Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for August 18, 2018

All they need now is a cable spool for an end table.

’tis a start

They seem oddly content.

Seeing the two of ‘em staring off into space that way reminds me of a certain anime …

https://youtu.be/TmrosfxGifQ

Yeah, typical young men, skimpy on the real furniture but blew the budget on a rug. Wonder if their TV is on the floor….they are looking at something at their chin level, I gotta wonder if they are imagining the TV on a TV stand.

Okay Okay. So the two lads got through the last couple of weeks and they didn’t KILL each other. Big deal. ;)

But let’s just hold the applause and see what happens when a young lady they BOTH care very much for, shows up.

(face palm)

$700 for a rug that size?!? Okay, something is seriously wrong here. I know Les is supposed to be an idiot, but shouldn’t Gunther have known that that was WAY too much for a simple rug? Was it that hard to Google average prices beforehand? Or do smartphones suddenly not exist in this strip anymore?

$700.00 for a rug were did they go Macy’s!

The rug looks like someone drove a vehicle in circles over it leaving tire tracks.

Not only is the rug way too expensive, it’s also way too ugly. With a rug that ugly, they’ll never attract any “young lady” visitors who they both care about, so no fights will happen. Maybe ugly rugs can end wars…

I warned you, Gunther, stick with Les and you’re going down. You’ll start eating Viking style…cereal from the box, milk from the carton, fried eggs with your bare hands. You’re grades are going to slip when the greaser gets his table and starts teaching you how to play pool. Come on, kid, get some fresh air and go see Tara. Turn your control to “re-heat” and drop in on Tiffany. Get Fay’s phone number and tell her you’ll call her in four or five years.

3 months later they spend $1000 for a chiropractor to fix their broken spine

Geez, they are what, 19? 20? Nothing they get now is permanent. (although Gunth may save that rug…). Get a cable spool for an end table! Use the highchair as a keg stand! Heck, they are bachelors in college/working full time. Let em live the young life for now!

@oldcomicsfan: Les, as I’m sure you realize from your comment, may be a young working guy (rather than a college kid), but has not lived the ‘young life’, at least not until now. He has lived a life of petty crime and was probably on his way to more, until his Uncle Al forced him to accept a job and some responsibilities for his actions (for awhile.) Gunther may be chronologically young, but he’s an old guy in a young man’s skin…

In my first apt., my coffee table was two overturned milk crates topped with a detour sign.

If I spent $700 on a rug, it would be on my head!

Well, guess they want to be rugrats again! The Beanbag chairs aren’t helping them look like adults.

We still don’t like this guy.

It was mentioned earlier that it would not be long before both of them would be eating “Viking Style” – eating right out of cereal boxes, drinking from cartons, etc. Monday, we will see them set out in Gunther’s ’58 Edsel Ranger, ram a cow, and cook it.

Welcome to Howard Sprague’s batchelor pad. That rug really does tie the room together.

That last panel is so precious. “… and everyone lived happily ever after.”

Whoever called the rug and beanbags earlier… BRAVO!

First house desk: two file cabinets with a door on top obtained from a used office-furniture warehouse. The hole for the doorknob provides an easy way to route the computer and printer cables….

Ahh, Home Sweet Home …..

Gunther is only thinking about decorating – not how he will live there. So many ways that Gunther doesn’t think like a guy.

In a situation like this, I would just stop and think calmly to myself, trying to picture: “Okay. Now….what would McGyver have done?”

They really could have kept SOME of Irma’s furniture. The couch could have been recovered….Gunther sews, remember? A lamp or two could have worked…buy a new (and cool shade for it). Repaint and repurpose some of that stuff. Both Gunther and Les really didn’t think this through. Now they need to go to OTHER people’s garage sales and look for bargains.

So absurd to become realistic an hilarious.

“Pick Your Seat”

“Stalling, On A Budget”

“You Want Carpet Shock? Walk On This Price Tag!”

“Furni-shing Off-Key And Out Of Tune”

“Lame…Set…Of Matchsticks”

“Appointments They Can’t Get Out Of”

“I Shop At Heathen Allen”

or

“A Sitter For Les And Gunth”

Dudes, get a cheap rug and better furniture, too late…

The house looks spic and span except for those 3 little bugs crawling on the floor in the kitchen. Better call Terminex!

It’s a start

They sit on the beanbags and stare off into… what? No TV. No thumping stereo. Not even a streaming cell phone between them. What? No microwave? Is that a toaster in the kitchen? Where’d that come from? Same place as the fridge and washer/dryer, I suppose.

Wait until one of the seams on those beanbags lets go and little foam dots go sailing around the room.

Hopefully this will close this arc. It took GnK weeks to get these two to sit down peacefully together. (Actually, it appears to me that they’re vegged out.)

I don’t think I even HAD a rug in my first apartment. It’s much less important than tables and chairs.

And they had a fully furnished house. They sold ALL the furniture and replaced it with a throw rug and two beanbag chairs.

These two make Laurel and Hardy look like geniuses.

They’re shopping in the wrong places, they really should be hitting up thrift stores, estate sales, and craigslist. There’s very apt to be someone cleaning out a garage, a ‘man cave’, or moving out of state or the country. It’s not all “granny furniture”.

Doesn’t this last scene just drip of domestic bliss? Hubby sitting there with his drink and snack bag (probably milk and cereal in this case). And there’s our little homemaker sitting demurely… hands folded… legs chastely crossed. Throw in a cigar and you’ve got Archie and Edith Bunker!

Did Greg draw this purposely, or did it just spring forth from his subconscious. What say you, GC INSIDERS?

I have never seen a more nearly welcome word balloon in this strip than today’s “Problem solved!” Finally! Now that the furniture problem is solved, can we completely ignore this annoying Gunther & Les story arc for the rest of the year, and maybe next year too?

Today’s final panel bears some resemblance to the final panel of the 12 July 2014 strip. Can we bid a fond “Adios!” to this pair of seatmates for a long while, too?

If we say “so long” to the boys’ domestic doings for now (more like “drop dead” and “don’t come back”), then I hope we don’t say “hello, again” to Brad and TJ’s domestic renovation. Let’s go visit that cute little trick named Luann.

Sunday’s strip: Knute and Crystal ponder retirement homes.

Home is what you make of it.

This works now.

and it reinforces the idea: just because you are living together doesn’t mean you have to be “pals”, just have to achieve “detente” .

That much for a rug and then topped off with bean bag chairs? And with a desk display behind them? They’re obviously at IKEA.

One question: Beds?

Are people not realizing that Les is helping Gunther get some level of independence from his mom. Best thing that could happen to him. This is the same thing that happened in Peru, until Rosa tried to take him TOO far from his comfort zone. and he relapsed. Though, like with Rosa, he may be depending too much on Les as a role model.

The only time I liked those bag chairs was when I was in an altered state of consciousness as a late teen.

At least Gunther isn’t whining today.

Don’t forget the cinder block and board bookcase.

Don’t worry about the furniture. It’s all just a plot device, to get these two to become buddies. Too much unbelievable backdrop story? Sure. But that’s GnK’s M.O. these days.

I do like the artistic touch, Gunther sitting upright and Les slouching.

This reminds me of Jack and the Beanstalk story. Jack was supposed to use his money to buy something-forget what. But he spent the money on magic beans that grew a beanstalk that had a Giant at the top. Irma and Al will not be happy to see what the Boys spent all their furniture money on.

I’m sure there are NO TV shows both boys would enjoy watching.

Actually, these two roommates are not mismatched at all. They are the only two college-aged guys in the entire USA who, given $783 to furnish their house, would choose to spend $710 of that amount on… wait for it… a rug. They’re not an odd couple, they’re a team that’s meant for each other!

I keep saying these two guys have more in common than they have that should cause conflict, As I said last night (on vacation in Hawaii, so my time frame is all messed up, but I don’t care -:) in a reply to Airmen everything should be reasonably peaceful unless, and I think it may really be a possible event, Rosa should come back. They conflicted over her back in high school when Les was in his full bully phase. Plus there is Tiffany, although I really think she is a good friend to both, not romantic, but Tara, now that is my girl, other than Rosa. Anyway I personally like this provisional outcome.

Macy’s cheapest floor rug is $49.99

I’m ready for us to jump aboard Tom Farrell’s yacht for a week or so. Ann may know perfectly how far to push her luck.

This shows exactly why Gunther needed to get out of his mom’s house. Make dumb mistakes and learn from them when you are young. Still I am surprised that Gunther only got $700+ when one lamp was listed as $300

Gunther’s comment about being able to agree, yesterday and today, shows maturity and forward thinking (I believe); it suggests that he values compromise and their ability to get along since, like it or not, they have to live together. He could have said ’it’s my money I’ll buy whatever I like’. But he didn’t do that. The compromise cost $710 but he/they went for it.

Scenario #803: Tara wants to do a nude photo shoot on the rug, and Gunther/Les are paid $700 to allow it in their house.

There’s still hope for turning this story arc around. Maybe Mr. Gray will suddenly have a “disposal” problem that needs to be resolved rapidly, and he will buy the rug from the boys for $800 so that he can wrap the body inside it.

They should have went to a thrift store and/or taken a savvy shopper with them. Sad Gunther agreed to buy an expensive rug -I’m sure Les pressured him since Les wanted a rug.

I still am not interested in despising Gunther, but this is not the least bit funny. Watching someone cheerfully live like an animal usually isn’t.

For my first apartment, I bought a used couch, chair, coffee table, two end tables, and a recliner, all for $100. I thought the couch and chair were so cool that I would never want to get rid of them. (They are long gone.) But I never bought a rug.

Should’a kept mama’s furniture!

They both look pretty happy and now it looks like a guys bachelor pad…with one expensive rug and a lot of empty space. LOL

Go figure.

What’s funny is that the men here posting are all relating stories how they did similar or better back in the day, and the women posters are all rolling their eyes. ;-)

Can you say profligate? Hope the goons enjoy their beanbag furniture….

So many thoughts. . . for example, I’m 58 years old and I’ve never spent $700 on a rug. I don’t know if I’ve ever spent $100 on a rug. Also, how long before they spill something on it that won’t come out?

The smart thing to do would have been to keep a few pieces of furniture, like something to sit on, and a table, and sell the rest. Then use the money from selling the rest to gradually buy furniture they like and can afford. They can eventually replace what they kept from Irma, and then sell that.

Gunther wants to become an engineer, right? He has a lot to learn about choosing components for a project, where price is an important consideration.

Somebody on a BB talked about when her then teenaged future Mom had a school project about “You are moving into your first apartment, you have $XXX.XX to furnish it.” Her mom picked out some kitchen appliances, cooking utensils and dishes, a mattress (no actual bed) and some bedding and used the rest of the amount for a stereo music system. Teacher told her to get her priorities straight. She said her priorities were straight. She didn’t need chairs, she’s sit on the mattress. She didn’t need a table, she’d eat off the floor. But she couldn’t survive without good quality music.

Oh my goodness, I LOVE it. And that’s because we ALL have been there at one point in our lives. I didnt have a couch for three months in my first apartment, my aunt and uncle in their first place used sleeping bags because they didn’t own a bed for a while. A friend’s new puppy had a bad habbit of seeing how couches were put together so she had cheap out door furniture for about a year. So without a parent around and having the new independent status, it must be liberating to be able to pick a rug that doesn’t make sense with some classic bachlore pad bean chairs.

These guys really have no idea how to furniture shop. For $800 bucks I could easily do a whole living room.

“I find your lack of shopping skills disturbing,” said Lord Vader…