Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for July 27, 2018

you’ve a lot to learn yourself, Luann, when it comes to taking care of Puddles

Bingo Jack! I believe you have a winner! Occupation that is.

And Luann – Yes, we’re all yucky inside.

Well, Well, Well.

So much for the arguments that Jack wouldn’t have the “stomach”for certain aspects of being a Veterinarian.

Say! Maybe Jack can “practice” on Les! Just Kiddin.’

NOT.

#FREEGB!!!

Reach in, grab a fecal sample, look for parasites. Most interesting. Oh joy.

Jack needs a push from outside. However this would get old pretty quick unless chemistry develops.

Sounds kinda more affordable than veterinary school.

1/2 of any couple should be able to deal with the messy stuffs.

Luann is being so helpful to a young man who needs direction. She is not only giving him the idea, but showing him something he could do at the AHEM community college which would prepare him for working as a vet tech, something like a dental tech, or a physician’s assistant. Community colleges give associate degrees and certificates that can mean real money with less than 4 years and usually because they are cheap many students can go strictly on grants. Even those that don’t pay less that a fourth of the cost of a 4 year. If should decide to transfer to or go to a 4 year after the initial degree or certificate he can, with a proven college record, not in debt, and a job that is career focused, not just a . RIght on Luann. Also on chemistry—I think its there but it will develop more slowly. She enjoys being with him and he clearly likes her. Let’s see what happens. Even if they only end up friends it will be a win-win for both of them.

I’m betting that he’s smarter than people give him credit for.

And Jack will do surprisingly well, I bet. Folks generally do well at things they find interesting or that they like doing.

Jack go for it you would make a great vet!!!

Lets face it 90% of vets job is giving animal a**** because they “accidentally” ate something they not suppose to

Well, that’s promising. He didn’t say gross!

There you go, Luann – you can help mold him into someone who has direction, and you might find that you would want to live your life with him along the way. He seems pretty receptive…

I grew up loving dogs and animals, and everyone always told me I should be a vet. No… no, much too gross for me. Just because I love animals doesn’t mean I love seeing them slit open.

I’m glad to see Jack respond positively to the curriculum for vet techs. I have two relatives who ended up in that line of work; both were not all that great at school work in high school, but liked taking care of animals. As soon as they found these programs at the community college, though, they discovered a good direction. We are all fortunate that someone is willing to deal with stuff like this, both for our animal pals and ourselves…

I guess Luann failed to realize that being a vet means you’ll spend most of your time dealing with the messier, unhealthy side of pets. If the pet is in perfect health, after all, it probably doesn’t need to be at the vet’s in the first place.Next, Luann will get excited about a possible career in nursing but then get surprised that it’d require her to be surrounded by the sick and injured.

Looks like GnK are one step ahead of us. They seem to have anticipated an awful lot of the arguments and objections that have come up in the past few days!

Depending on Jack’s inclination, there are other jobs he can do to aid animals.

What about Quin ?? What happen to him (Quin)??

I realize there’s more to Jack than a dumb jock on a sports scholarship, but anything to do with veterinary science (even vet tech) needs very good grades to get into. Still, in Luann’s world even Tiffany can get into University. Is Luann being manipulative here? If she’s seen to be dating Jack the jock she’ll be classed in the bimbo league – like Tiff dating Chuck the quarterback. However, dating a guy that’s studying veterinary science is absolutely acceptable. Yes, that’s snobbery, but there’s a lot of it about.

The Jack haters make me wonder if they also hated Toni when she joined the strip.

Lesson #1: the Wonderful World of Toxoplasmosis.

YAY! Jack gonna study for become a vet tech!

My vet is a real cheerful guy so it can’t be all that bad.

With a vet tech degree he can still veer into breeder, trainer, canine pension… and will be all the better with that knowledge.

Score one for both Jack and Lu. He for recognizing the opportunity, and she for encouraging him to do it. Hopefully, GnK will take this somewhere. This is getting really interesting.

Jack’s a nice kid, but he seems kinda slow. I don’t know too many guys that can’t change a tire, or worse, would allow a woman to do it for him. Luann has to do his thinking for him. If the wind up together, she’ll lose respect and grow to resent him.

Jack already works for a cleaning service, so no doubt he’s seen his share of messes, at this point, it probably is interesting because he’s going to learn specific things that pertain to animals

The big questions now are:

1) Will Luann also be taking some of those Vet classes WITH Jack, this Fall?

2) Will Nil, also be taking classes with Jack?

3) Will anybody get just a tad bit suspicious years later, that when Jack becomes a Veterinarian, his “patients” suffer an unusually high number of fatalities, while at the SAME time, at Nil’s Rogue Taxidermy Shop (located right next door), business is BOOMING?

Stay Tuned……,

#FREEGB!!!!

let’s see … we started with a story about a nice romp in the park … hoped it would turn into a ’romp in the park" for L&J …. and ended with animal sanitation and parasites.

the next time someone asks " I wonder where Greg is headed with this" for an arc, don’t even bother to guess.

If Jack becomes a vet tech, he won’t have to transfer to a 4-year college after he finishes community college. Since he was in fact considering leaving school and going to work in his Dad’s cleaning service, this sounds like a good option for him. (I assume he will continue earning money for his college expenses by posing for the art class?)

A year in the life of Luann can take pretty much forever, so Jack has plenty of time to pursue his career. He can start by working at a local vet’s clinic, the humane society, or even the zoo. Jack is a good and likable guy, but as with Ox, he lacks charisma so his future in the strip is limited. Greg invests more in the bad or annoying boys.

Well I guess today’s strip provides the acid test for L& J on whether opposites can attract…

…and now Jack can begin his career by checking Luann for ticks…

We still need a week of dry-to-droll material to take us into The Wedding In Vegas. Will we continue with L & J? Perhaps with a little more he-in’ and she-in’ emphasis? Or more of this Luann the Life Coach tack?

Does his Dad expect him to take over the cleaning business? Could be a future conflict.

I’m seeing “Dog Whisperer” in his future.

My kind of guy. My kind of interests.

He will find Promed online and Pubmed to be helpful refs.

I’ve known vets who were first vet techs, so that option is still there, too.

If he gets interested in ferrets there are people who seriously did so and later amazed endocrinology profs. (You get to, actually have to, learn a decent bit of basic endocrinology with ferrets if you do it right…)

Luann just might have a calling as a career counselor.

All in all it is a good thing that everyone has different interests. Otherwise who would do the dirty work?

Ahh! I’m falling in love with this guy! With both of them! Charming couple alert! Ah-OOO-ga! Told you (all) he had potential, underneath that macho bravado, eons ago. Also I just like the athletic / sensitive people, reminds me of me! … ps if you want to get edgy w his character development, have him weep at the end of a Pixar movie on a date with Luann, then the traditionalists of your fan base will get restive…. Anyway, Bravo & Tally Ho!

7

Nice progression today. I like that Jack feels enthused. I like that Luann is encouraging him. I really like his facial expression in the last panel.

The one thing I would suggest, however, is that it is probably better for Jack to not immerse himself into the Vet Tech program immediately if he is still contemplating between being a Veterinarian and Veterinary Technician. He would be better off taking a semester’s worth of traditional pre-veterinary courses (basically pre-medical courses) to see if he likes that degree of challenge first. Those pre-veterinary courses will be able to be used in both the Veterinary and the Vet Tech program, whereas a lot of the time the courses required in a Vet Tech program will not be able to be used as part of a Bachelor’s Degree major if he does find that he wants to go for Veterinary Medicine instead of Veterinary Technician. And, if he finds that he likes the pre-vet curriculum…. but finds he is no longer interesting in Vet Med or Vet Tech…. he still has a plethora of options for moving into another biomedical career path.

I soundly applaud GnK! Their willingness to explore a characters need for change in their life can be a welcoming open door for many of their readers. Luann probably doesn’t even see herself in the position of counselor for Jack. She is just being a good friend – and shouldn’t we all be that?!? Steering Jacks’ life path toward something for which he has an obvious strength can be a real eye-opener to many of the people (young and old) who read this strip. YAY to you GnK!!!!!!!!

While Luann and Jack are at the dog park having this fascinating conversation about animal sanitation and many of us have drifted off to sleep, from far away I can just faintly hear Mr. Gray whispering sweet nothings in Irma’s ear while she tee-hees plus, in the background, angry shouts and other ominous sounds of conflict. Perhaps Les and Gunther have not actually killed each other … yet.

I like the look on Jack’s face in the last panel. He is perked up by the thought of studying these biology related subjects. It is true that the path to becoming a DVM is different from that of the 2 yr technical. But some people do go on to veterinary school after getting a taste in the vet tech program, just like some people want to go to medical school after being a paramedic. One just needs to meet the basic science requirements. Since this is all new for Jack, he needs to taste the field to make these decisions.

Luann as usual, is able to solve everybody elses problems. l

It’s fascinating how different people can look at the same information and interpret it so many different ways. Jack and Luann, for example, look at a list of possible classes for a vet tech program, and see two totally different things. Jack sees possibly interesting training that might lead him to a future he had not previously considered, while Luann sees topics that don’t sound interesting to her at all.

Even more interesting is the way posters here seem to see such different meanings in the three frames of today’s ‘toon. There are those who strictly interpret this overall arc as just about the health of a pet, and want to lecture Luann that she has much to learn about taking care of Puddles. Then there are those who are totally ignoring both the pet health and possible career directions of this arc, and persist in seeing the whole thing as the next step in a Luann-Jack relationship. Either they see Luann’s tapping Jack on the shoulder to mean solely that she’s telling him she wants more of a relationship (rather than telling him that Puddles paid attention to all the commands he gave to Max), or they think that Luann needs to come right out and tell Jack she loves him, because he needs much more of a ‘hint’. Never mind the discussion about coursework, right? That’s not really what’s happening…

Of course, we have the usual suspects, eager to rile up the readership by telling Jack that he can do much better than Luann, or that Luann is not bright enough to help herself figure out as future, let alone help someone else. And the very special snowflakes who think that you can use hearsay to get the police to arrest someone for a crime when you have no proof, and since Luann hasn’t done that, she doesn’t care about anyone. Yep, sure is amazing how many interpretations can be generated by 3 little frames…

I am now thinking this is not about Jack’s career but Luann’s. She has emerged to be a good career counselor. She identified Jack’s skill set and researched where he could train and get a degree in the career in his skill set. She could be a counselor in a college/university academic advisor department and guide first and second-year students through their coursework and major decisions.

This has been a great arc. The strip is full of college students, but it is the 1st time we see a student seriously contemplate his interests and a possible academic path, with the help of a friend. The way I see it this arc is about Jack finding himself and his interests and nothing more (not once has Jack tried to hit on Luann, which he has done in the past). Greg likes to take characters and transform them in unexpected ways. Jack too seems to be getting a bit of a makeover.

Looks like Luann may have given Jack a new career path. Anything else?

⇧ pipe tobacco

thanks, mansplainer…

Nice arc, nice characters, nice dogs. As someone mentioned earlier, now we have a Vegas wedding waiting in the wings. What a downer. What a mockery of everything good and holy. Now, I have to go out and renew my plague shot, and get one for Babylonian Swamp Fever while I’m there.

noted that Jacks “Superman Hair Curl” is back.

This is definitely fantasy cartoon land where you can apply for college a month before the fall quarter starts. In the real world you have to start applying the winter before :-/