Luann is an odd mix of stasis and evolution.
Over the near-30 years of its existence, Greg Evans has periodically moved the strip forward from its roots when Luann was a little kid to the current period, in which she is a high-school junior. These moments have included changes in both her age and some plot points.
As part of one such leap, for example, he sent her long-time-to-the-point-of-tiresome crush Aaron Hill packing off to Hawaii and also dealt with the fact that dreamy exchange student Miguel could not logically stick around year after year.
And some changes have come not in leaps, but in the form of progressions, such as when, following 9/11, he turned brother Brad from a slug to a firefighter and, as things progressed, someone with a sense of responsibility and even a modicum of wisdom, coupled with a continuing ability to screw up when called upon to do so.
He also gave Brad a new-style girlfriend, there being a division between the more cartoonish artistic style of long-established characters and the finer features of more recent additions to the cast.
But, those dynamic changes aside, he shows a casual disdain for day-to-day continuity such that, not only do the established characters retain their established artistic style, but not every experience brings much of a lesson and Luann is more or less always Luann.
And, while the strip is set more in the real world than in a fantasy realm of talking animals and such, there are times when it takes a comic-strip rather than strictly realistic approach to things.
There have been times that this has been disorienting for finicky readers, and, about a decade ago, the strip happened to go through a particularly inconsistent story arc that brought it some heavy on-line criticism, which more or less coincided with the time I interviewed Greg Evans.
Mention of which prompted the sudden, daunting question from him, "Wait a minute. Are you that 'Mike Peterson'?"
Whoops. Yeah.
But we then had a pretty good conversation about the role strict continuity plays in what is known as "the Luanniverse," and the answer was that he doesn't agonize over it and you probably shouldn't either.
Notwithstanding which, he may have paid some attention to the on-line shellacking that particular storyline took, because he has certainly tightened things up since.
Still, the strip moves forward in its own way, telling its own stories at its own pace, with its own sense of logic and continuity.
Which is fine. I mean, I love comics and I take the art form seriously, but it is, after all, a freaking comic strip and you'll enjoy comics more if you judge them in that context rather than against great literature and classic art.
You'll never enjoy a really good burger if you insist that it ought to be haute cuisine.
Though I do like the Charles Schulz reference Evans made in that interview, "It's like Sparky once said, a comic strip is like writing 'War and Peace' 20 words at a time."
One difference being that Leo Tolstoy didn't have Natasha Rostova leaning over his shoulder as he wrote, and Karen Evans, who inspired the character of "Luann," has now taken a larger role in the creative part of the strip, which may explain a subtle change in tone over the past year or so.
Karen talks about her work on the strip on this blog entry, and, while she doesn't go into a lot of detail, it's interesting to gain a little insight into a strip that doesn't pretend to high art or immortal insight and yet has enough of a sense of responsibility to readers to refresh what insights it does offer.
After all, Evans is about my age, and I've got a granddaughter Luann's age, and, if she didn't live nearby, I wouldn't have the slightest idea what kids her age are actually talking about and doing.
Which is the sort of moldy perspective that leads to tiresome gags about saggy jeans and, y'know, like, adolescent, um, verbal tics, which is a much more serious flaw in a strip than the occasional stretch in someone's motivation.
Greg -- and now Karen -- Evans consistently serve a darn good burger.
Luann is a major strip with its own substantial cadre of fans and I think much of its appeal is that it combines the comfortable familiarity of old-faithful strips in which nothing ever changes with the more dynamic storylines of continuity strips in which actions have consequences and characters continually grow and change.
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