Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for January 02, 2013

That schmuck did shoot her!

How poignant. Poor Belle!The colorists are in vacations, I see. Not that the strip in BW looks bad, not at all!

Wow. Great storytellingBroadway’s plan has backfired big time. Good to see CK and BP coming out of this unscathed.Got to wonder if Tracy was tipped off on all this by the police commissioner from that “other city” – I’m sure they were tapping the phones of Broadway’s little brother when B’way called to set up the hit.-——————————————————————Great art today, especially in panel two. Maybe it’s just me, maybe it’s the novelty, but the details seem to jump out more in B&W than color.

Good morning all! I agree, great art today by Joe Staton. Poor Belle, looks like she’s a goner. She learned too late how truly heartless her creep of a boyfriend really is.

I guess it’s irony. So many of us expected Stephanie to buy the farm, and instead it’s Belle who is gunned down and looks about to expire. Clever Mike! Nice to see Cinnamon Knight (who continues to remind me, visually, of RoboCop) being effective here, too. So, much to Broadway’s chagrin, the “costumes” have overcome the gunsels, though not without casualty….

I think this is the scenario I never would have expected, I was sure that either Stephanie or Broadway were going to die, I would never have called it this way; I hope she lives long enough to tell the entire story to Tracy, cause BB needs to rot in prison, and at his age, “life” might just be exactly that!I hope Staton doesn’t leave it here, I want to know WHY Bates decided to kill such a devoted lover as Belle.

Morning all. If I was CK I would immediately run to my girl to see if she was okay, even if she waved me off. She was just shot at, and her partner is defiantly down. Forget the pit stop with the bad guys. If Tracy is there, he would probably have some back-up for that. Even if not, the lady’s gotta be first. Just sayin’.

Gweedo:

You like black and white strips ? Fire your ‘The Gimp’ software and remove colors from your strips. Do not give bad ideas to some so they stop colors on Dick Tracy just like they stop colors on Tarzan ’even if the original Tarzan daily strips were in black and white).

I do not ask 3D comic strips (I am not sure I will love that), but let the people continue to provide color comic strips, please.

Where were you when they started to remove colors in comics ?Where were you when they removed comics ?Where were you when they removed animated comics ?Where were you when they removed colors in movies?Where were you when they removed movies?Where were you when they removed TV ?

Do not let the bearded win the progress war !

Support colors in comics !;-:)

Every six weeks now a classic DT villain emerges only to be killed off 70% of the time.I have to disagree. In the year and 3/4 the new team has been running Dick Tracy six of the “classic” villains have died. Flyface, The Fifth, Cueball, Puttypuss, Panda, and Measles. Of these six, Tracy was only directly responsible for killing The Fifth since it was his shot that made Thors Hammer explode.It is still to early to say that Belle is a goner. Broadway Bates was disarmed, but otherwise unharmed.Also, Mumbles, B. B. Eyes, Mole, Pouch, and Mina. are still alive and well.The status of Moon Maid is still in dispute.

I’m not sure if I can add the three members of The Mumbles Quartet to the list or not. They sort of fall into the category of henchmen as apposed to villains.

Oh, I forgot Big Frost. Again, Tracy didn’t kill him, but that does make it seven dead out of 14, 15 if you count Moon Maid

Hmm.. Re-reading the strip. I’m not 100% sure Putty Puss is dead. May need to reevaluate him.

This is begining to sound familiar !Sort of ’ refrain ’ we were hearing up to a month ago . . . and then it faded away.

Makes one wonder, could SDM be back with a new name ? Or is it DLisagenius ? You might think so . . . in that longing for long ago.

Might be a good idea to keep an eye on this Chick’s future posts. They may well be enlightening ?

@9ChickLuannbean

You’re replying to 9ChickLuannbean’s comment:Can we get Locher back?^^Are you INSANE????WHY would anyone want to bring back the worst artist/writer that DT ever had? He couldn’t draw the characters and his writing was apparently terrible (I can’t really say, because I quit reading DT, when Locher took over; his “art” made me SICK). Admittedly, I personally don’t like every move the new team has made (The Moon era should have stayed dead, along with Moonmaid, imho), however, on the whole, they are doing some very good work and the art is 50,000 times better than when Locher was here.

I thought Puttypuss survied?It was only Cueball who died in their shootout.

If you want to see color and last Sunday’s strip, my back-up website is www.seattlepi.com

We saw it coming, now I hope BB got his!

Joe is such a fine artist …. In panel 3 watching Belle go and that side from the rear view drawing while keeping horse-face’s appearance; this is superb art. If you think not, just try it. It doesn’t matter what SDM uses as its name the style is the same. The story line is real darn good too!! Most posters do it for the joy, while some may just have a need to complain. …. kno-what -I-mean?

Panel 3 is sooooo good! Notice the hand clutch; wow! you can almost feel it.

This strip is monumentally better with Staton and Curtis than it was with Locher. However I think they could do better. What bugs me is every storyline seems to build up for a few weeks, then seems to wrap up way too quickly.

Locher is not coming back.

Belle lies dying in the street Broadway to her was not sweetA double-cross for no sane reasonNot in keeping with the season.Cinnamon draws his sharpened bladeA costumed helper in Tracy’s raidParamedics are on the wayYet Belle won’t see another day.Late in life she made a friendOf Black Piranha, but in the endBates’ betrayal means her last breathRegret and sorrow preceding death.For the cosplayers this is all too realViolent death not part of the dealRole play and masks added spiceYet violent criminals don’t play nice.Tracy again spoke right and true:“Leave it to the Police, this is what we do.”

If Belle really wanted to be partners with Stephanie, why did she lead her into a death trap? And I thought if there was anything to be learned by the SDM fiasco it was this – “Don’t feed the trolls!”

Quick question,Who is colorizing the Dick Tracy over at seattlepi.com ?

This is the full link to the above for mentioned questionhttp://www.seattlepi.com/comics-and-games/fun/Dick_Tracy/

Good morning all…

B&W is a real treat. I hope it becomes permanent.

This strip is great! Hopefully Belle will pull through. Regarding B&W vs Color, I have a full beard and prefer the strip in color.

Good Morning Detectives and Costumed Crimefighters!It’s a little early to write Belle off just yet, but if that’s the case, I hope she sells Broadway out for having her shot at. I’m guessing that Tracy’s presence here is a result of the agreement in principle he and the Knight made when they had that discussion on the roof of Police HQ a few weeks ago. And yeah, this isn’t one of the better story arcs the Team has come up with, but I don’t think it was that horrible. Nice twist to the ending, though, that there’s “no honor among thieves” as opposed to the expected “let trained law enforcement go after criminals instead of dressing up like a cosplayer and trying to do their job for them.”

And to add my 2 cents worth, I think the B&W strips have double the impact that the colored strips have. And that is what the writers want, right?

Another abrupt conclusion. Hate to say it but these stories are getting juvenile in their simplicity. Plus talk about corny. Gould would have had Belle saying something like “Bates you #$%&!”

Can we get Locher back? Every six weeks now a classic DT villain emerges only to be killed off 70% of the time. What – is flat top going to come back from the dead only to get killed off in a month and a half? Stop killing off so many of the vintage bad guys! This is getting ridiculous!

__________________

I saw no classic villain die today.

Where is Sunday`s strip???

Maybe they can save Belle at the hospital, and she can be a character who shows up from time to time. She will have had enough of people like Broadway Bates, and she will be an ally of Tracy’s. (I hope so – she sure is cute.)

unfortunetly Belle is one of the girls that love bad boys, hopeless.

Stephanie & Belle both ended up still lying to each other, both still playng their chosen roles to the bitter end.

To keep both camps happy, I’d like to see Gocomics go back to color; Comic Strip Nation still has the b&w version. I look at both each day.

Okay. Last we saw, Dick was on a spaceship coming back from the moon. Next, he is foiling these guys? And a quick wrap-up, no less. Very disappointing.

I don’t think bringing Locher back would be a good thing. Not good at all. “Offing” some criminals happens in the real world, it goes with the territory. Having your favorite detective hiding and blubbering about how the bad guys are gonna kill him—— not so much. You can tell I don’t miss Locher at all.

Another vote for colored dailes on GoComics — as these strips aren’t done in Grayscale, they were meant for color (perhaps Team Tracy could send advance notice to GoComics telling them the colors of non-regular stuff, such as the Space Coupe being yellow, etc.).

While this does not bode well for Belle the Beloved, I seem to remember from Rodger Rabbit, that you can only truly kill a toon with “dip”.

Cue the violin music

Good morning VB, Margueritem and all!

Certainly I can’t be the only geezer to read panel one and instantly hear Gomer Pyle declaring a citizens arrest of Barney Fife.

didnt see this one coming.. poor belle

What exact ability/“power” did Scarett/Belle have as a costumed hero? Just that jousting sticK?Not good as we see against guns!

Okay, how about THIS idea: If the six week rule must be observed, how about a story where the villian is caught almost immediately, then escapes, and THEN there’s a long Gould-style chase sequence?

The story lines are moving so fast on this strip the colorists are a “year” behind.

3:30 pm EST – I just checked, and the Sunday strip is up on GoComics. Enjoy!

4:39 CST We are now in color.

I think they were both playing their parts to the end – Stephanie knew Belle was going to get busted by Tracy, and Belle knew Broadway meant Stephanie harm – either one had plenty of time to say something beforehand.

All the strips that were in b&w these past few days are now in color.

Forget Belle’s change of heart. Why would BP wish that their partnership had lasted longer after Belle set her up to be assassinated? I would probably not want to be BFF with someone who was setting me up.

About panel 3My take on it is that Belle was unaware that Broadway intended to open fire on the costumes. I think she thought he was going to abduct them, using the armored car, and take them someplace.I believe she intended to ask Broadway if they could get Black Piranha to join her and Broadway, or in some other way recruit her. I think she really likes Stephanie. Not unlike her relationship with Harley, or Harley’s relationship with IvyThey were also planning to see what her connection to The Cinnamon Knight was.It was Cinnamon Knight they were interested in taking out, since he is the crime fighter.Unfortunately for her, Broadway had other plans. He wanted them all DEAD!

Thanks for the positive feedback Mikeyj, JimmyS, Gweedo and Tommygunner. Much appreciated! In most cases color seems to add an unnecessary additional element to the dailies. There is always the risk of diminished returns or distraction. Still, when done with care some dailies benefit from a gilding of the lily: Moon Maid in the cemetery, Honeymoon synchronizing wrist wizards with Tracy or weeping in his arms, for example.

I guess I’m in the minority, but I get no joy out of seeing characters like Belle get killed just for the “realism” of the strip…I feel there’s enough of that type thing IN real life, and would like to be able to view this as an escape from it. It’s not that I’m against bad ones getting killed….and I’d even understand the necessity of an occasional good one as well….but what’s the point of suddenly turning Belle into a likeable and sympathetic character just in time for us to watch her being shot? Is this somehow better….supposed to be.more enjoyable for us? Not for me, anyways….and the whole purpose of this strip is FOR our enjoyment, isn’t it? That said, I thought this whole story rocked up to this point, so I hope she lives and joins the crime fighting team….if not, well…….waaaah!