Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for October 08, 2014

Don’t know what that all means, but nice to have a happy ending!

A wonderful ending.

Good morning fellow DT and Annie fans!

It’s nice to see that Annie has been reunited with Sandy and Daddy warbucks! A much more peaceful ending that the last one! Thanks Mike, Joe, and Shelley!

And “Arf” says Sandy:>)

Sure miss Goulds’s work…

Maybe it means the Annie strip will be in limbo until it is brought back by new writers. Then we readers will be in heaven.

Good morning DT fans!And goodbye Annie, Daddy and Sandy, find your own writers and artists from now on! This is DICK TRACY, after all!

Being curious, I went on a bit of a web search and found that Spike and Sally were characters in the Little Orphan Annie strip beginning in August, 1943. Without subscribing to newspapers.com, I was able to get the following snippets of OCR text from a few LOA strips:

August 7, 1943:Spike married a girl who liked the things he liked, Sally — and they moved to Gooneyville — Spike worked hard and when he was forty he owed a little store -

August 8:Gooneyville! That a name for a town! But “Daddy” says its just like every other small town only it’s far enough from salt water to keep me from tanglin’ with any more U-boats — and Mr. Spangle — but “Daddy” says never to call him that — just call him Spike — he and “Daddy” were kids together. “Daddy” says he’s the sort who never changes.

August 15:After nearly a week, Annie and Sandy are well settled in the home of Uncle Spike and Aunt Sally Spangle in the town of Gooneyville — already they are beginning to share the problems of the Spangles — and who among us is without problems?

The problems seem to mainly involve rationing that prevented people from buying cars or using them too much if they already had them. I think we’ve heard mention of Gray’s use of the strip to complain that he wasn’t an essential war service who needed a lot of gas for his work.

An even better ending would have Warbucks dismantling his Defense contract factories, for moral reasons and replacing them with good, well-needed, peacetime jobs, for injured Vets!

Daddy limbo, Daddy quickAnnie unda limbo stickAll around the limbo clockHey, let’s do the limbo rock

Limbo lower nowLimbo lower nowHow low can you go?Only Punjab knowAnnie make my heart shakeAs we head to Limbo Lake

Tribune really needs to bring ANNIE back – of all the “dormant” properties they have, this is the one that needs to return in some form – perhaps Sunday’s only (And Mike and Joe could do it!)

So perhaps we should start a letter writing campaign for Tribune to bring back Annie in some form? As I’ve suggested, how about a Sunday-only strip that Mike and Joe could so. :)

Mike, Joe, et. al. – I thoroughly enjoyed this story! Please don’t be distracted by the complainers who don’t like crossovers. Some of us love crossovers! Y’all did an excellent job on this story! The artwork was sublime, the storyline was wonderful, and the pace was perfect! Keep up the good work!

My first reaction to the dialog in today’s strip was, “Wow! We’re setting up for a Little Orphan Annie story in her own strip!” I hope I’m not wrong!

A very deliberately paced storyline w/ a lot of characters talking ie. exposition & conjecture & planning this & that & then some . Ho hum villain. And a completed wasted Deus ex machina appearance by Influence. This crossover didn’t do much for me although it felt “truer” to the Leonard Starr 80’s Annie strip than DT. Bring on Gruesome!

Good morning DT and Annie fans. Maybe a peaceful vacation for all. Maybe a new storyline is about to be gain. Please see the Annie comic strip for interesting comments about future adventures.

Yeah, after being kidnapped and dragged halfway around the world by some fugitive mass genocide killer, being in limbo for a few years then showing up captive to some guy with a beard for a weapon – hey, I could use a bit of fun…

As I mentioned yesterday, Geoffrey Holder, the multi-talented actor and dancer who played Punjab in the 1982 Annie movie (as well as Baron Samedi in Live and Let Die, and plugged 7-Up as “the un-cola”), just passed away. Rest in peace.

I see there is a lot of pro and con discussion about the crossovers today. I thought this was a pretty good story, and a very good rendering of the Annie cast. I sort of hope that Mike and Joe tone down the idea of crossing over with all sorts of other comic strips, though. I don’t want Dick Tracy to lose its’ own special “feel”.About today’s strip: If Oliver is talking about helping Tracy and company “wrap up this case”, then where is that jet flying to? Back to Tracy’s City? Was there an airstrip on the island? Or did they all make it back to the City off panel, and now Oliver and Annie are going somewhere else?LOOSE ENDS! Unless there is major explaining scheduled for tomorrow? What was really going on, on that island, who was Axel trying to “sell” Tracy to, who were Axel’s bosses?Some of you like to nickname endings according to previous stories. “Sweatbox endings”, etc. This feels like a LOST ending to me – lots of hints throughout the story of what might be happening, all sorts of mysterious stuff on an island which had a famous “incident” at one point in its’ history, but, at the end we really didn’t get any explanation for half the stuff they teased us with over the course of the show.

Ten bucks says sundays strip is another :VITAMIN FLINTHEART MONOLOGUE" where he tries to move the scene a few days/weeks/months forward so that running from the godawful Little Orphan Annie story (featuring dick tracy) to the two week story of tracy before going into yet ANOTHER crossover story (this time with funky winkerbean) before getting into the nitrates story.

another ten bucks says it fails just as miserably as this story did.

WHY do i see it as a failure you ask? (and have been asking since this sham began?) let me elaborate. hHere was absolutely NO NEED for this story at all… IF mike and joe were pitching a revived little orphan annie strip, then they simply could have pitched THIS story to tribune as their intro.. the last 800 months (seemingly) that this story ran could have been used for better purposes.. like, oh i dunno, an ACTUAL DICK TRACY STORY where he DOESNT play second fiddle to gotbucks and his cast of thugs.

It is not clear how much time has passed between the Kenyon explosion on Thunder Island and this flight in the Warbucks jet (with the stylized “W” on the vertical stabilizer), but it is enough that Daddy and Annie can wax nostalgic and provide some sense of closure (yet remaining open to continuation should an opportunity arise in the future). Alas, so far there are no further explanations of what has transpired, though some may come over the next ten days or so….

Well done, Team Tracy! I was skeptical at first, but you won me over! Bravo!

All good things must come to an end.

To quote the last installment of LOA…“And this is where we leave our Annie…for now.” Of course, the end of this arc comes with the requisite collection of loose ends, as Ken mentioned above.

I didn’t grow up w/ Orphan Annie, nor did I pick it up as an adult. That said, I have enjoyed the crossover. I think too many crossovers might get old, but I thought this was fun and creative. Now back to lurking . . .

Yippie, fishing with Spike & Sally..

I really enjoyed the crossover, and thought it was great fun seeing Annie and the gang back in action (and resolving the mystery of her fate).I’m totally in favor of other cross-overs and guest appearances. If there was any real problem to this one, it’s that there were so many characters (by my count, about 30 speaking ‘roles’).That’s a lot more than the usual Tracy story (less like Chet Gould and more like Charles Dickens).And add me to the list who’d love to see Annie and the gang (including Amelia Santiago, pilot and ex-spy) back in their own strip.

Some of the commenters yesterday were again calling for the head of Mayor Armstrong for bribery.Not a chance.Unless that check from Warbucks was a personal one to her (or ’cash"), there was no bribery.-Lots of cities (big and small) are hurting for money since the factories which were the tax base have defected to China.The taxpayers of Traceyvile would re-elect Armstrong in a heartbeat if they knew she (1) wrangled a check from a bazillionaire to (2) cover the cost of a big city project which will be completed without (3) any more tax dollars.Heck, pull that off again, and she might make governor!

I’ve enjoyed the crossovers, too. Annie’s strip during 1935 – 45 was sometimes darker and more violent than this. (some years ago I picked up the hardcover collection at a used book store) I’ve enjoyed the occasional visit by a “vintage” character from another strip.

Free at last, free at last, thank Godamighty free at last!!! Bring on Gruesome or whoever. Pleeeasse!!

How did the Warbucks get off the island and onto a private company jet so fast? Just wondering. I’m sure quite a few Tracyville residents will be more than willing to explain it to me.

I just realized – after the explosion and the magic carpet ride Punjab gave those bad guys -Were there any bad guys left to arrest?(Well, it does cut down on the paperwork…)

I wouldn’t be surprised if Warbucks’ plane flies through Diet Smith’s time bubble and ends up back in 1944, where I suspect the reboot of an Annie strip is proposed to take place. I have expressed this opinion several times before on this board and wait to see if my prediction comes true. However, I have been wrong many times before in my predictions. When I watch TV, I can often predict the resolution of a program but I must admit that in the comic strip realm, Mike Curtis always surprises me.

How about a scenario where Warbucks is so eager to get out of this waaaaaaay too long crossover that he does his own version of “breaking the 4th wall” to flee MikeyJoeville before he becomes a regular character! Hey it’s only a comic, right???

I would still love to see a short storyline with an Honeymoon/Annie Adventure. Next Year,Mike? :)

Good one, coldsooner..The strip is proof that the time of Moon Maid shall never pass. As long as there is Curiosity and a thirst to learn and explore, the “space era” will never end.

Annie is on a jetWith Daddy and Sandy, her petSimmons Corners now doneTime for resting and funAnd another adventure, you bet

Is that it? There has to be more to this

A Dassault Falcon? A Grumman Gulfstream isn’t good enough for Ollie?