Luann (comic strip)

Luann
The main cast of Luann, as depicted in a Christmas (25 December 2001) comic strip (from left to right): Tiffany Farrell, Aaron Hill, Gunther Berger, Delta James, Bernice Halper, Luann DeGroot, Nancy DeGroot, Frank DeGroot, Brad DeGroot, Knute, Crystal, and Puddles.
Author(s)	Greg Evans
Website	http://www.luannsroom.com
Current status / schedule	Running
Launch date	17 March 1985 (1985-03-17) (age 26)
Syndicate(s)	United Features Syndicate

Luann is a syndicated newspaper comic strip distributed by United Features Syndicate since 17 March 1985.^[1] Luann is written and drawn by Greg Evans, who won the 2003 Reuben Award as Cartoonist of the Year.^[2]

The strip takes place in an unnamed suburban setting and is mostly about teenager Luann DeGroot, dealing with school, her love interests, family and friends. Some storylines center on other characters in the strip, including her older brother Brad.^[1]

Contents 1 Characters and story 1.1 Main characters 1.2 Love interests 1.3 Other friends, relatives and neighbors 1.4 Antagonists 1.5 One-time characters 1.6 School and faculty 1.7 Emergency Medical Services 1.8 Animals 1.9 Celebrity cameos 2 Topics 3 Aging of the characters 4 Musical 5 Books 6 Footnotes 7 External links

Characters and story

Main characters

Luann DeGroot

The main character of the strip. She is a teenager at Pitts Junior-Senior High School. Luann often suffers from a poor self-assessment of her attractiveness and popularity (especially her large feet). She has also been seen as shallow, self-centered, and very immature.

Bernice Halper

One of Luann's best friends. Bernice is laid-back and observant, but is also portrayed as a pessimist, finding everything in life impossible (except for getting straight A's, according to Luann). In January 2007, Bernice learned that she had an older brother, whom her parents placed for adoption (as they felt they were too young to raise a child), Army Sergeant Ben York, who has been deployed in Iraq.

Delta James

One of Luann's best friends. Delta is portrayed as a go-getter, demonstrated by how she attends dozens of clubs and activities every school year and takes part in volunteering. While Bernice is intellectually wise, Delta is the most politically intelligent in the strip, wanting to go into politics for a career. In 1998, Delta was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma. The following year, Delta received treatment and the cancer went into remission.

Nancy and Frank DeGroot

Luann's parents. Nancy is portrayed as the heart of the family, while Frank provides for it. Frank is usually clueless about what goes on, while Nancy is much more aware of everything. A running gag in the strip is that no matter how many times Nancy tells her to, Luann never cleans her room.

Brad DeGroot

Luann's older brother. Luann usually shows a common snarky sibling attitude toward Brad (and vice versa). He used to work at Weenie World, a hot dog and hamburger restaurant similar to Wienerschnitzel. However, following the events of 9/11, Brad was inspired to become a firefighter. Brad was previously shown to be an out of shape couch potato, but to become a firefighter, Brad worked out to pass his fitness exams, and has since been drawn with a more fit physique and a more well defined jawline. Brad moved into a rental home owned by his parents that he shares with his best friend, T.J., which had been fire damaged by T.J., neglecting a frying pan on the kitchen stove, and was later remodeled. While not working as a firefighter, Brad is shown fixing his dilapidated car. Since becoming a firefighter, Brad's storylines have shared equal, if not more, time than Luann's storylines.

In June 2011, due to budget cuts, Brad was laid off from his fire station, but when another firefighter left, he was rehired in November 2011.

Love interests

Aaron Hill

The boy of both Luann's and Tiffany's dreams. He has been seen to be both vain, thus favoring Tiffany, yet considerate of actual feelings, thereby continuing to spark Luann's interest. To Luann, he is cute and lovable, but mixed up, having once been in love with Diane, who is a few years too old for Aaron. He now lives in Hawaii. In August 2005, Luann won a free trip to Hawaii and visited Aaron, but learned about his new Chinese girlfriend, Lian. He has set up his own MySpace page, and has sent a message to Luann talking about what he had done in Hawaii, including having broken up with Lian, sparking another love craze for Aaron in Luann.

Miguel Vargas

Foreign exchange student from Spain. When he is introduced, a thief tried to steal Delta's purse, but when he made a run for it, Miguel tripped him, stopping him from escaping, which immediately won the affections of Delta. When he began his first day at school, Luann, Delta, and Tiffany all competed for Miguel. Although Miguel loved all three of them, he liked Luann the most, finding her "plain, ordinary" personality much more interesting. When Delta was diagnosed with cancer, Miguel stood by her side most of the time she had to be in the hospital, and gave her a lot of attention, much to Luann's jealousy. To Luann, Miguel was very romantic and gorgeous, but much too pushy. This led to on-and-off romantic interests between him and Luann. He once saved Tiffany's life by performing CPR after she almost drowned in the pool. She showered him with attention, until she used him to steal Gunther's test paper so she could copy the answers. She got caught in the act and charmed Miguel into taking the blame, and claiming he stole it so she could get the answers, even though he had been tricked into it. Despite being betrayed, Miguel took the blame for it and chose to return to Spain.

First appearance: 1998-08-25

Last appearance: 2001-03-14

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 and herself drowned by trying to push Luann down to keep herself afloat. Luann began centering her entire life around connecting with Stuart, to the point of him being the only thing Luann ever talked about. When she took him out on a date as a thanks for saving her from drowning, she truly believed Stuart was the one for her, until Stuart mentioned his wife, Stacey, which broke Luann's heart, and they never even spoke again afterward.

First Appearance: 7/4/2000

Last appearance: 6/16/2001

Gunther Berger

Pitts High School's smartest student with poor fashion sense and gentlemanly qualities. To Luann, he is sweet and sincere, but a doofus. Despite the number of times Luann has heaped disrespect, humiliation, and indignity on him, Gunther often finds himself coming back to Luann, since she's the one girl he's been in love with his entire life. She often hints love interest at him only so that he continues to pursue her, something she enjoys. If he does not, she will get insecure and possessive of him. He has an on-again, off-again romantic interest for Luann at times and for Bernice at other times, seeing as how he has much more in common with her. He had just began to wear contact lenses instead of glasses, attracting Luann in more ways than ever. He joined Luann in volunteering to read to children at the local library, and showed an unexpected facility with sewing, making elaborate costumes based on the story Luann planned to read. Gunther lived with his mother. He showed a good deal of insecurity about his father choosing to desert the family when Gunther was young, and worried that it was because of him. Luann expressed ambivalence about Gunther, but to be a caring and genuine friend, volunteered to help him maintain his home when his mother broke her leg.

Toni Daytona

Brad's girlfriend and fellow firefighter. She joined Brad in all of the Pre-Fire Academy courses, including the CPR and first aid, EMT, and the paramedic classes, until Brad failed the physical exam for Fire Academy the first time, and had to go onto the next one alone. Her boyfriend, Dirk, had grown jealous of Brad and Toni's friendship and became emotionally abusive to Toni and physically violent with Brad, which led to her eventually dumping Dirk. Toni began to trust Dirk again for a short time after he was released from jail, even letting him socialize with her. After Brad had Dirk arrested for violating his restraining order too many times, Brad and Toni stopped speaking for several months. However, after Brad moved out into his rental home, Toni visited Brad on more than one occasion, and since then, they both started to reconnect.

First Appearance: 1/19/2002

In a mid-2009 storyline, Toni, while putting out a fire at a residential house, was climbing a ladder that had become wet from the fire hoses, slipped, fell and was caught by Brad. In so doing, Brad seriously injured himself and was taken to the hospital. As a thanks, Toni offered to stay by Brad's side and look after him and as much as needed until he's fully recovered. During his recovery period, Toni professed her love for Brad: 7/21/2009 In a recent 2010 holiday strip, Toni and Brad are out shopping, during which she has him hold her purse while she buys lingerie, even asking his favorite color (he said blue), which may be a sign that their relationship is heading to the next level.

In June 2010, it was established that her parents died in a car crash, and she and her brother were brought up by their aunt (who is probably married, as in an early storyline, Toni got a used car from her uncle), they moved to Pitts about 4 years ago, and that Toni's brother is the father of Shannon.

Diane

Brad's first love interest. Brad was very confused by her motives and character, and often found himself trying to impress her with shallow gimmicks, but to no avail. A running gag in the strip is that almost every time she greets Brad, when he is working on his car, she startles him and causes him to hit his head on the hood above him. She and Aaron Hill shared a brief relationship once before they both agreed they were too different from each other, particularly age, and ended their relationship with a kiss, which both Brad and Luann saw, outraging both of them. Before she left for the last time, she found she and Brad had very little in common, especially when it comes to Brad's passion for cars.

Last appearance: 2/13/1999

Claudia

Aaron Hill's girlfriend from Texas. She is deaf, but has learned lip reading, to communicate with hearing people. When Aaron first announced to Luann about his relationship with Claudia, Luann accused him of making her up just to make Luann jealous, until he introduced Claudia to her while her mother was on a business trip. While she remained friends with Luann, she grew fed up with Aaron flirting with Tiffany while already in a relationship. While Aaron was often very mixed-up, Claudia saw Aaron's actions as untrustworthy, especially when she saw Aaron hanging on Tiffany. After a year-long relationship, she left Aaron and never returned.

First Appearance: 3/24/2001

Last appearance: 12/11/2001

Zane

Former boyfriend of Bernice Halper and owner of Monroe. Zane became paralyzed from the waist down when he was driving with his parents to a college he was going to attend, they were approaching a curve on the road, and at the same time, a truck was turning to avoid that curve, and collided with Zane's car head on. Zane was thrown from the car, and broke his spine, as well as his legs, causing his paralysis: his parents were killed instantly. It took him a year to fully rehabilitate. He was once saved by Brad in a fire at the bookstore he and Bernice worked at. He and Bernice seem to share a very close relationship; after surviving two near-death experiences. Zane realized his need to deal with the issues of his past he had been ignoring, including his sister, a decision Bernice respected knowing Zane's reluctance to express issues from the past. This also prompted Bernice to ask him to marry her though he told her to wait until they were older. Crystal seemed to be attracted to Zane in 2003 when she introduced Zane to her little brother, Josh, who, like Zane, used a wheelchair. Zane seemed to only consider Crystal a friend despite Bernice's extreme jealousy.

First Appearance: 6/27/2001

Ben York

Bernice's older brother, who appeared in the strip as an army sergeant on leave from duty from the Middle East. Bernice's parents had him in college before they married and decided to give him up for adoption. His adoptive family named him Ben York. He briefly returned to his birth 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 initially felt a bit of jealousy towards Ben for his stature as a soldier, he shortly thereafter felt more respect towards Ben after he mentioned to Brad that he tried to become a firefighter, but could not get through one week of Fire Academy, and that he has full respect for them, and looks up to them as real heroes. Luann, however, developed a crush on Ben. Although after negotiating with Bernice that Ben was not interested in a girlfriend, Luann merely procrastinated, feeling more love for Ben after he e-mailed Bernice and asked for Luann's email. Luann, full of romantic glee, exchanged twelve emails with Ben in just three days, annoying Bernice to the point of her demand that any further email exchanges cease.

While on a mission in Iraq. Ben suffered a broken leg, allowing him to discontinue his service in the army and return home. Though Luann assured Bernice that there was no longer any potential romance between her and Ben, she restarted her love interest in Ben by making a Valentine's Day dinner for Ben. Initially, Bernice showed no objection to Luann's plan, but that was because it turned out Ben was going out of town the night Luann had the dinner planned, much to Luann's disappointment, and annoyance towards Bernice for not telling her in advance.

First Appearance: 1/22/2007

Quill

A Pitts High School senior who moved with his family from Australia. His Dad is a Chemist who is here in a study program. Quill's arrival once again stirred Luann's rivalry with Tiffany, as she is attracted to Quill as well. Quill has shown to have more of an interest in Luann with her more caring nature and, as he has observed, a lovely singing voice.

First appearance: 2009-06-22

Elwood Druit

The "Elvis Jr." of Pitts High School. and multi-millionaire, thanks it seems to his Eyez of Zeye game. He is half Luann's height, very arrogant, and is willing to walk in and out on 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 his arrogance. Later he turned up as the boyfriend of Tiffany, who presumably only went out with him because he was, of all things, a millionaire video game creator. Four years later, in January 2009, he returned as a potential contributor for the fee to pay for Delta's flight ticket to D.C. in exchange for Luann going on a date with him. Luann reluctantly agreed, and went with him to a fancy restaurant which he claims he owns. He has subsequently reappeared making passes at Luann, and visiting her at the library where she works (And earning Gunther's contempt). Bernice believes he is a fraud, and has had many strips were she claims to be suspicious of Elwood, as she can find no mention of him or his multi-millionaire status on the internet. In September 2009, Elwood proposed to Luann.

First Appearance: 3/25/2005

Other friends, relatives and neighbors

Knute

The upbeat, skateboarding, class clown and Gunther's best friend. Knute and Gunther often team up to create a working magic show, but often with unsuccessful results. 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. However, in Feb. 2011 they did go on a date.

T.J.

Brad's best friend, who comes up with outrageous schemes, and when they fail, manages to leave Brad holding the bag. However, to everyone's surprise, he is a very gifted gourmet chef. T.J. has disclosed that his mother is deceased, his father was in prison for three years, then set up a bank account for T.J. before leaving the country to Argentina. Although he and Brad have moved back into the rental home since it has been repaired, he has formed bonds with the DeGroot family.

Rosa Aragones

A relatively new girl at Pitts High School when she was first shown. 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, leading Luann to wonder 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. She appeared again in the Pageant storyline of March/April 2011.

First Appearance: 9/5/2006

Mrs. Horner

An elderly lady who Luann visits from time to time and frequently gives her candid advice. In March 2006 she moved out of her old home and into a new retirement center, but needed the help of Luann, who asked Bernice, Brad, and Toni to help her move out. Dirk followed Toni to the home, and to impress and be near Toni, helped the moving job finish faster; however, when he picked up Mrs. Horner's clock, an envelope full of money fell out, which Dirk pocketed, intending to steal it. 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 later sold her old home to Nancy and Frank, who began renting to Brad.

First Appearance: 7/16/2001

Eddie Munter

The new manager of Borderline Books, who replaced Ann Eiffel after she was unwillingly transferred. While Munter is normally very humorous and goodhearted, 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

Shannon Lewis/Daytona

Toni's bratty, short-tempered and disrespectful 5 year old niece, and daughter of Toni's brother (as established in early June 2010). Luann used to babysit Shannon Lewis and her little cousin, Lindy, back in 1996, however quitting due to Shannon. She reappeared as Toni's cousin according to script of 2008, but in June 2010 it was established that Toni's brother is her father, and thus Toni's niece. She is used to getting what she wants by whining or throwing temper tantrums, possibly due to her father ignoring his responsibilities as a father each time he leaves Toni to watch her for him. Toni's continuous duty of babysitting Shannon has unfortunately reduced the amount of time Brad and Toni have to see each other, given that their schedules at their stations have kept them busy enough. Shannon seems to have a strong liking for Brad, and always looks forward to seeing him (Even though the feeling's not mutual for Brad). On Greg Evan's blog, he states that the Daytona Shannon is not the same as the Lewis Shannon, but hints that they may be related.

First Appearance: 1/8/1996

Antagonists

Tiffany Farrell

Popular and beautiful but vain and shallow cheerleader who serves as Luann's main rival. As Miss Chamber of Commerce, she also used to go by the name Sheraton St. Louis, evocative of real-life socialite Paris Hilton, but has gone back to her natural name. There has been hints that at one time, when both Luann and Tiffany were still in Elementary school, they used to be good friends, but that changed once they got to Junior High school. Luann and Tiffany formerly battled over the affections of Aaron Hill, but once Aaron moved to Hawaii, they found that their rivalry extended to issues beyond competition for one boy. Often, she has been seen ruining love relationships between Luann and Aaron, or Luann and Miguel, or both, either for her own amusement or to take Aaron or Miguel for herself. In March 2003, Luann and Tiffany formed a brief friendship after winning a volleyball game as a team, which shortly fell apart due to their chronic rivalry over Aaron. Tiffany used her cell phone camera to take a picture of Luann changing in the girls locker room. Initially, she tried to blackmail Luann, but when Luann would not budge, Tiffany posted the photo on the internet, embarrassing Luann. With Gunther's help, the photo showed Tiffany's reflection in Luann's locker door mirror, providing the proof of Tiffany's transgression and causing her to be suspended. In January 2008, she had her title of Miss Chamber of Commerce repealed for her role in TJ's scheme to sell meals to fire stations. In 2011 she staged a School beauty pageant thinking she would win. Her plan backfired when the judges chose Rosa. Crystal helped comfort her after the pageant by showing her the new mirrors that the pageant paid for.

Crystal

Tiffany's best friend though not exactly an antagonist. Crystal wears Goth makeup and clothing, almost the exact opposite of the upbeat, trendy fashion of Tiffany. In October 2000, she and Knute seemed to share mutual affection, but they deny it due to how different their personalities are. However, there are hints of lingering affection between them. She has a handicapped brother named Josh, who looks up to Zane as a mentor. She and Bernice formed a rivalry for Zane's affection, similar to the rivalry between Luann and Tiffany. When Zane began mentoring her brother Josh, she developed a crush on him. During this time, she attempted to occupy as much of Zane's free time as possible leaving him none to spend with Bernice, which added to Bernice's insecurity at the time. She is not quite as underhanded as Tiffany and rarely takes part in Tiffany's schemes, though she usually provides support for them. In an 8-16-03 strip she is shown with a star tattoo on her back.

First Appearance: 7/12/2000

Dirk

Toni's jealous former boyfriend, who, like Tiffany to Luann, serves as Brad's main rival, and who has been both emotionally abusive toward Toni and physically violent to Brad, and often had severe anger problems (Possibly stemming from taking steroids). The grudge between him and Brad began when Brad drove off with Toni and away from him one night, and Dirk chased after them and ended up crashing and would have died, had it not been for Brad who rushed to his aid and resuscitated him in time. Since then, Dirk had become very insecure with Toni, a foreshadowing of their eventual break-up. After striking Brad at his Fire Academy Graduation Ceremony, he was arrested and a restraining order was issued ordering him to stay away from Brad. Following his release from jail, he took a mandatory anger management course, but he has continuously violated the restraining order (since October 2005). Unwilling to accept Toni dumping him, he continuously stalked her and tried to impress her with shallow gimmicks to try to win her back. In the beginning of May 2006, he was sent back to jail because Brad called the police on him for violating his restraining order.

Dirk returned to the strip as a garbage collector on 09/06/2010 but claims to be working that job only until he starts at the police academy. His true intentions are unknown at this time.

First Appearance: 6/19/2003

Derek

Bernice's first love interest. Derek first hit on Bernice and asked her to let him store his gym clothes in her locker. Unaware that Derek only hit on her so he could hide his stash of marijuana in her locker, Bernice fell for him instantly. Things changed, however, when Bernice discovered the marijuana in Derek's bag while going through her locker, and was about to turn him in until he "seduced" her with a kiss. While giving Bernice a ride home, Derek almost crashed, having overdosed on marijuana. Fed up, Bernice left the car, and even dumped his stash of marijuana on the curb. He has not appeared in the strip since then.

The intentions of this storyline were to teach the importance of saying NO to drugs.

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 of their relationship and even threatened to fire them if they continued seeing each other. Bernice initially suspected Eiffel of trying to seduce Zane, when actually she might have been interested in Bernice.^[3] Eiffel often interrupted Bernice's tasks by making Bernice bring her lattes, whether it was to keep her away from Zane, or just to heap pointless busywork on her. For firing Zane, Bernice developed a very rebellious attitude, which led to Eiffel increasing her potential threats, until Borderline CEO Jim Hernandez, who knew Zane very well, arranged to transfer Eiffel to the new bookstore in Tokyo, Japan as a means of retaliation for the treatment of her employees, and for the sexual harassment policies she violated. On 7/12/2011, she resurfaces as the manager of the local Weenie World restaurant, where Brad has applied for work after being laid off at the Fire Department as lowest seniority employee. On 8/3/2011, her name is revealed to be a pun on the common phrase, "an eyeful," by Brad's girlfriend, Toni.^[4] This was actually revealed in the strip on 2/19/02 by Luann in a conversation with Bernice ^[5]

First Appearance: 1/24/2002

One-time characters

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 had broken up. First Appearance: 8/11/2005

School and faculty

Mr. Fogarty

The school history teacher. He secretly loves Miss Phelps. Mr. Fogarty's character was created before Luann. His character starred in Fogarty, which was distributed free of charge to several high school newspapers in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

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. Usually his face is never seen, only his hands when they are placed on his desk. His face may have been seen in a flashback as Luann's elementary school principal in the 10/9/2002 and 10/10/2002 comics, but it is unknown whether this is the same Principal Hightower, or perhaps a relative or someone with the same last name.

Emergency Medical Services

Captain

The disciplined, straight-forward, and hard-nosed Firefighter Captain of Fire Station #3, and Brad's superior officer. Brad first met him when he began the physical exam for Fire Academy. He has assigned Brad and Toni to take Reddy to local schools on more than one occasion, and has assigned Brad to his tasks of his rank as a firefighter. After a firefighters' ball was announced, the Captain was speaking to someone on the phone and saying he planned to take Toni with him. However, he was referring to taking his friend, Tony Gale; which is somewhat ambiguous, as (in the next strip) Brad remarks, "So the captain's..." -- "not asking me," Toni interrupts. Whether Tony is a male or female is left to the reader's imagination, apparently.

In a recent 2011 storyline, due to budget cuts, the Captain had to let one firefighter go, and because Brad was the most recent hired firefighter, the Captain, very regretfully, had to let him go, until the departure of another firefighter resulted in an opening.

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 Fire Station Captain, his name is not given.

First Appearance: 8/3/2002

Animals

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 to demonstrate the importance of fire safety. Brad provides the voice for Reddy and uses Reddy as a means to flirt with Toni. Brad has also used Reddy as a means to speak more openly with Toni. When Brad turned in Dirk and was arguing with Toni about it, he expressed his frustration through Reddy leading to an embarrassing encounter during a school presentation. Afterward, he told the Captain he no longer wants to perform as Reddy to create space between him and Toni.

First Appearance: 6/6/2005

Cuddles

Luann's cat, an addition to the strip (the storyline has Frank DeGroot being allergic to cats; thus, Luann must keep the two separated). 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 have cuddled and slept together a few times. Cuddles' original name was Sassy, until Mrs. Horner found a better name as Cuddles.

First Appearance: 11/1/2005

Celebrity cameos

• Clay Aiken^{Here [6]}
• Jay Leno and Ben Affleck^{Here [7]}
• Hugh Hefner^{Here [8]}
• Barack Obama^{Here [9]}
• Luke Perry
• Bill Gates^{Here [10]}
• Ricky Martin^{Here [11]}

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.^[1] Evans has 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. 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.^[12]

Aging of the characters

From 1985 to 1999 Luann was vaguely in the eighth grade in the Pitts school system. According to Evans's blog, Luann was 13 in 1999. This younger era of Luann focused on topics among children in junior high school and within Luann's family at home. Since 1999 Luann has been slowly aging from 15 to 16 years old at perhaps the rate of one Luann month per one reader year, though this opposes what Evans has said on his blog.^[1]

Musical

In 2006, Evans—with the help of arranger and orchestrator Justin Gray—wrote a musical based on the comic strip, titled Luann: Scenes In A Teen's Life, produced by Center ARTES and performed at the California Center for the Arts in Escondido, California. It was performed by local drama students from Rancho Buena Vista High School. And original cast recording, titled Scenes In A Teen's Life, was made. In March 2008, Palomar College, in San Marcos, California performed this musical. It was the musical's college theater debut. Luann: Scenes In A Teen's Life was next scheduled to be performed by Huntington Beach Playhouse in August 2008. Its South San Diego High School debut is scheduled for May 2010.^[13]

Books

There are 22 books featuring Luann:

Title	Publication Date	Publisher	ISBN
Meet Luann	1986	Berkley Books	ISBN 978-042508878-4
Why Me? (Luann, No 2)	August 1986		ISBN 978-042508879-1
Is It Friday Yet? (Luann, No 3)	January 1987		ISBN 978-042509420-4
Luann: Who Invented Brothers, Anyway?	June 1989	Tor Books	ISBN 978-081257225-4
Luann: School and Other Problems	August 1989		ISBN 978-081250208-4
Luann: Homework Is Ruining My Life	December 15, 1989		ISBN 978-081250635-8
Luann: So Many Malls, So Little Money	July 1990		ISBN 978-081250987-8
Luann : Pizza Isn't Everything But It Comes Close	January 15, 1991		ISBN 978-081251174-1
Luann: Dear Diary, The Following Is Top Secret	August 15, 1991		ISBN 978-081251416-2
Luann : There's Nothing Worse Than First Period P.E.	March 15, 1992		ISBN 978-081251731-6
Luann: Will We Be Tested On This?	January 15, 1992		ISBN 978-081251729-3
Luann: School's Ok If You Can Stand The Food	November 15, 1992		ISBN 978-081251733-0
Luann: I'm Not Always Confused, I Just Look That Way	January 15, 1993		ISBN 978-081251734-7
Luann: My Bedroom And Other Environmental Hazards	March 15, 1993		ISBN 978-081251735-4
Luann: If Confusion Were A Class I'd Get An A	January 15, 1995		ISBN 978-081251732-3
Sometimes, You Just Have to Make Your Own Rules	April 1998	Rutledge Hill Press	ISBN 978-155853616-6
Luann	September 1998		ISBN 978-155853667-8
Passion! Betrayal! Outrage! Revenge!	October 1, 1999		ISBN 978-155853787-3
Luann, Curves Ahead	September 2003	Andrews McMeel Publishing	ISBN 978-074073950-7
Luann 2, Dates And Other Disasters	September 2004		ISBN 978-074074664-2
Luann 3, Sixteen Isn't Pretty	August 2006		ISBN 978-074076193-5
Seriously...: Luann #4	August 2008		ISBN 978-074077362-4

Footnotes

External links

• Official site
• Greg Evans' blog

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