Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for May 28, 2022

Wow, what a nothingburger ending to an admitted lackluster week.

very nice, Bernice

And so we bid a fond farewell to Nil.

Bernice is now free to find someone she feels is good enough for her.

Will we ever find out who Fred is? And does Fred get to see his other eye?? LOL

Epic something

Can she date Jack now? ✨

Wow! Another weird two-week story arc that built up to yet another flat and anti-climatic ending! Epic creative surge indeed!

Bernice is gonna die a virgin in a house full of cats, so why do we waste so much time with her meaningless relationship drama? Surely there’s other characters we could be focusing on; characters who actually have arcs and character growth and don’t go back to their factory settings after each story?

Is a plain old kiss unchaste?

Anyway, it appears they dumped each other.

Right, said Fred.

I’m glad this is over, I hope we get to see Nil again in the future

That has to be the most creative and clever way to break up with a girl I have ever seen.

Maybe start your own strip Nil, i would read it’!

I think maybe Zebo the art teacher was a guest writer for this arc.

Nil is free!!!!!

Nil would make a good replacement for Bernice in the future. I can see Nil sitting by the edge of Luann’s bed conversing with Luann just as Bernice used to.

How come Steffo and Kipper get to, and Bets and Gunther allegedly get to, but these two tied themselves in knots to stay chaste? They’re just so weird.

So what happens next week? Do we get a week of Bernice’s post-break-up blues? Now if it went something like this: (Luann) Bernice, come down off that sill. You’re only four feet off the ground nothing will hurt you if you fall. You’ve got to get up much higher for that to happen!"

(Bernice) I can’t I get vertigo if I get any higher off the ground!

That might be funny.

Or we could get a week of Leslie playing with Punk. Or a week of Gunther not doing anything because without Bets he has nothing. Bets is in the Quad which has become a vast disappointment. Putting four women in one room and Greg can’t get anything going except for horndog Stef. If we’re lucky it will be summer vacation, Tiffany will move back into the Mansion, hire a nice young Hiapanic pool boy and get her stef on.

But we’re most likely stuck with Shannon because Greg hates children.

How long did this conversation last? It looks like it went from nighttime until daytime.

Okay, Nil. As the center said to the quarterback, “Take a hike.”

So much for this arc. Next.

Anyone besides me notice that Nil put on a black glove before shaking Bernie’s hand in the last panel?

I’m impressed by Bernice. I was sure she would have an immediate jealous reaction towards Nil right after hearing that he might start dating someone else. Has she really grown up, after all?Dunno, she’s smiling now, but I keep thinking that if Nil and Fred start dating, she will sneak after them, insanely jealous.

The arc aint over if Bernice looks down and notices Nil’s epic creative surge, and…

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Neither one notices the security camera mounted next to the door, prominently displayed, ala Chekov’s Gun style, back there in panel one.

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Will Bernice be proud or ashamed that in one stroke, er…., um…, wave of her hand,…

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She is now getting more hits on the internet than Bets.

I hope next week’s arc won’t be just Bernice blathering to Luann about that pinhead!!

Like it was the week before.

Nil’s had his turn, and will now recede into the background, to be brought forth on occasion as needed, like Mrs. Horner or Phelpsie-Fogarty. BTW, speaking of Mr. Fogarty, methinks he is based upon bassist Tim Bogert. Do a little Google image search and see for yourself.

Bernice, there may be someone out there for most people, but you’re not most people.

OK. Finally, the next arc, next week. We have not seen Gunther and Leslie in a while.

There’s definitely a “surge” alright, but I don’t think it has anything to do with art creativity…

Repressed smoldering desires – will the wildfire unexpectedly break out in the future? I believe so.

Wow, Nil broke up with Bernice, made her feel good about herself, and made it so that they stay friends in the future. He’s a genius.

Made for each other.

“Epic creative surge right now” does not sound like a final ending to this arc. What’s next — Nils rushing off to paint, or him seeking immediate “inspiration” from Bernice?

Interesting week. Wonder what Monday will bring?

Bernice, you just had to try it one more time.

Bernice picked up on the muse bit well.

AMUSING!

Is that an “epic creative surge” in your pants, or…

Epic asininity. Will we at last move on from these two exceptionally inane pseudo-intellectual twits and their sad, stunted libidos?

They are both weird, but that is not the problem. The problem is that they are weird in such very different ways. Such severely mismatched weirdness demands that they just leave weird enough alone!

And just like that Nil teaches Bernice to control herself.

Typical. Back to Gunther and Bets, please!

Let’s turn the page & get onto a new adventure or disaster.. ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ

Weirdness.

And Nil is inspired by his muse once again.

So all the excitement was over a mutual dust-off?

But we still don’t know if Nil has been accepting Fred’s overtures from yesterday. 8^ )

Relationships is this strip must come to an end, even weird ones, in order for the characters to remain at age 19 for the next 25 years.

So, romance thwarted once again for Bernice, once again, in a most surprising, and for most here, a very discomfiting way. I notice by the way, that there is apparently no skin to skin contact in the handshake, as Nil seems to be drawn wearing gloves. Nil is a comic strip 21st century send-up of a century-old Bohemian Paris artiste. Bisexual possibly (too much for so many here, but the reality of bisexuality in the population makes prejudice against merely those who are another “other” hatred and misunderstanding (sorry but sometimes a bleeding heart must preach) we’re dealing with in this contested social, political and cultural period we’re living in currently. Poor Bern, but I think the romance is still in play between these two in the end. Hilarity ensues, but it’s kinda sad though.

I though they would be kissing on Saturday. I was almost right. I don’t think they are broken up. They are both odd and their relationship is odd. I think we will see Nil again.

Oh..oh..Nils is getting an epic surge………….

I didn’t know Nil wore gloves!

He needs to change his pants…

I actually like Nil as a character. He’s easy-going but very much his own man.

It’s obvious that the creators don’t “screen test” these arcs before release.

Enter Ox. He catches her on the rebound and years later they have several fat kids.

You’re free, Nil! Never look back. Not at Bernice, anyway.

I think a lot of you folks expect WAY too much from a free daily comic.

Oh, lord, this is too bizarre even for head case Bernice!

Young love is so consuming that the people involved don’t realize how special it can be and how heartbreaking it can be at the time of involvement. For some reason, I really like Nil and was hoping for a sweet coming of age romance with Bernice. Maybe G&K are saving this for Luann and someone in the future. Ahhhhhhhh, young love!

Git while the gittin’s good, Nil! Flee! Flee!

Actually most artists have sexual relationships with their “muses.”

We haven’t seen Ann in awhile so maybe Monday’s arc is about her.

This was such a waste of a potentially interesting relationship. I was originally happy when Nil was finally being considered a romantic option for somebody but once again, certainly were Bernice is concerned, romance is quashed for no good reason. (I’m attracted to you therefore I shouldn’t date you.) I am also afraid that’s the last we’ll see of Nil, who was for me the most intriguing guy to show up in the strip other than Piro, who was also eliminated from the cast and who Bernice also ruled out as a boyfriend…

He made it easy on her…

And so it ends.

With many unanswered questions remaining.

Unfortunately, as usual.

So. That’s leaves Gunther/Bets the only active, unmarried Main Characters still dating. (And NO, Stef and Kip DON’T Count)

For those that have been screaming for this arc to end, looks like you’re about to get your “wish.”

Just when things were starting to get kinda interesting……., ;-)

Is the story line really over?I don’t know, Bernice seems to really have damp trousers for Nil. Perhaps the three of them can become a romantic item. I think she’s going straight home to get advice from Nancy on how to nail them both.

Cute ending to their “relationship” as it was! (and here’s to (if they weren’t comic strip characters, a better “relationship” in the future)!

Sunday: Frank asks Nancy a question. :-/

Move on. Please

A handshake is “un-musey”? Au contraire: throughout history a large percentage of creative types have sex with their muse…

So the message of this week’s arc is that sexual frustration leads to artistic creativity?

Oh Golly, not the privacy hut again…that story was annoying and dumb.

Now she can find out if Jack likes girls, and is single

wow… not how I thought this would end. It seems that the part of Bern that Nil got a charge out of was her propensity for rules and structure which led to the rigid modernist line drawings. Still I believe they have some physical passion for each another, but it stays buried. True to form, Nil’s passion for his art is greater that for Bern. But will Fred satisfy him?

You know Bernice wanted that last kiss, which probably wouldn’t have been a last kiss.

I must say, getting Nil “right” is hard. He is hardly the same dude who, in the beginning, could scarcely be persuaded to squeeze out a grudging monosyllable. Now he’s positively chatty (if still on the enigmatic side), and his hormonal side isn’t all that Platonic—Platonic hormones don’t raise hickeys. And he’s hardly passion’s plaything on the Alt Sex circuit, if this Fred has been courting him in vain. Not at all waving the Dannon Yogurt flag, “Stir up fruit from bottom”.

Nil’s comment in the final panel leads me to believe that we’re not done with these two yet.

That girl needs help

Swell use of grays in panel one.

Surely Bernice knows her history and that the vast majority of artists slept with their muses…

And as we fade into nothingness, there is one final cry, Who’s Fred?

Surges and urges.

Only Nil could get any kind of surge out of that!…

ya when I was 19 I had alot of those creative surges

Bernice, to borrow from Frozen; “Let it go!” The meaning of the words from that song is the same for this situation, don’t hold your feeling back.

“Epic creative surge” by everyone except the artists of Luann. Here’s hoping we leave this lame arc behind.

Fred-rica ?