Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for January 19, 2015

You’re in good hands, Gunther.

“Cradling Robin”“Tell Mama” (♫)“An In Sync Instinct”“Shall Sal Laud A Lad?”“A Symphony Of Sympathy”" Chico Chica And The (Gunth-)Man"“The Path Of Empathy”“A Soft Landing”“Momma Knows Best, Daddy Knows The Rest”or“Around Peg, A Square Is Whole”

This is actually painful to look at… I was hoping the story would continue, but I didn’t realize it might continue in a way that really makes Gunther look so, well, childish…

…Once you start down the wimp path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will!

There’s a whole bus-load of matron ladies ready and willing to spoil what’s left of Gunther… ;)

I’m surprised Gunther can even recall this part to re-tell it! ;)

Yet he’s still wearing plaid, and still clean shaven. So the story continues (and he is still whining about Mr. Gray, like a little kid…) Will the bus have to sustain a lightening strike for Gunther to grow up?

Lets just end the Gunther arc and move on with our lives…this is getting pathetic

She’s probably past that point, but I’m not sure he is…

Gunther will simply OD from all this mothering, and that will “cure” him of his maternal dependence and make him a rugged, independent, manly man among men. Yeah, I’m sure that’s what would happen in such a situation, in real life.

I just had a thought: what if the bus is going in the exact opposite of Lima?!

At least Gunther’s getting more care and affection than Rosa ever gave him. Rosa just used him.

I think we’re officially past that point, as of this day’s comic…

Well, I am signing off rather quickly this evening. Long day and not enough sleep! ’Nite all! ;)-——————————————————“Good-night: ensured release, Imperishable peace, Have these for yours.”(A. E. Housman, 1859-1936)

What did I miss?

And the crazy thing is, he says he loves Rosa.. so it could be concluded that he would have chosen to stay, but he saw his opportunity then to get back to his mother and the threat Mr. Gray (who really could “just be friends” !!!)!

This has progressed as some feared it might. .But looks to exceed even the worst fears.

There was someone posting at One Big Happy two days ago who was vitriolic about those of us who also comment on the current version of the comic running on another site. That poster insisted that those of us who do this are just looking for attention. When I explained that many of us do that because it’s very difficult to register on that site, the poster came back and accused me of ‘using any excuse’.-So maybe there’s a campaign on to get posters to conform to some kind of standard?-Anyway, long day, and I’ve got handymen coming to help with repairs tomorrow, bright and early. So, see ya’ll in the funny papers…

This Gunther is a far cry from the boy with the bike, amid the boulders at the stream under the bridge..Has he regressed?

He’s found some motherly cougars to care for him !!

Or we can just start calling it: "The Evening News… And No Nonsense … And One “Fun” Comment Per Day From Only One Person…Featuring Luann"…

… and Gunther is consoled by future Bernice and future Tiffany.

JUMP THAT SHARK, GUNTHIE BOY!

Where’s Beetle?

is obvious that the (at that time, before beard and no plaid) main reason for his return to USA was his Mr Gray fear

the I love Rosa some would take it as "he should have stayed with Rosa " but I take it as more of a “love Rosa but don’t want village time, so i should go back to Lima and go to Peru University and continue supporting Rosa”

I don’t know But some senior ladies can be very "active " .wink wink nudge nudge say no more eh ,eh .

I hate this story line

his going to the USA is because Mr gray, but I can still see a chance of Gunther staying at Lima while Rosa is in the village if Gunther had no Mr Gray worries

“I have to get home and stop my Mom from having a life!”

Where is the blue eye shadow?

Uh, Gunther’s DRUNK And He Doesn’t Know What He’s Saying, “Senioritas.” So Theses Elderly Ladies Will be Instrumental In Gunth’s “Transformation,” Eh?

Geez G-Man. Maybe if You had Just Spent More Time With Mrs. Horner, You Could Have Emerged From Your “Cocoon” Years Ago, and AVOIDED This Expensive Trip to South America Altogether….,

That’s more Gunther’s speed.

If it is Greg Evan’s intention to turn Gunther from a wimp into a he-man so that he will then be “worthy” of winning the love of the strip’s title character,I’d say he is picking the very worst of some million or so possible ways of doing it.

Not pictured: pantsless

A few months later, Gunther discovers he will be the father of 20 different children.Those kids will NOT be happy.

Anybody else see Tiffany’s future look in that blonde lady?

I can never out-guess Greg and his story lines, but he is really beating up on Gunther. Maybe big Sal used to run a high class brothel, and she’ll coach her tiny little friend how to be more adventurous. (Whom I kidding, a brothel, in this comic strip?) Oh well, let’s just hope that Greg lets Gunther develop some dignity. That boy needs a Walk on the Wild Side.

“Gunther’s this drunk on one bottle of beer. There’s something medically wrong with him.”.So show some understanding rather than despising the handicapped..Sad how cruel some are.

Gunther looks really tiny in the panels today. At 17-18 years old, does this mean he’ll alwaks be a frail, small person???

Unfortunately, for me, today’s comic both in terms of location (in a tour bus of elderly ladies) and in Gunther’s dialogue…. are both very disappointing. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++I will have to try to keep faith that Greg will resolve this in some sort of fun, enjoyable and perhaps meaningful way, but at the moment, it seems hard to visualize.+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++I think there were so many possible interesting outcomes for Gunther getting to know Luis as a father-figure or “uncle” that could have all folded into his new “persona” of scruffiness and more casualness. I would have liked the story arc to go in that direction.+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++I am disappointed, but will wait to see how Greg gets this “granny bus trip arc” to unfold. Perhaps there is hope.

I hope Peg and Sal are more enlightened than Gunther at this moment. The mama’s-boy naif has passed out and is at the mercy of a bus full of motherly elder women. It’s now or never for Gunny to grow a pair!

And having rode on public transit in the city, seeing people who are really “inebriated” (sometimes even worse, ‘cough, cough’), it amazes me how they are just cognizant enough to get around, but yet keep “nodding” and leaning ever closer to the floor. – Even worse, one riding in public (even if on a Greyhound, etc) could leave themselves vulnerable. Yes, Gunther is fortunate to have had Luis direct him to travel with a group like this….

Hmmm, it looks like I’m at least 20 years too young to tolerate Gunther’s infantile behavior. Thanks for clearing that up, Greg!

I can’t even Gunther would be so naive as to relate this humiliation to his friends. Not at least when he’s sober.

Perhaps that busload of older women needing some lovin’ will teach Gunther how to be a “Real Man” – (“oh baby you don’t need yore Mama – we is here for you”). Then for the next month they pay him for his services and he then can afford to buy a real shirt and come home. That’s about as realistic as any other scenario I can think of.

So, one way of looking at this is that he got to ride in a bus full of women, and they all wanted turns with him.…Gunth, prepare to become the coolest guy to come from the Pitts.

No one is saying that Gunther is lying about anything. At least not me. – When I said “sanitized”, I meant “cleaned up”, as in “pick your battles”, or “using tact and good judgement”. Some details are not meant for everyone. Your coworker or boss will look at you with a puzzled expression, if you they asked how your day off was, and you went: “Yeah, told my doctor about your toupee. You know I never liked that hideous thing, right?”

he drank the bottle, a few minutes later Luis is helping him out to the van, which doesn’t start. Luis finds the bus and takes Gunther there …. probably about 15 minutes to half an hour lapsed total. Just seems longer our time.

Perhaps, it does…. OK, fair enough…. But for him to get so hammered on one bottle as to have that degree of slurred speech, etc. must mean he has like zero tolerance for alcohol.

Given he’s not quite as he appears at the New Years’ party, it would be logical to assume there’s more to come in his journey to awareness.

Much more…. I can’t see the “senioritas” effecting his change of clothes unless it’s a deliberate act on their part, or he gets sick enough to require a change of clothes.

You have a lot of patience. I just skip past any post that tries (and usually fails) to explain what Greg meant to depict, yet somehow did not! If you have to INVENT what a writer MEANT to say, the writing is lacking. That’s a pretty simple thing to understand—-Or so I thought!

I’m both sick of the drawing out of this arc and some of the inane comments herein.

Either Gunther is a shrimp of a young man or those grannies are a retired basketball team…

wow! I think I know now how he got that beard!

Let’s bear in mind that what we’re seeing is Gunther telling his story to his mom and Quill. It seems at least possible to me that he told his mom he ate a pepper and then slammed down one bottle of beer, when in fact, there was no pepper, just Gunther becoming increasingly maudlin about Rosa, and Mr. Grey, and the clinic, and his mom, an’ Rosha, and Missher Gay, etc. etc. etc., over the course of three or four bottles.

In writing, it’s called “the unreliable narrator”. I’m prepared to believe that Gunther didn’t want to admit just how much he drank, and invented the excuse of the pepper.

We’ll probably never know.

Uh, that wasn’t for me… I was saying that that’s what I took from another comment. Speaking of “branching out”……

(Branching out/Take the good with the bad:) LOL, this coming from someone whose GC name is ReallyBad…the Sequel…..

“I take the bad with the really bad!…” ^LOL, that’s what you bring to the table!! (8^))

The hot pepper and Peruvian beer was the turning point for Gunther to transform from a boy to a man!

Or to compare his experience (strictly speaking on the “before” of his “escape from Peru” to date, and not on the potential “after” that may/may not be so, since his time back home) to “sink or swim”, Gunther’s almost ready. He’s very close to the surface. He now knows how to achieve buoyancy. Once he gets back home, “it’s on!”. He is making changes. Lesson learned. Just 19,999 leagues to go….

If you’ve read Dreamcatcher, Mom being with Mr. Gray takes on a whole new meaning.