Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for October 30, 2013

Toni, marry Brad, adopt Shannon, divorce Brad, have the court make Brad take care of Shannon, then get back together with Dirk.

You are right Brad!

“Truth Be Told”or" Adult Supervision Required"

Good intentions, ego setting Bwad up for problems though, and strategies problems. Sad to say this is a projection from personal experience.

How can Greg Evans possibly make this any more heavy-handed? Have Jonah show up drunk, in the company of armed fugitives, with a group of prostitutes waiting in the car?

Toni, when your brother arrives. Ask him if he would mind if you and Brad take Shannon trick or treating. I bet he says no!

No kiddin, man. Go for it. They are gonnahave to get married and adopt thispoor child. You are better, Brad. Wayyybetter.

I do hope there is an adoption in the wings somewhere.

Can’t believe brad’s actually fighting against tony about Shannon it a different universe all the sudden

Hard on Brad’s heart, seeing her likethis.

Even if the parties Jonah goes to are usually on the up and up, I’m sure that Shannon feels stuck in that room, without any good shows on to watch, with no one to have fun with her, and with no way to fuel her imagination…. And then there would be the question of: "Can we leave, now? This is probably repeated for a good, long half hour (this is kid time) which does actually turn into long hours, sometimes… maybe even long, late hours…. – And in one corner of the panel, Brad here thinks he would make a good replacement, but on the other side of the panel, Toni seems to show that she either doesn’t want for them to be the substitutes, or she still holds out hope that somehow her Brother will step up, or maybe she just wishes he would, and she’s trying to give him the chance….

You forgot the rain….

Toni does not want to cause a rift in the family. She doesn’t want to fight with Jonah. Brad doesn’t have that same limitation and is speaking truth (as he sees it). Brad is growing in this strip.

Toni is mad right now, in the extremely short term…after about 10 minutes or so, she’ll realize that things like this are exactly why she said yes to him. And somewhere, Shannon has to be jumping up and down about Brad sticking up for her. Kids have REALLY good hearing. Shannon won’t forget this.

My respect for Brad went up a notch or 50. Jonah is an irresponsible flake who should have used a condom or given Shannon up for adoption when she was an infant. He needs to thank Brad and sign the papers.

I’m going to call it right now (if no one else already has):

This is Chapter 1 in the Brad and Toni Adopt Shannon storyline. Maybe it’ll just be discussed at first…but once those two are married, expect it. Jonah will eventually decide to give Shannon to them.

At least this time he didn’t say anything in front of the child- This also explains her dissociation disorder

She’ll wind up going with her dad, and after the party there’ll be a terrible car accident due to his drinking/drugs and Brad and Toni will be court ordered to take Shannon.

Yeah, I sense an adoption is coming. Brad has not thought this through. If he has a baby with Toni, Shanon will be jealous and dangerous to the kid. Not a good futhre. But it all began with Jonah being selfish

And complete!….

“….So shines a good deed in a weary world…”

Hmmm Brad has good intentions, but, Jonah and Shannon are Toni’s only family, she’s not going to take Brad’s side on this… temporary breakup time?

This strip seems to reinforce my theory that Brad now loves Shannon as much as she loves him… which started in the xmas arc of about a year ago

I agree, that:

1) Brad has grown, in this strip.2) My opinion of him=50+3) They need to adopt this poor child before something dreadful happens to her and (if she lives) is made a ward of the court. Drunk driving, harmed in the bedroom , she is NOT SAFE with him , bio logical father or no.4) Brad knows this. Does Toni?

OR, he could be fine with it. “Whatever.”. Brad has just become a father.

You might be better, but you aren’t her dad. I don’t like the way my brother’s kids are turning out, but they aren’t mine to take!

Oh You Poor, POOR, Child, Shannon!

Here, have some Double Stuffed Oreos and a Glass of Milk and tell Me MORE about this “Adult Party” Your Sorry No-Good P.O.S. “Occasional Dad” TAKES You To.

Now REMEMBER to Speak Directly Into This PlaySkool Tape Recorder Microphone, while I Call the Nice Lady Who Lives In the Wonderful Land Of “Social Services!”

The real issue everyone has neglected so far is that when/if her father shows up, Shannon might really might not want to go trick or treating with him but wants to go with Bwad.

In that case, two things can happen.

1. Jonah takes Shannon kicking and screaming which will get Brad involved and something huge could happen like police are called…

2. Jonah says fine you little #$@ screw you and screw your mother and walks out of her life (at least for awhile) out of Shannon’s life

I’m thinking #1 more than #2. Refer to my post from yesterday. Parents like this are, most often, absolute “control freeks.” Jonah may not care personally about Shannon, but he cares about the control he has over her and over the others that care about her. He won’t give her up. He won’t give up that tax deduction. And, in any case, IIRC, Shannon’s mom is already pretty well “screwed.” She’s dead.

Whatever happens, I truly hope Shannon’s Halloween is not ruined. Halloween is just a mere shell of what is use to be, let alone to have all this drama happen on top of that.

Toni, “Hey Jonah, if you want to drop Shannon off after Trick or Treating we will be here.”Jonah, " Huh? Ok, sure. Thanks."End of drama.

Yeah, rather than this being the start of “adopt Shannon,” maybe it’s the start of “Brad learns that sometimes the kid has to go with her sperm-doner ‘dad’ whether she wants to or not because that’s what the law says she has to do, and neither the kid nor the people who actually care about her can do anything about it except endure and hope nothing bad happens.” Welcome to real life.

This arc has so many possibilities I am blogless. All I know is that Brad has really a strong feeling about this child, as she does for him. How the absent/irresponsible father figures in, and how that affects Toni and Brad is so full of possibility. I agree with most of the bloggers here that the ideal solution is that Brad and Toni take over raising this child, maybe adopting her, but the problem is, as Toni points out, that they are not the parents of the child. Shannon’s dad would have to renounce his parental rights (and by the way what about the mother?) and I doubt he would do that. So, there are lots of ways this story could go. This is one reason why Greg Evans is a brilliant cartoonist. I have been following Luann daily for years because of the way its drawn, both as cartoon art, and as story.

It is incidents like this that shape the child’s emotional being and how they become as adults. If I were a little child by myself forced to stay in the bedroom but could hear adults on the other side of the door, I think I would feel despair, sadness, and loneliness. No sense of security -at least not there anyway or has the trend would show with her dad, no security at any time. Kids learn much from bad situations.

How old is Shannon? They always go go an adult party? How many years has she been trick-or-treating?

Uh Huh, I see what’s coming.

Maybe Jonah’s late because he was in a fatal accident, ending all speculation about Shannon’s future.

A lovers’ spat over Brad’s concern for Shannon, though he has no legal right to intervene against Jonah! This dispute could escalate into a serious, if temporary, rift between Brad and Toni, who seems curiously afraid to confront her worthless brother….

Now THAT was funny!!!!

If Jonah has proven to be incapable of caring for Shannon in any way shape or form and Tony can prove this, then she should make an appeal to a judge for custody. In the mean time…do not fight or argue in front of the child. She probably gets enough of that while with her dad.

Interesting Jonah ark… I mean, arc.

The best alternative is Jonah doesn’t show, or calls to say he can’t come, and Toni and Brad take Shannon trick or treating.

Over the years Brad has gone from a sloth of a teenager to a responsible, level headed adult. Brad will make an excellent father to Shannon.

Thank you, Greg.

Brad is trying to be gallant, but he’s overstepping his boundaries. Toni’s right, she’s not the mother. She can try to give Shannon stability.

I see Jonah abandoning Shannon in the future, then Toni and Brad can be her legal guardians. Maybe later adopt.

Brad can always let Shannon and Toni know by his actions that he’s always there for them.

Easy solution. Arrange to meet at the party and take Shannon home.

And to add to this, she also said: “We are not her parents”. Perhaps she is trying in “subtle” ways to communicate to Brad that she loves Shannon, but doesn’t yet want to put the direct responsibility on herself of being a full time “mother”, yet, while Brad may not have a problem in becoming a “father” (or at least a surrogate father) sooner rather than later? – And perhaps she is hoping that Jonah will change, and she can “be relieved” of the extra role she has had to take on, one that she has done to this point, because it has meant a child can get care, but one that perhaps she wouldn’t necessarily rush to, if given a choice where Shannon would be able to get the proper care somewhere else (ideally from her father, or if were possible, with the aid of another fleshly kin)…. – Perhaps, in summation, Toni is subtly trying to communicate that she is not ready for the role of being a full time mother, and is hoping that Jonah will step up to his responsibilities, even baby steps at a time, and Brad has no reservations about taking on a “full time parental role”, if need be…. and perhaps this will be one of those sources of conflict. as Greg was hinting at, to come…

Let Brad take Shannon trick or treating for a fun change.

they could go to court forcustady

Heaven forbid a parent ask a child to do something they don’t like or doesn’t make sure she’s entertained 100% of her life.

And even though Jonah has had a track record of being “flaky”, it doesn’t mean that he has necessarily taken her into dangerous environments… the parties could be tame, they could be with people who are the "wine and cheese’ crowd (a bit of hyperbole, to make the point that they may not be swinging from chandeliers, breaking stuff) and it’s just that Shannon never gets to play with anyone her age there, maybe is just “rushed” into a bedroom with perhaps a TV, but little else for a child to do, and especially no interaction from her father, while he spends time with adults… – Maybe that’s where the source of her acting out has come from, the fact that her father never “nurtures” her, but especially gives her neither structure, nor attention, and she had no friends to play with much…

Done that scenario already

The brother may not actually show up. He may be out of the picture totally, and Brad and Tony may get Shannon with no challenge. Kids still love their parent, even bad parents. I hope Shannon is not traumatized by the loss of her father.

It was Luann smirking, not Brad. Otherwise, you’re right. First it was Dirk, then Shannon, and now it’s her brother. Toni can put out fires and fix a car like nobody’s business but can’t even be in charge of HERSELF. She’s letting people walk all over her and she can’t even see the irony of that.

Brad, Ok, split the difference, dad takes Shannon trick or treating, then back to aunt and soon to be uncle while dad goes out to be stupid and irresponsible…sounds like a situation very near to one in my family at the moment

Toni should think about this: Look how Dirk turned out after she dumped him. It’s time for Jonah to receive the same treatment. Someone’s been living off of others for too long. Besides, Brad has one thing Jonah will never have, more family for Shannon to hang out with and learn from

Unfortunately, in the real world, that isn’t enough. If Jonah shows up and they aren’t there, he can actually get police to pursue them for ‘interfering with the custody of a minor’. Unlikely that he would, since he needs Toni to take care of Shannon most of the time so he doesn’t have to be bothered, but the reality is, what the child wants doesn’t always seem to matter in the eyes of the law.

Thank you!

Or maybe the scene shifts to an ocean, with a storm-tossed sailboat. A bunch of sailors pitch one guy, who turns out to be Jonah, overboard, and the storm stops. In the last panel, a huge whale (fish?) leaps out of the water and swallows Jonah. Problem solved!

I might suggest that, rather than being unready to be a mother to Shannon, Toni might be TIRED of being mother. ^That’s what I was saying, too. But I wasn’t saying she wasn’t ready to be a mother to Shannon, as she already has been “forced” into that role…. I was saying that she might not only be tired of having to “clean up” for Jonah, in taking care of Shannon, but also that maybe she might not yet want to have kids of her own right away, since she has had to go through this with her fleshly family, whereas Brad hasn’t been where she has, and may be ready sooner, if/when they can get to that point of starting a family once they’ve married… this seems to be the seeds for a new source of storyline, even beyond this immediate situation….

Now, I generally refrain from making predictions, but I just sort of sense that the situation unfolding in the next few days may be the beginning of Brad & Toni being Shannon’s surrogate parents…

Also, since Jonah Daytona has been presented as being the irresponsible type, it would not be beyond the bounds of possibility that he could abandon Shannon with Brad & Toni, and pull a disappearing act!

… even if what they are saying might seem unimportant to you, but to the child, whatever they are telling you is probably the most important thing to them at that moment. ^Usually when we have any of the children in our family (including in laws) we teach them to not “interrupt” by just barging in, but to politely say “excuse me”, in the same way we as adults should learn (I italicized that for a reason, Lol!)… sometimes, they just want to feel a part of the group, and so try to speak… or may be trying to “feel their way out in the world”… sometimes, we adults can get on a roll and don’t want to be interrupted, but I always find myself having to remember basically the same thing that you are referring to: "The need for a child to express themselves (of course, with all due appropriateness for each situation considered, and not meaning to just listen passively and condescendingly, and there are some times when adults must enforce certain things, as well)… – And so, when one of them goes “Guess what? Guess what?” As we adults may be discussing something entirely different, I have to stop and say: “Wait one second”, finish up my sentence and say: “I’m sorry, go ahead!” or have to stop and keep track of my thought and let them have their say (and sometimes as busy people, that may be the one opportunity to help mould/guide them, as they grow up, too!) and may find that what they’re saying is a welcome, delightful break, or may somehow fit in with what we were speaking of, to begin with… they have some insights, too! – Sometimes, it seems that this is part of the problem, why some grow up feeling unable to communicate or express themselves properly in society, because of just what you’ve said, that no one took the time to “value what they are saying”- because it does matter to them …. and as they become teens and eventually adults, they remember those things, how “so and so” treated them when they were younger.. it may just help them to open up lines of communication with you and find one more person to confide in, in this world, maybe even helps them find creative ways to express themselves, and maybe also for some, to not get frustrated or resentful in society….

Toni just said, merely a strip or two ago, that ‘Jonah is always late’. A person ‘always late’ ‘always’ has an excuse for why that is. Poor shmoe??? Wow, talk about revisionist history.

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He is a poor schmoe. People here are pillorying him, accusing him of all kinds of awful stuff, when we haven’t seen anything of the sort (drunkenness, etc.) and we don’t know ANYTHING about the situation he is working with. I assume he goes to some kind of WORK and has to do everything associated with running a household as a single parent. Of course the kid’s going to be with others besides him during the course of many different days. She has to be. People in his situation often turn to relatives to babysit. It’s not easy being a single parent, he cared enough about keeping Shannon to keep her, and just because we don’t like that he’s late doesn’t mean he’s a rotten parent! He may very well turn out to be, but we haven’t got the proof of that yet.

Forgot to say: I also see Jonah’s history of irresponsibility, and so far, his streak had remained intact- but when we want to see people change to do better, they have to start at some point… and though it takes special people or circumstances sometimes to help facilitate such change, who are we to say that such and such is irreformable? – We may not be able to help in the reforming, and some situations are too dangerous for someone to go in without professional training/experience, and the person has to want to, to begin with….. my point that is though they haven’t many times before, if we were to write them off completely , eventually, they may also write themselves off… change has to start with someone, somewhere, some place, some time….

Has Jonah ever let Shannon wander off, and then panicked when he couldn’t find her after a “thorough” search, even though she was just sleeping in the laundry room? If not, then I must question Brad’s assessment that he is a better father than Jonah. Brad’s criticizing Jonah yesterday in front of Shannon is another decision that makes me not at all certain that he would be a better parent. Taking Shannon to an adult’s party after Trick-or-Treat and then keeping her in a bedroom where she doesn’t have to be exposed to the drinking or whatever (when it’s her bedtime anyway) certainly doesn’t seem like bad parenting. Rather, it’s a good alternative to taking her home, putting her to bed, and then leaving (which seems like the sort of thing Brad would do).

Yes, you are of course right. When Jonah hands off Shannon to Toni for her to baby-sit (maybe to go to work or to audition for a job? We’re never told), that shows that he is an uncaring parent. When Brad lets Shannon bite someone’s finger and then laughs about it, that’s teaching her how to treat bullies. (In this strip, someone who bites other people or whacks them with a backpack is not a bully but a heroic anti-bullying avenger.)

I don’t think the format necessarily limits a cartoonist’s ability to explore complexity. Look at Pibgorn. A poet interviewed on PBS recently explained that he deliberately used more restrictive forms because the form was like a companion helping him refine his writing. Or something like that….I don’t buy the notion that Evans’s characters are all good or all evil, as some posters on this board do. This is supposed to be about the lives of teens and those around them. That can be either complex, or simplistic, and doesn’t have to be the same each time. There are many who actively hate the characters in ‘For Better or For Worse’, for example. That cartoon is really in reruns now, and I remember a time when the family dog sacrificed its own life to save the daughter, who had fallen into a river. That’s a fairly complex notion to explore in three panels.

Last account, five to six… IIRC, reference last cited around the 4th of July….

Even if no drinking or schoozing or anything else is involved, a child will still think it’s boring at an adults’ place, for the simple fact that the place has no kid-friendly things… if one did bring their own toys, or even if they didn’t, their imaginations may wish to break out of the confines of that room, that environment… and if no kid-friendly shows are on TV at the time (for her, SpongeBob would suffice, per her own declaration, during the times Luann has babysat her), a kid will easily tire of being in that place….

This is leading to Brad and Toni eventually adopting Shannon. But the story needs lots of dramitic twist to keep us interested.

What could really be the deciding factor is if it turns out that Jonah has been in an accident or arrested and cannot take Shannon trick-or-treating.

I don’t know if I’d want that for Shannon. I wouldn’t want her to think that (somehow), she’d be “responsible” for her father’s death, due to “wishing it so,” if that’s what she’s wishing. It might be better if he simply just “goes away,” leaving her to think he’s still alive. I don’t think she’d feel, at all, “responsible” for that.

In my view, Hallowe’en started going downhill in the 1970s, when scumbags started putting razor blades in apples.

Pretty much, precisely, when it directly affected me. :( I had stopped “door to door” before that. Oddly enough, in my junior/senior years at the prep school, everyone up to seniors, did dress in Halloween costumes for school that day, even if it was the weekly Tues. “Business dress” day.

Even up to the early 2000’s, I did have some door bells at my townhouse. But the “association” adopted a “no door to door” policy and, subsequently, sponsors a “community” Halloween party at the club house, as an alternative. Doesn’t keep out the “outsiders,” but there are very few of them, now. I guess people still do obey the “porch light” rule. :)

Johna is barely in Shannon’s life. Talk about absentee parenting. If they went to gain custody they might be able to.

They just might. But I think that biological parents still have an advantage in family courts. I’d think the custody seeking parents had best have an iron clad “affirmative” case against the biological parent. I’m not sure Brad/Toni have that yet.

The most memorable strips explore complex concepts (Calvin & Hobbes) or complex characterizations (Doonesbury) within a 3- or 4-panel a day format. The medium need not be restricted to melodrama, but in “Luann” you can practically see someone holding up a sign that says “Cheer!” when Quill appears or that says “Boo! Hiss!” when Tiffany does anything.

> What, exactly, has she done that we should cheer about. >Tiffany is a go-getter. She’s not just ambitious about becoming an actress, but she’s also willing to put in the work at small jobs to advance herself and acquire the experience and credits to help achieve her goals. Some of her classmates – including the ones that we are supposed to root for – are just coasting through, expecting life to be good to them, rather than making a determined effort to realize their ambitions.

Please don’t post all in caps, it’s impolite.-Please don’t use words like Bitch, it makes you sound stupid.-Please don’t misspell words, it makes you sound stupid.-If you are stupid, please ignore items 2 & 3.

I don’t know if I’d want that for Shannon. I wouldn’t want her to think that (somehow), she’d be “responsible” for her father’s death, due to “wishing it so,” if that’s what she’s wishing.

I never said that she wanted that, nor did I mean to imply such. I was suggesting that’s what might happen.

If that is Jonah’s eventual fate, I’d be very disappointed with Greg. Why put Shannon through that… or Toni, for that matter?

Now go back and read Shannon’s comment in Panel 1. She herself said that Jonah takes her to adult parties, where, she says, “I hafta stay in the bedroom”. Need any more proof?

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Proof of what? All I’m assuming is that she’s bored because it’s not a kid’s party, and that adult activities, as noted above, such as drinking and schmoozing, would bore her. I would also question whether Jonah would be drinking =so= much at such a party, knowing he had to drive with his daughter.

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If it’s her bedtime, he would expect her to get some sleep. If it’s not, I imagine he’d help her out of her costume, give her toys or a book, maybe put a movie on a laptop, and ask her to play quietly for a couple hours. And he’d check in on her. He doesn’t have to be the scum of the earth to stoop to taking her to an adult party. Did you think “adult” meant drugs, gambling, prostitutes, or such? I think she can handle it. Brad needs to cool his jets until he gets more information, IMO.

Apparently, where you live, bringing an underaged child to an adult party where there is drinking going on does not constitute contributing to the delinquency of a minor? Do i have that correct?

In my state, it’s now called “Endangering the Welfare of a Child,” and encompasses far more than it used to (and applies to any victim under 18). It’s what prosecutors now use to charge an adult who engages in “consensual” sex with a minor, when the act doesn’t otherwise qualify as “Statutory Rape” (i.e. victim 16 or over and actor is not related to victim, has no position of trust or authority, and is not a temporary parent/guardian, or doesn’t stand in “loco parentis” of the household).

Don’t adults give parties for other adults in their own homes, with their kids tucked away in their bedrooms? Does the fact that adults are in the living room drinking and schmoozing constitute “Endangering the Welfare of a Child”? How are the children endangered?

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Good points, seismic. IMO, people here are overreacting along with Brad. That’s what Greg wants, probably, and we’ll see if it was the correct response soon enough.

Hey…what happened to Dirk?

Well, Batman or not, there were still shows that I was allowed to watch at 8 and 8:30, such as Chico and the Man, Welcome Back Kotter, All In The Family, One Day At ATime, Good Times, Happy Days, the last of the prime time Brady years, etc… and also the incarnation of live action Spiderman that came on in the prime time…. Sometimes 8:30 was a limit, but there were exceptions made, especially if I tried my best to go all “good kid” mode and "No, look! I’m not tired! (eyes slightly drooping, unbeknownst to me, Lol!) But, yeah, for me, those were shows on just before my personal “sign off time”… Oh, yeah, and let’s not forget the Unknown Comedian and the Gong Show!…..

Yeah, and I find that sometimes I have to remember to follow the rules, too, including if I should interrupt them , Lol! Similar to what you mentioned, they will take notice if there are double standards! And that’s nice that your kids have that kind of awareness and get those remarks from people!… I’m sure it is a source of good feeling!

“I’m not her mother, Brad and you’re not her father”That’s certainly foreshadowing what will happen, Namely, that Shannon’s Mom will return to claim her darling daughter – having regretted abandoning her. Just like Dirk, she’s reformed having come to her senses..Of course, that’ll happen just when Jonah decides to let the happy, newly married couple raise his daughter, so he can be free to pursue his acting career.But that’s far in the future – just a story line that Karen & Greg are setting us up for.

This is a bit inconsistent of Evans – or is it? Sometimes we can’t see what’s wrong with our kinfolk, when it’s obvious to others. I actually CAN believe Toni feels she can’t do anything about her brother’s irresponsibility (and those of you who think this is heavy-handed, you really are fortunate to be so naive) despite her maturity. Well, seems Brad’s learned a lot. Taking a child to an adult party and keeping same child in a KITCHEN is a recipe (no pun intended) for a disaster. You have to tread carefully when it comes to in-laws, potential or real, but if you see something wrong, seriously wrong, you need to brave the heat and take action. Or you’re no better than the irresponsible one.

> So are you saying this is all a cheap set-up to get a happy insta-family>It certainly seems that way. Brad most certainly is not a “better” father, or even a good one. (Good fathers don’t allow their daughters to bite people, and they certainly don’t laugh about it afterwards.) The fact that Brad is saying that he is “better” at child-rearing than Jonah, and people here are cheering him on, pretty much screams “cheap set-up”.

Makes me all the more want to see what will occur for the rest of the strips this week…. I really would like to see what direction this will go in…

What? Just cos I rattled off a few shows? Just background for the point that I was tossing about, there….

Well, actually, now that I’m thinking about it, on the subject of lists of stuff…“Misunderstanding”, Genesis“Long Lost Friend”, Dave Mason“Moving In Stereo”, the Cars“Since You’re Gone”, the Cars“How Long”, Greg Kihn Band“Love Is Like Oxygen”, the Sweet