Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for July 10, 2013

Oh oh, you’re getting political.

Yeah I don’t care for this “fracking is bad” stuff. It distracts from what has been a wonderful story.

mmmmmmmmmmm Brown water!

I have massive respect for Staton and Curtis for having the guts and integrity to paint fracking in the light that it deserves to be painted.

@RobertPlunkett, no, this is not political. God help us if trying to protect children from being poisoned and our environment from being destroyed is a political act.

Sorry, Flight Suit, I have a different take. I love this story and appreciate Curtis and Staton’s work very much. I also hate it that they’ve decided to interject controversy into this epic saga. Sorry, it just turns people off. They’ve done a great job attracting fans to the strip with the improved art and stories. Why sidetrack everything with this sideshow? I know Gould was political but it hurt him, too. I just don’t see any good reason to do this. Leave controversial social issues to the talking heads at Fox and MSNBC, this is entertainment. We fans come here to read this strip to take our minds off that stuff. Or at least many of us do. Cut the fracking nonsense, please! :)

@Day-Day2001, current events and topical issues have often been in the mix, even before Staton and Curtis took over.

Good morning fellow DT fans…

Add me to group of those not appreciating the politicization of the comics. But regardless of Mr. Wheaton’s views on fracking, I still don’t understand his views on holding an amnesiac as an indentured servant….

Given that in the original 88 Keys story Wheaton ran a dairy farm and last we saw of her Moon Maid was taking the “Dairyland” exit off the freeway it seems we are working toward another meeting between Mysta and Sparkle.

I don’t like to complain they need to get back to the moon maid story, what happened dr zyghote, dr stem cell, what was the plan for the space coupe and what mysta really is.

Doesn’t Mike own a farm? I thought I’ve seen postings by him referencing early AM cow milking. So this may be topic he’s had some dealings with.

Not that I cared for the Blowtop knock-off, Upward Lee Mobile (sp?), but I could see his character fitting into this storyline as big business type. Teamed up w/ Hy Pressure & Pushy Pointer & you got yourselves the hard sell from hell!

If anyone else here is a fan of the recent series “Battlestar Galactica” you know why I’m cracking up right now…

Have to jump in here. I’m disappointed that they felt the need to insert a political viewpoint here….and even more disappointed that they don’t appear to know what they’re complaining about in the first place. Living in the heart of the Marcellus, there is far more hysterical, unproven hype from the anti-fracking camp than one would think possible from otherwise intelligent people. Please, please; entertain us without the lectures in this strip.

Who’s picture is on the wall?

The police picture. Is that the chief?

Political nonsense getting on to Dick Tracey.. What a kilometre separation from your drinking water- looks like someone was making a excuse for directly polluting your water.

I don`t like this political stuff. The fracking is for the MSM to talk about.

“Carole and I live on a farm. I do know about fracking because it has been done here through the years, and we drink water from a well.”Mr. Curtis is doing what good storytellers do: he is using his own life experience to inform and enhance his work. That Wheaton does not want to sign over fracking rights due, in part, to a neighbor’s bad experience does not make this a “political” story. Sparkle has amnesia and finds herself at the Wheaton farm. Mysta has taken the “Dairyland” exit and may well be headed toward Sparkle. Wheaton is under pressure to sell the rights and has thus far refused. Mr. Curtis is building the dramatic tension, which is a good thing. He is adding additional complexity to a rich story. The Wheaton’s life is about a lot more than their new guest, as we would expect in a multilayered story.While I firmly believe that the facts about hydraulic fracturing and its environmental impact merit concern, discussion and action, I will keep my comments on this forum focused on the wonderful comic strip, Dick Tracy. I look forward to it every day and am riveted by the current storylines.

I do not mind the political part of the story, but it would be nice if the characters at least spouted “facts” that were actually true. The most famous story about fracking in Pennsylvania, if I recall correctly, showed people with water that could actually be made to burn. It turns out it was not fracking that was the culprit, but a natural phenomenon. Too bad. I will probably skim this over for the time being.

Why is it that every time a subject comes up that has two points of view to it, it is labeled “political”. Can’t reasonable people discuss the pros and cons of something without being “political”? Of course, something like fracking naturally will involve government regulation at some point, but individuals should still be able to have opinions about it. My guess is, like every other new technology, there will be people that have had genuinely good experiences, and others that have had real honest problems.

We may presume that Mr. Pressure’s company does not use the proper safety precautions when fracking, thus his need for “high pressure”tactics. The local farmers have gotten wise to him.

I would venture that the pictures are of the late Mrs. Wheaton, and the never-named Wheaton son (off in the military?)

I don’t see why some people have this knee-jerk response of “oh, no, that’s political; I don’t want it in the comics!” the moment something like hydraulic fracturing gets mentioned in the strip. Let’s assume we live in a perfect world, where fracking is generally safe and properly regulated for safety (just like, say, what a private sewage treatment plant is allowed to release into a river that provides drinking water to a town downstream). Now, along comes Mr. Pressure, who (a) seems to be exerting his namesake—perhaps coming very close to the boundary of illegal activity—on Mr. Wheaton, and (b) seems to have already demonstrated at the Reynolds’ farm that he’s NOT following the proper rules. In other words, Mr. Pressure’s already committed one crime and appears to be setting up to commit another. This doesn’t sound “political” to me; it just sounds like a Tracy storyline. I’m pretty sure the strip has in the past done stories in which the mob was, for instance, dumping toxic waste in the reservoir and silencing the witnesses.

Yes, there’s a political controversy around fracking, mostly around just what the rules and regulations should be and how they’ll be enforced. But that doesn’t seem to be where this story is going. At least not yet.

Mr Pressure won’t take NO for an answer. He’ll simply claim Eminent Domain and set-up shop anyway.

I appreciate the reasonable comments of Puddlegum, Pequod, and Ken in Ohio. I dislike any knee-jerk response: on one side, people who oppose fracking based on one early report in one of their favorite publications, and the “drill, baby, drill” gang on the other. Politics isn’t a dirty word, it’s some of the people who practice it.

How long has Sparkle been missing? She seems to have settled in here. It seems that Junior and some of the others should be looking for her.

Fracking is good, but maybe mr. farmer wants 10 buck a gallon gas.

awww vb.. YOURE A LEGEND!! :)

The basic rule of thumb for all areas of entertainment is “Keep your politics to yourself.” Invariably, the artist will alienate a large portion of the audience who feel differently, and they will no longer have the same level of respect for your art.

can i say… without being hung out to dry.. that this new story makes ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE* to me at all?

curtis and staton and crew jumped right off from the events at diet smith enterprises which… judging by the last panel when tracy murdered bardoll… took place at NIGHT to the current week’s story which are taking place in BROAD DAYLIGHT.

which leads me to believe oen of two things… A) this part of the story is taking place the morning AFTER the fight at Smith Enterprises and Moon maid Lite’s escape or B) it’s taking place AT THE SAME TIME as the first part of the Smith Enterprises storyline… when the meeting is beginning to take place between Tracy and Moon Maid Lite.

<P<>Either way, i would EXPECT junior to have shown up in at LEAST one part of the story… either trying to find sparkle or going with tracy to confront Moon Maid Lite.

Like I said yesterday… seems the “Moon Maid Lite” story has gotten the SWEATBOX ENDING

oh, and can someone explain to me what “fracking” really is? I have never heard of it before

We aren’t protecting our children by continuing not to develop our own energy sources. I object to politics being injected into my Dick Tracy story too.

The flaming water faucet shown in the anti-natural gas drilling film “Gasland,” has become the first thing many people think of when they hear of gas drilling, or “fracking.” But that claim turned out to be completely wrong. Investigators determined that Colorado water well had been drilled into a pocket of methane and had nothing to do with fracking. Josh Fox’s follow up, “GasLand II” debuted at Tribeca Film Festival and aired on HBO July 8, 2013.

Read the whole story HERE.

Fracking is good for business. It’s only people who suffer.

Fracking does NOT cause damage to the water supplies. The stories that have been going around are manufactured! The people who claim to have been damaged have not been able to prove their case, and the graphic images of burning water coming out of a kitchen faucet were taken BEFORE the fracking stated in the area. There has been flammable gas in the water supply in that area for YEARS! The man who is leading the fight to outlaw fracking is misinformed at best and doing malicious harm at worst. He will not speak to anyone who has actual knowledge of fracking and how it works. Instead, he instigates court battles and local legislatures to outlaw it without allowing the facts to cloud his thinking.

Check into the facts on fracking at http://articles.latimes.com/2013/jun/21/opinion/la-oe-zierman-california-fracking-moratorium-20130621 . There are many other websites where the same information is available.

It is too bad that the Dick Tracy comic strip is promoting the idea that fracking has to be dangerous for our drinking water, when the fact is that is not the case when it is done properly, which is usually the case.

Those who complain of the “political” nature of the new arc are no doubt the same who boycott the annual reruns of that political potboiler, “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

For everyone who has turn an enjoyable comment page into a political fracking forum, please leave. I have an opinion and put it where it belongs in the “NEWS” part of my browser. Otherwise this Mr. Wheaton is not interested in fracking on his farm, it looks like a way for the storyline to progress. I look to DT for some serial comic strip entertainment not for technology news.

When I was a kid living by the Housatonic River in CT, you couldn’t swim or fish in it because of the poisons dumped into it. The state made laws against it, but Mass. just kept dumping, so the feds created clean water standards. Is that too “political” for you, too?Remember, Global Warming wasn’t political until Dick Cheney made it political.

Texas had a series of earthquakes last year, that were all tied to the fracking in the epicenter of the quake zone.The stability of the ground is like two sheets of sandpaper, grit side to grit side. They get a good grip on each other and are nice and stable.Fracking is like shooting grease between the sandpaper sheets so they can suddenly loose their grip and move.Sorry – is science too political?

NG49, i do not beleive that**" humans made global warming"** any more than i believe that honest politicians exist… where global warming comes from, to me at least, is NATURE ITSELF… like george carlin once said “do you think that recycling bottles or styrofoam or cardboard is REALLY gonna make a difference? when mother nature has had enough of us and our stupidity, then SHE will handle it herself… dont believe me? ask pompeii”

BACK TO MOON MAID:

Q: does Moon Maid have a BELLY BUTTON??? If she were a clone, how was she grown/incubated/hatched/birthed?

There should be an easy way to figure this out and Tracy & Honeymoon have a sample of her hair. Why would it take so long to get it back from a lab?

I’m disppointed. This commentary is based on uninformed opinion. Even the EPA has said that fracking can be done safely.

……we may never get back to Dr. Sail……since Moon Maids driving off into another story, we may find out who or what she is in that story instead.

You wanna frack, head on over to Madame Lacy’s Horhouse, but no fracking here!

I don’t want to put in any spoilers, but I will say that fracking is just being used as a plot device. As has been pointed out by another poster Mr. Wheaton has had a friend who has had a bad experience with fracking on his farm. Whether or not fracking was the cause is irrelevent, it is only that Mr. Wheaton and his friend believe it was the cause. Because of this he is apposed to having it performed on his property. A reasonable choice. It is in no way political, just as having someone drill for an oil well in your backyard, isn’t political. you just don’t want them doing it.Also, the story will return to Diet Smith Industries very soon. This is just a set-up for events that will be taking place really soon. Keep reading. This is going to get good!

Skip, look at yesterday’s strip again.Hy Pressure is a sleazy looking guy in a motel. Is that what you think the “fracking industry” guys look like?He’s a speculator – you know, put the squeeze on the farmer and buy the mineral rights for 10, sell to the oil intersts for 20 (or more).BUT if you really are that delicate and sensitive, maybe you shouldn’t read anything as challenging as a comic strip for a while.

Fracking is performed in the producing zones down toward the bottom of oil and gas wells, which (according to www.eia.gov) is at an average depth of about 5,964 feet. However (according to pubs.usgs.gov), the depth of water wells in the USA run from 0-1,200’, with 2/3rds of them being less than 100 feet in depth. So how does the oil and/or gas get from the producing zone of an oil or gas into a water well? Quite frankly, unless somebody drilled an open hole between the two zones, or the intervening layers are extremely porous, there’s virtually no chance of contaminating a water well from oil or gas wells – or from fracking! And coffee colored water? Even the critics that I’ve heard from only claim that natural gas (colorless) gets into the water table (supposedly causing the evaporating water to be ignitable). Let’s get real here (even if it is fiction to begin with)!

Newenglandah, I’ll make you a proposition; to punish the frackers, who supply you with gasoline, heating oil, plastic, and probably electricity, boycott them! Don’t buy anything that is related to the O&G industry. Get an Amish buggy and then you can preach about the evils of oil. I’ll remember to send you a blanket this winter while I pump petroleum products to the rest of the country.

Brother! Getting PC-ish, are we, Dick? Let me guess: the farmer only plants corn, for ethanol, and has the whole farm covered with windmills.

“Dick Tracy never lied before in the history of this strip. Thanks for ruining this strip by telling lies.” There have been Space Coupes, magnetic air cars, & other devices brought in to stories for decades. Ever seen any of those? Were they meant to be lies? No, they were plot devices. There seems to be a big debate here about fracking. I’m not well-enough informed about the subject to have an opinion. I’m fairly certain that applies to a lot of posters today who have gotten up on their soapbox, nonetheless. It’s a story, folks. it hasn’t been “ruined”, not by a long shot, by this trifle. 80 years & counting, people!

The strip is not telling a lie. It is showing an individual person expressing what they believe. It is the same as if I tell you “There are people who believe the earth is flat” I’M not saying the earth is flat, I’m only reporting what I know to be true about what other people think. See the difference? Now, I don’t know which facts are actually true regarding the subject of fracking. I’m only trying to show you that having a character in a story say something is not the same thing as saying that it is a fact.

My last four years fighting fracking have played out to where the health of my family has been compromised. In the summer of 2012 they started drilling near my home by the Cowboys Stadium…I had no cooperation from the city or Chesapeake as to when they would be flowing back and putting those wells into production so that I could watch the winds and remove my family from downwind toxins….in January my teenager was getting this rash at the same time my husbands lymph nodes were swelling in his neck…now we have chemo and radiation to finish up by this August. My teen has biomarkers for an adrenal tumor and I need to have a third test run and get another doctors opinion on him.

I will never be able to prove drilling harmed my family, but the drillers will never be able to prove they did NOT.

Turning this into some ignorant political BS has lost me. I’m done.

fracknation.comGet educated, people! Fracking is NOT a disaster. The disaster is people being knee-jerk alarmists thinking it’s wrong….but they don’t know why.

I’ll have to weigh in with Flight suit on this.