Dear Reader,

As we head into the busiest stretch of the holiday season, we're taking a moment to pause and say thank you. This month brought Greg's birthday and an outpouring of kind messages that reminded us how lucky we are to share the Luann universe with all of you. Whether you've been reading since 1985 or just discovered the strip, we're grateful you're here. Grab your cocoa (or eggnog!) and settle in for this month's newsletter with holiday-themed Sunday strips, a sweet reader story, and insights from fellow cartoonist collaborators who understand the unique joy (and challenges!) of this work.

With gratitude,

~Karen and Greg

This Month's Featured Collection: Season of Gifting

There's more to the holidays than giving (or getting!) gifts but shopping certainly takes up a lot of our time, thought, money, and effort. As this collection of Sunday strips over the years shows, holiday shopping can be joyful or agonizing, satisfying or awkward, efficient or all-consuming. Whatever you do or don't celebrate at this holiday season, we hope you enjoy these gift themed strips!

LINK TO FEATURED COLLECTION

Grateful for our Fans

The birthday wishes on Greg's Facebook page and the Luann Fan page truly made his day special. If you haven't joined the community yet, come find us at https://www.facebook.com/luanncomic for daily links to the current strip and the retro LUANN-AGAINN!

A note from Greg:

When LUANN began and I was in my vigorous 30s, my drawing style was simple, loose, easy and fast:

Over the years, the strip has grown more complex and now, in my creaky 70’s I’m faced with this drawing style:

But through all the years and all the styles, my fans have always been passionate and kind. Karen and I appreciate your readership year-round and love sharing the LUANNiverse with you. We were especially touched to hear from Richard, one of our happy owners of the Limited Edition Puddles figurine. Thank you for sharing the sweet note and great picture of Puddles enjoying his best life with you and your fiancée!

A note from Richard: I wanted to share. I know you're not supposed to take collectables out of their packaging, but the Puddles sculpture meant more to me than supporting two of my favorite comics artists: My fiancée lost her Booda at 16 years, before Con. He was irascible, brown, stubborn, and had the best ears. She loves Puddles, and he reminds her of her little buddy.
He is part of our permanent art display.

Get A Puddles Figurine of Your Own

Co-Collaborators

Bunny in her studio office during our interview.

A note from Karen:

I recently had the opportunity to interview fellow cartoonists Bunny Hoest and John Reiner about their work on The Lockhorns, a witty, long-running single-panel comic strip about a married couple. Created in 1968 by Bill Hoest with his wife Bunny, The Lockhorns featured Bill's artwork and Bunny's creative input. After Bill passed in 1988, John carried on the drawing while Bunny stepped into the lead writing role to continue The Lockhorns—plus five other strips!

I loved talking with a fellow artist-writer team about their collaborative process: Bunny works days, leaving gags in a database that John pulls from as he draws overnight (a habit from his early career doing deadline illustrations for newspapers). After decades of working together, they have a seamless system and just "get" each other's work, making it all look deceptively effortless. I've only been collaborating with my dad for 10 years, so I have a lot to learn from these two masters!