Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for January 13, 2015

I’m very disappointed in Gunther…

What a reliable amigo Luis is.

Ayahuasca…

…Wow….

“The Creature Of Habit From The Black Lagoon”“Ulterior Motivation”“Support Hosed”“Structured Destruction”“The Hive Mind”“A Smart Lad, A Dumb Move”“The Double Edged Sword Of Perpretual Worry”

“Airplanes, Chains And The Same Old Refrain”or“How To Wean A Weenie”

And this is why he’ll still be living at home when he’s 40.

Yeah, thought he was making progress of some sort. Thought that “standing up” to Les and his taking the initiative to kiss Rosa were all part of his “first steps”…..

Greg Evans! Have some mercy on Gunther! His panic over Mom having any man in the house is more than sick. I’ve never heard of anything like this…

Well, this has been a letdown. Think I’ll call it a night. Have a good one, folks…

After Gunther’s been home a short while, he may realize he’s changed. Most of us can’t move back in with mom after we’ve been out on our own.

…Luis is as anxious to get rid of him as Rosa was now. With good reason.

The dirty look Luis gives him is telling. He thinks as little of Gunther as we do.

It’s building. The quick goodbye after months of romantic involvement, the beard, plain shirt, longer hair, talk of not being brave, need for structure, and now Luis saying that he will drive faster. Gunther is going to miss that 8 p.m. flight and prove his bravery in a very unstructured situation.

I wonder how Gunther still managed to grow a beard and his hair… I guess Gunther is right…he isn’t an adventurer. But at least he does know who he is and what he wants. And, he now knows what happened when he decided to go to Peru…otherwise, he’d always say, what if So, all is not lost…to him. He still shouldn’t have returned if it is only about Mr. Grey… ;)

Oh, no!!! He’s got that infernal plaid shirt on again…grrrr! I hope Greg will tell us why he has a Peru shirt and a beard in such a short amount of time! ;)

Depending on how ’rustic" the village was (they were still gathering sticks for a fire), where did Gunther charge his cell phone?

Maybe the adventure that they had on prom night was preparation for what will happen when Luis’ car breaks down in the middle of nowhere…

I must of missed that gathering sticks storyline, although I have heard references to it, what day did that happen?

I’m on really late this evening. I was helping my hub make his particularly gooey cinnamon rolls from scratch. Takes about five or six hours as the rolls have to rise three hours. But, oh, the results: two crescent-sized yummy warm rolls. Around this place, the rolls won’t make it beyond four days! LOL ’Nite all!-—————————————————————“No great improvements in the lot of mankind are possible, until a great change takes place in the fundamental constitution of their modes of thought.”(John Stuart Mill, 1806-1873)

He is driving as fast as he can, because he wants to dump this whiny doofus out of his car PRONTO

Yes, you get a great connection for your smart phone in the outskirts of remote mountain villages.

You mean he had cell coverage out there?

It’s early in the week, folks!

Give Sir Greg (the cartoonist) time to develop Gunther into an unshaven guy with a desire for coffee wearing a normal shirt!

I’ll write the story for you, since you want immediate answers to how Gunther changed:

The van ran out of gas, so our brave hero stopped by a pub for a drink or two.

He woke up the next day drunk without his plaid shirt, so he experienced a hangover for the very first time!

He learned the secret to resolve was coffee!As he drank more coffee, he realized he got drunk because of his jealousy of his mom with a real man.

At the airport, he purchased the shirt as a reminder of his adventures as he ventured on his flight back home.

—The End—

The van will break down, he and Luis will have some kind of adventure, Gunther will have an epiphany (that involves coffee and a beard), the end.

universal cell service

“Coffee’ll make a man out of you,” she said in a deep contralo.

Now, the time frame for the beard and the shirt… ?-This is what we are waiting for, yes?

Hang on…let’s not condemn Gunther yet.

This strip is obviously a setup for what’s going to happen that changes Gunther. Since Luis is saying (in the last panel), “OK, I’ll drive a little faster,” my SWAG is that there will be some kind of motor vehicle accident that starts the chain of events. Obviously, Greg had to set a base line for Gunther (at this point, still, plaid “ol’ Gunthie” and still concerned with Mr. Gray). This, to show us how far he progresses in re: what’s about to happen. Let’s see what happens.

BTW, it just hit me that “Mr. Gray” is quite aptly named. His “raison d’etre” is not clear… not “black & white…” :-) Duh, right? ;-PPP

Poor Mr. Gray. Gunther plans to clobber him with a backpack.

If they are 6 hours out of Peru into the Andes, will Gunther really be able to book a flight on his cell phone?

He’s been gone about 10 minutes now. That “Whoosh” noise you hear is everyone in the village heaving a huge sigh of relief.

This used to be a cute, sweet strip. What happened?

begins now.

Glad that Princess Rosa will join the evil Ann Eiffel in toxic hell!!!

As for Gunther, he is on his way to become the next James Bond!!

Looks like mommy hovered a little too long over Gunther!

Are there cell towers in the remote mountains of Puru? They’re more connected than I expected!

Don’t know whether Gunther needs structure or habit. They’re often the same thing, but not always. We’ll find out a bunch depending on how he deals with his Mother’s friend.

Well, I see I was wrong….soooo wrong. No Shining Path here. No true dynamic change to Gunther. What a sissy his artist is making of him. Gunther the loser. Let’s get back to Brad and Toni. There is the next great plot possibility.

Talk about hovering. I’ve heard of helicopter parents, but Gunther is a helicopter child.

no big accident, just a regular crash in an not often taken road, and Gunther is forced to walk taking the injured Luis(maybe unconscious) and that is how we get the bearded G, otherwise the reason for unshaven G happened after he arrived at the USA as he was scared of calling home for a few days before it became new years eve

This is soooo wrong.

btw, Gunther said he wanted to get to Lima by 6 o’clock, there is no indication in this strip how long it has been since they left the village(could be a mere 30 minutes, could be already 3 hours)

Events will change Gunther……….that truck will never make it to the clinic in Lima.

8 pm flight? Ain’t gonna happen, G-man!

Children read Luann? Not in search of role models, I hope.

All those commenters saying Gunther’s mom needed to step back should be eating their words right now. The main reason Gunther wanted back was someone was encroaching on mommy. Gunther runs off to a foreign country with his girlfriend then he decides it’s time to go back home because it’s not for him yet his biggest concern is his mother may have a boyfriend. This isn’t funny, this is sick.

Still don’t see when he had time to get the beard. No stubble at this point and he’s about to fly home. Bogus drawing, Greggers!

Clinging Mamma’s Boy. Sums it up well.

You’ve been flagged

We all hope…and hope that Mr. Evans takes a look at this board…

Well, a couple people here are on the right track – almost.

“The time dilation effects of traveling faster than light would explain how Gunther had grown his beard multiple times…..”.It is obvious his testosterone levels are much higher than commonly thought.(Unless I am right and it’s ALL fungal growth.)

“Radar Love” is blasting on the van radio, by the way.

“( Unless it’s more a sign of the particular reader’s bias )”.Signs of bias?Surely ye jest.(He said with the faintest trace of sarcasm.)

He’s got cell reception out there?

Gunther you took a step into life. DON’T TRIP NOW!

Rosa’s dream is not his. He likes structure and he likes home. What in the world is wrong with that? He’ll find his own dream.

Peru’s a wild place. Good thing Gunther got a ride from Luis and not Shining Path guerillas.

You can’t be something you’re not.

I’ll guess car accident & hike out of the mountains for the Grizzly Adams look

If Gunther’s goal was to chase Mr. Gray away from his Mom, apparently he succeeded. Mrs. Berger was accompanied to the NYE party by Gunther, not Mr. Gray.

Gunther is about to learn that you can’t go home. It no longer exists. ‘Home’ is like the end of a rainbow. You think you can see it, but you can never go there.

when i said IF he was around the USA for a few days (unlikely) I meant he was afraid of calling right away and “admit defeat” so he was in the street for a few days and than on new years eve he finally called and said pick me up at the airport, but is far more likely that Luis crashed, got injured, and Gunther had to take himself and Luis somewhere and that is how he got the beard and lost all his regular shirts as the shirt says Peru, I am almost 95% sure an accident will happen

“with the beard being growth he got while he was waiting for a delayed flight.”.Good point.Believable.

.. meant to say “satellite phone”. Gunther is always prepared for all situations, so he may have got a satellite phone which will work everywhere!

There’s far too much politics in the comments here by some of the readers of this comic strip.

Sir Greg Evans shall tell his story in due time.Until then, I am not going to respond to anyone who is not focused on this strip.

Case in point; I do not visit this page to read about your personal lives, your sleep habits or your day-by-day activities.

Navigating these comments shouldn’t be such a hassle if everyone limited their “conversations” to the topic; Luann.

What’s so special about coffee? Really.

C’mon readers !! You oughtta know Greg by now. He keeps us in suspense while we wait for the other shoe to drop.

Gunther may be a bit of a control freak…

Floor it, Luis!

Ah Ha, the real reason comes out. Another man is coming between him and his mommykins.

Gunther knows who he is. He is not an adventurer. He went and found that about himself. It is not as if he never went and still say he is not an adventurer. He knows that for a fact now that he had gone down with Rosa. We all know Gunther is not the adventure type. He likes routine, stability, no surprises, calm, predictability, probability, formula, research, etc, For the folks who are disappointed in Gunther, you are the types who expect too much and usually get disappointed in real life. The unrealistic types. You like to get your feet wet without looking, run with the ball without looking, see what life throws at you. You all can just go down with Rosa and join her. Rosa also knows who she is which is why she didn’t go to Yale as planned by her parents. She knows she can’t be stifled and follow other people’s plans for her. She is a leader, not a follower. She is headstrong. In summary, nothing wrong with a person who knows who s/he is, folks. Gunther knows he is not a adventurer and that’s perfectly OK!

I agree with you…. Luis shows determination…. shows support for Gunther’s motives. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++My opinion of what is going on is as follows…. 1) Gunther is SHOWING CONCERN for his mother, who has not been in a relationship for at least 17 years…. I think this is normal for Gunther to show concern about, 2) Luis understands Gunther’s concern and supports his concern, 3) I do not think Gunther’s concern is necessairly a “mamby-pamby” sort of overconcern but is a rather normal, healthy level of concern (of course, I may be proven wrong on this, but this is my gut feel for how Greg will have Gunther’s behavior end up being). ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++I am also prognosticating here, but I feel that a) if Mr. Grey turns out to be a creep, Gunther’s actions will be such that he will help his mother see that, or b) if Mr. Grey turns out to be a good companion for his mother, he will support her choice. Either way, I think the “Mr. Grey” story arc is all about showing transitional growth and maturity for Gunther.

I am not “rightfully disgusted” about Gunther. Please look at my comment above here to see my interpretation of his actions. And then, if possible, give me your opinion(s) about my ideas.

Ok, Dave. If someday you ever do find a link or a picture you can share about the Bordeaux pipe, I would still enjoy seeing it. Thank you!

This is really decent fast-fiction sf. You could submit it to Asimov’s…

I’m not convinced that this is an Oedipus thing. I’m thinking this is just about Gunther being a controlling person who has always lived with his mother paying attention just to him. Even when he resents her ‘babying’ him, he still does not want her to pay attention to anyone BUT him. That’s not love of any kind. That’s about ownership. That brand of ‘Gunther’ would fit in with the Taliban nation….

He will get adventure whether he likes it or not.

Let’s dump Gunther.

“So far, Gunther has actually regressed on this trip, needing his mom more than ever. It’s disturbing and depressing.”

.Said the one wishing for tragedy over and over.

Gunther has not yet been visited by the ‘three ghosts’ but I suspect he will be… one way or another

That clearly explains the shirt change, beard growth and coffee drinking.It’s a bit cruel regarding the spinelessness since he had done things which frightened him, but who am I to argue with Marvin the Martian?

Luis to the rescue!

“This one is different than the others, we have tried to tap his spinal fluid to obtain what we need, but he has no spine.:

I hope this doesn’t count as abuse, but this stinks.

“The time dilation effects of traveling faster than light would explain how Gunther had grown his beard multiple times…..”.Actually, time dilation is a local slowing effect.Time passage of moving object is square root of (1 – speed of moving object squared/ speed of light squared) times the time passage observed by a stationary observer.. For example, at 99.99% of the speed of light, time in Marvin’s space ship would pass about 1.4% as much as for Luann, such that 70.7 days would pass for us as for Marvin and Gunther. (And the mass of the moving object would be 70.7 times as great.).At the speed of light, time would stop altogether and the mass of even a single electron would become infinite as would the energy, of course.. Above the speed of light, time would begin to speed up again in an imaginary direction, since the square root would be of a negative number...s

I think JimT8 was saying that he hoped his comment ‘this stinks’ wouldn’t be regarded as abuse of YOU, so the moderators wouldn’t ban him. Just my interpretation, I could be as wrong about this as Seismic-2 thinks I am about Gunther’s hidden controlling impulses.

For example, at 100 times the speed of light, time would progress 99.995 times as fast as for us, but, again, in an imaginary direction.This would sort of allow Gunther’s beard to growrapidly relative to our reference frame, but in an imaginary direction..(By the way, negative one has three imaginary roots, usually called i, j and k. Not that it matters to Gunther, but it IS interesting.).Gunther would be better off temporarily in an alternative universe with a different rate of time progression since the math hasn’t been worked out for that.Possibly OUR universe, for example.

“I wish for the unhappy couples in the comic to divorce and finally find happiness.”.Said the one convinced they MUST be unhappy couples because…because…well, just because.?And because all divorced people are always happy??? It is to laugh.

IF this storyline goes ANOTHER WEEK! I see a possible red herring…most likely Luis and G crash, Luis gets unconscious and forces G to have “an Adventure” to save Luis and himself, and that changes G and he waits a while to make sure Luis is 100% and than returns home( tale ends the 17th) ………………….. or if we go the red herring route with unexpected twists but is less likely, kind of the same as previous version but Rosa finds out in the news in the TV at village about the crash and how G saved himself and luis, goes back to Lima and a hospital, sees the “new G” that tasted Adventure, and saw he can handle unexpected situations, and G decides to return home, get all his money set aside for his education, go study in Lima and to marry Rosa, and they live happily ever after

right now Gunther is being a real jerk and is not appreciative of Luis. Something needs to happen here.

@Dave.53@DavidHuieGreen“unless the aliens slingshot around a black hole ….”.Well…., maybe if they used Goodyear rubber for their slingshot….“…Oedipus “wrecks” …Oedipus Rex ??? … sheesh what a tough crowd!!!”.I caught it and enjoyed it, but I was busy hunting for my black hole. (The tidal effects of the sucker keep ssucking the atoms out of my pocket. I’m tempted to feed it to the Sphinx.)

Yep, still wondering about the beard and the shirt.

“This is a series of events that could have happened to Gunther. It is a little long, so skip over it if you wish..”*BS: LOL!!! But the coffee yen…, how did he end up with part of Mordock’s brain?

or their sisters Esmeralda and Orquidia Valdez

@argy.bargy2 “Mrs. Berger told Gunther not to take ‘that tone’ with her.”

I will — begrudgingly — grant you that one.We KNOW her hearing is sharp.

There’s nothing wrong with not wanting adventure. And home could mean where he feels more comfortable and not his mother’s basement. Not everyone can do what Rosa is doing.

And speaking of his Mom, I think she’ll send him a message about not living at home.

Or maybe Gunther already has some plans. At least his friends might!

Gunther is bound for disappointment. He can’t step in the same river twice. Home itself changes with time. Ask Mrs. Berger and Mr. Gray about that. Where did Gunther go astray and pick up his scruff—the near-beard and “Peru” sweatshirt and world-weary look?

You must be the Author of Mary Worth here to boost your comic….

I wish Gunther’s flashback would be interrupted by Mr. Gray, who just woke up and has come down to the breakfast table in his pajamas.

Who is Rosa sleeping with?

I like Luis

Lemme go climb the “haystacks”, LOL!!!!

Unless you meant your “Pulitzer winning” piece!!!

@IamJayBluE-LOL!!