Luann (comic strip)

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Luann is a syndicated comic strip, distributed in newspapers by United Features Syndicate since March 17, 1985, featuring the ups and downs of life for a typical American teen-aged girl, Luann DeGroot. Luann is written and drawn by Greg Evans, who won the 2003 Reuben Award as Cartoonist of the Year.

Contents

[edit] Characters

Luann DeGroot
The main character of the strip. She is a teenager at Pitts High School; the official setting of the strip remains untold. Luann often suffers from a poor self-assessment of her attractiveness and popularity (especially her large feet), when in fact she actually scores quite well in both areas. Often, she has been portrayed as being selfish, 'expecting the world to be hers, but gives nothing in return', demonstrated by how she ignored certain guys like Gunther, and expected him to favor her anyway, and often flirted with other guys, even though she's in love with Aaron Hill, and still expects him to give his love to her. She doesn't believe she has any Dutch blood in her but loves the wooden shoes equated with its culture.

First Appearance: 3/17/1985

Bernice Halper and Delta James
Luann's two best friends. Delta is portrayed as a go-getter, while Bernice is more laid back and observant. In 1998, Delta was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma. The following year, Delta got the necessary treatment and the cancer was removed, and she was in remission. In January 2007, Bernice learned that she had an older brother, Army Sergeant Ben York, whom her parents had given up for adoption in their college days.
Nancy and Frank DeGroot
Luann's parents. Frank is portrayed as clueless to a point while able to point things out, while Nancy is portrayed as more aware of what is happening but not able get through to her children.
Brad DeGroot
Luann's older, thickheaded and sloppy, but soft-hearted brother. Luann usually shows a lack of respect toward Brad (and vice versa), who for most of the strip was portrayed as lazy and aimless. He used to work at Weenie World, a hot dog and hamburger restaurant similar to Wienerschnitzel. However following the events of September 11th, 2001, Brad has decided to drop the lazy, worthless couch potato' stature and take the entire course necessary to become a firefighter, which has earned more respect from Luann. This is where it all began for Brad to become a firefighter. His recent adjustment in the strip has resulted in a near parallel storyline that has given him almost equal time as Luann in the strip's storylines.

In recent strips, Brad has finally moved into the new Horner house as it's new renter. Despite a few unapproved renovations that violated his rental agreement, he was successful in maintaining the house.

Tiffany Farrell
Popular and beautiful (although vain, ditzy and superficial) cheerleader, who serves as Luann's main rival. As Miss Chamber of Commerce, she also goes by the name Sheraton St. Louis, a name evocative of real-life socialite Paris Hilton. Luann and Tiffany formerly battled over the affections of Aaron Hill, but once Aaron moved to Hawaii, they found that their rivalry extended to topics beyond competition for one guy. In March 2006, Tiffany ran for Miss Chamber of Commerce, and assumed a new name by Sheraton St. Louis.
Crystal
Tiffany's best friend. Crystal wears goth makeup and clothing, almost the exact opposite of the shallow fashion- and looks-obsessed Tiffany. She has a handicapped brother who looks up to Zane as an older brother. In October 2000, she and Knute seemed to share feelings for each other, but by very little on account of how entirely different they are. She and Bernice once formed a rivalry, battling over the love of Zane, similar to the rivalry between Luann and Tiffany.

First Appearance: 7/12/2000

Aaron Hill
The boy of both Luann's and Tiffany's dreams. He has been seen to be both vain, and thus favors Tiffany, and considerate of actual feelings and thus continues to spark interest in Luann. He lives in Hawaii now. In August 2005 Luann won a free trip to Hawaii and visited Aaron, but learned about his new Chinese girlfriend, Lian. He has recently set up his own MySpace page, and has sent a message to Luann talking about his recent events in Hawaii, including having broken up with Lian, sparking another love craze for Aaron in Luann.
Miguel Vargas
Foreign Exchange Student from Spain. He once saved Tiffany's life by performing CPR after she almost drowned in the pool. She showered him with her love, until she used him to steal Gunther's test paper so she could copy the answers. He took the blame for it and in so doing, chose to return to his home country for a better life.
Stuart
Lifeguard at the Pitts Public Pool. He once saved both Luann and Tiffany from drowning in the pool (after Tiffany, in a panic, almost got Luann drowned, who had been trying to save her). She grew some love interest in Stuart after that and even asked him out on a date. She was willing to take the next step with Stuart until he mentioned his wife, which broke Luann's heart, and they never even dated again afterwards.

First Appearance: 7/4/2000

Gunther Berger
A highly intellectual student with poor fashion and gentlemanly qualities. He has an on-again, off-again romantic interest in Luann at times and in Bernice at other times. He has recently gotten contacts in replacement of his glasses, attracting Luann in more ways than ever. He joined Luann in the volunteer reading jobs at the local library, which earned even more of Luann's interest in Gunther.
Knute
The upbeat, skateboarding, class clown and Gunther's best friend. In the story, Knute and Gunther often team up to create a working but often unsuccessful result. He and Crystal have shared feelings for each other but never showed much more than that, finding they are the exact opposite of each other in every way.
Elwood
The "Elvis Jr." of Pitts High School. His first appearance was here He is half Luann's height, has a very cocky attitude, and is willing to walk in and out of any woman at anytime he pleases. He once accepted Luann's offer to take him to the Spring 2005 Dance, until he 'was asked by someone better', but then went back to Luann once again to go with her, who turned him down for turning her down. He was a character created for several story arcs, and hasn't appeared since these stories ended.
Mr. Fogarty
The school history teacher. He secretly loves Miss Phelps.
Miss Phelps
The school guidance counselor. She secretly loves Mr. Fogarty.
Miss Allison
The school P.E. teacher. She, like all other fitness teachers, is very tough and hard-nosed with her students. Out of all the teachers Luann knows well at Pitts High School, Miss Allison seems to be the only one Luann looks up to as a mentor figure.
Principal Hightower
The principal of Pitts High School. His name practically speaks for itself when referring to how high he is above the faculty. His identity is never seen, except for his hands when they're faced down on his desk.
T.J.
Brad's best friend, who comes up with outrageous schemes, and when they fail, manages to leave Brad holding the bag. Nearly every time he goes off the strip and returns, he always replies with 'here. there' or 'had things to do.' Known for usually being a very sarcastic smart aleck with Brad. After Brad ended his friendship with Toni Daytona, TJ considered trying his luck with Toni, despite his best friend's advise against doing so, telling him he would only receive a heart break from Toni and, shortly thereafter, a face break from Dirk. Although it remains unconfirmed, it is most certain he has chosen not to go through with hitting on Toni. He has now returned to help Brad move into his new rental home, but not only talked Brad into repainting the living room walls, but he even cut a door hole in the wall in order to provide an easy tv-to-fridge door (Much to Brad's outrage). However, he perfected the new door, much to Brad's and Nancy and Frank's amaazment. In exchange for his services, TJ is now talking to Brad about becoming his roommate.
Captain
The Firefighter Captain of Fire Station #3, and Brad's superior officer. Brad first met him when he began the physical exam for Fire Academy. While his name remains unknown, he is very straight-forward, disciplined, and 'tough-as-nails'. He has assigned Brad and Toni to take Reddy to local schools on more than one occasion, and has assigned Brad on the simple tasks of his rank as a firefighter.

First Appearance: 6/7/2004

EMT Supervisor
Brad's supervisor during his 6 months of EMT service before taking his Paramedics class. As gracious as he was about Brad fearlessly saving Zane from dying in the fires of the Borderline Bookstore, he had to file a reprimand on Brad's record for violating safety rules, acting outside his training scope, and not wearing proper safety gear. Like the Firestation Captain, his name is not given.

First Appearance: 8/3/2002

Toni Daytona
Brad's neighbor and semi-unrequited love interest (and now fellow firefighter). She joined Brad in all of the Pre-Fire Academy courses, including the CPR and First Aid, EMT, and the Paramedics classes, until Brad failed the physical exam for Fire Academy the first time, and had to go onto the next one alone. She seems to have shown some love for Brad, but whether it is real love or just friendship has remained unknown. Her boyfriend, Dirk, had grown much too jealous of their friendship, and became emotionally abusive to Toni and physically violent with Brad, which led to her eventually dumping Dirk. Throughout that year, Toni began to trust Dirk again, even let him socialize with her again, much to Brad's distrust. After Brad had Dirk arrested for violating his restraining order too many times (and for other actions that proved to Brad he's only been pulling an act, but Brad for reasons unknown has not let Toni in on yet), they stopped speaking. After months of not speaking, following a Reddy the Firetruck act which they both ruined, Toni returned to the strip briefly to be helping Brad move into his new home, but left shortly thereafter. Before she did, she left a glove behind with her initials embroided on it. Why she was there, or why she left the glove behind still remains a mystery.

First Appearance: 1/18/2002

Dirk
Toni's jealous former boyfriend, who, like Tiffany Farrell to Luann, serves as Brad's main rival, and who has been both emotionally abusive toward her and physically violent to Brad, and often had severe anger problems (Possibly stemming from taking steroids). Dirk also drives fast cars. The grudge between him and Brad set off in October 2003, when Brad drove off with Toni and away from him one night, and Dirk chased after them and ended up crashing and, had it not been for Brad who rushed to his aid and rescuscitated him in time, would have died. Since then, Dirk had been trying to keep Toni away from him any way possible, even trying to strangle him to death. After striking Brad at his Fire Academy Graduation Ceremony, he was arrested and issued to stay away from Brad and take an anger management course, but continuously violated the restraining order, (since October 2005). In the beginning of May 2006, he was sent back to jail because Brad called the police on him for violating his restraining order. They cannot keep him behind bars forever, so his return to the strip is still in the question.

First Appearance: 6/19/2003

Diane
Brad's first love interest. Brad, like the way he was back in the day, was very confused by her motives and character. Before she left for the last time, she found she and Brad had very little in common. Much like the fate of Lyman from the classic comic strip Garfield, she disappeared from the strip and has not returned since then. This was the last time she ever appeared in the strip.
Claudia
Aaron Hill's girlfriend from Texas. She is deaf, but has learned lip reading, being able to communicate with people better. While she remained friends with Luann, she grew fed up with Aaron flirting with Tiffany while already on a relationship. After a year-long relationship, she left Aaron and never returned.

First Appearance: 3/24/2001

Lian
Nothing is known about Lian, except that she was Aaron's girlfriend from Hawaii. She was shown only once when Luann went and visited Aaron in August 2005. A year later, Aaron announced to Luann that they broke up.

First Appearance: 8/11/2005

Rosa Aragones
The new girl at PHS. She was born in Washington, D.C., and raised in Italy, France, and Mexico, and can speak English as well as French, Italian, and Spanish, much to Luann's puzzlement of why she's in school. Later that year, she was assisted with her books by Gunther, which sparked jealousy in Luann, which quickly stopped, on account of Gunther helping her only because she hurt her arm carrying her sister into her wheelchair.

First Appearance: 9/5/2006

Mrs. Horner
An elderly lady that Luann visits from time to time. Frequently gives candid advice to Luann. In March 2006 she moved out of her old home and into a new retirement center, but she needed the help of Luann who asked Bernice, Brad, and Toni to help her move her out, but Dirk followed Toni to the home, and in order to impress and be near Toni, helped the moving job finish faster, but when he picked up Mrs. Horner's clock, an envelope full of money fell out, which Dirk looked into and pocketed, intending to steal it, and when he was caught by Brad, he claimed it to be his, but when Brad swiped it at the perfect time to return to Mrs. Horner, Dirk turned his story around and claimed to have found the envelope in the clock and intended to return it to her. He would have been kicked out had Mrs. Horner not believed his lie. She has recently sold her old home to Nancy and Frank, who have begun renting to Brad.

First Appearance: 7/16/2001

Zane
Teenager paralyzed from the waist down. Former boyfriend of Bernice Halper. He was once saved by Brad in a fire. Crystal showed some feelings for her in 2003, but whether Zane really shared mutual feelings is unknown.

First Appearance: 6/27/2001

Derek
Bernice's first love interest. He first asked Bernice to let him store his belongings in her locker. He had anger and impatience problems, even in the presence of Bernice, which stemmed from taking marijuana, which he actually kept in Bernice's locker. While giving her a ride home, Derek almost crashed, have overdosed on marijuana. Fed up, Bernice walked out on Derek, and even dumped his stash of marijuana on the curb. Wherever he is now is unknown. (Note: Not to be mistaken for Dirk; Toni's former boyfriend and Brad's rival)
Ben Halper
Bernice's older brother, who recently appeared in the strip as an army sergeant on leave from duty from the middle east. Bernice's parents had him in college and decided to give him up for adoption. His adoptive family named him Ben York. He briefly returned to his biological family after searching for them on his computer. During the month of his first appearance, the DeGroot and Halper siblings went bowling together. While Brad DeGroot initially felt a bit of jealousy towards Ben for his stature as a soldier, he shortly thereafter felt more respect towards Ben, on account of Ben having tried to become a firefighter, but could not get through one week of Fire Academy. Luann, however, felt a sense of love and passion for Ben, who gave her some bowling tips through minor body contact. Although after negotiating with Bernice that Ben was not interested in a girlfriend, Luann merely procrastinated, feeling more love for Ben after recently emailing Bernice and asking for Luann's email.

First Appearance: 1/22/2007

Ann Eiffel
Former manager of Borderline Books. When she hired Bernice as an employee, Bernice began working with Zane, one of the supervisors of Borderline, Eiffel became very jealous and kept them away from each other as much as possible. Bernice suspected Eiffel of trying to come on to Zane, but when she fired Zane, it turned out Eiffel was extremely feminist, and sexist, and favored Bernice much more. For firing Zane, Bernice developed a very rebellious attitude, which led to Eiffel becoming more forceful to her, until Borderline CEO Jim Hernandez entered the store and transferred Eiffel to the new bookstore in Tokyo, Japan (Who happened to have known Zane very well, and was arranged to remove Eiffel from the store as a means of payback for firing Zane).

First Appearance: 1/24/2002

Eddie Munter
The new manager of Borderline Books, who replaced Ann Eiffel after she was unwillingly transferred. While Munter is normally very humorous and good-hearted, often ending his comments or jokes with "Kidding!", he knows when to be tough and decisive with his employees, earning the respect of Bernice and Zane shortly after he took over.

First Appearance: 7/9/2002

Puddles
Luann's dog, so named for his tendency to wee in the wrong spots.
Monroe
Zane's dog and special canine companion. He is a Golden Retriever and has grown to be a very faithful companion for Zane.
Reddy
The Fire Station Mascot. He is a small, 3-foot, Fire Truck, with a remote controller and a built in speaker connected to a microphone and head set, to appear as though he is speaking with his partner. Brad and Toni have brought him to local elementary schools on more than one occasion in order to demonstrate the importance of fire safety.

First Appearance: 6/6/2005

Cuddles
Luann's cat, a recent addition to the strip (the storyline has Frank DeGroot as being allergic to cats; thus, Luann must keep the two separated). Recently Luann gave Cuddles to Mrs. Horner, to spare her father from his allergies. While Puddles showed some hatred towards Cuddles mainly over territory and attention from Luann matters, he also showed some love as they've cuddled and slept together a few times. Cuddles' original name was Sassy (clearly a reference to the classic novel & film Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey), until Mrs. Horner found a better name as Cuddles.

First Appearance: 11/1/2005

[edit] Topics

The strip has attained a degree of notoriety for its mixing of consideration of real-life topics with the lightness of being a teenager in high school. Evans has occasionally sprinkled in such topics as Luann's concerns about her first menstruation, Dirk's jealousy (which has led to emotional abuse of Toni and physical violence toward Brad), birth control, drunk driving, handicaps, and other social and policy issues that are of interest to young people. Evans drew praise and some criticism in 1998 for a series of strips based around Delta contracting Hodgkin's Lymphoma. After September 11, 2001, the layabout Brad was inspired by the actions of the FDNY to become a firefighter and there have been extended storylines following him every step of the way. (Oddly enough, on November 14, 2001, the satirical newspaper The Onion ran a story supposedly detailing Evans' struggle to address the events of 9/11 in his strip. [1]) Some of Evans' topics show to teenaged readers an inspiring young citizen ideal for teenagers to live up to. Other topics show to adult readers the daily trials and tribulations faced in youth in case the reader forgot or in case things have changed since the reader was young many years ago.

[edit] Specific Storylines

Here are the more famous story arcs of the Luann Strip, along with the time period they took place.

  • Toni & Brad vs. Dirk (In general): 2003 - Present (On & Off) Most recent: 4/27/2006 - 5/12/2006

[edit] Aging of the characters

From 1985 to 1999 Luann was vaguely in the 8th Grade in the Pitts school system. This younger era of the Luann strip focused on topics among children in junior high school and within Luann's family at home. As might be expected, since eighth grade is not exactly the most substantial year in the typical person's life, after a certain number of years fresh topics for Evans were becoming exhausted or trite. Also, by 1999 Luann’s (the comic strip’s) popularity was widespread and broadbased, permitting both a volume of feedback from readers who wanted more of certain topics as well as a certain degree of comfort that the established popularity would buoy a small adjustment to the strip. Also by 1999, distribution of Luann had changed to the current United Features Syndicate, which also welcomed expanding readership of each of their strips.

From 1999 to the present Luann has been slowly aging from 15 to 16 years old at perhaps the rate of one Luann month per one reader year. Based on a comic strip from February 21, 2006, it was revealed that a four week period in the comic strip takes approximately 17 reader weeks (from the start of the Sassy storyline). Luann and her classmates have progressed from Pitts Junior High School to Pitts High School. Luann has learned to drive. Her approximately 19-year-old brother earned his firefighting certification after his graduation from high school. Bernice raised a seeing-eye dog for an organization that helps the blind. Luann and Aaron went out on a real date. None of these storylines could have believably or appropriately been enacted by junior-high students, but do show a look at high school students as emerging young adults who are half filled with childhood and half filled with the real life of adulthood, just as the typical American was at that age.

All attempts at calculating the passage of time are merely for fun, since it is just a comic strip and cannot be bound by real time. Brad's quest to become a firefighter, the raising of a puppy to a trained seeing-eye dog and such events have progressed far faster than they realistically could while Luann remains the same age.

[edit] Luann musical

In 2006, Greg Evans wrote a musical based on the comic strip, produced by the California Center For The Arts in Escondido. It was performed by local drama students from Rancho Buena Vista High School. A cd recording is now in secission.

[edit] Trivia

  • Mr. Fogarty's character was born well before the Luann comic strip. His character starred in "Fogarty," which was distributed free of charge to several high school newspapers in the late 1970s.
  • In this strip, the engraved words on the tombstone read as follows:

- Brad DeGroot - Ran out of luck - Fell in love - Forgot to duck

[edit] External link

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