Recent Comments

1. about 7 hours ago on Luann

   However, we have just seen two styles juxtaposed: one emulating G&K, and one more reminiscent of the films “Cool World” and “Who Killed Roger Rabbit”.

2. 2 days ago on Luann

   Perhaps we may hope that Greg will have read these comments and recognized that his regular readership of faithful followers is quite seriously displeased. Changing characters and drawing styles can destroy a strip and all that previously rendered it endearing.

3. 3 days ago on Luann

   I believe we still have another week to go of the guest artist — and presumably of this odd fantasy of Toni’s. I am rather disappointed that she is being rewritten this way in place of the much more practical young firefighter we have been shown previously. What’s even more disappointing to me is the Disneyesque styling of the artwork, particularly facial and body shaping. If this were not a fantasy, it would be entirely intolerable. Even so, if I were G&K, I would have demanded that the artist emulate the artwork of the strip as it has been drawn for at least the past 5 years. We’ve seen fantasy vignettes in this strip that did not change the art styling as a technique to distinguish between fantasy and what normally passes for reality. Hence, we must criticize the guest artist. If this two-week interval was in any sense a job interview for a subsidiary art assistant, I would call it a disqualifying failure. But the test is not yet over. Perhaps the remaining week could be an opportunity for the artist to demonstrate his ability to emulate the regular G&K characteristic style.

4. 6 days ago on Luann

   Well, a lot of folks have contributed their feelings about the alternative artwork any story line, so I might as well offer mine. I find both to be cheap cardboard imitations compared to the feeling of the G&K version. I might be able to tolerate it for the two weeks it is presumed it will occupy, but no more than that. I don’t like it at all.

5. 9 days ago on Luann

   Frank and Nancy DeGroot.

6. 10 days ago on Luann

   You’re quite right that a village is insufficient — largely because it cannot supply the consistency that a dedicated pair of parents can and should provide. In this case, one parent and a dedicated hired caregiver may suffice — except that the parent is too preoccupied with career pursuits that obviate the needed parental contribution. Toni and Brad can help, but their own professional demands limit their ability to provide what Shannon needs, even with the addition of a hired professional caregiver. They would have to subsume their own careers to Jonah’s career in order to provide what he is asking. What compensation is he offering in return for such sacrifice? Perhaps he should directly enlist foster care services and pay for them. Perhaps he should ask if the grandparents have the needed discretionary resources and the motivation to accept such a position. Even so, irredeemable harm will be done to the biological father-daughter relationship that is already on shakey ground.

7. 12 days ago on Luann

   So glib. Just one month. Adhoc,with no long-term planning for any of the involved parties. That’s abusive. It has continued already far too long. I commented yesterday about what this family needs, but I neglected that it might need to begin with some sort of intervention. Bernice is not yet qualified or licensed, but perhaps one of her professors knows someone who may be called.

8. 14 days ago on Luann

   I believe we had some extensive discussion here some months ago when Toni suspected she might be pregnant. The issues included the balance between work and home and childcare responsibilities for Toni, for Brad, even for TJ and Jonah. Some consistent reliable program is needed for Shannon’s care and education so that she will know to whom to turn and from whom to expect supervision and discipline constraints. Planning must map out space for at least one or two of Toni’s children with Brad. It must also map out reliable periods of privacy for T & B, without intrusions from anyone else. It appears that Jonah’s parental rights may need to be terminated, unless he embraces extreme changes to his life that accept full parental responsibilities and a reliable program of care for his child Shannon. Her care has been insufficient for too long already, and a new paradigm is needed ASAP. Otherwise the child services agency of CA state government may be called to intrude into this family. Some elementary public school teacher is likely to do this. Only if the family can demonstrate that it has already taken steps on its own to resolve the shortcomings will it be able to resist government intrusion.

9. 16 days ago on Luann

   Yes, vindication that I correctly remembered a fact invented by a real cartoonist about a fictional character. It doesn’t matter whether the person who found and cited the documentation of that minor fact was a stranger to me. He or she simply enabled an objective researcher to confirm it. That’s not something to disdain, dismiss, or devalue.

10. 17 days ago on Luann

    I don’t know what you mean by a “sticking point”, but if you consult a gerontologist I suspect that there’s a significant difference between the health expectations and consequences of the 80s as compared with the 90s. What’s more, the quality of my own memory of such details is important to me as I find myself in my 70s. Consequently I appreciate the vindication from @outonalimb that I remembered correctly what this character had cited as her age.