Question Author
To ChrisH and Alba.
Why introduce the apostrophe? It is simply the plural of 'comic'.
i.e the answer to what might be clued in a crossword as:
'Eagle, Beano, Dandy etc.(6)'
Remember the origin of this game was the Daily Telegraph GK Crosswords.
The rules are simply to find a word (in this case 'comics') which when combined, either before or after, with the challenge word makes a new word or commonly used phrase.
COMICS, when combined with TRIP = COMIC STRIP (a strip cartoon)
I'm sure we have had similar before.
Seekeerz may be able to confirm whether KM has had similar combinations.