Post Content

The Phantom, 10/9/05

Maybe I still have weddings on the brain, but there was nothing in Sunday’s comics more amusing than the wedding flashback in the final panel of The Phantom. And I thought we had an eclectic guest list! Mr. and Mrs. Walker (for GHOST-WHO-WALKS, everybody!) apparently invited, from right to left: a shirtless white dude; a Native Canadian fresh from FBOFW’s pow-wow; a sad clown from a velvet painting; Bruce Willis; a top-hatted fop; a Keebler Elf in a cone hat; and, of course, Rex Morgan’s Buck, before graduate school reduced him to a pus-encrusted drifter. The groom apparently couldn’t even be bothered to put on a tie for the occasion. Why not take some sartorial cues from President Luaga, Ghost-Who-Has-Only-Two-Outfits? He seems like quite the natty dresser.

Incidentally, what exactly is the Phantom doing with his left hand in the second panel of the second row? It looks like he’s about to pick a chocolate out of a sampler box on the president’s desk … very dramatically.

Post Content

Curtis, 10/8/05

“Oh, yes! You’re the child that insisted that you were in a relationship with her despite her denials, and threatened her with violence if she dressed ‘inappropriately,’ aren’t you? How dear! Yes, I’m happy to supply whatever information we have about her. Would you like the address of her new school? How about her home phone number?”

As unlikely as I find this storyline, with everyone in the school knowing about Michelle’s transfer except for the one boy who’s been psychotically obsessed with her forever, and with the school records officer freely handing out confidential information without any money even changing hands, I have to admit that I like it for a number of reasons: it showed us Curtis rendered zombie-eyed with grief; it allowed for some quite evocative art in the third and fourth panels; and it seems to finally, finally put an end to the increasingly tiresome Curtis-Michelle-Chutney triangle. Or so it seems, at least. I’m sure if there’s a way to drag it out even further, Curtis will find it.

Post Content

Mary Worth, 10/7/05

Remember The Abyss, James Cameron’s 1989 sci-fi vehicle? Remember how goddamn annoying it was because it had, like, five endings? Oh, I know, I’m gonna hear “genius” this and “director’s cut” that and “Orson Scott Card novelization” what have you, but my chief memory of it was that it just wouldn’t end. Every time you thought it was over, there would be another ending that we really didn’t need.

I’m beginning to feel that way about the Rita storyline in Mary Worth. First we see that she’s saved by grief counseling. Then we find out that she’s really saved when her cousin comes to take her back to Bumpkintown. Now we find out that she’s really, really saved by the love of an adorable little macrocephalic with a bad haircut. Next week: Rita gets really, really, really saved when she gets her first paycheck from Vic’s store.

Faithful reader Brian Tencza (who is apparently part of a “Mary Worth discussion group”) points out that in Sunday’s installment, a suddenly Jackie O-esque Rita is playing ball with Shanna, who has mysteriously morphed from unattractive blonde to homely brunette:

Brian suggests that Rita has dyed the little Vicling’s hair to enhance the resemblance to her dead, brown-haired daughter. While I’m reasonably sure that this anomaly can be chalked up to the usual coloring sweatshop incompetence, I too would like to think that Rita’s relationship with her second cousin will soon veer into Vertigo-style obsession (“Shanna is such an ugly name! Wouldn’t you rather I called you … Fay?“). Just imagine that Mary’s little wrap-up narrative voiceover has some eerie strings playing behind it for the full effect.