DRAWN & QUARTERED
Graphic Arts As Literature
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Black and white and read all over, is the old joke description of newspapers, but Greg Evans' "Luann" runs in the Sunday Star-Bulletin in full color, and in black and white -- ahem -- elsewhere during the week. Watch your kids and learn,
if you want to do cartoonsBy Burl Burlingame
bburlingame@starbulletin.comMore to the point, the strip is becoming one of the most popular in the country, already running in more than 300 newspapers, and, even more to the increasingly fine point, that readership is fiercely loyal and transcends standard-issue demographics. Interesting, because the title character is a teenage girl dealing with the joys and horrors of adolescence.
Evans and his wife, Betty, were in town last week -- they're thinking of moving here -- and are meeting with local cartoonists tomorrow night. "My standard line is, I was born with the disease of cartooning," said Evans. "Nah, one of my earliest memories about cartooning was reading about Charles Schultz, who seemed to have a perfect job: drawing cartoons and getting wealthy.
"Later I discovered what hard work it is. What was admirable about Schultz was his purist, dedicated approach to it. He wrote, lettered and drew each strip himself, right up to the day he died."
As a graphic artist and promotions manager at a television station, Evans began to develop ideas for comic strips -- "A couple of dopey guys who are cops. Nope, reject. A couple of dopey guys who are clowns. Nope, reject. And so on" -- until he began paying attention to his own kids and what they were saying and thinking.
"Luann" was immediately accepted in 1985. "The syndicate offices are full of sample strips that are clones of established hits. You have to have your own voice. Cartooning isn't about drawing; it's about writing. And kids don't make good cartoonists; you need life experience. And you set your own bar and then keep raising it. The best strips get better over the years."
"Luann" is not only wry and funny, it has a large cast of believable characters whose continuing stories provide interesting insights into growing up.
"I like continuity," explained Evans. "Some cartoonists do a gag a day, and that's fine, but it's the story line that interests me. I add intrigue because it keeps me interested. My job is to draw readers to newspapers, and I feel the best way to do that is to be consistently unexpected.
"I'm often surprised by my own characters. It's almost like I'm observing and chronicling them. They have a life of their own, their own destiny."
"Luann," according to school psychologist Katharine Weber, is a particularly good example of the positive power cartoons have. "Luann goes through the same things kids always have. I encourage kids to read 'Luann' all the time, both boys and girls."
"Families are an essential ingredient of our society," says Evans, a father of three. "What I'm trying to do with this strip is to enlighten and inform a little about what life in a family should be, without being preachy."
"Greg also has an innate ability to write about women," says Betty Evans.
Evans shrugs. "Guys are boring. Women have their emotions and nerve endings right out there. They're more fun because they're complex and changeable, and that's everything in humor and conflict."
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