Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for November 05, 2022

Ugh. ✨

Will Luann be writing The Great American Novel for NaNoWriMo?!?

She’ll need to do roughly 165 pages. I wonder what she’d write about?

Vale is still totally annoying!

I’m curious what Tiff is up to. Do we think Bets has made an appearance yet?

P.S. I hope your hands are feeling better, Wally!

His massive fingers can do this thing?

Luann LOST to this guy!!!

I’m reminded of the old saw about an infinite number of monkeys banging on an infinite number of typewriters, eventually they’d write all the great works. They hadn’t counted on Mr. Vale!

what an odd trio!

This will continue into next week.

I feel like GET FUZZY did a similar punchline about the order of certain words before.

16 hours a day? I quit.

50,000 words, or 500 words if they can do it in cursive.

Vale’s right in the final panel when it comes to writing something creative.

Wow, so Tara actually is taking this writing thing seriously. Luann is starting off as a short storyteller. And Vale? Even as he takes credit for another’s ideas, he still has a “who cares?” attitude.

Luann: “Thank you but I won’t take advice from someone who plagiarized from me,,”

Note that Bricks-For-Brains used a smart watch to do the math,

Blech!!! ( ͝° ͜ʖ͡°)ᕤ

Walter Gibson, author of most of The Shadow novels used to write two 40,000=45,000 word novels a month and did so for around 15 years. Max Brand, H Bedford-Jones and (I think) Erle Stanley Gardner wrote over a million words a year. And all of them on manual typewriters. There are books on writing, marketing and publicizing one’s work. Most areas have writer’s groups which offer advise, moral support, advice, 1st readers and encouragement. NaNoWriMo seems entirely unnecessary.

Also with Print on Demand you can can have anything you’re written printed out in a nice hard cover or paperback book. Some people seem to be doing alright as self-publishers.

Vale is totally annoying but funny.

Hey, he can use a calculator.

Pointless strip today.

Quantity does not make up for quality, we’re already overwhelmed by a landfill of worthless words that nobody really cares about.

Come next week I’m hoping for the Spanish Inquisition to bum-rush Vale out the door, Since no one expects the Spanish Inquisition that would make an interesting twist to this arc.

I hope the arc ends tomorrow, with Luann walking out of the room and Vale disappearing for good…

Vale makes Jack look like the most fragile and gentle guy. Bring back Jack!

Tara is always very supportive and wants Luann to try new things that can make her happy. I hope Luann can still enroll in the same writing class that Tara takes, it would be very helpful for her and she and Tara would spend more time together. I have said it often, but I repeat it. Luann needs to spend more time with a friend who is encouraging and who believes in her! Tara is that friend. More Tara, less Bernice in her life!

Words fail me.

Picky, picky, picky.

Just walk away slowly and stop making eye contact Luann!

Word order means little or nothing if you use it creatively in the dialogue of a character… " In order spoken must words be"

Vale: “A, B, C, D, R, Q, M, T, P, Z.”

“And I know a lot more letters in the alphabet, just not all in a row like that”

Order words right in.

Oh, Gawd!!

I hope this isn’t leading to a romance between Tara and that ape!!

Even Les would be an improvement.

I find it interesting that Greg mentioned NaNoWrimo and Harry Potter in the same strip, given that the NaNoWrimo people canceled J.K. Rowling 2 years ago.

This guy knows his arithmetic.

Vale, you might get in trouble doing Harry Potter novels.

He seems to be good at math, but he’ll likely become a politician.

\\//_

You know, I think the Vale character is here as a foil to Ox. While they have some similarities (like being tall, beefy athletes), that’s pretty much it. Where Vale is selfish and haze a hazy understanding between right and wrong, Ox is always kind, thoughtful and selfless. Perhaps this story line will end up with Tiff meeting Vale and seeing Ox in a brand new light?

Dingleberry can work a smart watch but he’s not smart enough to write a good Original composition. Hmmmm.

Yaay! Shout out to NaNoWriMo!

Walter Gibson, the writer of “The Shadow” pulp novels, wrote a novel every two weeks at the height of magazine’s popularity. He also wrote the Shadow comic strip. He was also an avid amateur magician and the ghost-writer for Houdini and Blackstone. It’s estimated that he wrote 10,000 words a day for decades.

Lester Dent wrote “Doc Savage” which was only published once a month, so he only had to write a novel a month, the slowpoke.

It was a dark and stormy night……

And, how long did it take JK Rowling to get all the words in the right order to create the Harry Potter universe?

Come on, we have to have some Luann arcs; otherwise, the comic might be called Tiffany.

An infinite number of monkeys……

You know what?

It’s bad enough that Luann lost the top prizes to these two boors, but now they are all but ignoring her. So HOW exactly, is Tara being “supportive” to Luann here?

I guess it’s good that Tara takes such an interest in her writing class. I’m glad Tara is taking a interest in something academic, because I remember when she (And Nil) took Zebo’s art class just to make fun of him (And Luann).

But hey.

Tara should write.

Not just 50,000 words a month but 100,000.

Even a million.

The more Tara writes, the better writer she may become.

And the more Tara writes, the less time she’ll have to get Luann into trouble.

Scary how that new guy in the middle reminds me of big band era musician Tex Beneke (with a bit of Bobby Kennedy). I’d be amazed if that was intentional. But if by some unlikely chance it was, that’s pretty clever.

Before this nano-contest became a thing, I once wrote a fifty-thousand-word novel in a week. I was never able to match that speed again.

Of course, it wasn’t very good…in fact, it was awful.

Too bad they didn’t make Vale a math ace by not having him calculating with his iWrist

Luann is wondering if she should humiliate herself by showing up and excepting the third-place prize..

Dumbest arc EVER

That Vale! A future Road Scholar for sure!

Tara is challenging Luann to do MORE while Luann might have previously entered this one story contest, taken a prize and then abandoned story writing, like she abandoned drawing and art, … how many sketches could Luann do in 1 month?…. all begs the question of just how much can one do in one month. and Vale, alias not eye candy, is taking interest. Hats off to Tara!

Tara is all about action Luann is…. “hey lets go shopping”. Come on Luann; time to do more.

So boring. These three young people discussing writing is like watching my brother advising our mechanic on how to repair a car. They don’t have the experience or commitment to be honest with their words and feelings. Instead, they discuss learning to write like getting a high score on a video game (50,000 words a month will make you accomplished) which in my opinion is just a recipe for promoting empty fodder. But since Luann is never going to really settle on anything in life she might as well try this for awhile.

NaNoWriMo

A rare instance where lower case letters would be advantageous.

800 words is something like 3 pages, I think. The writers really seem dedicated to making Luann look like a child.

At first, Jack seemed like a big galoot. G & K cleverly worked Jack into the cast, and we wondered if he would wind up being Luann’s guy. But Vale? Hopefully his role is just comic and occasional.

November is a terrible month for a writing event. There are lots of sports going on this month. Thanksgiving is in November and many people are traveling and cooking and visiting with family. And it only has 30 days instead of 31. March or May would be much better months for most people to write 50,000 words.

A friend came to visit James Joyce one day and found the great man sprawled across his writing desk in a posture of utter despair. “James, what’s wrong?” the friend asked. “Is it the work?” Joyce indicated assent without even raising his head to look at his friend. “Of course it was the work; isn’t it always?” “How many words did you get today?” the friend pursued. Joyce (still in despair, still sprawled face down on his desk): “Seven.” “Seven? But James… that’s good, at least for you.” “Yes.” Joyce said, finally looking up. "I suppose it is… but I don’t know what order they go in!”

TIL about NaNoWriMo! Thanks Luann/Greg!

I think Vale is onto something, there.

Not sure if anyone else has mentioned this, but what little we saw oif Vale’s entry was kind of funny. The part about 700,000 people living in Paris and 600,000 being artists, with the rest can can dancers and mimes, definitely would not have come from Wikipedia or any other source purporting to be factual. Calling Lautrec “Tooloose” and Monet “Clod” are warmed-over adolescent jokes. So, maybe Vale really did write the whole piece. We’ll soon find out, I hope.

He’s got interesting potential for humor.

My daughter has been participating in NANOWRIMO for the past 10+ years. She finishes the 50,000 words, but then never completes the final edit (you have until April or something to edit, add illustrations, cover art, etc.). Amazon used to offer to print your finished novel for a small (like $10) fee.

Is Vale good at math or does he have a calculator on his wrist phone? Other than promoting writing, where is this going? No friends or parents attending this event?

Yeah, getting the words in order is the hard part. Some of my friends are doing NaNoWriMo. I’ve been too busy writing to do it.

I didn’t know Stevie Wonder was a barber on the side.

IMO Vale is a useless character.

This guy IS thicker than a brick, WITH the added bonus of being totally obnoxious.

wow, this is stupid!

NaNoWriMo is an organization that has as a real-world base its location in Berkeley, CA….. so I suspect Greg may be especially fond of mentioning it because even though most know of it via the Internet….. it’s origins are in California.

Can you use words twice, Vale? I seriously doubt they’d make that a “no-no”…! d;o)

Wow Vale is really good with numbers.

He’s not wrong in that last panel. I used to say All I need today are 2,000 words. But they have to be 2,000 GOOD words. lol

Sunday : Shannon writes a poem!

Tara is surprisingly well versed about her craft (sic), though she uses her knowledge to humble Luann (“824” words in her story). And, yet, even getting all the words in the right order and churning out words by the tens of thousands, Luann could never write three “Harry Potter” books, sadly. Luann lacks that kind of creativity….

Forgive me for reposting if someone already said this, but it’s inconsistent that Vale needs small words, but has a calculator watch and can do complex math.

Ah- HAH! A watch is shown in the first act, so it has to be used by the third! Reminding us about the watch and what he did with it (secretly recorded Luann during tutoring)? HMmmmmm

This guy…..

Vale sure is good at math.

I just saw Harry Potter as Weird Al.

Is he really using a calculator watch? LOL