Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for July 01, 2014

I BET IT IS!

“…Time for Officer Tracy’s medicine.” That line can play in to ANY of the poster’s theories!

In the second panel, is Annie trying to jog Dick’s TRUE memories?

Sigh, who could resist that blank stare?

It just might be that Annie has been on some of that “medicine” also. The induced amnesia kind? She did send that letter to Tracy however, so maybe not.

It kind of seems like an alternate reality, in which Dick lived in Simmons Corners (however he got there) and went to fight in Italy instead of serving at home. Also, in this alternate reality Annie stayed in Simmons Corners with Ma and Pa Silo for much longer than she did in the Annie universe that we know. I don’t have a good explanation for why the calendar would start on the wrong day of the week, but this alternative reality seems like a solid, though unlikely, hypothesis to me at the moment.

Of course, the whole thing could possibly be a hoax, but I’m not so confident with that because meta-information external to the story like the 1940s comic strip drawing style (cross-hatching, etc.) gives a strong hint that we may actually be in a former time. That’s just my thoughts on it and I could be proven wrong any day now.

G’morning guys!

DT doesn’t look well today.

Mornin’ to you VB and all. No, Tracy isn’t very chipper at all at the moment. Still anybody’s guess where this one is going.

@JPuzzleWhiz said, about 16 hours ago:No, she is surprised, or else she wouldn’t have said “gee whiskers” in Panel 3. But I would have expected “Leapin’ Lizards!”

Wikipedia says, “Her catchphrases are ‘Gee whiskers’ and ‘Leapin’ lizards!’” so I think that’s an expected thing for jher to say in this situation.

Although anything is possible in this bizarre tale, I am still inclined to believe that this is a set-up. Tracy has been captured at Thunder Island, conked over the head, then drugged out of his mind (literally), and is being held in this staged The Prisoner-like setting. “Medicine,” indeed! Annie is also, I suspect, drugged, brainwashed, or suffering Stockholm Syndrome (or some combination thereof). —That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it, until better evidence comes along….

Mike and Joe, I need some of the “happy pills” Tracy’s about to get thanks to this story! LOL!

For those of you who believe that Tracy is in an alternate reality, hang in there, I share your confusion.

For those of you who believe this is an elaborate hoax to make Tracy think he’s in the past when he is not, I share your lack of confidence.

For those of you who believe that Tracy has actually been transported to the past, I share your misguided enthusiasm.

For those of you who believe that this is a great story, join me in a toast to Team Tracy for giving us absolutely the best comic arc we have seen in a very long time, perhaps forever!

Shades of the Mrs. Flattop story (if this is another elaborate hoax)!

In the words of the wretched Big Nurse Ratched, “It’s medication time.” One flew east, one flew west, Tracy’s flown into the Cuckoo’s nest.

My goodness Dick must have been starving! How many cookies did the old boy eat? I guess losing your memory does make one hungry!

“I don’t have a good explanation for why the calendar would start on the wrong day of the week” This refers to the day the month of June started in 1944. That was shown on Sunday’s strip. As for me, I don’t trust that nurse.

Ma & Pa maybe Massachusetts & Pennsylvania and they are in a silo? There is a Simmons Corner, RI

the nurse is stiletta and shes drugging tracy :)

Has anyone read “Shutter Island” by Dennis Lahane? Lot of similarities.

In the original Annie comic, Annie called them Mr. and Mrs. Silo. Silo was their last name. Mr.Silo’s first name was Byron. They lived on a farm near a town named Simmons Corners, and in a county named Tucker County.

Ma and Pa Silo……can Joe Corntassel be far behind??

Yesterday’s “It’s 1944” and today’s “It’s time for Officer Tracy’s medicine” still sound like an elaborate hoax. Still, the whole setup is mighty elaborate, which would not explain the erroneous calendar..The European weekdays do not explain the date shown in the erroneous calendar. That would just push the start of the month from Saturday to Sunday, again not making 06 June 1944 a Tuesday..But a European calendar might suggest Simmons Corners is not in the good old US of A. Nah, I don’t think they’re going there, either..About everything in this scenario seems to scream FAKE! This Annie’s only salvation is yesterday’s observation by someone that the real Annie is “smart enough to know when to play dumb.”.But would the real Annie try to place faux memories in Dick Tracy?.Holy shades of Mindy Ermine and Mysta Chimera!

I can’t understand how some of you are getting so excited about this totally un-Tracylike story. Again, I’ll repeat I am not all interested in it and may skip reading this strip for a couple of months, if not longer.

Mike & Joe have a plan here…What happened to Tracy in the boat?

I’m pretty sure Mike and Joe aren’t making this up as they go along.

That’s Indiana Jones you’re thinking of.

The cookie tray and the calandar ad have not transformed overnight. That worries me.

Check out http://dhlittleorphanannie.weebly.com/radio.html for a sample of the radio series. The sample is from 1936. The website states that in the radio series Annie lived with Pa and Ma Silo with Daddy as her benefactor. And as you listen, you will hear that they lived in Simmons Corners.

That’s clearly a look of disappointment on Annie’s face in the third panel. Perhaps because he doesn’t remember, but I’m thinking it’s Tracy’s meds that have her upset.

Good morning DT and A fans. An interesting storyline. Does anyone remember this one? Or is it a totally new storyline?

As my dear old friend and nom de plume, aka “Mattie” says, “ALAS……”

NOW Annie remembers the Silos… that would have saved six decades of her and Sandy on the run!

Next week, Mr. Peabody, his boy Sherman, and the wayback machine. Wassammmat U?

Verbal contact with the Gweedster made! Attempting face to face contact later in the week. My goodness he sounds old! LOL! I’ll pay for the coffee Gweedo you can pay for the steak!

You know, Annie’s actually cuter under Team Tracy…

nightgaunt, the story is ridiculous and absurd to say the least.. no explanation of what happened to tracy after he took off in the speedboat, he simply turns up in a makeshift hospital bed supposedly in 194 with his head bandaged and little orphan annie lite hanging on his bed like a clingy vine.

Wikipedia: Either of the names WABAC or Wayback are in common usage, with the term “WAYBACK” explicitly indicated during the segment in which Mr. Peabody and Sherman visit the “Charge of the Light Brigade”.

Obviously, it’s a play on “way back [in time]” and that’s mixed with a play on UNIVAC, which is an acronym for UNIVersal Automatic Computer. It is the first general purpose computer for commercial use.

Whoa! this story is good! The date of this really blows my mind.

This could go either way. It could be an elaborate hoax, ala the Captain America scene where he wakes up after being revived from the ice, and they have the fake hospital and nurse, and try to play it off like it’s still the 1940s. On the other hand, this storyline has had a LOT of time travel references—Alley Oop, the Philadelphia Experiment, Vitamin’s pronouncement. And I’m sure there’s something significant about him not having his wrist wizard along.

Uh oh, something wrong is definitely goin’ down here.

Well see you in two weeks when tyhis fake history is done. Another strip is doing another “head” game of what happen 70 years ago in France.