Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for March 14, 2013

He “trained” her to copy his smile – or maybe her jaw’s wired shut.

I just CANNOT figure out what Dirk’s wife is supposed to be. I am not one to go by physical appearance, but—-OMG!

Thanks, Lev…was always dying to know that.

Grace practices yoga. She was genuinely smiling because she’s high on the real thing.

“Dirk the Jerk”?? My, My. Aren’t WE “Little Ms. Judgemental” these days.

Really pleased with this week’s arc. I was afraid we’d be subjected to yet another week, or more, of Shannon being a raging brat. instead we get the bombshell return of Dirk and furious speculation on what this may mean for Toni and, by extension, Brad. Totally didn’t see it coming, and was totally delighted. Thanks, Greg! :-)

@Lev… IMHO, she’s battered… Having ‘been there, done that’… I can recognize one a mile away. I think there is a better chance to reform an alcoholic than a wife batterer. That said, I admire those who realize they have a problem and work hard to change; perhaps, Grace feels the same about Dirk.

I happen to think Dirk’s wife is as cute as a button. At this point I can only assume that his change was genuine and that he is setting his life in order.

I’d have to think that Dirk has changed… I mean, any guy who’d wear his baby daughter in a flowery sling can’t be ALL bad!

I think you missed a ‘6’. j/k

Panel 2: “Dirk smash!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

*

Sorry. Someone had to say it.

It’s so nice to see Shannon happy and smiling, she would make a great addition to the Degroot family, IMHO

The second panel would have been funnier if Luanne was imagining Dirk in a dress and a big blonde wig :P

Yup, the baby clock is IN MOTION. Toni’s feeling left behind.

It’s hard to tell HOW the new Dirk is affecting Toni… hopefully we will know by Sat… I was sure this was going to send her into Brads arms…. now, after today’s strip, I’m not as sure.

Couldn’t find anything constructive to do? ;-)

Was definitely not expecting this. I was expecting some sort of confrontation while they were still in the grocery store, like an arguement between Dirk and his wife and him blowing up. This is nice. Maybe Dirk actually has changed.

Happy NATIONAL PI DAY, 3.14

I don’t like Toni’s face today. Perhaps a crisis is looming upon Brad’s and Toni’s relationship ?

Not that she’ll try to break Dirk’s marriage, but chances are she’ll start noticing Brad’s goofiness. And without much fuss and pain, they’ll just part…

What?? What are you trying to say? Rat Fink is totally loveable and a memory of great times!

The late “Big Daddy, Ed Roth” created Rat Fink

Grace should go to Tiff’s for one of her great make-overs

He’s still wearing the shades, though.

I pondered that too. We know Dirk’s a master manipulator. I wouldn’t put it past him to “persuade” a young insecure Single-Mother to “Act” as if she’s his wife to put Toni “off her guard.”

If there is ANY further contact, especially if initiated by HIM, RED FLAG!

“Danger, Toni Daytona! Extreme Danger!”

It is possible Dirk took a 52 week anger management class,along with his meditative yoga and made a positive change.

Luann’s memories are of the past, quite naturally. I trust Toni will enlighten her regarding the present, the reformation of Dirk, cute Grace, and little Joy.Karen and Greg’s new collaboration is doing very nicely!

I wonder if Toni will wonder why Dirk didn’t change like that with her?

Now who’s going to tell Brad first, Toni or Luann?

Grace looks a lot more “frazzled” than Toni. I’m thinking Dirk is a Jekyll/Hyde type — acts nice in public but a monster at home.

Toni really likes Brad. She really (still) loves Dirk. It’s the way it seems to be with women and “bad” boys.

Lev, how does that relate, to anything?

Leviticus, you have me beat. It took me a year to learn how to copy and paste. Same result-less sense of accomplishment.

Somebody spent a YEAR memorizing Pi past 4 decimal places???? Wow… do you need a girlfriend… or a job.

Shannon is ferociously coloring. Luann does such a good job of focusing her.

I always suspected Brad and Dirk would someday become friends, however I don’t think Dirk is going to play a big part in this arc. This one is about Toni and how she feels about Brad. She will either be more willing to marry Brad or she will pull away from him.

I think that with Dirk having a wife and a child hit Toni like a bag of bricks as she is realizing that, for good or bad (yeah, really?), the door to that part of her life was slammed shut, and she wasn’t the one to do it. I had that happen to me once, and even though I was (and still am) happy at the time with where I was at, it still has a bit of a shock value.

Now, that said….Toni talks to Luann about marrying Brad in 3….2….1….

you dropped a 7 on your pi sequence.ccor maybe not, I certainly ain’t a gonna check.cI AM reminded of some fellow whose life’s work was to calculate pi out to a million. When the earliest computers were built, they decided to test them by repeating the feat only to discover he had made an error around the 500,000th place amd everything after that was gibberish. Nobody had cared enough to check ere that.

I’ll just go hide in a corner with my pitiful 7 places past the decimal memorization.

On a comic-related note, I sure hope this week ends on a more upward swing. Toni is looking a bit depressed today.

Could this be the “wake up call” for Toni and she decides it’s time to marry Brad?

I still don’t trust Dirk. This could very well be a con. It wouldn’t surprise me.

I’m glad to see Dirk has changed – for the better. Why are so many people so skeptical?

Gotta feeling this is gonna push Toni into rethinking Brad’s proposal and starting a family.

where were you on the 71st of February? Well?

Could it be that there is about to be a final closure for Toni concernng Dirk? There has to be a big question mark somewhere in her mind; now is the time for Brad to really prove himself. Drama!

Karen’s influence in the strip is quite evident. Lots more good stuff comin’, folks. You, too, “spends all his time reading Archie comics” Clyde.

Ironic, isn’t it, that the “minor” characters in this comic strip are more interesting than Luann? Thanks again to Greg for the great entertainment!

Nobody in their right mind eats that horrible. It explains why so many Aussies are crazy ;)

Some questions….Is it Dirk’s baby? Are he a Grace really “married”? ……no ring….hmmmm…

The only change with Dirk is has does not have his black knitted cap on and has a baby sling. Other wise I see no change other than he is married (so he says) and is over powerering his wife to act like everything is nice. I don’t trust him.

I am reminded of the discussions that went on here during T.J.’s final confrontation with Ann Eiffel, especially after she kissed him. It got wilder and wilder and more convoluted. Yet all that happened was T.J. showed her the door. End of arc.

The simplest, most plausible outcome of this story arc is for Dirk to really have changed. Toni is now suddenly left with no excuse not to progress with Brad. That alone can be extremely frightening and unnerving to the poor lady.

Who needs a fake and/or battered wife? It’s totally unnecessary.

Occam’s Razor, guys.

Sure, he hired an actor to pose as a mom, borrowed someone’s baby, got himself a flowery sling and made sure there were baby products in his cart…and he totally expected Toni to happen to be there at that moment out of coincidence… Right, makes PERFECT sense to me…

Talk about overspeculation. Like it or not, Dirk’s changed. Now we’ll have to wait and see whether this will weaken or strengthen Toni’s relationship with Brad. I’m leaning toward the latter.

And I’d rather talk about the real kind of ‘pi’. I could sure go for the apple kind right about now~

ZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzjust to much same old stuff

I am trying to guess what Mr. Evan’s next steps in the plot will be….. Toni is either a) shell-shocked (given today’s expression) and is simply unaware of how to explain the dramatic transformation in Dirk, or b) feeling remorse (again a possibility given today’s expression) about Dirk because there were probably some things she really liked about him. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++It will be interesting to see which way Mr. Evan’s develops this. It would be more dramatic and interesting if it causes even just a little bit of doubt for Toni in being with Brad. But, it would be more typical for it to simply be Toni being very surprised.

If I were me who ran into the new happy Dirk, I would be pissed at his fake carefree attitude. I would expect a modicum of humility at worst, an apology at best.

I doubt if seeing Dirk with a baby will send Toni into a tailspin of despair over not having her own kid. Too much Shannon might very well have made her kid-shy for now. Another reason (just thought of it) she might be reluctant to marry Brad could be that she doesn’t want it to be an excuse for Jonah to leave Shannon with them more often, as if by becoming a married couple they’d magically welcome a six-year-old into their newly wedded life. People think weird stuff. (Jonah, I mean, not Toni.)

This picture actually hurt my eyes!! I am afraid I’ll have nightmares!

BRAD is not there^^When did I say he was? They made it obvious on Monday that he was working

Brad would be with her up to the “child like Shannon” part. Then he would high tail it out of there.^^C’mon Lev, if you haven’t seen how much Shannon & Brad care about each other, you haven’t been paying attention; not to mention that Shannon is a much better child, now that she has a few people who care for her around.

Since you are now our fact checker and I can’t rely upon Leviticus can you state whether or not Dirk beat up Toni.^^The closest he came to assault on her was grabbing her arm and pulling her away from Brad and forcing her into his car.

Click the thumbnail for large picture V V V V V V

OH BOY! Here come some insane comments, because Dirk is back with a strange looking wife! Dare I read on? lolz

Mikeyj, Tiff did a horrible makeover on Bernice. Made her look like something the cat dragged in.^^I thought she looked great, that real “80s babe” look; and she certainly found herself with a lot of male admirers (Which was the problem, she didn’t WANT to be a glamour girl).

Shannon is a little she-devil. The reason might be due to her dad, but the results are the same.^^Look at that child colouring up there, she’s a real normal kid; sometimes she seems to be bad , but, deep down, she just wanted the attention she’s now getting

I think Luanne may be drawing Puddles!

I never said there was no abuse, only that he was using mental/emotional abuse; someone called him a “wifebeater” and I simply pointed out that he never actually hit Toni; the closest he came was grabbing her arm and forcing her into his car; while that is technically assault, he didn’t ever lay any real bruises on her. (He’d likely still be in prison, if he had)

wow Luann can’t believe Dirk’s changed, eh??!!!!!

Absent any evidence to the contrary, and I don’t see any, I choose to take Dirk’s transformation at face value.

I was visualizing “Slumdog Millionaire” where the contestant has to look at four very long “Pi” numbers and pick the right one. He’d better have your phone # handy…

But man, can those stoners at U of Tokeo draw!

I like the comic strip, thats why I read it. The comments sometimes are too long. Some are good, otherszzzzzzzz time. Got to read them, good with the bad. Its a comic strip.