Background

Greg Evans was born on November 13, 1947, in Burbank, California, United States. He is a son of Herman Evans, an electrical inspector, and Virginia Evans (maiden name Horner), a homemaker.

Education

One of the main hobbies of the little Evans was doodling. Living near the Disney studios, he discovered his passion for cartooning very early. He drew pictures of famous Disney characters and often rode his bike to the studio gates hoping to be hired by Walt Disney as the youngest cartoonist of the studio at the age of eight.

At eleven, he first sent his work to a professional magazine, Playboy. Obviously, the submission was rejected but the young boy kept on sending his sketches to other periodicals all through his youth and through college.

Greg Evans studied in a high school in his native California. Then, he entered the California State University, Northridge where in 1979 he received a Bachelor’s degree allowing him to teach art.

On May 2016, Evans received an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the California State University, San Marcos.

Career

Greg Evans started his career as a teacher of art in high schools of California in 1970. In a couple of years, he relocated with his wife to Australia where he taught art for two more years.

After a trip around Asia and the Middle East, Evans and his wife Betty came back to the United States in 1975 where they settled down in Colorado Springs, California. While there, Evans earned his living as a promotion manager and graphic artist for KRDO TV/Radio and entertained with a radio-controlled robot MAXWEL at trade shows.

Simultaneously, Greg kept on searching for a good idea for a cartoon. All his submissions to school newspapers and syndicates were rejected and went out of publishing. It had lasted till 1985 when the cartoonist finally began to work on Luann taking inspiration from his teaching experience and his own children, especially his youngest daughter Karen. Presenting an honest, if comic, realization of life in the teen years, the concept of a comic strip featuring a teenage girl Luann DeGroot became successful at last, and was sold to News America Syndicate.

Since its first publication in 1986, the main character has changed a lot, both in appearance as in personality. Starting from 2012, the cartoonist’s daughter Karen became a co-plotter and co-writer of the strip.

In 2016, Greg and Karen have created a site LuannFan.com where the fans of the comic strip had a possibility to vote for Luann’s wedding dress. The fans can share their stories and emotions there, as well as find a lot of interesting “behind the scenes” stuff related to Luann adventures. To read the updates of the story, its admirers can visit LuannComic.com.

Nowadays, Greg Evans lives and works in San Marcos, California, near San Diego.

Achievements

• Greg Evans is an accomplished cartoonist who is recognized as the best of his time both by fans and peers due to the syndicated comic strip Luann.
  
  Evans has been nominated for the Reuben Award from the National Cartoonists Society celebrating the best cartoonist in 1994, 1997, 1999, 2001 and 2002. He received the award in 2003.
  
  The collection of books featuring the comic strip Luann was published in the 1980s and 1990s. In 1985, the characters from the story inspired Eleanor Harder to create the same named musical. In 2008, Evans itself produced the musical based on Luann, ‘Luann: Scenes in a Teen's Life’. Directed by Dana Case, its debut took place at Palomar College in San Marcos, California.
  
  Becoming a national bestseller, the comic strip has been featured in more than 400 periodicals. The strip was translated into Spanish.

Works

More photos

• comic strip

  • Luann 2: Dates and Other Disasters

    (The agony of the summer job, the thrill of crushes on cut...)

    2004
  • Luann: Is It Friday Yet?

    (Thirteen-year-old Luann finds her way through the complic...)

    1987
  • Meet Luann

    (Cartoons share a humorous look at the life of Luann, a th...)

    1986
  • Luann: Homework is Ruining My Life

    (A humorous collection of a popular comic strip that is sy...)

    1989
  • Luann: 25 Years

    (All the best – and some of the worst – Luann strips, hand...)

    2010
  • Sometimes, You Just Have to Make Your Own Rules: A Luann Book

    (This book presents Luann's humorous take on life's annoyi...)

    1998
  • Passion! Betrayal! Outrage! Revenge! A Luann Book

    (Presents the antics of the teen comic character and her f...)

    1999
  • Luann: Why Me? 1986
  • Luann: Who Invented Brothers, Anyway? 1989
  • Luann: School and Other Problems 1989
  • Luann: So Many Malls, So Little Money 1990
  • Luann: Pizza Isn't Everything but It Comes Close 1991
  • Luann. Dear Diary: The Following Is Top Secret 1991
  • Luann: Will We Be Tested on This? 1992
  • Luann: There's Nothing Worse Than First Period P.E. 1992
  • Luann: I'm Not Always Confused, I Just Look That Way 1993
  • Luann: My Bedroom and Other Environmental Hazards 1993
  • Luann: Curves Ahead 2003
  • Luann 3: Sixteen Isn't Pretty 2006
  • Luann 4: Seriously... 2008

• musical

  • Luann: Scenes in a Teen's Life

    (Luann and her school mates are stoked – it's the last day...)

    2012

Views

Quotations: "Get a real job. Cartooning is an iffy career. There’s thousands and thousands if not millions of people who want to be cartoonists. There’s lots of talent out there but very few make it. You have to be lucky and you have to have the right idea at the right time, and lightning has to strike."

"I’m one of those people who was born with this cartoon disease."

"I think early on I knew I wasn’t going to like teaching. It was not my thing, and I was always pretty grumpy."

"I firmly believe that sometimes you are trying before you’re ready. In the creative world, you’ll hear about somebody who has written seven books and none of them did anything, and all of a sudden their eighth book is a huge smash. I think you reach a certain level of personal development, or you’re suddenly working on the right thing that taps into the right creative flow inside."

"Being a teen today is serious business and I want to reflect that in Luann. My goal has always been to entertain and enlighten."

"It’s tough being a teenager, but you will survive. Billions of people have survived it. Just try to have a sense of humor. And don’t let anyone tell you these are the best years of your life."

Membership

• National Cartoonists Society , United States

Interests

• movies, plays, golf, writing musicals

• Artists

  Charles Schulz, Bill Watterson, Gary Larson, Jim Borgman

Connections

Greg Evans married Betty Ransom, a teacher, on December, 1970. They have three children named Rhonda, Gary, Karen, and five grandchildren.

One of Evans' children, Rhonda, born around the time Evans had met his wife in college, was put up for adoption. 30 years later, Rhonda discovered that she was adopted. When reading the Sunday comics, she realized that an artist's name matched the name on her adoption papers.

Father:

Herman Evans

Mother:

Virginia Evans

Spouse:

Betty Ransom

Daughter:

Rhonda Nabors

Son:

Gary Evans

Daughter:

Karen Evans

Karen Evans with her father.