Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for May 20, 2020

Nice use of black in Panel #2. ✨

the only rodent I ever owned (though it was only for a year or so) was a guinea pig; we had two cats at the same time… that was back in second and/or third grade (fourth/fifth grade for older brother)

BRATS SUCK!

BRATS SUCK!

I worked in a pet store. I absolutely hated the hamsters. The rats were much easier to work with.

Shannon doesn’t “do” quiet. Agin her religion.

Wonder if GnK did research on hamsters? They are noisy and bitey. I get the feeling GnK do not do much research given some errors noted in past strips or arcs.

Apparently Toni’s dog worshiped hamsters too and could bark in English. Either that or Toni is comparing Shannon to a loud, hyper dog (which is kind of mean). I prefer the hamster-worshiping dog.

Too bad we get such a brief mention of Toni’s childhood…

Oh my. Did Toni Compare Shannon’s loudness to a childhood dog’s Bark that was loud and disturbing?I guess Toni is not dog friendly person m.j

Yesterday was funnier. But we got this arc at least the rest of the week.

Interesting. Toni wanted a Hamster but got a dog. Young Les wanted a snake and Young Gunther wanted a rabbit. Neither them got anything. Which is kind of a surprise in Gunther’s case because I would have thought Irma wouldn’t have denied her “Gunthie” a pet, IF she could afford it.

I hope Brad doesn’t come home one evening and “gift” Toni with a Loud Hyper dog. He’s in for some nasty surprise. :)

Toni has a Shannon.

Has anyone ever told that kid to just…shut up? maybe someone should

Yesterday was good. Today, just okay.

Let’s hope G&K don’t regress Shannon too much.

The hamster I got from my neighbor was very calm but the ones I got from a pet store were hyper little pains who didn’t like to be touched, they lived about 1/2 as long as my first one.I have had dogs that bark at anything that moves and dogs that wouldn’t bark at anything including other dogs.

A dog is a dog. A hamster is a toy. I don’t dislike them, but if given a choice, I’d take spinach.

Quiet down there, child. You’re scaring Nana.

Hamsters are nocturnal and anything but quiet. They stay up all night running in their wheel which is necessary for exercise. And they are masters of escape, always chewing and fiddling with the door until they can break out. Can’t believe the teacher sent the hamster in a small cage without a wheel or water bottle. I reckon Greg never allowed Karen to have a hamster when she was growing up.

You just KNOW that hamster is going to get LOOSE.

You would not believe this- I wish I could have taken a picture- while I was waiting in the bank lineup, I saw kid who was a real live look-alike for Shannon- right down to the helmet hair.

Man, that travel house is not much bigger than a hamster coffin. I should know, I have had to bury a few of them in the past.

What a sweet child.

I do like Toni’s facial expression in the last panel. Shannon evokes fond memories of her childhood.

Shannon is a lot more tolerable if she’s only 3. At that age, her behavior problems are just a reflection of the adults around her.

With the exception of panel #3, does anyone think that Shannon is starting to mature a little? Being responsible for a living thing? Not playing “make believe” with weird stuff? Talking in a normal “kid like” voice (most of the time)? Good on G & K for letting her grow and mature…

Come on when is the hamster going to escape?

More like hamster trauma. All of ours were escape artists or were trying to take each other out in a daily battle. They didn’t last long so then we went to rabbits but they had some kind of odor and give us an allergic reaction, so we canned that idea. Eventually we then went back to dogs. Man’s and Woman’s and kid’s best friend.

I think we need new direction and time to move/kill off Shannon and Bern

A loud, hyper dog named Shannon!

Obviously you have never had children take care of a class pet. To the child its an enormous responsibility. To the parent its nerve racking cause you dont want anything to happen to the pet. Been there done that.

This is one of the very rare times when Toni talk about her past. Maybe this hamster will make her reflect on childhood, her life and the concept of having a family?

I love the hamster’s expression in panel three…

What’s with the GnK pet themes lately. Puddles has been around for a long time. Then came Max, then Moe and Punk, now Nana. Greg have any grandkids?

I know this is off-topic and has been discussed previously- I love Toni’s eyebrows. How they float in her hair. They serve a purpose and aren’t even noticed until someone mentions them. It’s too funny…

Ok, the hamster hasn’t escaped when it had a chance, looking like a later in the week prison break which would mean another week which isn’t a bad thing. Shannon is interesting. I’d like to see an arc with her and her dad to see if there’s differences in her behavior, if she’s a driving person, or possibly ADD/ADHD. As for a little load in the last panel, she’s excited and expressing it how she knows how to. Toni’s interesting too, her reflection says a little about her past and that’s something I wouldn’t mind GnK using (a character reflecting on their past) and expanding on (in this case Toni’s past. We know very little and she’s always seemed a little distant to me, I like her but…. maybe it’s the way she’s drawing).

I think Nana is getting scared.

If that’s the ‘travel house’ where is his larger one? Surely the teacher wouldn’t send her out for an extended stay in what Brdd deemed a hamster coffin. Hopefully before Jonah took off he left the rest of the stuff on the front porch.

Haha! Toni called Shannon a loud hyper dog!

Just wait until the sun goes down, Toni. Nana will run in the exercise wheel all night. Hamsters are nocturnal.

Still waiting for the backstory, and I am tired all the way up to the gluteus maximus about the “brat” designation for Shannon. She is an energetic child, in a challenging environment, who has a strong will, but is, surprise, a child. Adults should nurture, and guide not dismiss as an inconvenient brat.

looks like Shannon will do a careful job of looking after Nana. It is interesting that she was chosen among other classmates to be responsible for Nana. and, i am glad this tiny cage is her ‘travel-cage’. Hopefully Nana as other digs. i don’t predict anything bad happening to Nana. She has a name; anyone with a name joins the plot character list, and no character in this strip has met their death. i think this episode, with Nana’s help, is about Shannon’s growth as a person.

Prediction: Either hamster escapes or dies—those are the usual outcomes in stories like these.

Dogs and cats live longer.

Use “inside voice”, please! Please!

Panel #2 – Toni “breaks the fourth wall” and says ‘Instead, we had a loud , hyper dog…’. , revealing an episode prior to the accident?Flashbacks before the accident?

Whilte my kids were growing, I spent about $20 on gerbils and hamsters, and about $200 on their accessories. The “habitat”, the really cool plastic rooms/tubes/tunnels, lasted about 10 days before they chewed a hole right through it and got out. Then I had to spend another $30 for a non-killing mousetrap, and bait it with peanut butter; that worked great, caught them both within a day. In my experience the cage that worked best was a glass terrarium with a metal mesh lid, but it had to be carefully locked on because they would climb on top of the water bottle and chew on the roof, still trying to get loose. Hamsters were much worse than gerbils because they are nocturnal, wouldn’t play during the day while kids were up but would make noise in the wheel all night.

Why does Toni have such oversized lips, I’ve often wondered?

Wow, so comparing Luann past versus present, you really get a sense of how the stakes of these storyarcs have dwindled away to nothing. Luann Againn is currently running a story where Bernice got knocked unconscious to the point of not breathing, requiring Luann to jump in and administer CPR so Bern doesn’t die before the paramedics arrive. Even a cynic like me finds it compelling despite the fact that we know for a fact that Bernice will be okay (well, as okay as she ever is.)

And by contrast, in this strip we have… the characters looking at a hamster. I guess Karen was reviewing the earlier “interacting with a kitten” story and thought things needed to dialed down even more. What’s next: two weeks devoted to Luann deciding if she wants English muffins or bagels for breakfast? Maybe Bernice can take one for the team and get hit in the head again.

As speculated yesterday, I am starting to think that really is Ann Eiffel’s kid.

Never took care of a hamster, or a guinea pig. In my life I have cared for mice, a rat named Cyrano(his tail was shorter than normal.), a dog, a ferret, a scorpion, a chameleon, a basilisk lizard, many toads and frogs, a bat, turtles, an Opossum, some raccoons, and a lot of feral cats.

I hate Shannon arcs. What a brat!

Had many hamsters over my growing years. Loved them all.

Hamsters are nice little pets, but they aren’t exactly quiet at 1:00 am!!

Still want the kid? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3G5IXn0K7A

Makes me want to see Les and the gray kitty again. I thought that was really a neat story and the kitty was darling. Kept waiting for that moment when Les admitted he loved him.

8

As a huge rodent “fan” (I am a biologist), I really like this story so far. When I had hamsters, gerbils, rats and mice as a kid, I learned quickly the meaning of “nocturnal” and learned they needed their cage to be outside of a bedroom for sanity. Of the various types of rodents, though, I tend to not be as fond of hamsters or mice because they each have a more “pungent” odor even if you are fastidious with their bedding. Much to the chagrin of my wife, my kids always had plenty of rodent friends while they were young (excess stock from my work at the U).

I have to say again, that for me, this is turning out to be the most enjoyable “Shannon” arc in a long time.

Foreshadowing?

If you think dogs were bad, you should’ve had an ant farm. Good god, what an awful racket !

Aunt Toni’s patience amazes me. I don’t know how she does it.

I could not put up with Shannon or any Shannon-like kid….

I am puzzled about comments suggesting that Shannon’s missing mother is Ann Evil. What possible supporting info? Why would Jonah ever be involved with someone like Ann?

Does anyone else think that middle panel is kind of creepy? Like she’s looking directly at us and went to another dimension or something. Bizarre.