You're right. The comic dialogue is 100% a reference to that. The TN in the commentary was specifically for the commentary. Looks like the artist made two different references.
Suggestive position aside, losing communication in the middle of an operation could be one of the worst things imaginable. I don't blame her for literally crawling towards her earpiece communication device.
The results were tragic, and I think this drawing makes reference to the second incident with the aforementioned demon core. The physicist Louis Slotin was the first one on receiving a wave of radiation during that incident, and naturally, the first to die tragically after that incident. Internal radiation burns, gangrene, intestinal paralysis, and coma were the last things Slotin experimented before dying. Why do I mention this specifically?
Well, something caught my attention. The date at the bottom right, May 12, 1998. The aforementioned second incident with the demon core happened on May 21, 1946. Why the dates does not coincide, then if Khyle was trying to appeal to these events? My theory is wrong? Well, after doing some research, it seems like the rapper DMX released an album called It's Dark and Hell Is Hot in that date. I don't know if Khyle is into rap, but it doesn't matter; My point is, knowing him, he probably wrote that date on purpose to make reference of the title of that album, and so, making reference of Slotin's death. It's dark and Hell Is Hot, sounds like an accurate description for someone dying by radiation burnts. If I am right, this is a truly dark reference, hidden behind an apparently meaningless date.