I'm sure this has already come up (if so please direct me to the proper thread)....

But I've decided to do away with my homepage, but I want to keep my comic blog! But when i put the variable on my comic page template, the blog does not display. (i've also noticed this happens for , which is odd).

I haven't been able to find a tut that says anything one way or the other....

Is there anything I can do about it, or is it a futile hope?

Sorry. Those only work on the homepage template.
You can see a list of all the comic page teplate codes I know in a sticky in the coding forum here:

http://www.drunkduck.com/community/view_topic.php?tid=26474&cid=231

Skoolmunkee has also made an excellent list of codes for the homepage AND comoic templates, showing what works where, here:
http://www.warmblues.com/drunkduck/homepage/supported.htm

That's what i figured, but i thought i'd ask! Thanks!