Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for August 13, 2013

Well . . .

. . . it happened!

Surprise!

Good morning fellow DT fans…

Good morning, all Dick Tracy fans! Sparkle has been found casually by her family ( by means of a typical Gouldian coincidence)! Hope she recovers her memory. Also hope Junior change his hair style, some day,,,

Anyone who DIDN’T see this coming?

I’d sure like to see Junior retell the Modred story. I’m sure his version would be a lot more exciting than the one we had to endure a couple of years ago.

Well, there you go! The missing Sparkle has found her husband, the moonlighting cop, and Honeymoon! Now what? Once Junior and Honeymoon get over their shock and it becomes apparent that Sparkle has a partial amnesia, will Honeymoon (with her limited lunarian powers) semi-zap “Gertie” to restore Sparkle’s memory?

Mom!?

Together again for the first time!

Dr. Mordred was one of the least thought-out DT villains. There was very little to tie him to his namesake, other than a one-time random Camelot metaphor.

Better that Junior and Honeymoon ask Sparkle what she’s doing there!

Well its certainly a bittersweet reunion! I just hope the shock of seeing her family will jolt Sparkle back to being Sparkle!

small world!, but I’ll bet this isn’t over.

Panel 2 shows us that a) Team Tracy accepts the Locher years as canonical in the Dick Tracy universe andb) That they could have done the Mordred story soooo much better.

Junior’s hairdo: Doesn’t he look kind of like Archie (of Archie and Veronica) on a bad hair day?.Junior meets Sparkle: It’s about time. We can’t keep opening thread after thread after thread forever – time to start tying up something! Too bad Mysta wasn’t there, as well..Junior talks about Mordred: So much can be and has been said. I missed the Locher years, as in, I had no access to Dick Tracy during that period (wasn’t yet aware of on-line funny pages). So many topics have come up which have taken me to those years, 2011 mostly, much of which was the Mordred story..And what rats’ nest that year was!.It would seem that there are only two people who generate this much emotion, and those two people are Mysta and Dick Locher. Talk about a love-hate relationship!.Mysta, either the most interesting character Chester Gould ever invented, or the worst mistake he ever made! I really haven’t seen much middle ground here..The same with Dick Locher, though I’m not sure that I have seen anyone all that enamored with him. I have heard that Locher was going through some intense personal difficulties during his years at the helm – including personal illness and the death of his son. And as for those who hate Locher – well, they do hate him!.The best thing some people have had to say about Locher is that he at least kept the strip alive; without him, Thick Spacey (as some people on this page once called him) may have gone the way of Little Orphan Annie!.All of that to say this: At times, we aren’t a very forgiving bunch, are we…

Junior will never go back to Moonmaid. He loves Sparkle too much and besides they grew up together and have their own child Sparkle Jr, to consider. I hope Moonmaid goes back to the moon and stays there for good!

That Gerite woman needs to mind her own business and stop being so danged nosy! :)

A tribute to the Granary:

http://bit.ly/17m9bwn

(disclaimer: not my work)

436rge: Saw your post on Moon Maid. Okay, so we disagree. No big deal..But I also saw another post of yours regarding Sunday Funnies..One thing I noted, going back to 2011 and 2012 in Dick Tracy is that there were an extra three panels to the Sunday edition..Today, Dick Tracy gets a total of nine panels; the first three always being the banner, the Crimestoppers Textbook and some related artwork, leaving only six panels to tell the story..But I note that other comics, such as Chickweed, Nancy, and Gasoline Alley, seem to still have the twelve panel format..When did Mike and Joe lose the bottom three panels, and why?

Hey, I’m also one who believes that Locher kept the strip alive. But he knew when it was time to go. We just agreed with him a little…emphatically, that’s all.

Well said, SDM.

Can you imagine what a very first time DT reader is thinking right now?

SDP, I kind of wish that Matthew Hansel had relieved DL early on, when Tracy really hit the skids. You’d never know it from S&M, but Matthew could draw and his imagination of danger is certainly for real. We would have never seen the likes of Mordred, the Stuka hideout, and a whole host of Tracy’s run and hide scenes. Of course, we would not have been treated to Mike & Joe, either. So maybe what happened was for the best.

Deju vu from “Casablanca”……Of all the graineries in the world……

Wait, didn’t Tracy have only 4 fingers back when he (very, very slowly) battled Mordred?

I am sorry. that is no longer considered a bad word according to Dr. Oz. but please forgive me and I will no longer use such. … and thanks for being blunt but yet polite.

Good morning VB, Margueritem and all. What a memorable day!

Team Tracy confirming and revisiting the fabled granary AND I find myself aligned with a non-snarky SDM.

I applaud Dick Locher for his decades of contributions and his dedication to keeping the strip running and rejoice in the continued success of the new team!

Yep, absolutely. My point was that the cream not always rises to the top, and I am sure there were other better-talented artists and storytellers out there. Matty was one, to tell the truth, and he knows it. He would not have let our hero cop turn into a weenie for those years.

That took quicker then I thought it would for them to be reunited.

No, no please no more Mordred story. Let him and author RIP

“NOW BATTING… IN DEFENSE OF HIS IDOL DICK LOCHER… #30.5..STILLDAMATT!”

lol :)

According to Wikipedia. In 2009 Jim Brozman took over the drawing of Dick Tracy; however Locher continued to write the storyline and contributed sketches. I’m not sure who should be getting all of the flack, but I’m not sure Locher deserves it all.

I think Mr. Locher’s biggest problem was coming up with the story lines. If someone else had been doing the stories and he was just doing the art, I think things would have turned out far better towards the end of his run. He is an extremely talented cartoonist with a Pulitzer Prize for his political cartoons.

You said:“… It’s extremely disrespectful to ridicule a person’s lifetime achievements based on a few difficult years’…”-———————————I agree completely, SDM! Dick Locher deserves much more respect than he’s been receiving. Like most of you, I’m only familiar with his final years on Tracy, but his run on the strip is probably second only to Chester Gould himself for longevity, and creativity.I’m glad to see Team Tracy respecting his body of work.

JPuzzle, you’re forgetting that with today’s technology, we’re communicating faster, and to more people, with less literacy than ever before.

Now that Junior has found, eh, “Gertie,” will she tell him about Hy Pressure? And the mysterious Mindy?Suddenly, the story’s various threads are being woven together… (Love this story!)

I must be tired, I thought I saw a comment from Mikeyj. “Should I stay or should I go?”^^oh please stay, you’re an OK guy in my book

All-around good job today, SDM!

I got a nice big glass of ovaltine stilldamatt, and my little orphan annie secret decoder ring to try and decipher your little abbreviations at the end of your comments ;)

Junior always had the classic “haircut from hell” as kids we were told by our fathers to get it cut like this every two weeks