Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for May 24, 2022

So if Bernice is Nil’s Muse… That explains why his weird abstract “body part” art pretty much sucks. lol

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I still think they’re going to stay together.

you’re always quite the muser, Nil

I’m sorry, do you expect to learn anything useful from her?

Does he love her or just wants her inspiration? Seems quite a disappointment for Bern

Okay, even I’m starting to get confused as to where this is all headed, but then again, Nil clearly thinks differently than most.

Hmm.

Sounds like Nil wants a friend with an unusual benefit.

By “Muse,” is Nil indicating that Bernice “inspires” him?

If that’s the case, Bernice might want to stick around, if some guy considers her “inspirational.”

Things should work out just fine,

Until Nil asks Bernice to model for him, Au Naturale.

They’re sick

If Bern is offended, after going to his gallery opening, I will laugh!

Nil knows what he wants…I appreciate Nil!

I knew it! Inspiration and then nude canvases. I wonder how Bernice will react to Nil’s escalating artistic needs for inspiration?

Stay tuned for another thrill-packed episode of “Bernice don’t know how good she’d got it!”

Nil you could have easily said creative artist.

There’s no way Bernice can turn down that offer.

Not every woman gets to be a … MUSE!

That was absolutely the most perfect comment Nil could have made. Who doesn’t want to be thought of as an inspiration…

We’ve seen Nil’s art. Nobody would recognize Bernice.

This is funny today! Organ donor, LOL

Ah. Nil is not interested in romance. He discovered his muse and was stringing her along the whole time.

OMG. Nil’s haircut looks like THË Pha ♩ ♩ n ♩ tom ♪ of ♪ the ♪ Op ♫ er ♫ a ’s MASK! ♪ ♩ ♫

I had way too much fun trying to transcribe the melody into emoji! Now that earworm is stuck.

She’s not a-muse-d

Oh, he’s a keeper!

Maybe organ donor as well.

Could this be a – muse – ing?

Bern, make Luann keep her nose out of your personal life, and the rest will be just fine!!!

Bernice INSPIRES Nil’s scribblings??

Now, THERE’s something to be proud of!! /s

Bernice – The mermaid siren that sings like screeching brakes.

To Nil, Bernice sounds like jumper cables on his road to creativity.

C’mon Nil, just use some big words and regain her interest.

proantidisestablishmentarianism

Wow.

Nude model?

Is it just me, or is the first line that Nil says in this strip more than a little creepy?

Well, if Bernice is going to be a Muse, maybe she should think about changing her name. ‘Bernice’ doesn’t seem to make it …

I had no idea Nil was so serious about Bernice. He adores her like Salvador Dali adored Gala. He will put up with her temper and all her tantrums, no matter how crazy they are, if she allows him to talk with her and be around her even if only for a little while. Sigh…. why does someone like Bernice have this? This is what Bernice has always wanted, a skilled and intelligent guy totally devoted to her. And despite that, she wants to leave him… Poor Nil, I hope she will accept. An artist who loses his muse becomes miserable.

That’s the best compliment next to Will Ferrel bringing “flours” in Stranger Tahn Fiction.

Are they trying to out-strange the other? Or is it complimentary weirdness?

Wow. I love this.

Bernice needs to be an organ receiver as opposed to an organ donor… Because she needs a new brain…

But we’ll keep the order donor option open.

Nil wants to draw a lot of pictures and paintings of his Bernice.

This story Ark is getting very very odd…

With all due respect, Nil, what do find inspiring about Bernice?

I am learning to like Nil…….I think

oh she’s back in

Awww! That is the most romantic thing you’d probably ever hear from a boy in his twenties, and Bernice is totally missing it!

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any dumber….

Organ donor, that’s funny! Bernice has a weird mind.

Well-played, Nil. If she buys that line, she is lost for life. You’ll always be imprinted on her, even after you lose her…and that’ll keep her circling back, periodically.

So paint her like one of his French girls. Do not worry. No one will recognize her.

“We are not amused.”

Bern, the Pop Tart.

That looks like almost a smile from Nil — is that a first?

Well played, Nils.

The writing makes it hard to care about any of this. Their relationship was always depicted as purely physical, and now suddenly she’s his muse. The only reason they’re breaking up is because she was having fun, so there’s no emotional weight here.

Poor repressed Bernice really needs to talk to a pro.

I suspect she was hoping for the “physically” option.

Next week, Bernice ends up chained to his radiator with duct tape over he mouth.

At this point…birds do it even bees do it…let’s do it!

So Wife was not mentioned. Interesting. This is kind of confusing because a Muse is a source of inspiration. How does Bernice provide inspiration? Do their sexual encounters drive Nil to paint his masterpieces? I think his art is a good depiction of Bernice’s muse abilities. It’s more likely that Nil is planning on getting her to pose nude and hoping things will progress from there. He just needs to get her clothes off somehow and this might work. Nil is just an odd horny hound dog.

It seems Nil has greater respect for and understanding of Bernice than she does of herself.

yesterday i would’ve said that his “ok” comment displayed how he understood that it was complicated for her.

because in male language sometimes okay just means okay (I understand nothing more nothing less)…but today now I’m not so sure…but I liked my thought yesterday…this sequence now is just silly

like I said, I liked that his response yesterday was simple and was relatable from a male perspective at least to me personally

I don’t know. Organ donor sounds like a pretty good deal.

Bernice as a muse — a source of creative inspiration? I can just see Nil’s future gallery. “I call this one ‘Eternal Snark.’ And over here is ‘Collage of Organized Folders.’ On this wall is ’Monstro’s Torment.’ And finally, here is ‘Uptight Sybarite.’”

To be asked to become a muse is a high honor and far more intimate in many ways to the way they are now. It means he wishes to really get to know her on all levels and to share himself not just physically and intellectually but spiritually and emotionally as well. Go Nil!!!!!! If this doesn’t blow her away nothing will.

Organ donor? Bernice is actually the odder one of this couple.

As an artist, Nil might need a muse like Bernice. Her frank appraisals mixed with occasional kisses could be just the trick to make a master of him yet. What’s more, she might make an interesting model, too.

Um, yeah, no. He asked if he could still “have” her – possessive. He may “worship” her now as a “muse”. But that is not a basis for a long-term, healthy relationship – for either person. An artist-muse relationship is about using, not loving, no matter how “romantic” it seems at first… (In a relationship first based on love, the artist may find inspiration in their partner. But that is not what is being illustrated here. – Might as well be organ donor…)

Muse?

Bernice is not a Muse(d).

Nil finds inspiration in Bernice?! The boy needs help1

Bernice does look a little apprehensive in the last panel when she mentions “organ donor.”

Maybe she’s afraid Nil is gonna ask for a kidney or something right now. :D :P

“You inspire me. You bring out the best in me.”

Run, Bern! RUN!

“Organ donor?” Lawdy, child! You have got to get out more often!

I think artist and muse is an excellent type of relationship.

“We can break up if…” is such a weird statement. What if she doesn’t agree? Is she not allowed to break up then? This isn’t a criticism of the strip itself though, as this kind of thing really does happen.

I have to give Nil credit, a man who knows what he wants, even if it sounds weird to everybody else.

I wonder if they’ll touch the message about having SEX!

Picasso immortalized many muses, much to their chagrin

I’m on Team BerNil (is combining names still a thing?) but these two are making it hard.

Right now Nil is thinking——“Don’t ever change,crazy lady”.

Not the answer you were expecting was it Bernice? However, I’m curious which choice you were hoping for.

Artists think their Muses are beautiful,or they wouldn’t be Muses.

Nil just shoved Bernice forward and she doesn’t even know it.

This is reading like a classic issue of Sandman. It didn’t end well, Nil.

FINALLY we see some evidence that this relationship could be more than just physical. Nil thinks Bernice makes him a better artist, inspires him to create. But does it go both ways? Does Bern think being with Nil makes her a better person? Is she more tolerant, patient, cheerful, helpful? Not seeing it right now.

Female muses and artists—I did some quick Googling and found some articles that described the relationship between a male artist and his female muse. It includes all of the above in these panels, relationship, love, being the object of art (often times in nude poses) even marriage but all for the artistic dimension to be paramount. There can be a touch of male domination which means the female muse has to be somewhat submissive. This is where I see this breaking down, because say what you will about Bern, but being submissive is in last thing she is, but who knows. This seems a Karen idea for story, and I like it and want to see how it plays out,

Bernice as an artistic muse? He’d be better off with an empty toilet paper roll.

I like the way art plays into this strip. At first it was Luann in freshman art class (with Nil and Jack) showing that she had skills and talent. Then Nil became part of it; he invited Luann to his figure drawing class; many of us wanted Luann to pursue art but that didn’t happen though she did work as a TA for Zebo. I even thought Nil and Luann could end up dating; that didn’t happen either. But now Nil as an artist is in the foreground. I like Bern and Nil as a pair and hope that Bern can continue loving him as she has (and does) without seeing it as a distraction to her studies.

Dude’s definitely got an organ he’d like to donate.

Do I detect a slight smile on the usually expressionless Nil in the last panel? Who wouldn’t get a laugh after the organ donor remark.

Oh, okay, he wants to do a new series: Half hysteria, half confusion.

These two go from making out in the park to making out on a couch to breaking up. Just when you think there’s going to be action, something happens to resulting in no traction or even any friction. Each arc ends in a great big nothing.

But i’ll go out on a limb and predict that bernice will be slightly charmed by Nil’s wit and the fact that they’re in a public setting….again and she’ll put her arms around the boys neck and french him.

Only Nil could come up with “muse” ! Now, that’s amusing (ahem)….

Bernice will be flattered if Nil thinks of her as his muse. She’ll see herself as a kind of Greek goddess and Nil will have a tilt in his toga.

Make her a nude model.

Need the cast from Gilbert & Sullivan’s “The Pirates of Penzance” to suddenly appear, singing “Hail, Poetry!” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-BvR1tM6T0

Bernice went from are you breaking up with me to organ donor? That girl is twisted

On vacation in Hawaii in our bi-yearly time share visit (of course we missed 2020) so I’m 5 times zones behind Chi-town so my comments are kind of on the bottom of the comment thread, but I have to try to add to it that the actual art Nil is showing in his abstract way is not what drives this arc between them, IMHO. After all Salvador Dali or Pablo Picasso had muses who were their lovers, and their art was quite abstract. No, the point is relationships and the intensity of two supposedly opposite types of people for each other. Confused Bern and more focused Nil, which itself is quite interesting. I would be very surprised if they really break up, and if they do, that would last 2 minutes. No I’m thinking love of life territory, with all that portends. By the way a full frontal view of Nil’s face shows him to be quite handsome. Misdirection alert!! But these two are made for each other.

For some sad sad negative art.