Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for July 10, 2015

Well, well, well.

So, I guess the Ace Tower is the Ace of Spades. According to Wikipedia, “the many symbolic meanings of the card including intimidation, eroticism, and death.” I expect that all of those things will actually be involved here evetually. (Venus definitely oozes eroticism, and maybe Apollo in his way.)

If there was any doubt before, the Blackhearts are definitely following a playing card theme.

Venus and Méliès were hanging out in the penthouse suite before Apollo arrived. I suppose now that Mr. Bigg is back, they’ve been banished to lesser offices. That’s another reason they might begrudge their current situation (besides the fact that BB-Eyes’s group seems to be in a special relationship with Mr. Bigg now).

“The 52 Gallery” reminds me of “The 52 Gang” of long ago. I don’t know much about them, but I know that they were after the Space Coupe, too, and Mr. Bigg just has to be Mr. Bribery somehow. I wonder what Mr. Bribery’s old gang was called. He did have a gang, didn’t he?

Hey, Joe.

Charlton to DC and then I lost track until you began penciling Dick Tracy. Tracy has never looked better since Gould left. I even find myself liking Annie as she’s portrayed here - I couldn’t stand her back in the 40s and 50s. One question-is h Blackheart cover name (52) a recognition of the now-departed “New 52” over at DC?

Hey guys, am I the only one who’s head is spinning from the writers switching from the Blackhearts to Honeymoon to Mumbles Florida vacation? Where are they going with this? And shouldn’t Sam and Tracy know where the Blackhearts headquarters is? I mean the Big black heart on the side of a tall building in the middle of downtown should be a clue.

We’ve now got “the lay of the land” in preparation for the coming campaign (whether sooner or later).I guess the 52 Gallery (or museum) serves as the legit front for the real business of The Ace (Blackheart) Tower. Indeed, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Mayor Armstrong and Chief Patton and even Diet Smith attending fancy openings there….

52 Card pickup.

Good morning guys!

…sorta like the casino story where the bad guys were dressed up like playing cards. Dick Locher (2008?).

Definite reference to “The 52 Gang,” as many had previously noted.

Regarding yesterday’s discussion about how newspaper revenue has moved from print to online, here is a graph from Wikipedia which speaks for itself:

Next up.A tour of the Baxter building.

Including Pogo Plane hangar and Negative Zone portal!

There’s a great line by Amanda Waller in the flash-forward episode of Justice League Unlimited that wraps up the Batman Beyond storyline, about Batman once having faced "The Sixth or Seventh version of the Royal Flush Gang " – If memory serves.

That 52 looks a lot like the logo DC used for their first ‘52’ comic series. (Not the New 52, which is dead, but the older 52, which is forgotten.)

I bet there’s no elevator in the lobby of 52. More like using your key to go through a locked door to get the elevator.-————————————————————There is an elevator, but you have to play your cards right to use it.

Thanks for the Grand Tour….

The 52 Gang made its appearance in the first Space Coupe story in 1962. There were 52 members of the gang and each was anonymous to the other by virtue of the fact that they all wore black uniforms and black masks. They were able to kidnap and eventually kill Dyne O’Matik, inventor of the Space Coupe.

Their hideout was a luxurious country club (with a spade shaped swimming pool) built on top of a mesa in the Southwest. There was no way onto the top of the mesa except by helicopter or plane (or Space Coupe).

Since all gang members were masked and anonymous to each other, Tracy was able to disguise himself and infiltrate the gang by impersonating one of the members caught by the police. He pretended to have a frog in his throat to avoid being recognized by voice since all of the gang members were masked.

Sydney is correct that the leader of the gang turned out to be a (rather low-level) criminal named Little Notting.

There was no explanation in the strip how such a low-level hood with an inferiority complex could have created and managed such a large, wealthy, and complex gang. But notice in the strip above that he is apparently branded on the forehead (Mr. Bribery’s MO) even though this was about 3 years before Bribery made his appearance in the strip. No explanation was given for Notting’s forehead branding. He had never appeared in the strip before and was sent to prison and as far as I know never appeared in the strip again.

After Notting’s capture, a battle broke out between the police (in planes, helicopters, and the Space Coupe) and the remaining gang members on top of the mesa who refused to surrender (the gang was heavily armed with military-style weapons). Eventually, the police dropped napalm on the mesa and everyone either burned in the fire or jumped off of the mesa to their deaths.

It is not unreasonable to believe that Bribery was operating in the city 3 years before he made his appearance in the strip and that Little Notting was a fall guy. Since he is still in prison, it is also not unreasonable that he may make an appearance in the current story since much of what we have seen of the Blackhearts mirrors the behavior and organization of the 52 Gang.

Are the expenses of electronically as great as all the materials and infra structure to get hard copy out ?

That’s a good point. There are no printing costs with electronic, but the news-gathering still costs as much, if not more, because newspapers are now expected to have video stories as well. Also, I saved that graph months ago and I can’t remember if it was just ad revenue or revenue in general. I can’t stop and check right now.

After the destruction of the 52 Gang and the imprisonment of Little Notting, Mr. Bribery came to prominence as the chief crime lord in Tracyville (and internationally as well as inter-planetary).

Bribery had the habit of branding his underlings (including his sister) on the forehead. As I have posted, we have seen a brand on the forehead of Little Notting. Notting was a pretty low-level murderer and hoodlum. It seems unlikely that someone with such an inferiority complex could have organized and run an operation as large and secretive as the 52 Gang. Perhaps he was the fall guy set up to take the blame and the real organizer of the 52s was someone with more organizational skill. Could it have been Bribery?

Bribery (supposedly) met his end when the Chin Chillars dropped his drunken body from the Space Coupe through the roof of the prison carpenter shop. But Bribery’s henchman, Nah Tay (a Mayan mystic and shaman), knew how to take great falls and survive. Perhaps he also taught Bribery this skill.

Soon after Bribery’s (supposed) death, a new crime boss took charge in Tracy’s city and internationally. Mr. Intro wore a mask and used a cane. He was notable for his gnarly, arthritic hand. (We have seen the same type of mis-shapen claw in current representatons of Mr. Bigg. Could Mr. Intro have been Mr. Bribery still alive but crippled by his fall?

Mr. Intro (supposedly) met his end when Tracy fired a Moon Laser Canon at Intro’s yacht, vaporizing it and everyone aboard.

Intro was very worried about being killed and went to great lengths to protect himself. His mask was made from metal mesh. Even his underwear was bulletproof to protect him. Could it be that Intro (Bribery?) had an escape pod or somehow survived Tracy’s laser blast?

Intro’s gang, like the 52 gang, all dressed alike and looked similar. Intro, like Mr. Bigg, gave them orders from behind a screen with only his gnarled hand visible.

Following the defeat and obliteration of Intro’s gang, a new crime cartel made its appearance, The Apparatus. We recognize this group as the smoking men.

But when they originally made their appearance in the strip, besides constantly smoking they also constantly played cards (a holdover from the 52 Gang?)

So it seems that there has been a logical progression from the 52 Gang to the Apparatus by way of Intro’s gang to the current Blackhearts. Could a (somehow survived) Mr. Bribery have been at the helm of all three? Could the war between the Apparatus and the Blackhearts be an internal struggle for power now that Mr. Bigg (Bribery) is back in the picture?

While many on this board criticize Mike for leaving loose ends in his stories, it seems to me that Mike is crafting this story by using loose ends left by Chester Gould in his classic tales.

Many of the characters who appeared in the previous stories I have mentioned also appear in the current story line: Moon Maid, Purdy Fallar, Notta Chin Chillar, the gnarled-handed one with the rose (Bribery? Intro?), Diet Smith, the Apparatus, plus the regular cast of characters. Will we also see Moon Governor and Dr. Klippoff (the mad scientist who thawed out Purdy)?

Another interesting comparison between Mr. Bribery and Mr. Intro can be seen in one of the above strips I have posted. Mr. Bribery and Mr. Intro frequently ranted about their Constitutional Rights.

At the time of these strips, the Supreme Court had just issued their Miranda case ruling which gave suspects more rights against aggression by the police. Chester Gould disagreed strongly with these rulings and pushed back against them in the Dick Tracy strip—actions for which he was strongly criticized.

Looked at from this perspective, it was not uncommon for criminals to tout their rights and Tracy and crew to complain about it during this period. But looked at strictly from the viewpoint of what happened in-strip only and leaving Goulds personal views aside, it is interesting that both Bribery and Intro exhibited similar behavior. Could Mike have used these similarities to combine the characters? Is this another clue that Bribery, Intro, and Mr. Bigg are one and the same individual?

First Panel:

♩ ♪ Blackhearts Evil Incorporated! ♫ ♬

Good afternoon everyone.-——-@Ray Toler and others: Thanks for posting the good info.-——-@John Russell: Still praying for you. God Bless You.-——-Be happy and healthy my friends.

By the way, why didn’t the wooden blocks vaporize?

Awesome history! Thanks Ray Toler and Willy007!

That was going to be my question too: why didn’t the wood blocks vaporize? Impervious to Moon lasers. a la anything yellow to a Green Lantern’s ring?

…or as Gweedo had said: dramatic effect!

As a little bird had said: “He blow up, go BOOM!”

@ Ray Toler

Thanks for the post providing more detail about the original 52 Gang and their unique hideout atop the mountain MesaIt really needed to be restated *. . .

Only thing is, I had no recollection of Dyne O’Matick’s death (?) so researched it . . . Seems in the same tale.Tracy ‘rescued’ him - from the 52 Gang, and he would go on to pilot the Space Coupe flight to recover the orbiting body of Orner Jamison from Space.

To be sure, checked it back with Vic Wichert’s Dick Tracy Encyclopedia, and it confirms that.

See copy of the relevant entry below . . .

Unless there is some future entry by Gould, that escaped both Vic and I, or one made by a subsequent writer . . . it would seem, that Dyne O’Matick is still ‘around’ somewhere ??

Welcome to “Extreme Makeover: VIllain Edition.”

@Willy007: Thanks for the good background info. Have a great day my friend.