’s house, and shoveled for her. – She was kind enough to allow me to come in and stay with them for the day. She knew that I was of different heritages, but the one that “stuck out” in her mind was the “African American” one. She was not rude or mean, but she was ignorant (the “definition” kind, not the insult). She offered lunch, but stated she had no “collard greens”. I looked at my friend and she and I traded puzzled “what?” expressions. She (and I) explained that I didn’t “thrive on” those, and whatever she had was fine. She also offered use of her TV, and said she wasn’t sure, though, what time “Soul Train” came on (well, it was Saturday). I was a “headbanger”. I was even_wearing_ a band shirt at the time (can’t remember which, though- had several!). Knowing her like I did, and the neighborhood she lived in, I knew that it was because she didn’t know enough people outside of her circle (not even outside of the area, which was vastly different from where she grew up). – The point of this, though, is to again stress that we cannot rely on stereotypes. Music/Media and certain other influences have us “seeing” certain things (such as found in today’s current crop of “rap’” videos, or the portrayals of certain characters on TV, or seeing teenagers act like hooligans and spoiled brats or “suburban debutantes” or that a certain body size is “supposed” to be normal) and, granted, some of us live in places where there are different kinds of people, some not so much , though. But saying stereotypes are accurate? Some of the ills of this world stem from " automatically putting people in one box or another"…

Thanks! (8^)) – And you’re welcome! (8^))

If you mean the “double comments”, I used to blame it on “high net traffic”, though it could just be the servers at GC, sometimes. – I found that if it’s slow and my comment doesn’t appear on screen, then instead of continuing to click on “submit” (which will eventually lead to “multiple appearances”), I just click “copy” so my comment will be saved (just in case), and I reload, and if it’s not there, then I just paste it in the comment box", and “voila!”…

RIP, to “the Uncola Man”, Geoffrey Holder (84), as made famous in this commercial….

Wow. This is why reading the comments here is so tiresome: Racists, people who insult people who notice stereotypes, people who think stereotyping is okay and I’m too sensitive and political just because I don’t agree with their ignorant opinions. (Have fun living in the 1950s, guys.) -Finally: People who think even Evans’ obvious blunders are totally justified. Because why??? You make NO SENSE.

Alright, Alright, THIS Surliness Has Gone On Long Enough.

Everybody Just Settle Down, STOP Arguing and Have Some COFFEE and Sweet – Roll, BEFORE Dinner.

Such Hatred and Foul Language coming from such Gentle Beings! Tsk, Tsk.

Now Everybody Just Re-Lax and Take a DEEP Breath.

There, Now Let it out S-LOWLY. Thaaaaaat’s It.

NOW, Don’t You Feel Better?

Okay Gather Around the Table and Hold Hands. Caldonia? YOU say the Blessing.

A-Men!

Okay, Dig IN, Folks!

We’re having Ferret for Dinner…..,

I’m guessing the inscrutable Dez has yet to show up? And why is Bernice so willing to watch that ferret which is illegal in California, anyway? And (from yesterday) what is Knute doing in a clothing store anyway? Doesn’t look like he’s changed his style one bit! I had to get up before the sun this morning in order to take IS Katie over to the vet’s in order to get her teeth cleaned…at 5:30 am. Now, I am most certainly Not a morning person, so picture me bumbling around in the dark and then trying to keep my eyes open to make sure I got myself…and IS Katie…into our SUV! (The hub drove!). Will see y’all this evening (that is if I don’t nap through the witching hour LOL). Have a good rest of the day! ;) -———————————————————————-“And he gave it for his opinion, that whoever could make two ears of corn or two blades of grass to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country than the whole race of politicians together.”(Jonathan Swift, 1667-1745)

Hope Greg ignores the PC trolls. I’m glad to see an Asian character in the strip.

I don’t see why Bernice should have to take care of someone else’s pet. If someone brings a pet to college (assuming that pets are even allowed, which in many dorms they are not), I would think that the person wanted the pet there for companionship. Foisting the pet off on someone else — or in this case, the roommate of someone else — seems to be missing the point of bringing the pet to college in the first place. If Sun wants to have a pet in college, she ought to be taking care of the pet herself.

I wonder when we’re going to meet Dez?

Of course, there is no Dez.

@ReallyBad2Where did the first Sun come from?.(God, that sounds stupid. Or, Science, that sounds stupid, if you are an atheist.)

Tomorrow’s comic is already up on ArcaMax, and apparently Dez DID put in an appearance. But we missed it….

And, I dare say, I am sick of yours (belly-aching) ;)

Geeze…such nastiness here today… =-O

I also have a complaint to make… – I think there’s too much complaining!

Hold on, give me a quick minute…

Here is the requested FB post from Greg! – https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=777418975651732&id=375722822488018 – Or click the link, about… here!