Volume 17 – Fires and Tattoos!

Behind-the-scene commentary from Greg Evans:
” TJ was introduced as a tight-jeans and tank-top-wearing sleazy biker dude. Somehow, he evolved into a fashionable gourmet cook – altho still pretty sleazy …Read More

Behind-the-scene commentary from Greg Evans:
TJ was introduced as a tight-jeans and tank-top-wearing sleazy biker dude. Somehow, he evolved into a fashionable gourmet cook – altho still pretty sleazy. I’ve been asked what his ethnicity is and I say he’s “Mediterranean.” By this I mean he’s not Mexican (as the name TJ, which is short for Tijuana, might imply) but has a mixed heritage. Somewhere in 31 years of strips I vaguely recall that TJ revealed a little about his past. His mom was Spanish, his dad was Italian. Or something. His mom is now deceased. His father, who served time in prison, set up a bank account before fleeing to Argentina. Or something. Needless to say, there’s a lot about TJ we don’t know.

Some readers wondered why I kept totally ignoring the fact that Brad and Toni are firefighters. How come we never saw them fighting fires? I made up for that here.

It’s interesting how the offensive-ness of words changes over time. In the first years of LUANN I did a joke in which Luann used the word “zits.” An editor at my syndicate told me that no one enjoying their eggs and bacon and reading the morning paper wants to see the word “zits.” A few years later, what comes along? A comic strip NAMED “Zits.”

In this collection, I veered into some iffy territory with words like “squat,” “wuss” and “butt.” And I don’t know about you, the the last line in the 8-21 strip sounds pretty suggestive…