Luann (comic strip)
Luann is a syndicated newspaper comic strip launched by North America Syndicate on March 17, 1985.Luann is written and drawn by Greg Evans, who won the 2003 Reuben Award as Cartoonist of the Year. The strip is currently syndicated by Universal Uclick. In 2012 Greg Evans' daughter Karen began co-authoring the strip.
The strip takes place in an unnamed suburban setting and is mostly about young adult Luann DeGroot, dealing with school, her love interests, family and friends. Some storylines center on other characters, including her older brother Brad.
Characters and story
Main characters
Love interests
Other friends, relatives and neighbors
Antagonists
School and faculty
Emergency Medical Services
Animals
Celebrity cameos
Topics
The strip has attained a degree of notoriety for its mixing of real-life topics with the lightness of being a teen in high school. Evans has sprinkled in such topics as Luann's concerns about her first menstruation, Dirk's jealousy (which has led to emotional abuse of Toni and physical violence toward Brad), birth control, drunk driving, handicaps, and other social/policy issues that are of interest to young people. Evans drew praise and some criticism in 1998 for a series of strips about Delta contracting Hodgkin's Lymphoma. After September 11, 2001, the layabout Brad was inspired by the actions of the FDNY to become a firefighter, and there have been extended storylines following him. On November 14, 2001, the satirical newspaper The Onion ran a story supposedly detailing Evans' struggle to address the events of 9/11 in his strip.
