Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for July 08, 2019

first?

Dez sure is thinking positive whereas both Luann and Bernice sure are thinking negative.

No mat and bag means Luann will probably be sleeping in the car. The open ground is cold at night and she will be able tolerate bugs crawling on her.

Realist gets annoyed

Dez is in upbeat mood.

Because Bernice knows snark.

Luann? Where is your thinking cap?? You put them on the top rack unsecured. Just sleep in the car. You have everything else.

Honestly Dez and naturalist are what that’s killing the environment by going camping you encroaching wildlife and such and we are causing extinction of wildlife.. we should leave them alone and do camping in places where doesn’t affect wildlife as much like parks and other places

Camping without a tent in San Diego County in the summer is not a problem. I’ve done it. Rain is rare that time of year. Camping without a camp stove is normal—plainly Bernice never heard of a campfire.

On the other hand, having no bedding is a problem. You can bury yourself in leaves for survival in a pinch, but it won’t be a pleasant experience.

Ummm… Luann KNOWS that her foam mattress and sleeping bag were on the roof rack. So, how exactly is ransacking the car and asking “where’s my mat and bag” supposed to help? She’s hoping that the mat and sleeping bag somehow fell off the roof rack and slid into car through the open rear seat windows? LOL.

Dez sez: Let’s go explore! And maybe we can find some roots and berries and stuff we can pound with a rock to make them somewhat chewable, cuz we don’t have a stove. The good news… car cigarette lighter might help us start a fire. So toasted lizards MIGHT be on the menu tonight!

Dez is a nutcase.

Dez, you are crazy to think Bernice and Luann will kill live animals, skin them and cook them – less eat them, eat plants, eat bugs or bathe in the creek. Go potty without toilet paper (don’t see any outhouse in the vicinity) and then sleep outdoors on the ground. There is civilized camping and then there is the primitive camping. You roomed with Bernice and interacted with Luann – you ought to know they are not the type to go au naturel.

Good shot, Dez! Keep it up—Ms. Killjoy needs to get a clue…

time to loose Borenice. she’s living up to her name.

Dez is very happy in unusual places. She states, “When I was in Nepal, I met a guy in the hostel who intrigued me. So I planned a sunrise naked yoga meditation at a waterfall outside Kathmandu.”

Sounds romantic, but when I was in Nepal, they were burning tires in Kathmandu. The smoke was everywhere. As a result of the burning tires, the air was so polluted that I got sick. It was an interesting, exotic place, but because of the pollution, we called the city Kathman doo doo.

Takes one to know one…

Close to nature if for critters that grow fur.

I’d be on my way home about now…Or headed towards the nearest sporting goods or camping supplies store.

And the camping trip continues! It looks like my predictions about it taking place off-panel or being rushed through within a week were completely wrong! I have lost this bet and am therefore entitled to NO bragging rights. Let the winner of the bet step forward and receive their well-earned applause.

Oh, and it looks like Bernice continues to be unbearably awful. She’s really gonna criticize someone else for being snarky? Really?

Survival training is not on my bucket list. Conquest of Mount Tiffany would be more to my liking.

I don’t think I’ve met any people who are stupider than these three. Yes, all three—Luann for leaving her brains at home, Bernice for being her usual snarky, judgmental self, and Dez for being unbelievably delusional. How do they ever get through life being that way?

Goodbye, campout – hello, walkabout!

Methinks this arc’s shelf life hast expired…

Jack will work out the car issue (borrow Dad’s?) and show up at some point. He seems to be the type who would feel bad if he doesn’t show up with the promised equipment. If it takes too long, though, he may have to follow the vultures to the ladies…

The “realist” is doing nothing to help, just recording condescending comments about her friends. Bernice’s sense of superiority doesn’t have any basis in fact. She’s lucky that no one has shoved her phone where the sun doesn’t shine.

Okay. I’m going to be uncharacteristically Nice today, and say that Dez has just GOT to High on something. While Luann and Bernice are acting within normal parameters.

But Lu? Feel free to SMASH Bernice’s phone with a rock.

Just waiting for the rain to start. No tent, no campfire, hotel anyone?

Bernice is calling someone else snarky? Haha!

These three better get their act together before it gets dark ….

I take something I said last week back, I do think there will be a positive growth point to this arc actually. Luann and Bernice will have to step past themselves to survive and even really appreciate being in nature, Dez will, or might, prove how good she is at helping them both have new perspectives. Need I say, on the way, you know what will ensue? I think that is a pretty safe bet.

I wonder if Bernice will keep making comments when a bear or coyote try to attack her. What would make her finally put down her phone?

Given a choice between camping with Bernice or camping with the Manson Family at Spahn Ranch, I’d take Charlie and the Family. Who the hell narrates every little move?

“…or at least the products there of.”

This is all set to be a “wild” trip for all the wrong reasons!

I just wish that Bernice would just shut up. I’m beginning to not like her.

Some knuckle-headed, wannabe youtuber?

I don’t mind roughing it. I can survive a Motel 6.

Poor consumer

Awwwww …. I love Dez more and more ♡. Above all, I love how Dez and Luann simply ignore Bernice, and her annoying vocal notes, remaining focused on real problems, possibilities and solutions. Sad thought; Bernice probably chose to shut herself up in “her own personal and rational world” to prevent her from having a panic attack … Poor thing, she’s so scared.

Stay tuned as the consumer, the realist, and nature girl get hopelessly lost in the woods.

Hope they don’t ruin the trip for Dez.

Bernice! Shut the f*** up!

Naturalist wearing skirt in the middle of nature? How is that appropriate gear for camping?

Where’s the bear? We need a bear to show up. Luann can distract it with her cluelessness, Dez can assault it with hugs of nature worship, and finally Bernice can chase it away with her criticism. Huge size, teeth and claws would be a poor match for these three.

Weighing on whether to weigh in this week…

This has the look and feel of a Shannon arc: Purely for laughs, cheap laughs at that, no character development, and with one person as the designated pain in the (where the sun don’t shine)!

My personal take is, Gunther and Bets are taking over as the meat and potatoes of the strip; at the moment, these characters look like an intermission!

So out of everything Luann had packed. she didn’t once think she would need extra blankets and pillows?

Hellooo! Luannnn! It was on the roof! Remember? And the camp stove? Nobody said anything about a “camp stove” being up there.

P.S. Dez better break out the crystal powder soon. So far this arc is in dire need of some – whatever it is.

Y’all need to close those car doors before the battery goes dead.

Ok, this is boring already.

Whoever heard of wearing a skirt to go camping in the wild?

“Mother” Nature!?!? Ha! Mother likes to play tricks on her “children.”

They’re measured of the Richter Scale!!!

When they mentioned that all “6” were going on a camping trip this summer. I was getting already for lots of FUN and FUNNY things happening. NOPE -not goin’ happen!!

Who packs a tennis racket on a camping trip?

Some competing beliefs about how “civilization” should be dealt with here.

See the buzzards in the last panel?

Maybe Ted Forth will mow them down with the Racines’ RV.

Bernice the “Queen of Snark” is accusing someone else of being snarky. Have you listened to yourself lately, Bernie?

Good thing that you still have your hair dryer.

ANyone can see how this is going to end… They will spend a couple days in the “wilderness”, then when they go back to town, everything will have changed. The zombie apocalypse will have started and they will be the only ones left.

Somebody needs to snatch that phone out of Bernice’s hand and stomp it into about a billion pieces.

SHUT UP, Bernice!

7

“Losing some gear is a good thing?” … Dez is reverting to her more “flaky” side at the moment with that inane comment, IMO. Losing gear can be overcome. Losing gear need not spoil the trip (The intent I believe of her statement.). But seriously, losing some gear is NOT a good thing, and I would be really annoyed at someone telling me that in this sort of situation.

For some reason, Bernice…. even though she has been doing this all along…. today…. her “recording sessions” remind me of the blow-by-blow commentary of Howard Cosell. I know that several people find Bernice annoying… but not me. I am greatly enjoying her character and efforts here. She is trying her best to do what she feels she is supposed to do. Like SallyMargaret highlighted last week…. she really is a young kid who is trying to follow all the “rules” in life… and is trying to be able to “succeed” in how her imagination defines that concept. I can sympathize with the ideas that are swimming in Bernice’s head…. she always is trying….. no matter how misguided, how not always appropriate, how seemingly off the mark some of her actions may appear to others…. she is always trying to follow her “vision” of doing the right thing. I think Greg is really doing an excellent job of fleshing out further, the character of Bernice as a young college student.

That Luann is being cast as the “Consumer” is also an interesting choice….her actions and words are in character with her being mostly about “the moment” and not being particularly introspective, nor “seeking”. She is being show to be really about the moment. In some ways this is an interesting change from the 15 year old Luann…. who used to spend most of her time dreaming (usually about boys, but sometimes other thing)…. now she does not seem to “dream” as much. An interesting, but kind of sad change.

I’ve watched a rather good show from time to time – Creek Stewart’s SOS: How to Survive. And … no, none of the girls here have watched a bit of that one, for sure!

There’s all SORTS of resources one can improvise, starting with that vehicle! It’s not just Luann, they are all clueless!!

So far the only Snarky one has been the “Realist”. Dez is just stating the obvious.

And I would be happy to break that phone Bernice is narrating into. Well, perhaps the battery will die. One can hope.

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson decide to go on a camping trip. After dinner and a bottle of wine, they lay down for the night, and go to sleep.Some hours later, Holmes awoke and nudged his faithful friend.“Watson, look up at the sky and tell me what you see.”Watson replied, “I see millions of stars.”“What does that tell you?”Watson pondered for a minute.“Astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets.”“Astrologically, I observe that Saturn is in Leo.”“Horologically, I deduce that the time is approximately a quarter past three.”“Theologically, I can see that God is all powerful and that we are small and insignificant.”“Meteorologically, I suspect that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow.”“What does it tell you, Holmes?”Holmes was silent for a minute, then spoke: “Watson, you idiot. Someone has stolen our tent!”

“Realist” is wasting all her phone battery being snarky and acting as if her 2 friends were lab rat test subjects. Instead of being, like, “real” and immediately taking stock the campsite and what amenities are available. Taking inventory of what they DO have and figuring out if they could improvise the basics: food, water, fire, shelter. And being that at least 2 of them are soft city girls (not soldiers in the field), they’d expect/need more creature comforts. If Bern has an internet signal, she’s better use it to look up “Primitive Camping” and get some info quick!

Im’ finding the irony amusing. Snarky forum comments about a snarky character.

They’re there without their gear before noon. Take stock, send Bernice (Dez is having too much fun where they are and Luann is being portrayed as though she might get distracted by shiny objects) back to the nearest town to pick up key items. She’ll be back before 3 pm.

I don’t know much about art, but it seems like Greg has overextended himself with all the objects and characters in this camping trip arc. He’ll need to rest and do something simple…….like Toni in the shower.

Your mat and bag is on the street at the end of your driveway back home.

Dez is just a Cockeyed Optimist.

300

And the Realist makes a funny!

I am making noises with finger rapidly going up and down on lips as I make a monotone sound. WOW 303 comments on this one so far…WOW …SUIT CASES on a camping trip???

do I see an umbrella and a tennis racket? at some point Bernice is going to have to log off her ‘comment machine’ and set herself up to spend the night. I look forward to that.

OUCH.. S L A P , the mosquitoes are biting

Bernice is increasingly annoying as she gets older. Where the heck is Delta?!?!!? Bring her back!

Looks more like a big U-turn is on the horizon. Unless they can find a local cave of which a local bear may take offense.

losing gear a good thing? yeah if it is the lounge chair, the tennis racket and beach umbrella, not if it is your sleeping bag and ground mat. I like Dez’s general attitude but i’m just waiting to see her lying on the bare ground in her skirt with no cover. Once the sun goes down, it may cool off significantly. I’m sure they are at a much higher elevation than when they started.

I vote Snarky! “Consumer” and “Realist” are hopelessly urban and totally at a loss.

The Borenice constant commentary has to stop. These are supposed to be her FRIENDS, not thesis subjects. Jack and Nil show up with a car and Luann’s belongings. Luann realizes what a gem Jack is. And everyone agrees to leave Borenice behind with a dead phone.

OK so Luann is Kirk, Bernice is Spock, Dez is McCoy

Preview of tomorrow’s strip over at Arcamax.com: I won’t say much EXCEPT that Luann’s shallow side is showing—and it isn’t flattering at all.

About Dez- You do not have to be on a drug high to like nature and appreciate how amazing the world we live in really is…..

Dez should have brought gunther and rosa, they would have been a blast together. I’m sure gun and rosa love camping. But luann, bernice and tiff are not campers. I’m sure their idea of “au natural” is going with no make-up, no bra or undies.

Realist could do with a smack up the side of the head and confiscation of mobile device.