Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for January 24, 2015

Sure, ones would like to have their parents treat them differently, including not using “childhood nicknames”. But it’s not respectful, to use such a tone to do it!!!! This is one of those times when a parent may “feel like saying”: "I don’t care where you’ve been, or what you think you did, or didn’t do!!! You won’t have enough stripes on your arm, ever to ever take that tone with me!!!!! You think you’ve been through something? Wait till I’m done with you!!!! At least, that’s probably the sentiment. Mrs. B may take more tact in handling it…. – And this is one time when Quill’s remarks don’t help anything out… – Just a week ago (our time), he seemed a bit “green and unripe” still, in his expereinces, but still a little more gentlemanly. Now, all of a sudden, he becomes “ungentle”, and not quite the guy that people knew and loved. Somehow, there’s supposed to be a “Quantum Leap”. I guess in consideration of it all, the explanation is clear: The flight took a layover near the Bermuda Triangle, then the Wormhole to the Delta Quadrant before returning to the portal that leads to Pitts, and the “Luanniverse”. Yep, he is jet-lagged….

For crying out loud, he’s not a kindergartner anymore; he’s a high school graduate!

“The Incredible Sulk” “Noise Cancelling”“All Grown Down”“Jerk Seasoning”“Static And Noise”“Unfortunate Son” (♫)“Out Of Line, Out Of Mind”“We’re Not Gonna Take It” (♫)“Ungrateful Dread” (♫)“R.E.S.P.E.K.T…. And You’re About To ‘C’!”or“You Ain’t That Spicy, Son!!”

GRUMPthie!

“Do not use that tone with me young man! I brought you into this world, and I can take you out.”

Surely the Senor(ita)s didn’t teach him this.Boy needs to go soak his head.

Bring up Mr. Gray now and you just might be shipped back to Peru…

Gunther tells his mother off during a Skype session (how dare she date someone she met at work!) and barks at her for using a name he doesn’t like while she’s feeding him cookies.-If he was my kid, I’d tell him that, since he’s a big boy now, he can go find his own home, bake his own cookies and call himself ‘alone’ instead of ‘Gunthie’

SHUT IT, GUNTHIE…

“With an attitude like that, you can go right back to Peru young man!”

Good old Uncle tried to budge Rosa. Rosa will not be budged for any man, family or not.

“I’m a man! A man who came home because he was jealous about his mother dating!”

Gunther has gone over to the Dirk side!

I’m with Gunther. Mom needs to know he’s no longer ‘her little boy’.

So Gunther has grown a few. Three specifically:

A beard, a new shirt and some cojones!

And actually, learned a lot more than what he would have had he gone straight to college.

Hope Gunther get ashave! Now enough of Gunther and Rosa. What about Luann and Quil or Bernice and her room mate?! Or Tifine or Delta?

Hope he keeps the beard. And, I suspect Bernice likes it.

I guess black coffee makes him a rude a-hole.

¡Que Mal!(Something " Gunthie " would understand if he’d actually spent time with his Spanish-speaking “girlfriend”.)

Gunther… She is your mother… she can call you whatever she wants. That comes with the territory of being a mom. Nick names are intimately familiar and show affection. Yes your name is Gunther… all of your friends and co-workers should call you that out of respect for who you are as a person. Gunthie, will always be who you are to your mom. Some day you will never hear her say that to you in her own special way again and you will miss it.

Yes, you’ve begun to grow up and have had a taste of independence. Remember though you’ve only just emerged into adulthood. It was your mother who helped you and supported you and gave you the strength to launch out on your own. She has the right, Gunthie… she will always have the right.

Two wordsJet lagIt disorients and makes one crabbyOf course Gunther will apologise

Look for Gunther to have that same “bit into a hot pepper” look on Monday when he’s smacked-into-the-middle-of-next-week.

Already with the coffee nerves?

He used to be Gunther. Who knows who or what he is now…

YES!! HE DROPPED THE GUNTHIE!!

“Jumping the Gun, thee shall not call me that!”

“For crying out loud, he’s not a kindergartner anymore; he’s a high school graduate!”-And now he’ll be using swear words like a longshoreman!

Sometimes I wonder why I read this strip… one of the things Greg does really well is having characters grow and change over time. One of those characters is Gunther, and another needs to be his Mother..Both of Gunther and his Mom seem to be holding each other back in living lives that would make more sense for their graphic (serial) novel lives..…and I enjoy watching all of us who comment project our own stuff onto these characters. There is no strip where I follow the comments as closely as LuAnn. .Thanks to all for sharing.

Huh? This is supposed to qualify as character growth for Gunther?

Crack that whip!

Gunther,

All right you had one mighty adventure. However, your parents still deserve the respect you (need) to give to them. Gunther needs to respect his mother. If his mother wants to call him (Gunthie), she has this right.Gunther needs to accept this. Growing up does not give you the right to be disrespectful his mother.Myself, I am a 45 year old man and my father calls me Hon at times and this is all right for me because I love and respect my parents.

I was 58 years old when my mom passed away and until the day she died I would NEVER have raised my voice to her and I DON’T talk that way to my dad and he is 90…….it is called RESPECT. If I had spoken to my parents the way some kids do I would have been sitting in my room until I was 40. lol

He didn’t “tear her face off”. Showing irritation is one very good way to make your point in some circumstances, and some parents must be taught to behave.

Gunther’s tone was a bit rude and sudden, but Mrs. B should watch the “Gunthie” stuff in front of his friends. Some people don’t take others seriously until tempers rise. Also, Mr Gray’s appearance just after he left for Peru could be unsettling for anyone in his position.

Yep.To-Day He IS a MAN, Ma Berger!NOW, ’Bout some Choc-Lit Milk to go with them Cookies and Later You Can TELL Us a Story!

And I’ll have my milk and cookies now, Mommy.

Looks to me like gritty Gunther needs a swift slap upside the head! Then, Mrs. Berger can take some chill-time with Mr. Gray! (Rub it in, rub it in!)Hey, Oz! Whose side are you on, anyway?

Gunther’s mom is no softie, she’s proven that, so heads up, smart mouth and sell the outhouse, ‘cause she’ll have your butt.

Some times you have to use that tone to get some one to listen to you. Especially when you are a passive person.

And why does Quill look so delighted? Gunthie just dissed the woman who is basically a surrogate mother to Quill, not to mention the world’s best landlady (well, she never wants him to GASP kiss his girlfriend, but I’ll let that slide for now).

All children need to “separate”. Gunther’s mother is enmeshed with him and very invasive. Gunther was always tolerant of her because he loves her and knows she loves him but he’s stressed out and so this first “setting of boundaries” was blurted out instead of said politely. I hope he got her attention. She needs to back off. Way off.

I think you may be right … with he and Quill sharing an apartment.

Hmmmm…… Interesting….. maybe with a little “sparing” over who will end up with Lu….. ;-PPPPP

he even looks more like a man…

Like none of you all have ever disagreed with parents / Mom and even used strong Tone with them / her? Cone on now…give me a break…You go Gunth and I expect he’ll give her a hug and a apology…

Thank-you Greg for making our little Guther grow up. It was time….

Nice of Gunther to try to help her out of her old habits..Evans is a genius.

“Testicles do not make one stand up right.”.And yet, they DO.This is why women often tell a human doormat to grow a pair.

“I let only my aunt call me by my childhood version of my first name. The rest to not.”.I let people call me many names, just don’t answer to most of them.

So Gunther seems to be having some ‘roid rage. His mom must have had him on a high soy diet which means his testosterone levels are at normal levels for the first time in his life and he doesn’t know how to control it.

" Gunthie , have you been drinking?"

While his tone was a bit abrupt, her constant coddling of him, needs to stop. He did things without her for several months. Learned to be own his own. And having said that, he needs to back off the Mr. Gray thing. She’s learned to be on her own as well.

I knew you’d be happy..Evans is a genius at bringing you joy.Whom can we gripe about tomorrow?

“I let only My aunt call me by my childhood version of my first name. The rest to not.”_____________________________________

So, TELL Us, Gaunt, HOW do You mange to STOP the “Rest” from Doing So??

By the way, it’s clearly time for Gunther to move on and out. The visit was nice, but it needs to have been ONLY a visit.

At some point— more likely a collection of them— a child edges into adulthood. It behooves a parent at that time to treat them as one. Gunther’s Mom hasn’t come to that realization yet

I also have a “childhood nickname” that my parents, siblings, aunts and uncles use, and a few family friends. It’s something that even people at work could use, and I wouldn’t even be “embarrassed” to answer to it, Lol!!! But even if it was a “cute and cuddly” name, my family is one that can “make it work”, too. – Funny thing, too, now my mom calls me by my nickname, and the only time she uses my given name is at “formal” times, or in growing up, “if she meant business”, and “had a bone to pick”, Lol!!!

Three might be right; he’s not exactly The Terminator!

I reconnected with an old flame. When I mentioned how different I must look from the girl he once knew, this sweet man said, " No matter how old we are, when I look at you, I will always see a 16 year old with waist length flowing hair and eyes I was happy to drown in…" Gunther has not yet matured enough (despite growing) to appreciate that someone will always see him with unconditional love. He’ll get there.

Shame on you Gunthie for yelling at your mom. She’ll call you that the rest of your life. Some day you’ll wish she was there to call you that. And put a sock in it Aussieboy. If you did that guaranteed your Da you kick your bum to Brisbane.

“I agree 100%. Ladies remember the way a man treats his mother is the way he is going to treat you.” ^To me, this is at the heart of it, the bottom line.

“all he’s been through”? Big deal – he took a comfortable air flight with girlfriend, nice hotel room, good job, bus ride, did a little volunteer work, spent a week with a bunch of ladies who doted on him, and then took another comfortable air flight home to be greeted with love and affection by family & friends. Sounds like a walk in the park to me. The only hard part was the breakup with his girlfriend, and I don’t think he ever believed she’d go back home after a week or so.What a wuss! I had more cojones than him at that age and I was a girl!

Too bad he couldn’t have been that assertive with Rosa and told her what he really wanted. This is what happens when true feelings are bottled up for a long time and not expressed. They come bursting out with too much emotion.

You go boy!!!!! She might be your mom, but she treats you like an idiot!!!

My mother, father, and sister always used my “little boy” name until the day they died.

People, people, people…-(1) We’ve been through this “I’m not Gunthie anymore” thing before.This is not a new development. From 11 Oct 2013:Note that “Gunthie” is snarling a bit at Mommy for calling him that, even then.-(2) Why do people think this is a “new Gunther”? Look at him in Panel 1 – slouched over, eyebrows furrowed, whining about Rosa – this is the same old Gunther, just in a T-shirt (that he slept in) and still unshaven from his week on the bus. It takes more then switching from milk to coffee to be a “new man”.-(3) Are we supposed to take Gunther’s snapping at his Mom as being any indication that he is now strong, self-confident, virile Gunther? This is just petty, childish, temper-tantrum little-boy Gunther. His attitude towards his mother has nothing to do with being called a boyhood nickname – he’s just mad at Mommy for spending time with that nasty Mr. Gray! Bad, bad Mommy!!!-(4) Why on earth would there be a “new Gunther”? He had a nice (paid!) vacation in Peru, he left his kind-of girlfriend to run home to Mama to keep her from dating, and he spent a week sight-seeing with a whole busload of Mrs. Berger-types. Either he OD’ed from a week or multiple mothering, or he’s left out the part of his story where he takes his final paycheck and spends the next two weeks in Lima biting into hot peppers, guzzling six-packs of beer, and picking up prostitutes, or he hasn’t in fact changed at all.-(5) Maybe we are supposed to overlook all that and just assume that if you put Gunther in a new shirt, keep him from shaving, and start him drinking coffee, then that changes everything else in your life, all the way down to your basic personality. That’s truly bad writing. of course. But unless we are given a far more convincing “back story” than he have been given so far, we shall be stuck with it.

This sounds like the first time Gunther ever told his mom that he doesn’t want to be called Gunthie. She had no way of knowing he didn’t like it, but obviously he’s resented the name for a long time.

No doubt about it. Within a year Rosa will be some mountain dwellers wife a pregnant. Good thing Gunther came back with Luis. Uncle might have accused Gunther of influencing Rosa to say there.

No doubt about it. Within a year Rosa will be some mountain dwellers wife a pregnant. Good thing Gunther came back with Luis. Uncle might have accused Gunther of influencing Rosa to say there.

at first as shown he asked her “not in front of Q” but looks like today is “not at all”

,…………..don’t know if it is a long term thought of Greg, or he forgot but, in one strip Gunther was harsh to Luann or someone else?, and it could be built up that Gunther has a little of a “control issue” and could become a little of a bully, and that behavior is what made Mrs. B not be with the biological father of Gunther and now Gunther is showing a lil of that, and Greg might be planning to have Gunther eventually go to counseling for that, and would be funny if he meets Leslie there, with Dirk being the volunteer speaker on how to leave that behavior behind and be a more productive human being

For those of you who are accusing Gunther of being disrespectful to his mom: yes, he may still be “Gunthie” to her, but to him, it’s a name that’s more befitting of a little boy—and he’s not a little boy anymore. There comes a point when a person wants to be treated like an adult—and a point when a parent needs to realize that his/her dear son or daughter HAS grown up and call him/her by his/her given name. It’s a small gesture, but it’s one of the important steps to becoming an adult.

Considering what he’s been through and the changes in his life, I am certain his mom will start calling him “Gunther” and will begin to treat him as more of an adult than man-child. She’ll NEED him to be more adult anyway, to help him get through the idea of “Mommy Dating” some guy. She’s a good mom- she’ll be proud of him and not angry.

This is the question from the “Luann” Facebook page:

Whoa! Gunther gets bold! ….Maybe too bold?www.luanncomic.com and in Spanish http://bit.ly/1pqnd9k

But why would there be a “new” Gunther? What would have triggered that? The shock of there being a Mr. Gray as a rival for Mommy’s attentions? Gunther’s time in Peru was a big nothing, unless there was a lot more to it than we saw.

“it’s not unusual for a child to overstep while looking for establishing new boundaries…” ^Well, I did make a similar statement, when I was mentioning the “growing pains” one does in finding their own “space and time”, including some “friction” (as I mentioned I had also [as I’m sure we all have] went through) with those around you, at one time or another….

The truth is, Evans believes Gunther needs to stay the way he is because there’s no humor in a fixed Gunther. He has to be nervous around women, he has to be a man-child that lashes out from time to time…he’s not going to be allowed to grow up.

Perhaps that’s been Greg’s vision…. I wonder if Karen might have a different one…

I think I just heard a chest hair pop out!

I remember an episode of “What Would You Do?” where the customer was “getting reamed out” by the coffehouse barista in a sudden, sharp moment (both were actors, of course). The actor who was the customer didn’t do any yelling, or having any sharp words. How many people do you think sided with the barista over the customer that was getting “yelled at”? (according to the real life reactions from those interviewed after the scene was revealled to be a set up, none.). In fact, during the “confrontation”, many customers started to “stand up for” the customer “getting yelled at” from the sudden frustration from the barista, as the premise was that the customer was giving a “complicated order” that the clerk said “couldn’t be filled”….

And next week will we be back to the status quo, except that the “new” Gunther will be a non-plaid bearded Mooney student who drinks coffee? Time to focus on Luann and Quill, or Brad and Toni, or Bernice and the unseen Dez, and forget that Peru ever happened (because basically, nothing did).

“Cloudbuster: “I’m not Gunthie anymore! I’ve seen things. Done things. Things you wouldn’t understand! Things only a man who’s been trapped on a Peruvian bus tour with 20 elderly American women can understand!” ".This was funny and worth repeating

“1: They’ve wasted a firefighters time because of their immaturity and are delaying him from helping people.”.EXTENSION:Never call for help while the fire is still small and the house can be saved, always wait until it’s too late, Don’t worry about the child just because you’re locked up and unable to protect her if she does anything childish and possibly dangerous..A team fully bunkered out is more ready to respond than one in the station standing by.

YAY Gunther! (and I am the mother of two wonderful young men, now in their 30s…)

“They don’t, and how about women? How do they do it then? You do know that is sexist? And I as a male understand that. You can too.”.Yes, very sexist.As a card-carrying feminist, I’m deeply offended by the women who say it, but they don’t care because their pairs are bigger than..

Sometimes a child HAS to stand up to a parent, so that the parent will see that their “baby” is no longer, and standing before them, is a full grown adult.

Yea, Gunther!!!! It’s about time that you grew up, and stopped being such a wimp!

Clever! Apparently, though, he seemed to have “drawn from his holster” this time…

“Okay, woman, make it snappy with those cookies! I’ve got 6 months’ worth of dirty laundry that isn’t going to clean itself, so get busy! And while you’re up, bring me some coffee and Peruvian beer!”

He has asked her politely before..But he will have to honor her new self image too.

a small problem for Greg is his lack of vision of how to use the “Zeppos” as a tool for a joke, but has no such problems with the “harpos” “chicos” and “Grouchos” as a tool of a joke…………… he has written in past blogs that he had difficulties with the “more perfect characters” (Delta, Quill, Rosa, Ben, Zane) in themselves, the only times he was able to “use them” was in an interaction of “them” with the more flawed or comical characters, such as “Luann and Quill” where he is able to have them banter with each other (like George burns and Grace) or Rosa and Gunther and in a way also Knute and Crystal(besides her goth look, she is also pretty much a “comedic straight person” )………. he would have a TREMENDOUS problem if he had started a week of strips focusing on an interaction of Delta with Quill, or Rosa with Quill…………………. at one time he actually was shelving Rosa until he saw the high demand of people wanting her back, and he seriously thought of doing an Aaronizing of Delta(which he has done with Diane, and Ben and Zane, and he pretty has done with Elwwod), and Quill is pretty much the combination of Aaron’s looks with the personality of Ben York ……………….. he could have done the “basic same response” from Gunther without making look like a not respectful brat if he had gone " Mom!, I am not a child! already told you, stop calling me that" WITHOUT bolds(except maybe at MOM! )

The other part is keeping in the loop as to how your adult student is performing at school. At the orientation for the university my son attends, one of the parents inquired as to if they could check on their daughter’s grades. They were told that, since they were adults over 18, the university could not release any grade status to the parents even if they were the ones footing the bill.

That’s different from my university. The grade reports were always sent home, and always addressed “To the Parents of: .” IIRC, whomever was paying for the majority of the tuition bill is the one who got the grade report, regardless of the student’s age. Even when I turned 21, they still addressed it “To the parents of:” I suppose if you were a “graduate” student, you might be getting the grade report yourself, but….

about Rosa being brought back, part of the reason was people wanting her back, but another factor was that Greg decided to bring Quill for the first time, and thus he decided to have someone for Gunther, and instead of creating a new girl, he decided to bring back Rosa, and the main reason Q was sent back to the down under land was because Greg honestly thought the interactions of Lue and Quill were not funny enough(but at least in my opinion and that of other posters, their interactions are one the most fun aspects of the strip in the last 5.5 years or so as his debut was June 2009)

if people voted about which is their favorite current couple of Luann, I will say Brad and Toni would win with Lue and Quill being second ONLY because lot of people are hung on making Luann end up with Gunther, 3rd being Knute and Crystal with Rosa and G being close by(until now anyway as they just broke up), with lot of people being nostalgic about Zane and Bern, not many people remembering fondly Luann with Aaron or Brad with Diane

http://oi62.tinypic.com/2nrfxk.jpg

Since Gunther returned for NYE, Quill has been acting like a bit of a jerk. Maybe that’s the first step in shipping him off – make him unlikable, so people won’t be sorry to see him go. Then with both Rosa and Quill out of the picture, Greg can write the great Luann / Gunther romance he’s always wanted. Then retirement!

Ma Berger told him once not to “take a tone” with her. It will be interesting to see if we get to see her response.

However, bringing Dirk back with Mrs. Dirk and Dirk Jr. would continue to spur Toni into action, since she seems to have developed cold feet with this whole “long engagements” thing. It would also help “mature” the cast (now that it’s finally been allowed to age) by bringing in a young married couple with a kid. There’s a lot that could be done with those characters in the Luann-verse, if Greg Evans wanted to do so.

lets kill guntehr

I think all this talk about anger management and Dirk like character is overkill. Greg simply wants to convey (in a single panel) that Gunther perceives himself differently as a result of time and experiences abroad, and that such change will be retained going forward.

If there’s any change in Gunther, then it must have taken place on the flight home, because when Sofia hugged him good-bye, he showed no signs at all of being any different from the old Gunther we knew and loved tolerated.

That’s the sound of an apron tie breaking……

confirm info http://www.gocomics.com/luann/2010/12/31 his folks were at Pittsville during the time of their new year’s kiss, before he returned for a while to Australia

http://www.gocomics.com/luann/2011/10/11 dad died when G was 2…..? interesting

The continuity was changed in “Crisis on Infinite Pitts”.

Gunther hollering at his mother, especially with such a nasty facial expression means he has grown up?!?! That is utter male cow excrement… with that response, Gunther has regressed back into the responses of a toddler. I feel see sad and disjointed…ever since the bus ride, this story has been going down the drain.

Hey, now, we’re supposed to say SPOILER ALERT…

“Brought to you” by…. Stone’s Tablets… “Take two and call a repair shop in the morning..”

I tried this but got back a message saying there was no match…

For those who would like to see an artist not only responding directly to comments posted on this site, but even changing the comic because of the comments, visit the January 24 ‘Dark Side of the Horse’…

Thanks, anyway, but when I clicked on the link, it took me to a trailer for ‘Eraserhead’. And when I typed in the address you’d given, I got a message saying that video wasn’t available.-Maybe something is up with Google Chrome…

Well, it’s in the 30s here in Central Florida and I’m freezing (all I have is a reverse heat pump and it doesn’t really help, since the air conditioner vents are in the ceiling.)-So I think it’s time to give up for now, switch on the electric blanket, and read the latest mystery. Night, all….

I think Gunther would make an excellent Trailer Park Boy, all he needs to do now is take up smoking and drinking!

I think Gunther will become a control freak. As you can see he’s already yelling commands at his mom. Just wait until he tells Mr. Gray to leave his mom alone!

SHE gets to grow, too — ifhe wants independence, he as NOTHING to say so far as his mother’s social life is concerned — It works BOTH ways!

MAKE IT MAKE SENSE!! You don’t want to be called “Gunthie” but you ran allllllll the way from PERU because you’re mommy has a boyfriend?