Go, Read: Piece On Karen Evans Joining Luann

I thought this a fascinating piece on the state of the newspaper strip, albeit through the mirror of a strip that launched nearly 30 years ago. Karen Evans will join her dad Greg Evans as a co-creator on his Luann.

The hook for this piece and I imagine others like it is that Karen was the initial inspiration for the strip's lead, and this puts her in much the same situation as Jeff Keane on Family Circus. For me, what's interesting is the details and musing on the basic set-up of that strip. I don't know that I knew the client count on that feature, for example, and it's interesting that the musical still works its way into a core description of the older Evans.

As for what I mean by basic set-up, I'm interested in the fact that Luann was around in a day where that industry was established so that a lot of sales momentum could accrue to work with a good idea in an business-offering sense. When my father's paper bought Luann my memory is they bought it because the main editor right below my dad wanted a strip that targeted his then-teenaged daughter, whether or not it would actually appeal to her -- it just seemed like a good idea to have a strip like that. There were a lot of strips during that time period that distinguished themselves that way in addition to whatever they had to offer in terms of an artistic voice. That feels like a way-bygone era now.
 
posted 12:10 am PST | Permalink
 

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