Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for August 01, 2017

Prudence is going to go grab some ice cream and put on Netflix.

thank you, Prudence, for the nutshell version of the report

Short, but not sweet, full report…

In this instance, what would “Mentoring” entail, exactly?

“A mom hired me to mentor her kid.”

Other ways to phrase this:

“I get to babysit a kid who doesn’t need babysitting.”

“I have a new job where I get to teach a kid to do tongue twisters and mock other people. Every day.”

“A mom actually thinks I am responsible and organized compared to Pru.”

“I get to look up what the word ‘mentor’ means, because I am getting paid to do it.”

My beloved Prudence has mastered the art of being succinct.

There are three themes here, pick em. First, Pru feels like she failed. Two the Fuse theater program is not be a success, leading to what we don’t know. Three, Luann has a mentor job, but we are not quite sure what that means, given the possible failure of the theater program, and Luann, is as usual, clueless of a serious issue in this case involving the theater program. Bet this will trail off into a partial resolution whichever of those themes, or some combination, turns out to be the case. Of course Greg could throw a completely new theme in the stew.

Luann can be upbeat – she doesn’t have to make a living with the theater. Pru has a serious issue what to do next.

This “get rich” thing is a new impulse from both Luann and Nancy, in thinking that the theater camp would be huge. But that’s not particularly part of the original scheme for the Fuse.

Frank, with Nancy’s support, wanted to start a successful business that included a forum for the dramatic arts. Since the Fuse is running in the black, they’ve done that. The drama part does not have to be a prime source of income.

Pru’s the one taking it hard, because she’s so vested in drama. But she has multiple responsibilities at the Fuse. If they want to do a stage production, she’s certainly the best qualified to lead it. (A theater camp is not a stage production, and is just a stab in the dark.) Additionally, aside from sometimes waiting tables, Pru is actually the bartender. That, in itself, is not a trivial position for K2 and the Fuse.

I’ve just engaged in this analysis, in trying to guess where the arc is going, or not going. But no firm conclusions yet.

That was great! Luann is just doing the typical Luann. Thinking of herself. Pru is hacked because her big plans for being a successful event manager just took a hit.

I think I need to develop patience and see where Greg is going with these arcs before getting bummed. The problem on my end is that I only see a day at a time. Whereas Greg sees months in advance. Thumbs up Greg!

You can say “unbelievable” or “I can’t believe” instead of OMG.

Life in the arts is very difficult. There are literally millions of aspiring musicians and actors waiting to be the next big find. The job market for a musician/actor is actually quite limited. Luann is doing the right thing by pursuing a viable career.

Frank’s gotta find another booking for the place.

Usually, Pru is so bouncy and glowing! Her countenance and very condensed response choices is showing another depth to her, that she has other emotions/expressions (kudos to Mr. Evans and his team!). She obviously doesn’t feel good about things.

-

’T’is also not easy to have to have an adverse filled report to have to give someone…

“The Bad News Bear-ers”

“The Good, The Bad…And The Downright Dog Ugly”

“Great Un-expectations”

“(Hoping For) Immunity On That Bounty”

“Star Wreck: The Undiscovered Currency”

“A Streetcar Named Perspire”

“451 Fahrenheit Street”

“Field Of Screams”

“You Captains Better Be Courageous!”

“Back To The Suture”

“The Rut Job, II”

“The Many Faces Of Grieve”

“Show Me The Moneeeyyyy!”

“If The Postman Knocks Twice, That Means The Getaway Car Is Just Outside”

or

“Middle Aged Yeller”

Pru: “And that’s the way it is!…Tuesday, August 1st…”

Two points about theater camp that seems to be missing: 1) Did they do any kind of Marketing of the damn thing? 2) One word – pre-registration!

“You may not notice it, but sometimes I can be self-centered.” – Luann, 3/14/2012

I got a Bad Feeling that this “Failure” might be the beginning of Pru’s “Departure Arc,” where She Heads back to NYC only to be seen periodically.

And That’s too Bad, as I kinda Like Pru. She’s Genuine, Caring and Honest, which unfortunately, in the VAST Luanniverse, is Crime Punishable by Exile.

Who knows, Pru may leave and could we expect a surprise visit from Rosa , Maybe??

Pru should go back to New York and exit the strip entirely. She serves no purpose beyond being a token lesbian in this pointless strip.

Pipe and coffee break analysis for today:

Overall, we see the juxtaposition between the different foci between Luann and Pru. Luann is excited about her being hired as a MENTOR for Fay, whereas Prudence is aggravated by the failure and resultant cancelling of the The Fuse’s Summer Theater Camp 2017. What are some of the nuances I notice:

1. Even though she has regularly had this, today especially, Pru seems to have an especially strong 1940s style vibe going on. Her hair and her whole look and demeanor today has an even more vivid kind of “Katherine Hepburn” sort of feel.

2. Pru’s lips are always very stylized like she has lipstick on, but they are also always shown as black. I am wondering if the coloring is done simply to denote lipstick and because her lips are on the smaller size (compared to Toni or Tiffany whose lips end up being colored red often) the black color is just Greg drawing them to look full…. or is Pru supposed to be actually wearing black (Goth style?) lipstick? Of the two choices, I am guessing the are meant to denote a more typically colored lipstick (say red or peach) for the B&W versions of the comic and that the lips are just too small to have the colorist (Sheriff, who hasn’t posted lately) add color to.

3. In the last panel, I am not sure how to read Pru’s emotions. Is she just frustrated? Is she angry? Is she sad? Her clenched fist suggests frustration or anger. Her eyelids and mouth in the third frame suggest both frustration and anger.

4. In terms of Luann’s getting paid to be a mentor…. are mentors usually paid? Hell, if that is the case, I have been losing out I guess. I mentor a lot of my students at the U which is technically outside of my official teaching and research duties. From my perspective, mentoring usually seems to be VOLUNTARY. But, that may be more of an academic-circle sort of thing, I guess.

5. But, regardless, I am glad that it seems Fay will continue for some time in the comic. And, I am also glad she is not a “Cousin Oliver” type character.

6. Nancy and Frank seem in a better mood now that Luann and Pru are home, which is nice. But, Frank’s comment of “Full Report!” seems a bit abrupt. But, perhaps it is just being used by Frank as a short-hand expression.

So…. prognostication time… With Pru being frustrated, what will she do? Will she quit? Will she pull herself up by her bootstraps and make another go of it and try to round up kids more successfully for another camp? Will she do something else? And, in what way will Luann mentor Fay? Their interaction seemed more akin to a sister-sister relationship, but I am not sure what Fay needs mentoring on… other than perhaps social interaction with her peers (that seemed to be what she alluded to in earlier strips). I am not sure if Luann would be good or not good at helping Fay fit in with her peers or not.

Well, again, the coffee mug is drained, and my pipe has gone cold. So, back to work for me.

Perhaps Team Evans realizes that they haven’t found a suitable role in the strip for Prudence, whom they have failed to develop as a character and who remains a rather vapid shell. Maybe it’s time for her to start exploring other opportunities, such as staging plays in Peru.

@RINGO: Yeah. Luann has almost become secondary to the strip. In the pre-collage strips, all the characters only provided fodder for humor as they affected Luann. But now the characters have “lives” and generate interest beyond Luann. This strip may be going the way of For Better Or For Worse. That being too many characters to develop that the author lost the muse and retired the strip into rerun syndication.

Ironically, today is the first day that she’s had the opportunity to behave at all interestingly.

I think Frank or Nancy (or both) need to chat with Luann to explain “how money works”. That was not good day.

I still cannot get over a hideous name like “Pru”.

I was asking too much for them to cater to one person.

she was like: “we won the game, but the team quit right after!”

Luann and Pru are not in the room when Frank wonders how camp went. When they do enter the room Luann speaks first and tells F and N her exciting news. She is not answering any question asked by Frank. She is just sharing her day. The parents then ask how camp went.

Frank’s “full report” is in six words (seven, if you expand the contraction) from Pru. It’s not something to linger over. Luann is euphoric about the job she has fallen into, not at all fretting for the theater space at The Fuse. Pru will fret more than enough for both of them. Is live theater at The Fuse doomed? Is The Fuse doomed?

if the camp is canceled then the $ raised in still available. Maybe they will look at the books and see a discrepancy between what they thought they raised an what they have….. ahem….. Leslie Knox.

“Hollywood is a place where they’ll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul. I know, because I turned down the first offer often enough and held out for the fifty cents.”― Marilyn Monroe

at least prudence was brutally honest about it and didn’t try to hide or sugar coat the failure.

Just a loose thread in my mind but how much of a part did Les play in the failure of this theater camp…..

Ventures like a theater camp often run in the red the first few times.

Also, if the theater camp is perceived by Frank and Nancy to be important to their financial success why are they sitting at home during the inaugural run?

Finally, how can the low attendance come as a surprise – theater camp would surely be pre-booked because it’s not like people wind up there because they were driving by and saw a sign advertising it out front.