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Gil Thorp, 2/25/06; Panels from the Phantom, 2/25-6/06; Apartment 3-G, For Better or for Worse, and panel from Mary Worth, 2/26/06

Is this the comics’ first prime number joke outside of Fox Trot?

Are these teasers — the latter acknowledging that no reader can be expected to have a clue as to what’s going on in the Sunday Phantom, the former being just flat-out cold — even better than Spider-Man’ Olivia-Newton John reference last year?

Has Margo, desperate for company now that her boss hates her and her roommates are snubbing her, gone and joined the Happy Hands Club?

Is it true that this bird you cannot chai-yi-ay-yi-ay-yi-aynge?

Psychedelic shock-happy bunny: Awesome, horrifying, or horrifyingly awesome?

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The Phantom, 2/11/06

Panel three: Does that teaser line imply that the Bandar are going to eat the Phantom’s kids? Please, please, please let the Bandar eat the Phantom’s kids. I hear white tweenagers are pleasing to the Bandar tongue.

Mark Trail, 2/11/06

Ah, the classic “Look! Over there!” move. Mark may be getting fancy in this adventure with his jungle traps and whatnot, but he’s always willing to go to the basics when they work, as they inevitably would against this clan of mouthbreathers. Question for discussion: is the point of this ploy to further emphasize the “hillbillies are stupid” theme we’ve got going here, or just a desperate attempt to bring things back to the origin of this plotline?

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The Phantom, 1/27/06

Holy smokes, the situation with the Phantom’s kids is worse than I thought. It’s bad enough that Heloise (Heloise?) wants to turn this Jungle Trek into some sort of sleepover party, with a pup tent, an inflatable mattress, and a battery-powered PlayStation; Kit, on the other hand, is worried that he’s going to cramp up. What a pathetic pair. This is what comes of Bangalla’s transition to peaceful, modern democracy: they may be living in the jungle, but the twins’ tribal guardians have kept them as sheltered as any neurotic, play date-happy suburbanites. Good luck turning them into spandex-clad crime fighters, O Ghost.

Hopefully the Phantom will shake these two out of their self-absorbed little bubbles before they become mired in the endless tedium of first-world angst-ridden post-teen romance:

Luann, 1/27/06

Yeah, you know what a peck on the cheek in front of 200 people is, Brad? It’s yet more messing around with your head. Get out now while you can, for the love of God!