HOW LUANN BEGANN
By: GREG EVANS
Spoiler alert: I am not a female; I’ve never been a teen girl. So the question I’m most often asked is, “Why do you do a strip about a young woman?”
There are two answers to this. One is that I’ve always found girls far more interesting than guys. Guys are linear and predictable. Females are far more nuanced. That’s why many of my earliest comic strip attempts had female protagonists. Here’s one called “Maiden Voyage” from 1978. You may recognize Miss Phelps who ended up in LUANN.
The second answer to “why females?” is below.
But first, I should answer a more basic question: “Why do I draw cartoons at all?”
A quick plunge into my past…
“Drawing cartoons is a fine hobby but you can’t make a living at it.” This is my dad giving fatherly wisdom to 11 year old me in my bedroom where I spent ” too much time” drawing cartoons.
I was one of those dorky kids who wanted to draw funny pictures all the time. My dream was to become a Real Cartoonist, like the ones in The Saturday Evening Post or over at Disney Studios, just blocks from my house, or Charles Schulz and the other comic strip artists I read daily in the newspaper. They all made a living at it. Why not me?
From age 11 to age 38, I created dozens of strip concepts that I submitted to every syndicate, getting back dozens of “Thanks, but no” replies. I also sent hundreds of panel gags to various magazines, from JUNIOR SCHOLASTICS to POST to PLAYBOY and accumulated more “Thanks, but no” notes.
During this time I had other jobs – high school art teacher, TV station cameraman, Hilton Inn front desk clerk, entertainment robot operator (a whole other story). Meanwhile, my cartooning “hobby” was no longer giving me happy hours of contentment, just frustrating bouts of self-doubt.
One day our six year old daughter, Karen, was tottering around in Betty’s shoes and jewelry carrying a stuffed kitty. BAM! Did I conceive a strip about a sassy 6 year old boy and his imaginary tiger? No. That would be Watterson, just 9 months later. But LUANN came to life and it was the perfect fit for my writing and drawing skills. I’d been trying to make strips about cops and clowns and things I knew nothing about. LUANN was a reflection of the family right in front of me. I aged Luann up to 13 (more drama!) and gave her an older brother, parents and schoolmates, all inspired by my own family and friends. I inked up 12 samples and, once again, submitted my work to the syndicates.
I was pretty sure I had something good in LUANN. It came from my heart (my family) instead of my head (“Let’s see… no one’s doing a strip about used car salesmen…”). But after 26 years of failures, I figured it was time to stop chasing a dream and commit myself to a real career, like selling used cars. I actually boxed up all my cartooning stuff and put it away on a shelf in a closet, vowing that I was done doodling.
Turns out, I wasn’t. News America Syndicate signed LUANN and the strip launched in 78 newspapers on Sunday, March 17, 1985 (happy St. Patrick’s day!)
And so, after a mere quarter century of trying, I finally became a Real Cartoonist.
Here, I must pause to say, “Thank you dear Betty for being unwaveringly supportive.” Through all the years of doubts, defeats and depressions, she always encouraged me, always believed in my dream.
Below is the first week of LUANN strips, along with some comments:
1. The Sunday appeared in color, of course. This is a screen shot of how it looked in black and white.
2. The following weekday strips are scans of the originals, warts and all. In an upcoming essay I’ll talk about how I drew LUANN 40 years ago and why she’s so… odd-looking.
3. For the first few months of the strip, I mailed my originals to the Syndicate for editing and photostatting and they’d return them when they were done. For some reason, the Syndicate art department trimmed off slivers of art (top, bottom or both) with lines, paper and/or masking fluid. I believe it had something to do with the formatting/sizing of various newspaper comic sections and it appears only on the first few weeks of strips.
4. For the launch week, I’d sent the syndicate dozens of strips. An editor there picked the strips for the first week and wrote the number of the order of appearance outside the right margin. That’s why these originals don’t have dates, which I’d normally write next to my signature.
5. Speaking of signatures, why’d I move my “greg” a half inch on strip #5? No idea.
Some final thoughts on this first week:
1. Honestly, I’m a bit surprised that LUANN got picked up. The art is awful. The writing is ok. But Luann does come across a bit sour and unlikable.
2. Before I discovered ways to make gray tones, I drew strands of spaghetti here and there to create “atmosphere.”
3. The PEANUTS influence is so obvious. The big round heads, small bodies, simple eye-level views, lack of adults – I really wanted LUANN to be a teen PEANUTS. I admired everything about PEANUTS, especially Schulz’s iconic themes (kite-eating tree, Lucy’s psychiatric booth, Schroeder’s piano, yanking the football, Snoopy’s doghouse). I tried to establish similar formats in LUANN but all I ever came up with is Luann’s head hanging over her bed as she talks to Bernice (Warning: do not try this at home. I did. Neck spasm!) I’ll share some interesting Schulz stories in a future essay. One of them is ABOUT Luann’s hanging head.
4. Schulz had a simple style but he was a great draftsman. Look at my trees in #5 above. Now look at an early Schulz. He had a consistent control that I never had (or have).
