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The Phantom, 1/22/05

Here’s another game much like Exposition, called Tenterhooks. The point is to talk around something that everyone knows about for the sole purpose of artificially creating suspense. You know, like referring to your Secret Nazi Whoosit as “what we came for” rather than just saying it. On the other hand, if this bunch of watery grave-robbers typically conducts themselves with such a lax view towards security that they can’t be bother to remember how many rubber-suited villains are in their party, then maybe they’re better off being as indirect as possible.

On the other hand, it’s possible that they aren’t being indirect at all, and really are just an innocent band of historic meter-long aluminum tube enthusiasts.

Bonus observation: the Ghost-Who-Ruminates-Aloud apparently can’t decide what type of word balloon best represents his underwater running commentary. Nice to see that he’s always trying new things out.

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Rex Morgan, M.D., 1/21/05

FOR GOD’S SAKE, IT WAS A HUMAN THIGHBONE, OKAY? WE ALL SAW IT! WE ALL KNOW WHAT IT IS! THAT WAS ALMOST TWO WEEKS AGO NOW! IT WAS A HUMAN FEMUR! JESUS CHRIST, AREN’T YOU PEOPLE SUPPOSED TO BE IN THE MEDICAL PROFESSION OR SOMETHING?

Ahem. This post has been brought to you by the Committee to Advance the Plotline in Rex Morgan, M.D., in a Reasonably Speedy Fashion (CAPRMMDRSF).

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Family Circus, 1/20/05

Normally, I try to avoid directly discussing the writers and artists of comics in this blog, on the logic that they’re real people whose feelings would be hurt after being on the receiving end of cruel mockery from yours truly. Today, however, I’m making an exception on the part of Bil and Jeff Keane, since I figure that they have the love of millions of children and parents around the world, along with their enormous piles of money, to emotionally sustain them. Anyway, it’s fairly well known that the Family Circus family is not-so-loosely based on the family of artist Bil Keane. Now that Bil’s son Jeff, who apparently has enough clout to not be known professionally as “Jeffy,” has taken over most of the creative duties, I’ve been keenly interested in how young Jeffy is treated in the strip. And, as near as I can tell, he is almost always treated badly. If Jeffy is ever featured in the daily panel, he’s almost always being yelled at (as he is here), being shot at, saying something stupid, or otherwise being crapped on. He’s not the oldest, he’s not the baby, he’s not the girl: he’s just Jeffy, and he has a lot of anger to work out. One wonders if he goes out of the way to make the art as crude and talentless as possible (and the jokes as stupid as possible) when “Billy” takes over in a pathetic attempt to get back at his parent-favored older brother.