What’s Going On In The Phantom (Sundays)? What’s with the Jungle Patrol safe? November 2023 – January 2024

The Safe in the closed room is the means by which the Unknown Commander ordinarily receives reports from, and transmits orders to, his Jungle Patrol. A light outside the door lets the Jungle Patrol know there’s something to pick up. No one in Jungle Patrol has figured how the Unknown Commander gets into a locked safe inside a locked room inside Jungle Patrol headquarters, because the convention was established by like the 1940s when superhero stuff didn’t have to be all that rigorous.

Tony DePaul, the second (named) Lee Falk in the comic strip Phantom legacy, appears to be making some changes in this. Maybe. I don’t know; all I know about forthcoming strips is what DailyCartoonist or a comic strip writer themself chooses to drop. But the text of the story, and the Unknown Commander dropping hints about wanting to be a stronger presence with the Jungle Patrol, suggest that. Maybe some shaking-up of the secret orders routine is needed.

There’s charm in the old secret — a secret tunnel under the safe that leads to a nearby dry well. But, like, there’s a 1950s story where some crooks figured out the scheme and used it to give Jungle Patrol misdirecting orders. They needed to professionalize things a little after that. It is a risk to the soufflé that is a successful superhero universe to take away the more whimsical elements, though; good luck to Tony DePaul for taking it.

(I also don’t know how this change, if it is happening, will be reflected in the other, non-comic-strip sides of The Phantom. But the different publishers of Phantom stories seem comfortable with imperfect consistency and fans seem all right with that too, so they don’t need me worrying about them.)

If you’re worried about what’s happening in Tony DePaul and Jeff Weigel’s The Phantom (Sundays) and it’s after April 2024, or you want a briefing on the daily strip, there may be a useful essay at this link. Or check the light above a locked door no one but you ever enters.

The Phantom (Sundays).

5 November 2023 – 28 January 2024.

Lee Falk, the strange supernatural being from whom all Phantom phables phlow, was giving us some insight as he too discovered the current story. The Phantom figured to use his guise as Jungle Patrol heartthrob John X to beef up his guise as Jungle Patrol boss the Unknown Commander. So while visiting Jungle Patrol Headquarters he shared a story that the Unknown Commander — mysteriously silent for weeks — might have died on their last mission.

As John X, The Phantom gets permission to check the Jungle Patrol’s secret maildrop in Mawitaan. While theoretically out of town, he sneaks back in as the Unknown Commander to pick up his mail and leave orders — and not turn the signal light on. And as a guy with more money than you’d think the jungle vigilante trade would bring in, he calls some construction workers in from the city. They have work orders to renovate Jungle Patrol Headquarters. And they know they have the Unknown Commander’s word, right there in the safe, where Colonel Worubu would swear there wasn’t anything.

As Colonel Worubu can barely believe it, the construction workers tear down walls, open up windows, and soon have The Safe surrounded by beams of light. Meanwhile, back in Skull Cave, the Phantom, in his guise of The Phantom, is rehearsing a script and checking that there’s enough shadows in this dignified-library set. Diana worries about the long dialogue he has to commit to memory, and the challenge of pausing appropriately for an unseen dialogue partner. He’s confident, though.

Tony DePaul and Mike Manley and Jeff Weigel’s The Phantom for the 21st of January, 2024. Colonel Worubu’s hesitation feels a little like a riff on how a hardcore fanbase can loathe innovation in their focus, particularly on sentimental or fan-folklore-rich items. But it also makes me feel bad for Colonel Worubu since, jeez, the Unknown Commander doesn’t mind showing himself to this contractor but won’t even let the patrol’s day-to-day officer in chief look directly at him? Also I wonder whether the construction supervisor was hired because he was a contractor who could convincingly deliver points The Phantom wanted Jungle Patrol to hear, or if he’s an actor hired to play the construction chief.

From here, we enter my speculations. It looks like we’re being set up to have John X and the Unknown Commander perform a dialogue where the Jungle Patrol can see they’re not the same person. (This would have been so much easier if it were still possible for the Colonel to hold the speaker end of a phone up to the receiving end of another and vice-versa.) And it looks like we’re being set up to have the Unknown Commander delivering video orders from a duplicate of his Jungle Patrol headquarters, a scheme that can’t fail as long as nobody accidentally breaks the bust of William Shakespeare on his desk. But this is all my speculation and I don’t want to brag but my predictions for story strips are batting, like, 0.075 lifetime.

Next Week!

I haven’t checked in on Terry Beatty’s Rex Morgan, M.D. in months. We need to see how Rene Belluso’s schemes have fallen apart even more. No, more than that. I mean, way more than that even. You’ll see, soon.

What’s Going On In The Phantom (Sundays)? Who’s this Ghost Phantom haunting the Phantom? February – May 2021

We don’t yet know! The current story has a mysterious Visitor who looks and acts like The Phantom apart from walking past everyone, ignoring them. Our Ghost Who Walks is sharing what he knows, from the Chronicles, about That Ghost Who Walks Too. But we haven’t got much specific information yet. It’ll be a good gag if it turns out there’s a parallel line of fathers passing down to sons a sacred obligation to sometimes mess with The Phantom.

This should catch you up to mid-May 2021 in Tony DePaul and Jeff Weigel’s The Phantom, Sunday continuity. For the weekday continuity, or for a Sundays plot recap after about August 2021, you may find a more useful post here.

The Phantom (Sundays).

21 February – 16 May 2021.

The story of The Phantom’s rescue of The Detective was all but wrapped up when I checked in in February. Over the next month it completely wrapped up. Detective Yusuf Ali Malango reported in about busting up that crime syndicate. And about how The Phantom made it possible. His supervisor keeps this out of the record as they’re not dealing in legends here. Malango hikes out to that carved mountain where his grandmother’s been waiting for news, and all’s happy. This, the 14th of March, wraps up “Vigil at Phantom Head”.

Tony DePaul and Jeff Weigel’s The Phantom for the 14th of March, 2021. The Phantom is lucky the 7th Phantom didn’t happen to get all the pudgy-face genes, so the Emperor Joonkar’s Phantom Head Peak matches well enough.

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The 191st and current Sunday continuity story, “The Visitor”, began the 21st of March.

It begins with Babudan, master tracker of the Bandar people, seeing The Phantom walk right past, ignoring him. Which is strange on several grounds, not least that The Phantom is away from the Deep Woods. Dozens of people, including Diana, see The Ghost Who Ghosts Them, including inside Skull Cave.

The Phantom knows what this is, though. And he’s excited, almost giddy. It’s fun to see. He invites the Bandars’ “best listeners” into Skull Cave, so he can show off his newly-renovated Hall of Costumes. The renovations better show off the outfits past Phantoms wore. He’s been waiting for an excuse to show this off.

Tony DePaul and Jeff Weigel’s The Phantom for the 18th of April, 2021. The Skull disc on the left represents the Skull Ring. The Phantom punches the true evildoers with it so hard they keep a skull impression on them for life. So what happens if they reform? How do they get their good name back? I guess that’s the use for the other pattern, the thing that looks like four P’s laced together. That pattern’s on the Good Mark ring. For those who’ve done significant good The Phantom … uh … it seems out of character that he would punch them so hard they get left with that on their foreheads. Apparently they’re more likely to get a medallion. I don’t know how they prevent counterfeits. Helen Walker used one so she and Kadia Sahara could escape into the Bangallan Embassy.

So what’s the deal with Other Phantom? The 3rd, 6th, 12th, and 16th Phantoms encountered it too. He’s started telling about the Third Phantom’s encounter. This is the encounter that gave The Ghost Who Haunts The Ghost Who Walks And Who Also Walks the less cumbersome name of “The Visitor”. The Visitor, too, appeared in the contemporary Phantom’s garb and walked past Bandar villagers, shunning them. The Visitor left footprints, so is not a ghost. The footprints vanish, the way a ghost’s might. And that’s about all we know so far.

Next Week!

Why was Terry Beatty’s Rex Morgan, M.D. a Western comic for a while, and why did it stop? And then go be a superhero comic a bit? We’ll explore next week, if all goes well.

What’s Going On In Judge Parker? Is Sophie Parker running away from home? October 2019 – January 2020

So first, the most astounding news about Francesco Marciuliano and Mike Manley’s Judge Parker: Norton has not appeared in the past three months. Almost four months, now, unless there’s a surprise coming in Sunday’s strip. Anyway, all my Judge Parker essays should be at this link, including whatever plot recaps I write after (likely) April 2020. If it’s much past mid-January 2020 when you read this, you might get a more useful plot recap there. Also, Sophie has not yet run away, and has made statements to imply she’s not. But the groundwork is there.

Judge Parker.

27 October 2019 – 19 January 2020.

Neddy Parker and Ronnie Huerta finally got a call back on their screenplay, last I checked in. It’s based on the super-hyper-ultra-duper-spy nonsense of April Parker, who helped them out, at the point of a gun. This seems harsh, but it is the most efficient way to get someone to actually write. Ellen Nielson, tech-billionaire-daughter with an indie movie studio, wants a meeting.

Francesco Marciuliano and Mike Manley’s Judge Parker for the 1st of November, 2019. Among the traits of Marciuliano’s tenure on Judge Parker is self-awareness of his writing styles and of the assumptions built into the strip. Under Woody Wilson people were going crazy throwing money at the Parker-Spencer clan, to the point that I am not sure if it wasn’t a running joke.

Back in Cavelton, Sophie Parker finally talks some with Honey Ballinger. She’s one of the classmates and bandmates from that bizarre kidnapping by Sophie’s mother’s half-sister. Honey had escaped the kidnappers who got Sophie and the rest of the band. They’re both having trouble thinking college or anything makes any sense. But they’re able to start trying to be friends. They had not got along so well before the kidnapping and can’t think of a reason why, now.

Also in Cavelton: Abbey’s notion of running a little bed-and-breakfast has proved unworkable. A practical one involves renovating the horse barns into a small hotel. I have not been able to figure what they’re doing with the horses. (Also I have recently seen a bed-and-breakfast which was not made of someone’s oversized home, or made to look like one. So while I don’t get a bed-and-breakfast that seems like it’s just a hotel, I can’t say it’s wrong.) This forces Sam Driver out of his barn office. But he thinks it might be good for him to have an office somewhere near the people who have law work that needs doing off-panel. Rents are steep; turns out Cavelton is gentrifying out from under everyone. Anyway, the barn renovations get under way, then stop, then cost more. It’s a process that makes you wonder if Francesco Marciuliano has been dealing with home renovations himself lately. Then you remember home renovations was a storyline in Francesco Marciuliano and Jim Keefe’s Sally Forth last year. So you stop wondering. Then you remember in the Sally Forth story the work was done as scheduled and without surprise charges or anything. So you wonder again. Look, if you’re not using your creative expression to vent about stuff that bothers you, what are you doing?

Francesco Marciuliano and Mike Manley’s Judge Parker for the 29th of November, 2019. Thing is, Nielson is not wrong. … So, in the early 50s Isaac Asimov wrote a couple novels set in the Galactic Empire. And in each of them, there’s a moment in which the Antagonist reviews what he knows about what the Protagonists are doing and concludes, it doesn’t make sense. He goes on to construct an alternate plot, one that fits the facts, and one that does make sense by his lights. And the thing is, it makes more sense by the reader’s lights too. It’s a curious bit of self-commentary and premise deconstruction there, as here.

Sophie and Honey get together and start playing a little music. Sophie talks of Neddy’s screenwriting dream and how great that’s going. And how is it going? Ellen Nielson thinks their screenplay is a disaster, but there’s a good idea in it. Nielson sees it as a miniseries, with them as story consultants. Neddy and Ronnie see themselves getting murdered by April for straying from their directions. So that’s a downside. But, hey, it’s a sold credit. It’ll be something great for them to talk about over Christmas with the rest of the Parker-Spencer-etc family.

Francesco Marciuliano and Mike Manley’s Judge Parker for the 14th of December, 2019. “I mean, especially since Marciuliano took over the writing but, yeah, this strip has been going on since, like, Alben Barkley was vice president so there’s a lot of backstory here.”

As the barn renovations embody the sunk-cost fallacy everyone gathers for Christmas. Neddy’s happy to introduce Ronnie to everyone. And to see everyone. Sophie is the happiest that any human being has ever been that Neddy’s back. Sophie spills her plan to skip college for a year or two and figure stuff out. Ronnie had done something similar, leaving college after a few semesters. Sophie latches onto this with an eagerness that Ronnie wisely tries to temper.

With Neddy’s support, Sophie explains to her parents that she won’t be going to college right after high school. This goes well, for soap-strip readers, because it’s a nice messy disaster. While Abbey fumes about Sophie’s irrationality, Sophie packs to run away to Los Angeles and live with Neddy. Neddy tries to talk her way, way back from this. She explains Abbey’s fears and needs, and also that Neddy’s actually only using Ronnie’s apartment so there’s not really a place for her.

Meanwhile, Judge (ret) Alan Parker is thinking of running for mayor. Being in prison has let him recognize the carceral state as the great threat to society it is. And yes, the mayor of Cavelton has limited ability to effect the prison abolition we need. But he can do something. And he’s noticed the failings in the social support network. He’s recognized how the gentrification of Cavelton is hurting the people who made their lives in the town. He’s got a flipping account on Mastodon. There’s a 35% chance the words “fully-automated luxury gay space communism” have passed his lips within the past four weeks. The plan is daft, and everyone tells Parker it is. Among other things, he was in jail to about three months ago for helping his son-in-law fake his death. He only got out because said son-in-law blackmailed-or-worse a judge. He promises to at least not run for public office without talking with his son.

Francesco Marciuliano and Mike Manley’s Judge Parker for the 16th of January, 2020. Alan, you were in jail for like eight days, relax a little. … Also, jeez, that line about Alben Barkley really shows why I am such a niche writer, doesn’t it? You know, Barkley was the vice-president for whom the nickname “Veep” was coined. When Nixon took his office he didn’t want to appropriate his predecessor’s nickname. Also, Nixon lived his entire life without ever having a moment of whimsy or joy. I CAN’T STOP MYSELF FROM WRITING LIKE THIS. SEND HELP.

And this is where we are. It’s been three months of developing the running stories, without any major crazy new developments. It’s been almost tranquil, compared to the cycles of blowing things up and then retrenching. It’s still daft that Alan Parker thinks running for mayor would be a good idea.

Next Week!

Has The Amazing Spider-Man “returned” with some “great new stories and art” yet?’ Well, as of today it’s still reruns of Roy Thomas and Alex Saviuk’s stories from a couple years back, but I’ll recap that if there’s no breaking news there. Also, I’ve got comic strips to discuss on my mathematics blog. You might like that too. I do.