Recent Comments

1. over 6 years ago on Luann

   The first two panels are actually good. Panel #1 – the body line of Jack just visible past the silhouette of the chair shows conclusively that Jack is completely naked. Panel #2 – The drawing of Jack, except for the cartoony face consistent with this strip, is actually quite good. You also see some of Jack’s character: he likes his body and likes showing it off. And the first two panels are fit for a family newspaper. Kudos, Evans.

   The whole thing is wasted by Panel #3. Luann is acting like some . . . I don’t know what. Seriously, you can’t say she is acting like an 11 year old. Most 11 year olds are pretty damn interested in nudity, and when given permission to look, as in this art class, they absolutely will look. You can’t say that Luann is acting like an Amish person; Amish girls grow up diapering male and female babies, and watching hugely endowed farm animals mate. You can’t say Luann is “Victorian” — Victorian girls who went to Art School saw and studied classical statuary with everything hanging out.

   Luann’s utterly immature attitude and demeanor is insulting to the class, and to the model (I mean, how would you like it if someone found the sight of you so disturbing they would have to look away?). She would be given an “F” and be asked to leave both the classroom and the class — to laughter and sneering. .

2. over 6 years ago on Luann

   Luan is nineteen, perhaps twenty. She has been in high school gym class, seen other girls disrobing, taken showers while surrounded by other girls, seeing and being seen, and for crap’s sake Tiffany took pics of her in her underwear in the locker room, spread the pics around and Luann was only momentarily embarrassed. Furthermore, she has seen Gunther full-frontal from only a few feet away and was not traumatized. Further, she indulged in makeout sessions with Quill. Further, she’s had access to the Internet for several years and certainly surfed naked images now and then . . . .

   And here she is, so gobsmacked by nudity that she has to sit outside the room where the nudity is going on?

   This is

   1) Stupid

   2) Inconsistent with previous Luann history

   3) Such obnoxious, and, frankly, weird behaviour for a college art student that Luann would be the subject of ridicule by the other students and she would be referred to mental health services by the instructor. I mean it. She’s been in Zebo’s art class for a LONG time now and he’s definitely exposed her to naked art.

   5) potentially a deeply disturbing look at the interior musings of Karen Evans’ brain, if she really is serious. American Taliban anyone? The old “this is a family strip” excuse doesn’t work; first, they don’t have to show the nudity, just show the characters’ reaction to it, and 2) people Luann’s age who’ve been on stage and been in art classes for years DON’T ACT LIKE THIS!

3. about 8 years ago on Luann

   LUANN: Oh, poor Bernice! Why, oh why is she alone?!

   1) When friends, for instance, Tiffany, do favors for her, such as restyle her hair, Bernice is aggressive, abusive, nasty, and ungrateful.

   2) Every time Bernice is alone with Luann, her “friend”, Bernice rags on her, disses her, puts her down, and is in general a critical, front-stabbing, rotten, snarky, buzz-kill jerk.

   3) When a man she’s hot for sleeps over on her couch. Bernice dresses herself up in three layers of clothing, covering herself from neck to feet, places a baseball bat by her bed and locks her bedroom door.

   4) While Bernice is crying about being lonely, a young, single, man of her age, race, and level of education politely asks to sit down with her in a public place while she is being chaperoned by a friend. How much safer can you get? Bernice basically tells him to drop dead.

   5) Bernice diligently patrols the halls of her dorm morning and night, barking, threatening, and leaving notes to full adults that they can’t have friends over, that they cannot have fun, and that they cannot, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, have intimate relations (as if it is any of her business).

   6) The only man Bernice has ever felt a compelling, deep attraction for is her own adopted-out, long-lost . . . . brother!

   Bernice has been portrayed by the Evansii as a conflicted, angry, emotionally-abusive incestuous bisexual harridan.

   That’s why she is alone.

4. about 8 years ago on Luann

   Ooops on the double post. Apologies

5. about 8 years ago on Luann

   So, activist1234, for you, sex is like punching people, eh? God, you’re weird. There is no nobility, no superiority, no morality in resisting natural impulses when there are two consenting adults. As neither Toni nor Brad have shown a single religious impulse, there is no reason not for them to have taken their relationship to physical intimacy.

6. about 8 years ago on Luann

   LUANN: So was Toni referring to virginity in her “white, obviously” remark? That’s the topic today. As the strip is so ridiculously circumspect about sex, one has to look for clues in past iterations of similar situations. And there is a recent similar situation. After three years with Quill, Luann was considering going to New York with him, so the Evanses had Luann’s mom step into the limelight and say,

   “Have you thought about protection? About disease and emotional consequences? What you’d do if the worst happened? Are you prepared to deal with parenthood? Your father and I struggled with this same thing while we were dating and we chose to abstain.”

   And in the light of Mom DeGroot’s “we-waited-until-marriage-to-make-love” speech to Luann, it’s clear that the Evanses and Toni mean that she (and by extension, Brad) REALLY IS a virgin.

   The strip really is that lame and emasculated.

7. about 8 years ago on Luann

   In today’s comic, Toni says to B-wad, “You’re the one thing in my life that make me feel safe, stable, and sane.”

   ????(facepalm)(headdesk)(bodyfloor)

   Ooooookkkay, crazy lady.

   B-wad is the guy who:1) When he’s laid off, doesn’t know he can file for unemployment2) When a toddler in his care goes missing because B-wad’s been thinking about dating funtime, STARTS RIPPING THE WALLS OUT OF THE HOUSE3) While working in a “you-want-fries-with-that” franchise, squeals like a ten-year-old when given the headphones.4) Complains continuously about babysitting his girlfriend’s niece, and somehow translates that complaining into “wanting to adopt” her.5) Rewards and reinforces violent, antisocial behavior in his “niece”.6) Obsesses about bridal arrangements while completely ignoring his girlfriend’s emotional breakdown.

   This is the person who “keeps you sane”? The person YOU JUST RAN AWAY FROM BECAUSE HE WAS DRIVING YOU INSANE?

   LOGIC CIRCUITS FAIL! LOGIC CIRCUITS FAIL!

   DANGER WILL ROBINSON, DANGER!

   Robot waves arms frantically, circuits popping and hissing in a shower of sparks, falls over BOOM!

8. almost 9 years ago on Luann

   @Schrodinger’s Dog – One grope-fest in four years (though a good thing) does not cancel out Luann’s accepting Nancy’s "sex-is-such-a-terrible-and-dangerous-thing-and-you-are-far-too-young rant. Remember that Luann said, “Wow, I just learned a TON in twenty seconds!” And there’s the continued squicky dancing around sex in the strip, (ie. Gunther/Tiffany/Bernice). It’s been four years for Luann and Quill; he left Australia and his family for her; and he and she are 20 years old. It’s not that they HAVE to have sex — it’s just that the question has be addressed in an age-appropriate manner. And it would be good for the strip to do so.

   Having Nancy talk to Luann as though she were fourteen isn’t appropriate and repeating arguments from the 1950’s just isn’t on. Either Luann is in Community College, or Luann is still in Grade 10.

9. almost 9 years ago on Luann

   Hmmp. Sorry for activating the cross-out feature.

10. almost 9 years ago on Luann

    @Pipe Tobacco: Thank you for your perspective. I agree about the relative amount (50-50) of active-copulators vs. feeling-their-way-in-the-sexual-minefield types - I was in University once, too. But the point I wished to make is that the Luann characters are not just “conservative” -- they’re actively dysfunctional in their attitude towards sex. And that’s an unhealthy viewpoint to show to the tweens that Evans writes for.

    For instance, it wouldn’t be hard for the Evanses to non-explicitly write non-judgmentally about various levels of sexual activity (including zero, of course) engaged in by the main and peripheral characters.

    But, again, presenting normal, appropriate sexual activity and/or desires as sick or dangerous does not do their readers a service. For instance, presenting a university dorm filled with adults as having a Sex Policeman (Bernice) is actively deceptive. And I object to that.