Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for March 15, 2015

Vitamin, he takes a hit; the bullet meant for KandiShould he survive the loss of blood, he’ll soon enough feel randy.‘Tis not the time for true romance, the Nitrates aim to killFlintheart loses consciousness, yet to live there is strong will..Ratatat! Take this! Take that! The shootout has begun!Hemmed in by Sam and Tracy: no escape, nowhere to run.Blam and crash! They fail to dash. A peppering they sendAt the brave Detectives, whose will they fail to bend..This is no place for gunplay, with innocents nearbyTracy hatches a quick plan, even as the bullets fly.He draws the deadly fire, as Sam deftly slips awayShould Sam make it ’round the corner, the Nitrates both shall pay..The Detectives fight to maintain the right: judicious use of forcePutting it all on the line to protect and serve, of course.Ratatat! Take this! Take that! The Nitrates so well armed.A judgment day. Time to pay. For all they’ve killed and harmed.

For those of you have been asking for EXCITING, here it is!

Tracy marveled at his luckas he and Sam both ran and ducked“Amazing as it seems to meto surprise the Nitrates will not be”As Tracy watched the bullets flyHe pondered how he, a Lord and Taylor guyCould not out think, or even outsmartA bum who purchased his robe at Wal-MartPerhaps he should quit, there are ways to make a buckA movie extra, filming scenes driving trucksBAH! Tracy barked, self pity drives me sillyThe Nitrates deserve to get a blast of the williesWe’ve got people that we need To set free from this jamI’ll draw thier attention towards me So today’s hero can be my man Sam

Good morning guys!

What an exciting strip today!

Firefight!

SHOWDOWN!

Looks like Dick Tracy is setting himself up to add another snap-brim fedora to his collection of near misses.

Also the Nitrates didn’t do their homework….bad guys who take up gun battles with Dick Tracy usually come out second best….and second best usually gets you an unplanned session with an undertaker.

Good morning my friends._________@Pequod and avenger09: keep those excellent poems a coming.________Y’all have a great Sunday everyone.

Ahh! I love the echo of machine guns firing and the smell of gunpowder on a Sunday morning!Tracy is reluctant to fire because of “others” he spotted inside the warehouse; his sharp eyes must guide his gun as well. Sam is delegated to outflank the crazed Nitrates by way of the side door. Let’s hope this tactic works, or the curtain may fall on Vitamin Flintheart!

With action like this, I agree that a little “poetry in motion” is called for. Nice work again folks.

What a showdown. They need some backup and soon.

Good job, PQ! Put your Lord & Taylor trophy up on the shelf with the others in your Trophy Room of Poetry!

3 RATATAT’s, a KRSSH and a BLAM! It’s all happening today!

Good Morning VB! and the rest of you Tracyfen. Exciting isn’t the word—THRILLING? Action Packed? Scary? The Nitrates HAVE to run out of Ammo soon. I just hope Silver hasn’t thought about taking Kandi and Vitamin hostage as a means of escaping. (They seem like cowardly curs)

Also, with all the bullets flying, if one hits LENA, what would that do to Sprocket?

Sunday morning comics firefight… who needs coffee?

Terrific art today from Joe and Shane!-That third panel is full of action – the light bar is blasted to pieces while Sprocket dives into the car as bullets fly by Tracy and Sam. In a movie, that would take four or five different angles and edits, but Joe’s packed it all in one.

Love the layout of the next two panels, with bullets flying as Sprocket and Silver literally face off with Tracy and Sam.And of course, that top panel with Kandi holding Vitamin (as if we needed reminding of the danger they’re in!)

Great storytelling!

Am I wrong, or are we getting more action lately?Since Axel was blown to smithereens, we saw Tracy in a fistfight with Gruesome atop a burning building, and now a blazing gun battle.And this tale has had no shortage of mayhem with Blowtop and Stiletta.These are the kind of finales the stories need.

Quite a way to end two, we all wish to see taken away — now in body bags. I have a strong feeling these two will not be dissipearing in a lake.

Oh come on. One moment they are inches away from sprocket with their guns in her face, but she manages to back up, dive into her car to start the machine gun. And Tracy and Sam are suddenly hiding behind their car? A bit of a lapse in plotting here.

Oh come on. One moment they are inches away from sprocket with their guns in her face, but she manages to back up, dive into her car to start the machine gun. And Tracy and Sam are suddenly hiding behind their car? A bit of a lapse in plotting here.

Judgement Day, Time to Pay, Ratatat Tat….PQ77 this is your best yet…Thank You & All Dick Tracy fans…

A rootin’ tootin’ shoot out Sunday strip!!! Thanks Joe, Mike, Shelley, Shane and Jim!!!

The shootout begins, making for an action-packed Sunday. Sam and Tracy are cool under fire. The Nitrates’ odds for a getaway just grew much longer. While the Wonder Car has special features and many amenities, Maay had a much faster car. Fast rides can end abruptly, of course.

Thanks to cpalmeresq, Gweedo, Willy007, Night-Gaunt49, Starman1948, Neil Wick, coldsooner, Morrow, JPuzzleWhiz and Ray Toler for the kind words. Much appreciated..@Ray Toler: Thanks! I could only hope to be so honored. The second reprint volume is long overdue. .@John Russell: I am a tenured Professor of English. Thanks for your compliment. I have a few colleagues who are real poets, but I enjoy the fun rhyming that comes from being inspired by Team Tracy. It started back on October 1, 2012, when Mysta sent me into orbit.

Not to be nitpicky, but shouldn’t today’s opening panel be labeled as a “Tracy’s Hall of Fame,” …

I think maybe it should, but it’s not really talking about someone famous, nor is it really giving tips on how to stop crime. It doesn’t easily fit the categories, not that it’s off-topic.

I think whether the Nitrates will be killed off isn’t a question of “if” but a question of “how” and “when”.

They may be killed or maybe they’ll be thrown in jail, but I’m pretty sure they won’t get away this time. They’re cornered, and if they try to get “out the back door,” Sam will be there waiting for them.

I never thought of this before a couple of days ago, when someone posted a video of a real-life SUV that comes with a mounted machine gun, but . . . Where do all of the shell casings go in this “Wonder Car” when the air horn guns are being fired?

RE: How the garage door went up so quickly – Maybe it’s one of those doors with a spring mechanism, so that once you give it a little push (like Sprocket did in the first main panel) it continues on its’ way up on its’ own.

Exellent again, Pequod! Avenger09, the “Lord and Taylor” bit was hilarious! Kudos to you, too.

Tender moment in one panel, flying bullets in the others. “Ye gods!” as the “Lord and Taylor-ed” detective would say. The gunfight is on!

Sprocket sure is quick on her feet to throw the steel door open far enough AND get out of the way as Silver fires the (suddenly un-jammed?) airhorn gun, but I would have to side on the nit-pickers just for a bit:

1. The jammed driver-side airhorn gun, now suddenly un-jammed. We have known they swivel at different angles, but the aim was debatable, at least. But that was a very swift repair job on the previously jammed gun.

2. Ken in Ohio touched on a curious detail: the spent casings. Where DO they go? I have also seen videos (saw the “Mythbusters” one—they’re having too much fun with THAT one, and it’s rather big, too!). But miniguns do dispense A LOT of spent shells when on full blast, and those little airhorns look so small to hold even the barrels. Plus the pivoting and swivelling of the airhorns—that is one flexible minigun.

But I’m only nit-picking, I’d rather suspend “real life physics” for “comic-strip ‘physics’” anytime with great artwork and story lines. Keep up the great work, Team Tracy!

Attention to Detail …

The shadow just above everyone’s signatures is the silhouette of Vitamin and Kandi, which is where Tracy noticed that there are “other people” in that warehouse – The silhouette closely matches the picture of our favorite couple in the small “disposable” panel on the upper right.

Some people here said a couple of days ago that they hadn’t realized that the car was indoors. Here, in the absolute worst rough sketch ever, is how I imagine the configuration of the delivery bay. You can click on it to open it bigger in another window (making my horrible doodling look even more horrible).There are a few questionable aspects to this. Sometimes it looks like the stairs Kandikane was standing on (and where Vitamin was shot) lead to the front wall (left of the diagram as I drew it) and sometimes it looks like they lead to the side wall. I opted for the front wall because Vitamin was definitely walking from left to right past the window where he could see everything while glancing to his left.

At first, I imagined several loading bays in a row, but the fact that there is light coming in through the high window above the passengers’ side of the car suggests that it’s an outside wall. The wall on the other side of the war may also have a window which is much wider than it is tall, but that seems to be in the wrong place for the scene where Vitamin is walking along the hallway.

The location of the side door where Sam is entering is pure speculation. Maybe we’ll see more about that when he enters.

The way I drew it, there is no way the passenger side air horn gun could effectively be aimed at Kandikane, but that may indeed be the case.

Wow! Can’t remember the last time I saw one of those!____________________

Given your choice of avatar, had a hunch you might recognize a No-Prize when you saw one, Lonnie.

Neil, your sketch conveyed exactly what you intended for the reader. Believe me, this reader understands and sees the scene. Not everyone sketches with a C.A.D. machine.

wow he’s he is going to get it.

Vitamin, he takes a hit; the bullet meant for Kandi

Should he survive the loss of blood, he’ll soon enough feel randy.

‘Tis not the time for true romance, the Nitrates aim to kill

Flintheart loses consciousness, yet to live there is strong will.

Ratatat! Take this! Take that! The shootout has begun!

Hemmed in by Sam and Tracy: no escape, nowhere to run.

Blam and crash! They fail to dash. A peppering they send

At the brave Detectives, whose will they fail to bend.

This is no place for gunplay, with innocents nearby

Tracy hatches a quick plan, even as the bullets fly.

He draws the deadly fire, as Sam deftly slips away

Should Sam make it ’round the corner, the Nitrates both shall pay.

The Detectives fight to maintain the right: judicious use of force

Putting it all on the line to protect and serve, of course.

Ratatat! Take this! Take that! The Nitrates so well armed.

A judgment day. Time to pay. For all they’ve killed and harmed.