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Phantom, 4/29/17

Hmmm … can’t shake a “feeling of death,” Big Guy? Maybe it’s because you sleep cheek-by-jowl with your ancestors’ corpses, decorate yourself with skull jewelry, and live inside a gigantic death’s-head?

Nah. More likely it’s just a premonition that your city-bred wife, out stalking a pygmy tribal chief in the deep jungle, is about to get all slain by one of his adorable little arrows.

Crankshaft, 4/29/17

Wait, sad to outlive your dreams? But that way you’d still be around to enjoy them after they turn into facts! Sounds kinda nice — sign me up!

Not Lillian, though — she’s lived in the Funkyverse long enough to know this ain’t no Disney movie (the depression cats are a giveaway). So she games the system, adopting only those dreams that will fail slowly enough to outlast her. That way, she can die basking in the delusion that her remaining dreams still had a shot. Not like her dream to open a used bookstore above the garage — that sucker failed from the get-go and mocks her to this day.

Rex Morgan, M.D., 4/29/17

OK, Rex Morgan has been setting up this porno for so long the only question left is the dramatis personae: Niki and Kelly, sure, but who’s on third: rich-girl Holly — or Kelly’s Mom Summer (ew)?

And pace Josh, Niki’s actually far from a novice at this sort of thing: a decade ago, June blackmailed him into “cleaning her garage,” if you know what I mean. And that was before he got his wet hands all over Rex’s trout.

Anyway, it’s great to see this classic soaper returning to its roots. Its sexy, creepy roots.

Spider-Man, 4/29/17

Spider-Man plugs Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy franchise almost as hard as Mary Worth plugs Carnival Cruise Lines. Probably for more cash, but definitely with a lot less effort. Never change, Web-Slinger!

Hello, faithful reader! I’m sitting in while Josh enjoys a Spring Break chock-full of enjoyable activities on a colossal liner steaming around the Caribbean, or maybe just sneaks out back for a delicious cigarette. Either way, reach me at uncle.lumpy@comcast.net if you have any problems with the site.

If you use the commenting feature, be aware that I’m notified automatically when a comment is placed in moderation, so there’s no need to alert me by email or in a follow-up comment. I’ll clear comments as soon as I see them, which won’t always be immediately. Thanks for your anticipated patience!

–Uncle Lumpy

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Mary Worth, 3/13/17

Tobey and Mary are enjoying drinks with fruit slices poolside, so technically I’ll consider this a pool party of the sort we expect and deserve when Mary Worth transitions from one plot to another, and anyway I’m in the mood to be forgiving because OH EM GEE MARY AND TOBEY TROPICAL GAL’S GETAWAY MONTH YES YES YES YESSSSSSS! What excitement awaits us at whatever branded resort on a more-or-less coup-free Caribbean island Tobey’s fancy has settled on? Will Mary get her groove back? Will Mary have to forcibly restrain Tobey from getting her groove back? Will Tobey then be allowed to get her groove back when someone points out that college professors don’t as a rule go on month-long “teaching summits,” certainly not in the middle of the semester? It’s going to be amazing!

This is the first good look we’ve gotten at Tobey under the new artistic regime, other than our brief glimpse of the Camerons’ weird, poorly lit Christmas. While I’ve generally been a fan of the new-look character design, I’m not sure I’m into this one? Other than the hair, she seems possibly based on Emma Stone:

She’s a little too lively looking for my taste, to be honest. The eyes of the Tobey I know and love manage to both project a certain anxious vapidity and seem always haunted by the realization that Tobey’s spending her best years married to Ian Cameron, and those best years are about to run out.

The Phantom, 3/13/17

Over in The Phantom, Lee Falk is busy pounding out an exciting new adventure on his old manual typewriter. A new adventure where the Phantom is going to die! …in a prophecy? Is it just going to be a lot of sitting around the Bandar village and Old Man Mozz telling an elaborate and possibly gruesome story about the Phantom’s death and him thinking “Jeez, what’s the social protocol here, like am I supposed to be freaked out or stoic or what?”

Funky Winkerbean, 3/13/17

Speaking of prophecies of death, looks like Funky’s being drawn by some unnamable force to walk up to the the creepy old house on the top of this overgrown hill on the outskirts of town! I sure hope he doesn’t plunge into a world of hellish horror beyond imagination and is subsequently never heard from again!

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The Phantom, 3/8/17

Man, I don’t know about you, but if a guy who looks like this drugged and kidnapped me, brought me to his terrifying cave lair, and then thunderously demanded that I under no circumstances promote his brand, I would immediately cease and desist from all activities that could even vaguely be construed as brand promotion. Not our man Orson, though! Much to I think everyone’s surprise, Orson is turning out to be a brand-promoting warrior. You can’t frighten him. You can’t deter him. He will be promoting your brand, and the only way you can stop him is to put him in his grave.

(By the way, as several people have pointed out, this plotline may be a reference to a set of Phantom stamps put out by Australia last year. You can order some, if you want to risk the wrath of the Ghost-Who-Walks!)

Dennis the Menace, 3/8/17

Those are some menacing exchanged glances between Henry and Alice there. “Oh, George is dying? Finally?”

Blondie, 3/8/17

Sometimes you don’t realize you wanted something until you get it, and for me, Nihilist Bumstead definitely falls into that category.