Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for December 28, 2023

That’s the comic for 12/26/88.. not 12/25/88. They’re trying to pull a fast one! ;)

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So does anyone have special plans for New Year’s Eve??

I think this is why Bucky told Rob and Satchel he just wanted cash instead.

“I will know it if I see it.”

One way to handle the dead week between Christmas and New Yeaers!

This is the first of these strips where Brad and Luann look more like teenagers than younger kids.

None of this is it?

Girlie, the one Christmas gift I got this year was a $20 bill from my dad. He and his GF throw a big to do every year in a conference room at a local hotel, and this year they under planned the gifts. My mom apparently used the wrong cash card when she purchased my gift online and didn’t realize it got rejected until I asked about the tracking number, my brother won’t be able to send anything for the foreseeable future, and my sister is still recovering from a financial collapse. I’m at the time in my life when I should be getting rid of stuff instead of taking on more, so it’s fine. But it’s a reminder to be grateful for what you do get.

I can relate. I never get anything I’d buy for myself. Many gifts were thoughtful and I was truly grateful and some of them I discreetingly donated to goodwill. I know I’m not the only one who do. That’s why I give my adult children and parents in law gift cards so they can buy what they want. I buy grandchildren physical gifts as they are not as fussy and happy to get gifts. They’re still young and fun to shop for. My mother in law, however, insists on physical gifts and has bad taste. Sigh.

I’m 74 and this is the first Christmas I got exactly everything I had on my list. Usually I get similar items or wrong items, but this time perfect! And my granddaughter liked my gift better than anything else, even the $150 lego town her parents bought! Best Christmas ever.

The conundrum that runs through life.

Ingrate.

I had some lovely presents but the most amazing was from my niece. It was a pretty glass jar, filled with sand, pebbles and shells from Minster beach, Sheerness. My mother grew up here, our relatives are buried at the Abbey, and it is a place of truly special significance to our family – and we now all live far from the area. She made one for me, one for my sister, and one for our mother (who is deeply demented). It is possibly the most thoughtful present I have ever had, and I am crying again as I write this.

I posted an IG photo of Sweetie with his favourite gift: a Mad Magazine Christmas special that was rolled up in his stocking. He liked most everything else but that? He spent the calm Christmas evening reading it with one eye/ear on The Huron Carol, and was reading it the next morning over breakfast.

Will this strip return to normalcy next week?

How long was it before she decided she wanted Aaron Hill? And how much longer after that before they broke up?

What Luann wants has the initials A.H.

Didn’t Luann’s parents ever ask her what she wanted for Christmas? In 1988, a 13 year old girl was hard to shop for if you didn’t know what they wanted because there was no Amazon wish list to refer to.

Funny, I wanted that too!

Christmas use to be a time to visit. Now, you just make reservations at a nice restaurant, no muss, no fuss, no leftovers, but you don’t have to put up with obnoxious in-laws.

The Mrs’. mother passed away two days befoer Thanksgiving an one of th things i bought for her was a relly nice Urn for her mother’s cremains. Its some thing she wanted

Ungrateful little brat.

I am totally bored and feel let down by these ancient “fill ins” all about Christmas that are stretching on well past Christmas????

I’d like a do over.

Classic reaction from a thirteen year old. Her parents probably still give her gifts as a child and she wants more. It’s a good thing that things have changed over the years.

Luann used to be so miserable in these days.

All I ever wanted for Christmas is love, family togetherness, joy and peace.

Being much older and never receiving gifts, I well remember not getting the gifts I wanted. But, I always joyed in receiving gifts, no matter what.

This is a reply to a recent OUTONALIMB question about December 23 fireplace scene.

“I’ve been trying—not very successfully, I think—to imagine what today’s panel would have looked like before coloring, and I’ve been wondering whether that could be really be quite the same as the version (which I also haven’t seen) that got published in newspapers that carry the strip in black and white. In any case, Greg and “Sheriff” between them have indeed done a fine job with the artwork we’re seeing here today.”

Greg did— and almost ALWAYS does— the heavy lifting with the black and white (and gray) art that is supplied to me from Andrews McMeel Universal (AMU). I put together a composite graphic that compares the two versions.

Tinyurl dot calm forward slash ColorComparison

My task is to preserve the dynamic range of values in the original art while adding standard skin and hair hues that have been established over the years. The ancillary coloring of objects like cars, furniture, walls and just plain old empty backgrounds are up to me. I keep a modest library of repeat structures such as the firehouse and The Fuse and some of the inside dorm colors, but that’s about it for architectural elements.

If people play Pedantic Polly and call out inconsistencies in things such as Luann’s car paint from one arc to the next, they’re free to do it, but I try to ensure color consistency only when it really matters. There isn’t enough time or money for either Greg or me to obsess over details that are found only because people have access to archived strips.

(continued from above)

The deadlines for a daily comic strip are relentless and became tighter when colored dailies became a thing. Another layer of work was added that many established cartoonists did not have time for, so some syndicates (Washington Post, Creators, AMU) enlisted freelancers like me to do that work. AMU also has inside folks to manage the whole affair in addition to doing color work themselves. I believe King Features handles all color work in-house. It probably depends on how much the cartoonist wants to do on their own.

As for mistakes, yeah, they happen. Unless goofs are egregiously apparent, they might slip through the safety net. I used to work for one of the major players and innovators in comics coloring. They were able to staff a dedicated checker who examined every strip the company colored. That person had to know storylines, characters and plots for dozens of strips. I don’t think anyone could do that if they didn’t love the comics. That was a few decades ago and now colorists are the primary checkers of their own work.

i plan to sit in my recliner and watch the back of my eyelids.

Weltschmerz.

Christmas ….. not a very healthy sport, at least the way these two are engaging here. what a difference between the scene in the cabin in front of the fire with everyone’s (except Frank’s) realization…. and this.

At 75, I finally got everything I wanted for Christmas. A nice new Kindle Scribe and 1.5 hours of my 4-year-old granddaughter sitting on my lap on the floor opening, oohing, and playing with her new stuff. Killed my back, thrilled my heart!

Luann did you tell mom or dad what you wanted.

In a way Luann is right, but not for the reason she cited. We spend a month decorating and shopping, and in a day its over.

She got a teddy bear for Christmas? How old is she supposed to be here, six?

Meanwhile,back at the cabin, they discover they also don’t have any snow shovels.

Aren’t they both a little old for teddy bears?

It’s not getting what you want, it’s wanting what you’ve got.

Whatever Brad is holding looks just like my beloved Radio Shack 6-transistor radio from decades ago.

R.I.P. Tom Smothers. You were a comic genius.

This drawing style reminds of the animation in those School House Rock! shorts.

Let me guess…“real estate?”

I wanted peace on earth.

I get Luann’s POV, for a change. Just vague “I can’t get no satisfaction”….