Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for May 06, 2016

Interesting to finally see a range of emotions from Al Gray. All he ever did before was enigmatically smile.

Les’s anger issues must stem from parental issues (not just uncle issues).

Jeez what a grouch. Let’s find out why he is like that.Is his mother Mr Gray’s sister?

Kids often make older relatives grouchy when they see the creative ways that the kids find to screw up their lives.

What’s the “why”. Is it an everyday one, or something less typical but large?

Les looks goofy with that stupid “angry face.” He looks more &^%$faced that angry.

Quite an interesting character this Leslie, as is his uncle. I wonder how man trolls will say boring, move along, nothing to see here? They would be wrong of course, as per usual.

I think the reason Mr. Gray said he that Leslie’s mom said he needed the job. It’s because maybe she has financial problems. That is why he’s telling him to get his butt back in there and go to work and get along!

Careful, Les. Mr. Gray might kill you in the library with the candlestick.

I think it would be nice if Ox took Leslie aside and tell him. That what happened in the past , should stay there. It’s a new day and a new situation.

And just what is the ‘a lot’ Mr. Gray sacrificed to get Les hired?

Fear leads to Anger, Anger leads to Hatred, Hatred leads to unemployment.

being employed could be a condition of parole/probation. The “lot” Mr. Gray sacrificed could be favors he was owed by the people who he got to do the restoration work at great speeds and low prices. (he might even owe them favors now)

I predict happy ending. The loser eventually grows up.

I wonder if Les now owes child support?

Okay, so we’re playing all the second string characters this week. That’s fine, bring in Viper, Sun. and Dez, too.

oh wow….I went through this very same conversation with my son just a few years ago….he woke up…

Mr Gray probably had to call in a lot of favors to get that place built just to get Les a job. Les probably has legal problems, work or go to jail.

Not time yet for a new arc. LOL

@DaJellyBelly: Ox won’t need to take him aside and tell him anything. Ox is wise enough to simply show him, day to day, that it’s a new situation.

I’m hoping to see Ox turn out to be the pivotal character in this arc.

I liked Mr. Grey better when he didn’t say much. He is an awful roll model. Telling an angry kid to drop the anger is as useless as telling a depressed person to just cheer up.

He sacrificed a lot to get him that job? How? All he had to do was ask the owners and they gave Les the job, no trouble at all.

“we all know why you need this job” sounds suspiciously like a condition of parole / probation and Leslie needs gainful employment to stay out of the joint.

No we don’t all know and this has become more interesting. Old school suck-it-up-buttercup will do more for Leslie than coddling. The very good thing is that Leslie has nice people in his work environment. The job is his to blow.

Mr. Gray is a no-nonsense type of guy. He could have been a Couch!

Helping some who WANTS to be helped is easy compared to helping someone who doesn’t want help – or just doesn’t care.

Regarding panel 2: no, we don’t “all know,” Al! But I hope we will learn. Whether or not Leslie is salvageable remains to be seen.But, on the hopeful side, we have Uncle Al Gray and Oxford working towards Leslie’s reformation!

The level of anger shown on Les’s face is a warning that whoever crosses him may have serious safety problems in future. It’s a shame that this character has returned. He is not a standard ‘bad guy’, rather, he seems a genuine criminal.

What “sacrifice” did Mr Grey make? What was he planning to ask DeGroots for instead – Luann’s head on a platter?

A bomb waiting to explode!

Stay tuned for our next exciting episode “Leslie’s mess” or “Duck Gunther”.

Some interesting background things could be worth pondering – or not. But yesterday, it’s finally revealed Mr. Grey’s first name is actually used. Al is conscientiously suppressing his true personality since Les sarcastically asked, “Like you?” And because Les’ mother asked Mr. Grey to get the K2 job for him. These subtle elements could be pieces from which we could learn about Mr. Grey’s career and leading to his relationship with Gunther’s Mom.

He wants to be called “Les”, they all should give him that much.

Has this entire story arc of Mr. Gray helping with the warehouse been a set-up to get Les this job? Wow! And ‘why’ does Les need the job? Is he obligated for restitution, child support, other?

Finding and keeping a job is a condition of probation…

I have my doubts that this will end well. I hope I’m wrong, but….

BTW, Is @IamJayBlue on vacation this week???

Haven’t seen him all week.

“BOY?!!?” Good thing this didn’t take place back in the late 60’s through early 80’s when calling certain folks “BOY” Usually Resulted in a Host of Obscenities Followed by Rather Spirited Fisticuffs.

4Not really sure what the major sacrifice was for Mr. Gray. All the work and effort he put into The Fuse cannot be all for getting Les a barasita sort of job that doesn’t seem a whole helluva lot different than what Les could get at Subway or Starbucks, or most any fast food establishment. As others suggest, if the whole presence of Mr. Gray (and Ms. Berger’s dating of him) was for this, it seems over the top.So, I must conclude that there is some other sort of sacrifice that we not yet learned about or figured out. Some hypotheses could be:1) Maybe Mr. Gray gave up his whole “big city” “casino-esque” career to come help his sister… and Ms. Berger and The Fuse work are just new collateral aspects of his new life and the sacrifice was to leave a place he loved?2) Maybe Mr. Gray is referring to a more comprehensive sacrifice if he has been supporting/supplying his sister with support for years or decades?3) Maybe Mr. Gray is using “sacrifice” in a more global sense to simply try to get Leslie to understand how any sort of accomplishment (big or small) involves making choices… and those choices almost inevitably involve sacrificing one outcome for another?

Les must be on probation and needs to show employment as part of the terms of his probation or parole….

Payback time at the Fuse. After this, Mr. Gray will be deeply indebted to the DeGroot family!

“We all know why you need this job”? – Sounds like a requirement for staying out of jail.

Here’s my guess. We will find out all about Les’s past in this arc. Les’s father abandoned his family early in Les’s life. Something happened to Mom that she has passed, and Uncle Al has been raising Les for some time now. And promised his sister to take care of Les. Les is of course all screwed up and that is why he is the way he is. Since Mr. Gray seems to have money I’m guessing it is Old family money not just his own making. Bet there is some kind of inheritance clause that revolves around Les being a productive adult. Who knows, but it’s my guess for now.

Mr Gray’s ‘sacrifice’ could also be in terms of his hiring principles. He would not normally hire someone like his nephew but is doing so because Les needs this job. Les is obviously still carrying that chip on his shoulder, as well as his anger, by the way he addresses his uncle as he walks away.

Wow, that reason to get Les a job there had better be a good one.

Well, I guess that a place named The Fuse, which houses a place named Kafe Kablooie, would naturally welcome a ticking time bomb.

Luann’s new boyfriend. Just wait.

While i strongly want Al Gray to remain a good guy, i still really, really hope that one way or another there is going to be a secret passage and a hidden room associated w the old warehouse. If his family had a connection to the place in the distant past that coukd help lead to discovery.

Meanwhile, the reason for the why might still turn out to be one with which we all can identify.

In school we had a girl who was often a bully to people who wound up becoming a friend for the sole reason that i was straight with her about something and she appreciated that i held my ground but acted like we both deserved respect when she confronted me about something (and honestly, she had very good reason to be angry, but i was not the one responsible; someone had written a truly horrid thing in a slam book then put in false initials which coukd have been mine or two other girls’). My friend had to quit high school early to help her family make ends meet and literally keep the farm. Life was always tough. I was glad when i read maybe ten years ago that they wound up land rich, and that by selling part of it they wound up w extremely substantial savings, and i remain glad for her. Most of my classmates woukd still think of her as the bully, but a few of us — very few — learned that she was always frustrated, tired, and afraid but even more afraid of showing the last, from carrying more than any child should have to.

So, Les may simply need to learn to work, or may have a legal requirement to work, or his family may need him to bring in income, or maybe, just maybe, the warehouse might have its own secret.

“And we all know why you need this job.” Condition of Parole?

Aleric 67,You wrote:someone or something else to blame. Maybe Les is a just a jerk. To quote the thespian: “Some people just want to watch the world burn.”

- -Which is true, but i found it exceedingly humorous in relation to your screen name, because of “Aleric” reminding me of Adric in Dr. Who and this week’s announcement from the Gulf:

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/05/06/476871766/geologists-find-clues-in-crater-left-by-dinosaur-killing-asteroid?sc=nd

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adric

Hey, has anyone else noticed that in the last few days the commandLess than symbolpGreater than symbolall as one word only SOMETIMES gets a space in Go Comics but sometimes fails?

This is going to end with pain.

I hope Les will reflect on why he doesn’t like being pushed around, and that others don’t like it when he does it. I also hope the backstory will be developed and not just swept under the rug now that we know there is one. Les and Gray have the potential to be more interesting characters than many of the others.

And who is the mysterious mother???

Well now we see why Mr. Grey did all that work. It was to so that there would be a place that would actually hire Les.

Oh, this will go well

Looks like Mr. Gray is there to help everyone. I’m intrigued.

For an uncle, he’s not too bad at being a dad.

I think it more likely that, rather than finding redemption, Les will be caught doing something untoward that will mightily embarrass his Uncle, leading him to apologize to the DeGroots.

What sacrifices did Mr. Gray make to get Les hired? He asked the Degroots and they said yes. Les probably needs to be employed as part of his parole deal or community service. A man like him surely has a police record.

This was one of the better “comic” strips (and one of my personal favorites) when it was about Luanne. Bring back Quill and Luanne. PLEASE!

“boy”, “leslie”*Mr. Gray is showing who is boss. Intentiionally offending someone, however, is not a therapeutic tactic I would use.

Ox Knox Lox in a BoxOUCH!

Mr Gray did not help with all the renovations in exchange for Les getting hired. Les getting hired was never mentioned until the Fuse was finished. The Degroots could have said No to hiring Les. People can always say No when someone requests a favor. That is what Mr. Gray did, request a favor.

Puzz wrote:

I think IJBE has a father with health issues, and he may be busy seeing to his needs.<\p>That is a situation many of us know too well. I hope it works out as well as possible.BTW, reply function is down again

Am I the only one who thinks this is a boring storyline?

Mr. Gray must know that Les would be better in a construction type job instead of working with people. Why didn’t he just get him a job with any of the many construction people he knows? This plot seems to have many holes in it.Les does not have any people skills at all.

Okay, i tried two alternative ways to paragraph since <p>As one word is on and off failing. Puzz’s use of L instead of p worked, but i think i misunderstood the other suggested aProach.

“Would they serve Ox Knox Lox in a box?”*Only for away games of the Sox.

I wonder if this will be a story about redemption and rehabilitation or a story where Leslie plays the role of the villain to the end. It’s interesting because it has the potential to go both ways. Personally I’d like to see him change for the better. Dirk did, but he did so away from the focus of the strip. I’d like to see Leslie become a better person shown to us.On the other hand, Ann Eiffel didn’t become a better person (yet?), and every story needs a villain or two.

-I think those who suggested Ann Eiffel were being facetious (spelling?) She is not old enough, I don’t think, to be the mother of a kid as old as Les (Leslie)

Try putting the forward slash after the P.

Like I just did.

As I remember, Mr. Gray was involved with the lady before the DeGroots decided to open a club.

There was a reason why Mr. Al Gray said, “We will talk in February”, which at the time was a few months away. I think Les was in jail and now he needs the dough to pay his restitution for some damage he did that got him behind bars.

“Why you need this job” is probably probation. I bet Les has already been in trouble with the law.

Groaner apology for an obscure word and very bad joke.We all know that Les’s uncle was once called a gnome and that Les aspires to be cool. Okay: Q: Why is it strange that Les was late?A: Because a gnomon would always know the time.I am soooooo glad i am far away from any spitballs. Les does cast a shadow, though.

I think Les stole money, and Mr. Gray covered it or made payback arrangements to keep him out of jail (and breaking his mother’s heart). He has made it clear that Les WILL pay it back, or be turned in.

I was thinking yesterday that Les might try to steal from one of the Fuse’s cash registers and that someone (maybe Ox) would see him doing that. Hopefully Les will not have any job that puts him near $.

Community Service

I would trade all these clunky characters for Tiffany’s female, look-alice cousin, or the return of the very well drawn very hot Rosa. These new folks are such cardboard bottom feeders, drawn rather poorly, and totally without feeling. In high school they had a common denominator, and could play off of each other. Now there is no unity. They left the building and Mr. Evans turned off the lights. The only fire left comes from the commenters. I actually like the strip and just feel that I should send it a get well card.

I like Mr. Gray!

Would they serve Ox Knox Lox in a box? ;o)-Yes they would Dr Suess, delivered by a fox!

Hey, that sounds like my line from yesterday!

Telling someone like Les to dump the anger and change his attitude is going to have ZERO positive effect. It will only make Les more resentful and he will look for ways to get revenge. It will make Les behave worse, not better.

All in fun. :)

Night-Gaunt49 said @AUNTBEEEVAm I the only one who thinks this is a boring story line?-How old are you? Probably younger than 30 so your attention span is short. Mayfly short. You have been conditioned that way. Or you aren’t one for build up.======Let’s not have insults..It seems odd to me as well. Not quite boring yet. Could become so. ,But a bit out of keeping with the way this srip normally has progressed. .So we will see.

@seanachie

This was one of the better “comic” strips (and one of my personal favorites) when it was about Luanne.

It was never about “Luanne,” because there is no one in this strip named “Luanne”. There is, however, a young girl named “LUANN”!

I love when people just have to post how dissatisfied they are with the strip, claiming to have read it for years, then can’t even spell the main character’s name correctly..This is indicative of one of two things: One, said complainer has managed to read the strip every day for quite a while and never notice the spelling in the page header, the website address, and at various times in the strip dialogue. Or two: Said person is just a troll..Any guess, JPW, which one this guy was?

btw, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but your girlfriend may be “two timing” you!

Luanne, Luanne, Luanne. Keep repeating until you don’t care anymore.

Then there is this robot:http://tingilinde.typepad.com/starstuff/2016/05/er.html

Spoiler, we learn two things Les likes

See, I get his anger. He keeps telling people to call him Les. And what do most of them call him? Leslie. I’d be perpetually pissed off, too. Your name is pretty much all you have that you can truly call your own. If folks don’t show the basic respect Les is asking for, what do they expect?

Hmm, Uncle Hitch has you by the nuts, boy!he will out-bully you anytime, he’s quiet, and that’s where he’s dangerous. and wait till you meet his girlfriend and her son.what a twist!