Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for February 09, 2018

SHE SAID YES!

‘Tis the beginning of the boys’ nightmare.

And I was totally wrong… convinced, as I was, that Mrs. Berger had meant (and agreed) to marry Mr. Gray all along and was using reverse psychology on Gunther. Oh Well…!

If Bill Belichick and Grumpy Cat had a child…

Hmm. So’s we’re to assume that Irma said yes?

♪♪ “Ma said Yes! Gunth Said No!” ♪♪

♪♪ “Tiff said STOP! And Les said Go, Go, Goooooo!” ♪♪

♪♪ “Oh Noooooo!” ♪♪

♪♪ “Al Said Goodbye! And Les gotta GO!” ♪♪

♪♪ “He’s GOT to Go! I dunno WHY He’s Still around, He’s Got to Goooo!” ♪♪ – The Beatles

OOooMyGawwww!

So Gunther talked his mother into it. Now, if only he could talk himself into getting a part time job to pay for a dorm room…

“That’s great.” “Goodbye.”

Really?

He must be overjoyed because his facial expression changed! Any minute now, he may even loosen his tie!

Aw, he’s happy. This is kind of cute :)

His barely-there smile reminds me of Lurch from the original Adams Family when he had to force himself to smile.

Is that an earth shattering smile, or what?

The slight Mona Lisa smile says it all.

Oh see that GLOW! Yellow background and the face! Congrats, Mr. Gray

I believe the boys’ house will have two separate entrances. One on each SIDE of the house. Each side will be a one bedroom apartment layout.

Mrs. Berger & Mr Gray may be OK together. FORTUNATELY, Gunther & Les are at least 19 – they shouldn’t have to stick around for long. Gunther needs to think about plans for the near term – before Mr. Gray starts putting up the guest house. Gunthie doesn’t have to live there to please Mommy.

Mr Gray just got a little less gray.

Everyone deserves love.

The last panel reminds me of that gag in the movie “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs”, where the dad says, “Look into my eyes” and raises his eyebrows, and he has beady eyes and his son can’t look into them…..

Too obscure of a reference?

The most interesting man in the world… NOT!

But today there is no day or nightToday there is no dark or lightToday there is no black or whiteOnly shades of GRAY…..

HA!! CALLED IT!!

Yikes!!!! Being Single isn’t so bad in certain cases. Getting locked down too early is.

He’s hysterical!

Nice to see an expression (of sorts) light up Mr. Gray’s face. I think he and Irma will make a great couple. Now Gunthie and Les, that’s a completely different story!

Well fantastic!! Will it correspond to Valentine’s day as at least one fellow commenter has been saying? Now what happens with Les and Gunther? I propose Rosa for Gunther, and maybe (?) Tiffany for Les. Or possibly Tara.

Acceptance of a marriage proposal over the phone? It all just seems a tad cold-blooded for people who intend to love and support one another ’til death do them part.

Control yourself, Don Al…

He’s so happy! His eyes opened! Awwwww. Congrats!

Well, judging from how long it took Brad/Toni to get married, we’re still quite a way’s away from it happening. Lots of things can happen in between. I still think the “separate” house for Gunther/Les isn’t going to happen with both of them living in it… maybe one of them. If I had to guess, I’d say Les, because I hope Gunther bails and cuts a deal with Tiff to live “off campus” or something like that. We’ll see.

And, yes, the look on Al’s face in the 3rd panel is priceless! But I still want to see what’s going to happen with him. I still don’t trust him for some reason.

an actual facial expression.and so old school to accept by phone instead of texting. ;-)

is that a happy smile or things are going as planed smile?

He smiled and opened his eyes? And his face didn’t crack?

I think some people have a hard time with characters growing in this strip. There were people convinced that Toni was going to dump Brad. Or that TJ is some kind of secret crook. Or that the De Groots will divorce, despite literal decades of being together with no sign of trouble. Some of y’all (yes, I’m using Southern colloquialism here) project your own idiosyncrasies and insecurities into these characters.

Who says Greg can’t draw emotion

This is Historical. Mr Gray has a comic panel all to himself today. One wouldn’t know this is Luannaverse.

HEY AL! Calm the &*&#&&E#^^W^^@^^&#&&E#^^W^^^^*^*8*#%#%#%$$$##% DOWN.

Okay. Now that We’ve witnessed the awesome spectacle of Mr. Gray being beside Himself with “Joy,” hopefully tomorrow We’ll return to either:

Ma Berger Saying: "Gunthie, I know You’re NOT comfortable around Leslie. So If You don’t want to live with Him in the Guest House, then You Don’t have to. And My “Snuggle-Bunny” Al and I will even put You up in a “Les-Less” Apartment, if You’d Like! Wouldn’t THAT be Wonderful?"

OR

Gunther Slapping His forehead and wishing to Hell that He’d kept his BIG-MOUTH-SHUT, when His Ma Told Him she said “No” to Al, followed by Him going on-line to Amazon.com and purchasing a Million Volt Cattle Prod for “Leslie” for those times when He invariably “Gets out of Line”……….,

Someone so practiced in the expression of ‘pokerface’ and traditionally exuding a sober countenance, excuses himself for this moment to relax with a subtle…but joyful….smile. It’s even wider, on the inside, I’m sure.

Will he go to Jared?

“You Can’t Always Get What You ‘Need’,  But Sometimes You Can Find Satisfaction” (♩)

“Sunshine, On My Pot Holders” (♬)

“When I Wake Up In The Morning,  Love…..” (♪)

“I Can See Clearly, Now” (♬)

“One Confirmation, Under A Groove.”  (♬)

“I’m Gonna Walk Down To Electric Avenue….And Get Myserlf A Recharge!” (♪)

“Since When, Did They Start Paving The Street With Clouds?”

“The Last Golden Ticket, And The First Pair Of Al Jordans”

“Take It In…Then Let It Out”

“Around The World, In 80 Seconds”

“Eight Smile Road”

“Fired Up!….Like A Boss…..Who Got Fired Up…..”

“The Shining Gleam Coming Out Of Fort Knox”

or

“It’s Turning Out To Be A Gray Day”

Now there is a happy man!

“Sokath, his eyes uncovered!”

Hmm, that was happy? OK, I guess for Mr Gray. Let’s see how long this lasts after the downfall of Ann Eiffel (coming soon!).

And his smile grew .03 times that day!

And his smile grew .03 times that day!

The mood in the room, changed from ‘purple’ to ‘golden yellow’!

One word immediately jumped into my head: zombie. That last panel was terrifying.

Passion, obviously, is not Mister Grey’s strong suite. But I’m happy for them.

I’m genuinely boggled by the number of people who think it would be a great idea for Gunther to move in with Tiffany, as if this will somehow instigate a torrid romance. I’ve been in or around any number of households that included male and female roommates. Unless there were longterm partners who moved in together the results were almost always platonic dynamics. Add to that the number of people who moved in much too early with significant others and discovered how irritating they were as roommates and in close quarters. Gunther and Tiffany are, to our knowledge, not even dating. Tiffany is recovering from a severe depression. If they moved in together I think what would most likely happen would be at best friendzoning Gunther and quite possibly stirring up the potentially irritating aspects of both of them as roommates. (I suspect that Gunther is an obsessive neatnik and Tiffany is at best not used to taking roommates into consideration in how she deals with her living space.)I realize that the concept of the high school nerd “winning” the high school cheerleader/mean girl is a tantalizing fantasy for some male readers here but trust me – you do not want these two becoming roommates at this point.

And in panel 4, Mr Gray’s face shatters from the unprecedented expression….

Also too: Don’t do it, Gunther’s Mom! You’re still a young woman—you have so much left to live for!

I wonder if his mom told him “If you make that face it might stick that way!”

I think Les is going to come around and be a good person and end up a great long-term character. He’s had it rough and mostly is the way he is due to emotional neglect and a bad upbringing. He just needs to build trust. He acts the way he does as a defense and insecurity.

Has nobody considered the fact that if this marriage takes place, Ann Eiffel will become Ma Berger’s sister-in-law? Could Al and Ann be working together on one of her schemes, rather than being opposed to each other? Are the lingerie parties just a red herring? Mr. Gray’s demeanor in today’s strip is screaming “ulterior motives.”

YESSSSSS!!!

I don’t think she was saying yes to his marriage proposal

That was an eye-opening experience. Too bad his eyes are beady.

Irma and Al were meant for each other

see the slight curve? He’s never smiled so much before!

Greg & Karen might actually have in mind for Gunther & Les to live together for a while. Gunther could learn to grow a thicker skin – and Les could use a stabilizing influence. Words for Gunther: “You can’t always get what you want…but you might just get what you need.”

9

Hah! I really enjoyed this series of panels today!

1) My take is the more obvious choice…. Irma called him and now said she would marry him.

2) I found the rather subtle change in Al’s expression to clearly be an indication of glee… and the subtle-nature of the change is why it was (to me) so very fun and funny.

3) He must be seeing the world in a whole new way (physiologically AND metaphorically).

4) I personally think it is highly UNLIKELY, but there is a small potential that Greg is leading us on a red herring. We assume Irma reversed her decision…. but technically this could be about something else. I doubt Greg would do that, though.

5) I really like how the colorist (Sheriff? Is he still here? Under a different name?) used the different, golden background color in the last panel. It helped to suggest the “glow of happiness” Al is feeling.

One small additional comment….. while I am very happy with the outcome today…. and it was wonderfully funny how “tremendously animated” Al became in the last panel…… if this were the real world….. I am not sure if I would be particularly happy that a person who initially rejected me now changed her mind. I think I would be feeling hurt about the initial rejection and would not be sure how to respond to the reversal.

But, again, this is not the real world… it is a comic… and a wonderfully fun and funny one today!

Here’s middle aged Al playfully pondering if there is an expiration date on that Viagra stashed in his night stand.

I guess this confirms that under certain circumstances Mr. Gray has pupils. However, calling someone on the phone to tell them that you accept a marriage proposal is low class. That needs to be done face-to-face in person.

This is Al Gray expressing emotion, e.g. happiness, albeit a delayed reaction; circular dots for eyes instead of thin lines and a mouth curved upward ever so slightly. I hope that going forward this will be the new and transformed Al Gray. I can see that marriage to Irma was what he really wanted.

I think some are making way too much of Irma’s initial rejection of Al’s proposal. I don’t think she said “no, I don’t want to marry you!”, but more of “no, I can’t marry you now, because I don’t think the time is right for me”. I believe it wasn’t a hard rejection, but a conditional one, and now the conditions have changed. It’s also soon enough after he raised the matter that she should be able to change her mind upon reconsideration ( and more input from her son) , without prejudice.

As with many things in life, her intent ( and his) are important in judging this.

Has anyone else had trouble posting today? I wasn’t able to for several hours…

Okay, something about those tiny little eyes is deeply unsettling. I regret ever wanting him to open them.

Again, I LIKE Al Gray just fine, but has he proclaimed true LOVE for Irma?! I’m glad that HE’S happy, but will SHE be happy?!! Is a simple “I love you!” (even in Al-Speak language), THAT HARD for him to do??!

I do hope that Irma is not doing this out of some sense of obligation or similar (not that there would be any). It’s just that my experience has told me that couples who get together as an ‘arrangement’, an arrangement which may or may not be kept – tend to not go too well…

i guess you’d call that a wake-up call….

BTW, congrats, Mr. Gray!

I still had a nagging doubt that he was some kind of operator. The smile tells all. He is the real deal.

I still had a nagging doubt that he was some kind of operator. The smile tells all. He is the real deal.

I’m wondering how the Evans’ are going to draw all of the story lines together.

Should be very interesting.

…and they lived happily ever after.

How does he talk without moving his lips?