Greg and Karen would love to send you insider info, news, and special updates! We do an email newsletter about once a month. We do not rent, sell, or otherwise share your info.
Share
LUANN FAN: Hallo-When?
Published 2 days ago • 2 min read
Dear Reader,
With Halloween around the corner, it's a fun time to imagine what else we could be: not just whether we could have been doctors, but what it would be like to be a dragon, a ghost, or an elven warrior. When he was little, Greg imagined himself as Superman...stoically leaping off the roof of the family's garage...and sloppily landing in a heap below. I, on the other hand, often imagined I was a horse, galloping wild and free all over the playground, pawing the ground and snorting. Maybe we didn't turn out quite the way we imagined, but we surely couldn't have imagined how interesting life would be with the LUANNiverse!
This month, we're sharing a Halloween collection with Knute and Crystal, some thoughts on seasonal storylines and a few favorite costumes over the years.
They say "opposites attract." In 2000 two characters who couldn't be more opposite, Gunther's carefree buddy, Knute, and Tiffany's gothic friend, Crystal, start to spend time together. For better? Or worse? In a sweetly rocky way, they sort of make it work.
With all the creativity, I was surprised when I looked through 40 years of LUANN strips and discovered that Halloween storylines aren't that common. They certainly don't happen every year! Why is that? It's not that Greg can't draw some great costumes, as illustrated by the samples below. It's actually for two practical reasons:
Costumes are drawing-intensive! If the Halloween storyline isn't essential, interesting, and worthwhile, the characters might as well be dressed in regular clothes, doing non-Halloween things.
Halloween is a specific date and that can make storylines tricky: if the 31st falls on a Monday, when does the Halloween story start? A full week prior? Or, if it starts on Monday and is a two week storyline, is it still Halloween two weeks later? What "happens" on the actual Halloween date?
Time is strange in comic strip land. Probably the only holiday consistently referenced is Christmas, which, luckily, functions well as both a holiday season and a specific date, lending a bit more flexibility.
In any case, here's a look at a few of the costumes, Halloweenish or not, that have appeared over the years:
1991: Bernice and Luann costume up for Gunther and Knute's Haunted House at school.
2011: Gunther made quite a few costumes over the years for the Library reader program.
2019: Gunther's sewing skills and Bets' love of cosplay has resulted in several incredible outfits!
2017: Luann's interest in theater brought costumes and characters, including for young Faye.
2015: Between theater and art, Luann has made some crafty, and crusty, creations over the years!
2011: Comic-Con has inspired outfits too, including the provocative "Eyez of Zeye" costume and this swap in styles between Crystal and Knute.
2017: And we mustn't forget Shannon, an endless source of cute and outrageous ideas!
Greg and Karen would love to send you insider info, news, and special updates! We do an email newsletter about once a month. We do not rent, sell, or otherwise share your info.
Greg and Karen at the NCS Reuben Awards Dear Reader, Fall is in the air and dogs are on our minds, perhaps because Greg and Betty's dog, Charlie, managed to swallow a peach pit and need emergency surgery last month just in time for Betty to miss out on attending the annual National Cartoonists Society's conference and Reuben Awards in Boston. Don't worry, Charlie is 100% a-okay. And we still love pets, as evidenced by our recent storyline in support of Remember Me Thursday which promotes pet...
Dear Reader, What an awesome summer whirlwind we've had: first the LUANN exhibit opening at the Comic-Con Museum, then presenting as Special Guests and seeing fans for five days of Comic-Con, and finally off to Boston for the annual gathering and Reuben Awards with our peers in the National Cartoonists Society. Whew! We are ready to rest...and get caught back up on deadlines! THANK YOU to the fans who came to the Museum and found us at Comic-Con! We love seeing you in person and appreciate...
Dear Reader, If you live in the San Diego area or are coming to San Diego for Comic-Con, you have two special opportunities this month to see us (Greg and Karen) LIVE as we present "From Process to Finished Product: How Luann Gets Made" a behind-the-scenes look at the messy, miraculous back-and-forth behind a week of LUANN. We'll be sharing actual drafts of both text and artwork to show how much an idea can evolve from start to finish. See details for dates below! We heard from a few of you...
