The gory details
The Phantom, 12/14/04
One of the defining characteristics of works of fiction is that they aren’t happening in the real world. That won’t come as a shock to most, but many authors find themselves berated by obsessive readers and/or viewers about unrealistic or inconsistent plot developments or details — like “The Enterprise just went to Warp 12, but they said earlier that you can’t go past Warp 10,” or “Nobody just passes out from their first hit of meth,” or “You can’t keep a tiger in a hotel room — where would it go to the bathroom?”
Well, this one’s for you, fanboys; I hope you’re happy. Better make that a real big housekeeping tip, Walker.
Hubris
December 14th, 2004 at 4:30 pm
It also seems that the Phantom’s voice (or thoughts? not entirely clear) originate in his abdomen.
Mark Jackson
December 14th, 2004 at 4:56 pm
Look again – the second comment is also coming from outside the door. Presumably it took *two* hotel gofers to deliver Mr. Walker’s stack of reading material.
Hubris
December 14th, 2004 at 5:13 pm
Ahhh, you’re right. Mea culpa. I thought He-Who-Eavesdrops was musing audibly.
Presumably, this isn’t set at the Hampton Inn.
Genuine
December 14th, 2004 at 10:15 pm
Just stopping in to say hello and to congratulate you on your recent nomination at the BoB Weblog Awards 2004.
http://www.blogmechanics.com/bob
yaron
December 15th, 2004 at 11:12 am
What do you mean “Can’t keep a tiger” ?!
http://www.ny1.com/ny/TopStories/SubTopic/index.html?topicintid=1&subtopicintid=1&contentintid=44030
Ron
December 15th, 2004 at 1:15 pm
I stopped reading The Phantom years ago. It was dull, repetitive, arguably racist in spite of attempts to empower some Africans. The art is okay; in particular, the wrinkles in trenchcoats are good. Now we seem to be getting some humor. I’ll try again.
Ken
December 16th, 2004 at 4:05 pm
At least we were spared from a realistic Siberian Tiger peeing sound effect.
RRRROOOWWW
Mark Jackson
December 17th, 2004 at 1:52 pm
Wasn’t there a computer game back in the early PC days which would warn the player from time to time that his character was feeling abdominal distress and, if the character didn’t find and use a bathroom, cause him to explode?
Too much “relism” wasn’t a good idea then, and it isn’t now.
Jermayn parker
January 28th, 2005 at 5:54 am
Ron, have you read some of the newer stuff from Egmont (Scandavia) It is alot better than the stuff that comes from the newspapers.
Some of it is only suitable to be litter paper……
Mark Jackson, if you read the script before this day, you would see two people carrying newspapers, hence the two speach bubbles coming from the door.
Anne
May 15th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
First, forgive that this comment is, oh, years after the fact. But I’ve been going through your archives and wondered why no one appears to have noticed that Mr. Phantom-pants has white tiger-striped pillows. Even if they are faux, still, a cruel thing to leave out in front of the White Tiger, eh?
Or perhaps the truth is that he was just laying charred bacon strips out on his white pillows.