Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for January 04, 2013

Now you see it ~ now you don’t. Well you still see it, but not in TJ’s pocket!Ann’s quite the magician – at least relating to misdirection. She’s demonstrating the art of pickpocketing. Annnnnd she probably lied about sending in her resignation.

I hope TJ made a backup of that recording…

In what universe is recording somebody saying “I con smart” enough to get that person fired?

Well she just got your phone TJ, better hope you have it locked or she will delete your recording.

That is called theft and is a crime. Of course, so is blackmail.

The plot thickens! TJ has always been a bit too sneaky for my taste. Overly clever people often get caught in their own traps.

LOL on your comment posted on yesterday’s strip about 40 minutes ago.

@ Leviticus: I added an update to your shameless Ann/Bernice/Brad setup on yesterday’s strip, posted at the stroke of midnight. I think you’ll find it enjoyable, if unexpected. … If you want me to write you honest-to-God Ann/Bernice (or whichever pairing), tell me your email address and whatever you’d want me to include in the story, and I’ll send you something.

@MikeyJ: going to bed now; have to get up early. I’ll post the update to your story later.

Wow, she’s GOOD!!!!

Decoy phone?

Blackmail reversal! Now she has evidence of TJ. She can also re-record what she wants.

We need a good surprise! C’mon Greg!

Knowing TJ, he made more than a few copies, and hid them. A true con ALWAYS has back-up.

Comments keep mentioning blackmail, but I don’t see how offering Ann the chance to save face and resign rather than get fired constitutes illegal blackmail.

You’re replying to Night-Gaunt49’s comment:

I wonder if TJ has switched phones. He has the money to have decoy phones. How does he know she resigned for real?^^She didn’t resign, that was just a con to give her an excuse to get close enough to steal the phone

I’m just trying to imagine these two with off spring. And I SEE their demon spawn being just like…,Just like….,Just like….., OH MY GAW!!!! SHANNON!!!!!

The boss was touching her employee. Sexual harassment charges!

blunebottle said, about 3 hours agoYes, I’m sure the ol’ TJ is smart and on the ball. His plans always have a way of working out……..umm….^^SINCE WHEN? o.0

news at 11, the hacker group anonymous releases info of weenie world. that ain’t meat you have in your mouth.

how about tj knows blackmail is illeagal but ann getting caught on resturaunt security cam stealing from employee is fair game for action.

The recording was not enough to get her fired. But stealing an employee’s phone is.

She will find photos of Brad and Toni!

You’re replying to Leviticus’s comment:

Mikeyj, why would you want to tarnish Puddles reputation like that?^^What about TJ’s Granma? lol

She’s not bad. She’s just drawn that way.

Now tj has a real crime he can pin on her. It’s not hard to prove who the real owner of a cell phone is.

Ok even though TJ isn’t the smartest tool in the shed, whog if wouldn’t make a copy of the recording!?!? He knows that she is very evil and would do something like that. It would be so disappointing if he didn’t do that. If he didn’t make a copy of it, then how will he bring her down? And replying to several comments, I know that TJ can report to the corporate that she stole his phone with the recording on it, BUT how could he prove this? The corporate only has his word about this incident. There are no witnesses to this event as far as we know.

With the price of phones these days TJ can have her arrested for grand theft lol.

In the first sentence I meant to say: who wouldn’t make a copy of the recording.

I gotta agree with Dave53 – I suspect she’d take some NSFW photos of herself to be discovered when SHE files her own complaint.I also don’t think TJ is gonna be out-conned. Ann is smart, but not TJ-smart.

I agree with you yoda1234, TJ always has something up his sleeve. But who knows…. maybe Greg has a surprise for us?

Didn’t know Ann had pickpocket on her list of accomplistments.

Funny!

Sorry. Just messing around with you.

God, I love these two.

maybe she is trying to get him for sexual harassment and didn’t quit after all, and since she has his phone, she will record him now

You go, girl!!

I think TJ got just what he wanted.

I don’t think TJ’s quite that dumb he knows what’s going on!

Geeezzzzz, I can’t believe my Luann redux got pulled o.0 !!!

I can’t draw – so here goes a narrative: AE says to TJ “Lets get this done.”. TJ says “Get what done?”. AE takes him by the hand and they leave out the back door… Last frame (later): Back in the WW office, TJ is bringing in AE’s dry cleaning. AE says (without looking up from her books), “Thank you TJ.”

Well, excuuuuuuuuse me, Mr Moral Majority, but, they were just kissing…. you must be the one who deleted me, right?

Losers never win – and both are losers. T.J’s plans never work out quite right and mostly they fail miserably. I suspect that Ann always ends up in HOT water, and I don’t mean a hot tub. It’s like the old truism goes: Always tell the truth and you’ll never have to remember what you said, but tell lies and you have to remember EVERYTHING you ever said.

Hi, Leviticus. Thanks for updating! You didn’t cause me any problems. It just saw you were pushing for Ann/Brad/Bernice, so I turned it into some weird Brad/TJ thing just for laughs- this is probably how soap operas get written. I was kind of curious to see how you would have Brad react and whether you would salvage the Ann Eiffel thing after all- which is why I deliberately didn’t include Brad’s reaction. But it probably makes more sense to just start this part over. Dang, you actually made Brad getting with Ann believable in this one, and that’s no easy feat. I’ll work on getting an update to your story up. It shouldn’t take long.

And Mr Killjoy strikes again

Here’s my update. I even decided to include Bernice, because I’m that awesome, and because you still want to do this after I subjected you to TJ/Brad.…Call him crazy, but Brad decided to go. Why not? His best friend had just skipped town after being tarred and feathered for the third time this year, and his girlfriend barely spent any time with him. He was bored. As long as he didn’t sign anything, Brad figured he should be fine. Besides, Ann had agreed to do his dry-cleaning. … Still pondering Ann’s mysterious change of heart, Brad headed towards his childhood home to reassure his parents that no, he would not be moving back in with them because his roommate had left and that he made enough as a firefighter to pay rent until he found a new roommate. His dad looked relieved, while his mom looked disappointed. Luann, who had been sitting on the sofa with Bernice, suggested “Why don’t you ask Toni to move in with you?” … Their mother looked scandalized, but Brad wasn’t fazed. His sister asked this same question almost every other week, whether the relationship was on an up or a down. It was lucky that Quill kid had moved back to Australia, or the two of them would have been married by now. “Umm… no,” said Brad, giving his usual answer to the inquiry. … “So, Brad, are you staying for dinner?” Nancy asked, relieved that her son wasn’t considering moving in with Toni. … “Um, no, I’m hanging out with a friend tonight,” said Brad. … “TJ?” Bernice guessed automatically. “I thought he left town.” … “It’s not TJ,” said Brad. … “Do you even have friends besides TJ?” Luann asked rhetorically. “Oh, wait! You’re hanging out with Toni, aren’t you?” … “No, I’m not! Not everything I do has to involve Toni and her bratty niece, you know!” said Brad, louder than he had meant to. … “Alright, geez, take a chill pill,” said Luann. … “Who are you hanging out with tonight?” Bernice asked, trying to keep peace between the brother and sister, which was never an easy task. Brad paused, not sure whether he should tell her or not.

Well, since the comic strip Police decided to pull my strip, just remember. if you want to see it, you can find it on my photobucket at

http://s908.photobucket.com/albums/ac286/shoknifeman/Shoknifeman%202/

If such a venue exists for extensive/random/weird/awesome Luann fanfiction/parody or whatever you want to call it, I’ll post there. Otherwise, you can always ignore it the way I’ve always ignored the extensive legal analysis on “Right to Work” states, whether or not TJ’s evidence is sufficient to get Ann fired, whether Toni’s actually at fault for Shannon biting Ann, along with a whole lot of armchair psychology. I’ve also ignored the occasional troll and the many, many comments that basically repeat the same idea as a previous comment. No offense, but taking all that into account, I’d say the internet owes me one.

I seriously don’t know why they pulled it, it’s no worse than pretty much any episode of 9 Chickweed Lane

HA!

Listen to yourself, TJ. “You can’t con a con.” That’s exactly what you’re trying to do – con a con.

Well, there is the matter of sexual harassment. No employer should have her/his hands on an employee like that.

Ewww… Pibgorn’s nasty.

Good story Lev – However the question of the age of each character keeps coming up. Luann’s peers are still in High School. They may have just turned 18. I like to think they have. Of course if you are writing fiction – it’s your own and we can hopefully assume they’re not kids. I like the ending to your story. AE is NOT a kid…

I know; I wasn’t offended. I was just pointing out that Pibgorn’s nasty and it sucks and I hate it. Probably easier to post risque stuff in your comic than it would be to post that kind of stuff in the comments section. Moral guardians logically wouldn’t visit the nastier comics, while they’re likely to be found in the comments section of a more family-friendly comic. Still, they definitely went overboard taking away the Luann redux. That thing was awesome!

Just like many others here, I think TJ knows very well Ann lifted the phone and let her do so since that’s an unequivocal crime she can be busted for; he has copies of the recording; he can now get her for sexual harassment. What will =she= do with the phone now? Erase the incriminating stuff, for sure. I like the idea that somehow she’d snap lewd photos of herself to be found when the phone is retrieved, but since this strip is relentlessly family rated, nothing spicy like that will ever be done. Maybe when TJ finally gets it back, he’ll find a vampy photo of Ann and a message from her…bets what she might say?

Video surveillance would certainly show their little interaction at the cash register, as others have suggested. I wonder if she could have those erased, or if they’re tamper-proofed somehow? Managers steal, too. Remember the last manager who was stealing from the till and Brad got him caught with the smoking $20 bill? He’d either have to have tampered with the video or there was no video. Corporate could have put video in if there was none before, but is it possible to make it so no one at the store has access?

Thanks, Brdshtt. Sounds like what WW needs to install at the Pittsville location! The managers there are crooks and cons.

Yeah, Lev, give it a rest. We know you hate him. He hasn’t done any such thing, so stop making crap up.

Thinking further on it, I bet there’s no video surveillance at this WW location. Too much crooked activity by two managers now, right smack at the registers. (The old manager was stealing from the till, and Ann is cheating the customers when she’s at the register.) They couldn’t have been messing with so much video so as to cover their tracks, you’d think.

WOW… McLD is one warped fellow ;) lol

LOL! Thank you!

As far as Mikey’s redux, (hopefully, he won’t get mad at me) I am going to take the risk of re – posting it right here myself. I’ve got broad shoulders, I can take it. :) :)^^Well, so long as you do it, I probably can’t be blamed this time

You’re replying to Dave53’s comment:

maybe instead of censorship per se, they might be fearful of running afoul of the copyright^^Seems unlikely as I’ve been doing “fan art” cartoons and reduxes here, on Andy Capp and Dick Tracy, and so far, this was the only thing that got pulled

Lev sez, re: fanfic— “I am open to suggestions.”

http://www.fanfiction.net/

Lev, check out fanfiction.net. You and the other fanwriters can start your own Luann fiction category and write to your heart’s content. Other people will be able to come read your work and comment on it, and others will be able to post their own Luann fic. I’d be interested in seeing what happens with something like that. (I know they don’t already have a Luann category because I’ve checked. ;-)

If you want a place to write and post and comment on hard-core adult Luann fic, you could start a dedicated website for it. People get to it by invitation, whatever you want. Lots of other fandoms have done this, so I understand.

Mikeyj, re: Tiff posting video of Luann’s butt—right you are! I forgot that arc. Good one, guy.

Mikeyj, okay, then the folks who want to write fanlit could simply email each other. The writers are all on a list, you write your chapter, post to that list, and they can comment to the list. Absolutely nothing else would be easier.

I hope it works for you, Lev.

But you can take his decoy phone, eh?

Call the cell phone service, track the phone, and bust her for theft.

Very good, Muxmaster.

Not a problem, Lev. Use a different name.

You could call yourself Leviticus2 or something similarly similar but not exactly the same.

“Then you are sick if you think that is nasty.” … Huh?

“Then I would not know who I was.” … Try “Leviticus1.” I was fortunate to have claimed the name “sideshowstarlet” before anyone else could nab it.

Maybe you can call yourself “Sucitivel.” It sounds vaguely dirty, but it’s just “Leviticus” spelled backwards.

Not based on another work: I’ve heard that you can self-publish for free with Amazon (though I’ve never done this), and they’ll put it in the format of a Kindle ebook. You can either charge for your work or let people read it free.

Sideshow, you’re welcome. If you’ve already posted fic on fanfic.net, you know more about the nuts and bolts than the rest of us. Why don’t you investigate how to start a Luann category and report back to us all? I would, but I’m a total computer moron.

For the people discussing fanfiction.net:

There is a way to suggest a new category quite easily. If you go to the bottom of the fanfiction home page, there’s a link that says “help.” It’ll take you to a page that will tell how to suggest a new category – how soon the new category will appear is questionable. I’ve never actually tried it before, since I write for popular categories (Harry Potter, Doctor Who, etc.) that were already there.

And Leviticus, you asked whether there’s a place for non-fanfiction stories? Fanfiction.net has got a sister site, called Fictionpress.net where you can put them. It’s nothing formal and you won’t get paid for it, but you might get some feedback anyway.

I’ve been a member of FFnet for about 10 years, but, it’s been ages since I posted there, I quit bothering with them after they deleted one of my fics, citing that it wasn’t relevant; my plan was to explain the whole thing in coming chapters, but, when they pulled chap one, I basically told them to shove it

Yay, Pelahnar!

Panel 2: Fanservice. [fans self]

TJ, you doofus.