Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for May 18, 2022

diagnosing yourself won’t do much help, Bernice… seek someone who already has a license

Hot mess minus the hot part

Oh man, where’s Hawkeye Pierce to make some kind of tongue-in-cheek zinger about Bernice resorting to using manuals when you need him?

Yup… she doesn’t really want to break up with Nil.

If stacked one on top the other the three strips this week form a pretty decent story. Luann is giving Bernice some good advice — I’m surprised she call B a “hot mess” which, for all that it’s true, seems harsh. But Bernice’s waving to a pile of books proves her point. Advice may come from a book but knowing how to use it comes from personal experience. Where this goes from here is always an unknown and Greg has a bad habit of going for cheap laffs when a sincere answer is called for. What I would like to see is Luann telling Bern that making out is not a mortal sin and she should learn to enjoy what she enjoys but is afraid to enjoy.

Play, but play safe.

The Bernice version of “physician, heal thyself”.

She’s a hot mess alright. Whose help does she need? Nancy dropped the ball on this last episode. Tara? Stefani Bird? Bets? Surely not Luiann! That would be like the halt lead the lame!

Nil knows what he’s doing.

All of the psych and self-help books in the world couldn’t fix what’s wrong with this girl’s orbitofrontal cortex.

Is Anne Landers still giving advice to the lovelorn; is Anne still alive? Bernice should find out; or maybe just talk to Stef ?

Professional help. Not reading books.

Welcome to the human race Bernice…we have been waiting for you!

Loosen up Bernice. I’m sure that each of those books says, in one way or another, that enjoying your sexuality is a natural normal part of life.

You can’t learn about love and relationships from books, Bernice.

I liked it better when they were ruminating about Gunther’s extracurricular activities.

I’m ready for a Les Knox series!

Bernice was even looking at a copy of the California Driver’s Handbook. She figures he can drive and she will steer.

I tried reading books it didnt’ help my pool game

Years ago, I overheard someone saying that oysters could improve one’s sex life. Didn’t do anything for me. Maybe I was clamping them on too tight.

So Bern would say, “Sorry I can’t say Yes right now, because the library is closed.”

Bern, last person for lovelorn advice is Luann!!!

Hickey? Are they in junior high?

I wonder what advice she’s finding in that book titled: “Greg 5-18”?

Love that last frame – Luann is genuinely concerned about her friend and is telling her – lovingly – that she could use some help.

“A Hot Mess!”

Well, you got THAT diagnosis correct Luann,

And if you think things are “bad” now, just wait until you see what happens if Nil “breaks up” with Bern, FIRST. ;-)

Heard across America, “Mom, what’s a hickey?”

Y’know, while those two are blathering on and on, Nil could be dating someone else!!

Therapy!

Luann is a true friend. She’s supportive and always understands Bernice’s problems, probably way better than Bernice herself. I don’t think Bernice deserves a friend like her, but it’s sweet to see someone so happy to help♡. Let’s hope Luann will stop Bernice to try to breakup with Nil and help her accept her feelings for him.

I think a lot of us have been wondering the same thing.

If Nil has any sense, HE broke up with HER when she shoved him out of the house.

Hmmm.an opportunity to be realistic (youth domestic violence is a daily thing) passed with a dumbed down story line. Oh, well.

no, no, real helpful help like with another person. Not book smart like SpongeBob, err… close enough.

I think they should have shown Bernice taking a book named “LIBIDO” out of the library. That must have been hysterical.

Bernice, you don’t have to break up with Nil just because you don’t understand love. Love isn’t something you can figure out with science or books. Love is a feeling that you figure out with your heart, not your mind.

This strip has become a ‘hot mess’. Too many loose ends. No resolve to issues. Too much Stef and Bernie.

is that a subtly covered cover of “LOVE + CEX” ?

Cold shower might help more than a book. Not that either ever helped me.

I’m wondering whatever happened to that guy in a wheelchair that she was so hot and heavy for back when she was 16. She was ready to get married right then, but he let her down gently and rolled out of her life. Maybe all that pent-up frustration is finally cutting loose years later.

LOL! The answers you seek, will not be found in a book!

They should rename this comic Nymphomaniacs. The only stories being told are about teens and sex.

I read Luann daily but I am trying to figure out when Bernice tried to break up with Nil. Was it between the time Nil and Bernice were at the Degroots and now when she is talking to Luann? Did Bernice put together the PowerPoint after she tried to break up with Nil?

Bernice; books can be a resource for many things. But in this case, I think you need to really sit down with another woman to help sort out your feeling. Toni; Nancy; Betts; even your old High School counselor (who is now a happily married woman,) could be a good resource.

She likes the benefits but not the boy

Did I miss this while I was distracted by the privacy tent plot line?

There should be a book called Men, and it should be science fiction.

Well next time you break up with him, keep your shirt on.

You are not going to find it those books Hot Miss, er a Hot Mess.

Wonder what advice she will get in Greg’s book 5-18? lol

Love, relationships, sex, libido, and…Greg?

This strip is having way too much Bernice lately. Why could Luann (the star of this strip) not have a romance storyline? All the character growth and plot developments happen to other characters in this strip. Luann has basically stayed the same since starting college, which is disappointing. Both Tiffany and Bernice have had long storylines involving them growing as adults, which you would think would happen to Luann too, since she’s been in college for years now. But all that’s really happened to her is loosing her dog, tutoring kids, and her parents giving her a hard time for being lazy and messy, which all could just have easily happened with her in high school still.

Nancy needs to sit down with Bernice and LuAnn and have a woman to young woman talk with both of them. Bernice in particular has lived in an ivory tower of knowledge and now reality is crashing in all around her. She is about to make some bad choices if Nancy or somebody doesn’t clearly explain some things to her.

“First you say you will/ And then you won’t/Then you say you do/ And then you don’t/ You’re Undecided Now, so what are you gonna do?”

She really wants to have Nils!

At the end of the last arc a few weeks ago, after Nil left the DrGroots Bernice told Nancy she was going to break up with him. Then this week, when Luann suggested the PowerPoint might not be the best idea and she should do it in person, Bernice displayed her hickey and said she tried.

Knew it! She is afraid of her feelings for Nil, and she’d be foolish to really break up with him. He is an artist, opposite, and they attract in this strip, Gun(ther) and Bets exhibit A, and smart, maybe smarter than her, so she needs to figure this out. Those books won’t help. They might for someone who is a client someday, but here she needs to heal herself and that is a lot harder.

Above was intended as a reply to A___View.

Is anyone here from ArcaMax comics? The comments there are dead again.

Forget the books Bernice and go with your feelings.

Seeing again the difference between actual experience and book learning. Each has its place in a balance diet.

I’m not sure why Bernice feels the need to break up with Nil. Didn’t she just call him and invite him over when the house was empty? Talk about mixed messages. Girl, know thyself.

It is good that my beloved Bernice wants to understand herself. Understanding the understanding of the understanding may be a mite hard on her mind, though.

Maybe she should stop with: I’m hot and I’m a mess.

Honestly this is sooooo Junior High!

I knew it on Monday. They are not breaking up.

When I was a mess in college after coming out, my first boyfriend gave some very good advice. “You probably shouldn’t break up with me when you want to be with me. You should break up with me if you don’t want to be with me.” Hard to deny that reasoning made sense.

Self help Books might help Bern.

Today is my grandmother’s 128th birthday.

Build a house out of books and lock yourself in.

And it STILL won’t help much.

People who take up psychology do so to figure out what is wrong with themselves.

Second panel—Bernice: “I may have distracted him a bit….encouraged perhaps……”

Translation—-Bernice: “I ripped off my shirt, threw myself on top of him, and whispered; ‘Hey Nilly baby, wanna break up?’ Then he gave me this really strange looking hickey, and mumbled: ‘Ahhh—-ummmm….wh..what? Di…did you say something, Bernice?’” :D :D :D :D :P :P :P ;D

Puddles and Punk have eloped.

Bern, just go with the flow and take it easy. And if it’s easy take it twice.

I think I see where this going… get ready for another hickey!

I think all those books will tell Bernice, in complex technical language, that maybe she is just a perfectly normal 19 year old.

She won’t get the counseling she needs from books. I’m sure Nil isn’t worrying about their relationship. He’s probably painting. She needs to acknowledge her feelings and the fact they are normal. What she does about them is another topic. I suspect many people are in the same boat.

How is breaking up with Nil supposed to transform her into a normal person???

“Physician, heal thyself…”

Bern is a pathetic hot mess.

A smidgeon of remorse won’t get the job done, Bernie. Neither will a pile of books.

Physician, heal thyself? Nuh-uh, sister!

More like, “a doctor who has herself for a patient is a fool!”

You need real, serious help, you blooming psycho!

Is it true that hot mess means fresh dog vomit?

Bernice over-analyzes everything she does and wants to do ergo why she’s over-analyzing her relationship with nil. Bernice realizes she has desires, sexual desires but i think she’s afraid of them. She acts like she wants to be an exhibitionist but royally freaks out when she DOES get caught. Bernice is a huge mess of contradictions as she wants to give in to her desires but she’s afraid of being viewed as a slut.

Fear not bernice, you have to have sex first to even see what you like before it becomes an addiction to you. Simply kissing and talking about sex does not a slut make.