Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for August 16, 2015

Emergency all Blackhearts! Beware! Police Surrounding!Situation dire. Circumstances most confounding.For who would drop a dime on them at such a crucial timeBefore the gold was transferred out to cover up the crime?Oh what a wicked web they weave with criminal endeavorsMechanisms quite complex mean pulling many levers.Who has time to fight the cops? There’s treachery withinBrothers Munro are on the go to do Bribery in.Honeymoon and Annie laying low now in the stairwellMéliès and Apollo look to bid Bigg bloody farewell.While swooping in from high above, sweet Mysta has conceivedCall for help from Honeymoon telepathically received.T-Bolt stands with Bribery, yet whose side does she serve?To go deep undercover takes tenacity and nerve.Outside Sam and Tracy have got the place surroundedFritz Ann and the FBI should leave the crooks astounded.Is this the end of Blackhearts? A fall so far and fast?Who shall live? Who shall escape? Who shall breathe their last?

Welllll…Now, it seems that the reason we haven’t seen Tracy & crew is that they were behind desks doing investigating. So, NO ONE called the MCU to alert them? The MCU DIDN’T know Diet Smith was missing (or why would they be surprised that a Smith Industries helicopter is there)? Interestinger-and-interestinger! After all our suppositions, it seems that only Joe, Mike, Shelley, Shane, & Jim (and, maybe the Shadow) know for sure!

That answers that question …

See, he wasn’t sitting around doing nothing. Sometimes there is desk work to do.

Good morning guys!.Nice poetry Pequod77.

Tracy rubbed his eyes, he found it very hard to believeWas he really in the strip today or again was he deceivedOnce or twice beforeHe’d appear of this he was sureOnly to realizeSomeone else got the desired prizeHow long had it been, two weeks maybe threeSo many others got the joy and experienced all the gleeTubby zappy curly, bully whoopie TWhippy bros and chiro, everyone but me Today’s my special day Just try and take it awayI know tomorrow I might be gone once againThat’s why I live for the now and never worry about the when.

I’d prefer to see Moon Maid landing on the roof in one of these!

A good poem, Pequod77. Thank you. Call for help from Honeymoon telepathically received. is why Mysta is there.Outside Sam and Tracy have got the place surrounded – does T-Bolt have a part on this? I believe so.

Nuts, I was hoping we’d see Moon Maid today. There’s always tomorrow I suppose.

From yesterday’s strip, I think T-Bolt knew that Honeymoon and Annie are in the stairs that is why she asked permission to check it. Whoever among the Blackhearts go up the stairs and find the two girls will have a shock of their lives.

Mysta Chimera in the Smith Industries chopper is the wild card in this otherwise well-planned scenario. Tracy and Fritz Ann may have to hold their fire while the Mr. Bigg and Mr. Smith copters vie for aerial superiority over Ace Tower. Meanwhile, all sorts of things could go down inside….

As predicted, dang near everyone has converged upon the Ace Tower, save for the extended Tracy clan, the Plentys, and Kitty, the smoking cat.

Let the mayhem begin!

I’ll admit though – And I’m not often one to critique – That it’s a bit sad not to have been privy to the joint MCU/FBI legwork and paperwork which brought everyone to this junction.

Having said that, I’m also well aware that covering those aspects of the story in addition to everything else would have slowed the pace to beyond a crawl.

Kinda do need to pick your spots.

And no matter what Mike & Joe do, it’s never going to please everyone 100%.

Hopefully the next story in the queue will be a bit more intimate, with a smaller core ensemble.

After this, our guys almost have to go smaller, huh?

I’ll make a prediction though …

If the “Mystery of Mysta” arc was Act One, and the “Fall of The Blackhearts” tale is Part Two …

… betting there’ll be a Third Story at some point, possibly years down the line.

And THAT’S where we’ll finally see some serious Lunarian Action!

Space Coupes, anyone?

And Air Cars, Willy. ;)

I just realized …

Tracy’s wearing body armor today …

… and not his trademark Fedora!

And THAT’S where we’ll finally see some serious Lunarian Action!Space Coupes, anyone? And Air Cars, Willy. ;)Sounds great! I’m all in on that!

Hey, where is that stinker, B.O. Plenty?Haven’t seen him nor smelt of him since my pa read the Tracy funny papers to me while sitting on his lap back in the 50’s.

Miss him! Pa, that is.

BRAVO – JOE, MIKE, SHELLEY, SHANE & JIM!!! Well done, one and all!!!

A blissful Sunday to everyone.-—————————-Pequod77 and avenger09: Thanks for the excellent poems today.-—————————-Have an abundant day my friends.

Amazing job on the coloring! Love the lighting on Tracy’s face in panel four!

Does Mysta know that this is the headquarters of the organization that kidnapped her, stole her identity, and did unauthorized experiments on her body? Besides coming to help Honeymoon and Annie, I wonder if she’s thinking it’s time for some payback. Regardless, it looks like a lot of excitement is coming our way.

Aaaaand the fun begins…

I started to read Dick Tracy about a month ago and have found it to be almost indecipherable. And after a month the title character finally makes an appearance. sigh

More proof about how juvenile this strip has become - It can’t sustain a single thought for ANY length of time.

Maybe Blaze took T-Bolts message to heart.

So 43 days between Dick Tracy appearances (July 4 to today, August 16) – is that a record?

Things are heating up inside, outside and above the Ace Tower. Tracy and Sam join Fritz Ann and the SWAT team. No desk duty today. As Willy points out, focus on the MCU would have revealed undercover work too soon. Good to see Sam and Tracy, as always. Tracy is often off-panel for weeks at a time, as the criminals and their crimes tend to drive the stories. Tracy reacts to their dirty dealings. A warrant has been served. Let the action commence!Mysta dropping in from on high after receiving Honeymoon’s message is an especially exciting development. What fool would want to get between Mysta and her Imoto-Chan? I doubt Mysta has any idea as to the connection between Ace Tower and her own arduous ordeal. Sail wiped her memory (at least once), obliterating her former identity. I suspect Mysta has a very narrow focus: rescue Honeymoon from danger. That I am fully invested in their safety is a tribute to the work of Team Tracy.

Thanks to Vista Bill, Gweedo, cpalmeresq, Willy007, 22ph, Night-Gaunt49, Neil Wick, Ronnie Thompson, JPuzzleWhiz and John Russell (good health to you) for the kind words. Very much appreciated!

Good to see old what’s his name with the pointy chin back…he’s not gonna catch Mr. Bigg siting behind a desk…Great Poem PQ77…You All Have a great weekend..

Thanks, Pequod and Avenger, for your poetic wordsmithing today!

Great poetry PQ and Av! Isn’t Mr. B’s chopper already on the rooftop while Smith’s is above? We gonna have a chopper clash? Has Fritz Ann forgotten Sam? The excitement is almost too much for an old goat like me to handle!

… I’m sure that the MCU had them under some form of surveillance — bugs (maybe on Diet Smith’s person?) or secret cameras, perhaps.

Maybe some thing like that. I can’t see a bug of Diet Smith’s person. He certainly wasn’t expecting to be kidnapped and I can’t see him sleeping with a bug on him. It would be risky for T-Bolt to call the MCU if she’s undercover, but it might be possible. She would have to be very careful not to blow her cover. It’s hard for me to imagine her carrying around a bug, for the same reason. On the other hand, if she arranged that incident with Johnny Adonis, she would have had to communicate. Perhaps she did give some information to someone outside during her “vacation.”

Well Well well, look who finally returned to work. We haven’t seen Tracy since we saw a silhouette of him and his family watching the fireworks on my the 4th of July. This week promises to be good!

@Jonah Hex. Sometimes that’s all that’s needed is good old fashioned desk work like Lenny Briscoe. RIP Jerry Orbach.

@Gweedo ‘the Road Runner’: Thank you my friend.

Been a good while since I was non PRO.All the archives are available to non-pro members. There was a time when that was not true (I think when it was uComics?) but everyone can read the archives now.

@AnyFace

Hopefully the next story in the queue will be a bit more intimate, with a smaller core ensemble.

After this, our guys almost have to go smaller, huh?*

We’ll probably get one of those little “mini-stories” such as when Dick took a little fishing trip in “Popeye-ville”.____________________

Too intimate. :P

I’d meant a two or three character “Chamber Piece,” maybe with some psychological tension, like “Death Trap”

or “Sleuth” …

… which, guessing from what we’d heard about upcoming story, might indeed be Mike’s intent.

Your reminding me of those crummy UPA cartoons.

I wrote too much, so I don’t know what I wrote that was reminiscent of the crummy UPA cartoons, but I was never a big fan of those.

FBI Inspector?

Diet could be wearing a Wrist Wizard somewhere on his person. Didn’t he invent them?

Well, I suppose, but do you think he would sleep with one on?

Not to be confused with Dick Orkin, creator of ChickenMan

AnyFace noticed,@✯✯ Vista Bill ✯✯Where’d you score the awesome new avatar, Bill?-————————————————————————————————-

Cool, eh? It was a 1950s ad for a toy outer space hat.

Emergency all Blackhearts! Beware! Police Surrounding!

Situation dire. Circumstances most confounding.

For who would drop a dime on them at such a crucial time

Before the gold was transferred out to cover up the crime?

Oh what a wicked web they weave with criminal endeavors

Mechanisms quite complex mean pulling many levers.

Who has time to fight the cops? There’s treachery within

Brothers Munro are on the go to do Bribery in.

Honeymoon and Annie laying low now in the stairwell

Méliès and Apollo look to bid Bigg bloody farewell.

While swooping in from high above, sweet Mysta has conceived

Call for help from Honeymoon telepathically received.

T-Bolt stands with Bribery, yet whose side does she serve?

To go deep undercover takes tenacity and nerve.

Outside Sam and Tracy have got the place surrounded

Fritz Ann and the FBI should leave the crooks astounded.

Is this the end of Blackhearts? A fall so far and fast?

Who shall live? Who shall escape? Who shall breathe their last?