Panel 1: Ah, the fabled startling and abrupt “sitcom wacky neighbor entrance,” probably best known as a riff oft used by Kramer in Seinfeld. Ah, but back in my long-ago 70s childhood, this would’ve been the “Lenny and Squiggy from Laverne & Shirley” entrance. Then again, even a Seinfeld reference is steadily and inexorably receding into the mists of time; “Sigh,” to quote Emp. (Note, by the way, that I had to do an online search to determine if the proper title was Laverne and Shirley or Laverne & Shirley. Ampersand ahoy!)

Panel 2: The puff of dust lingering in the middle of the sofa’s cushions amuses me quite a bit, gotta say.

Panels 4-6: Behold, the fabled “Naruto montage,” in which we see a sudden cluster of reaction shots in wee close-up panels. Not sure if this riff trailed off in usage later in the series or not, but when I read the early Naruto volumes, the seemingly endless torrent of “wee reaction shots” from the crowd of other characters watching each fight scene began to grate on me a tad.

-Adam Warren