Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for August 25, 2015

The old “shove him in the closet” trick! Looks like Diet smith has seen through T-Bolt’s disguise and knows she’s trying to save him.

This is probably the last thing the girls expected to happen when T-Bolt found them!

Good morning guys!.You were right. That has to be Lee Ebony! We’ll see what comes next!

T-Lee realized she had so very little time to wasteShe knew things were collapsing so she had to drag Smith with hasteMy goodness he’s certainly not very slimIf we get out of this alive he’s gotta hit the gymWhat this two rugrats how’d they get in hereJust what I need I’ve now got three to hide till it’s clearI’ve got a job to do so I’ll leave Smith with these twoAnd enter this assignments last phaseWhen the final word’s said and Biggs is captured or deadTracy better approve my request for a raise!

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I’ve decided to only post my poems Monday through Saturday and leave Sunday for the award winning professionals

Mr. Smith looks as confused as the girls about what’s happening. It’s actually handy for T-Bolt that Honeymoon and Annie for there because it saves her the trouble of untying Diet and taking so long that Mr. B gets suspicious of her intentions. If they hadn’t been there, I think she would have had to just leave him there, tied up.

If that’s not Lee Ebony, it’s certainly another undercover cop. Where did Mr. Bribery find her. He did a poor job of screening!

How long did T-Bolt know Annie and Honeymoon were there?

Thanks Gweedo, I feel better! I still haven’t gotten over the hurt I felt that Mike never asked for my email address! Whaa! Whaa! LOL!

From yesterday, cleaned up the lettering a bit for clarity …

ZOUNDS!!!! Looks the “T-Bolt is Lee Ebony undercover” crowd was spot on.

“Since it so much does not look like Lee….”Actually, I think it does look like Lee. A while back, there was one frame in a strip where she lowered her shades and the eyes looked right.(I can’t resist:) The eyes have it!

Sorry for the multiple versions, wanted to see it with more typical dialogue balloons …

@seanyj

Where did Mr. Bribery find her. He did a poor job of screening!

She probably left a good impression on Mr Bigg when he was overseas and remembered her when he decided to return.

T-Bolt probably arranged something similar to that incident involving Johnny Adonis. It probably was an attempt on the person of Mr Bigg and T-Bolt saved him and pulverized the guy.____________________

Definitely poor screening on Bribery’s part.

Precisely how T-Bolt ingratiated herself to Bribery remains a mystery.

In hindsight, the Adonis beating was almost certainly staged to get her in good with the remaining Blackhearts.

At that point, Blaze was at least aware of T-Bolt.

Venus, Apollo and Melies might have been familiar with her as well.

BB-Eyes, Mumbles and Doubleup definitely weren’t, so the “fight” could have been specifically for their benefit.

@AnyFace

And where is Day 19?____________________

I don’t want to step on any more toes than I already have. ;)

There is no longer any doubt that T_Bolt is an undercover cop, and I think it 99.99% certain that she is in fact Lee Ebony. She is trying to keep Diet Smith and the junior detectives safe until they can be rescued without risk.(BTW, she does bear some resemblance to model/actress/singer Grace Jones, who is still going strong at age 67.)There are still a lot of baddies running around loose and armed, however, and we still want to know where Apollo’s .50 bullet went….

Aaaaaand, who are the winners in the pool?

I am thinking she has a hairpiece on as well as lifts in the shoes.—————————————————No need for lifts in her shoes!Just look at the heels of her boots! They have to boost her height by two or three inches. (This is the second time Joe has shown them.)

I appreciate the smart art that kept T-Bolt’s identity unclear. When we first met T-Bolt on January 11, even her gender was unclear to many. She was referred to as he and he (?). Her appearance changed gradually. Yet it was not T-Bolt’s looks that started speculation. It was the appearance of Johnny Adonis on the beach in Florida (July 5). Suddenly things did not add up. The legitimacy of the beating in the alley (“T-Bolt’s clearing the parameter”) was now scrutinized. Lee Ebony had worked undercover before, so it was no pie in the sky theory to surmise that she had been working in plain sight for months. She remarked on hearing gossip about the Blackhearts during her last undercover job. Her words of caution to Blaze added to the likelihood that this was Lee Ebony. The boots are icing on the identity cake. This is very good storytelling. Paying attention pays off. Today we apparently have confirmation of Lee’s undercover status, as aid rendered to Smith and the girls is exactly what she would do. More of the good stuff from Team Tracy!

This is Great..

Gweedo kindly remarked,Good morning Mr. Regal and Grand, Vista Bill.-——————————————————————

Wow! Am I all that, Gweedo? G’morning.

Of course – subsequently, Lizz did appear in 10 panels or so, toward the end of the Gruesome tale, and in 2 panels (March 2015) at Blowtop’s bedside (Nitrates tale) . . . Before, her recent short meeting (4 panels) in late June/July with Tracy.Sam and Fritz Ann …

I think this is where the Lizz possibility break down (only in my opinion). There are several occasions where she would have had to be in two places at once and it’s just not practical. In order to do that “deep cover” thing successfully, it requires long, uninterrupted time periods where the undercover officer stays in character. Any place where they go back to their normal appearance is a risk. The only possibility I could see that T-Bolt may have retreated from her cover character was during the “vacation” but we never saw her or Lee Ebony during that time either, so we can’t be sure.

I don’t have a problem with Lee knowing martial arts. Just because we haven’t seen it before doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Besides that, she may have been training in recent years to upgrade her martial arts skills. I think it’s entirely plausible. Also, she rhymed off some types of martial arts she knew, but she could actually have been bluffing about some of that.

@AnyFace

They’re real ‘toon b’loons alright, but I notice you had to shrink the writing a bit to make it work.____________________

Hoo-Boy, did I have to shrink the writing …

Actually, Honeymoon’s text as shown is one size too big relative to everything else. And yes, being on the OCD side I re-did it one more time, but didn’t post that version.____________________

Been a long time since I’ve had my mug in a MAD, but didn’t they do square as well as round dialog balloons ?____________________

MAD was famous – or perhaps infamous – for their square balloons filled with standard fonts rather than hand lettering, offered the writers room to ramble, particularly during movie or TV parodies, where the characters would introduce themselves at great length and copious detail.

On a vaguely related note, recently picked up a collection of Stan Lee/John Romita SPIDER-MAN newspaper strips from 1977-1978, and wow, what a difference that fourth panel and larger art size makes, they were able to cram a lot of story into each day.

Never gonna get that fourth panel back. :(

Thanks for the recap of Lee Ebony and Johnny Adonis’ history, Sydney.

Sure is odd seeing Lizz as a blonde in those strips.

Gould was still credited back then, too.

Didn’t realize Collins had used Wormy and Measles so early in his run.

Alas, poor Measles …

… we barely knew ’im. :(

It has stopped mid flight while we pick up on peripheral events.

It probably freeze-framed right before that gasp on Méliès’ face, in the final panel on Sunday.

@AnyFace, SYDNEY PHILLIPS: great background and conclusions. Be well my friends.

If D.T. ever gets relegated to Web only status, then anything can go. Pibgorn goes all over the place here.____________________

See, the key word there is relegated.

Kinda need to increase the number of available viewing outlets.

In my opinion, the comic book industry – as an example – did itself no favors when it switched to direct sales from newsstand availability. That limited the customer base to those who knew to look for things, cutting the casual consumer and occasional ‘drop-in’ buyer out of the loop.

Mind you, there are hardly any outlets which qualify as ‘newsstands’ nowadays, so I suppose that particular argument is moot.

Bottom line though, need to grow the fan-base.

How?

Heck, if I knew that, I’d be the proud owner of a private island somewhere.

And a mansion.

And a yacht.

Wow. You are the master of research, Sydney.I appreciate the corrections.I had clearly forgotten Lizz’s undercover work. I seldom read Tracy after the early 70’s, picking up again, ironically, on the Monday Mike and Joe took over.And I don’t know what had me thinking this was MCU, when it’s clearly MCS. Isn’t it on all those mugs in Junior’s kitchen?-I can’t wait to see Tracy’s meeting with Bribery. Bribery should be surprised that Tracy isn’t surprised.(Have to admit, though, Bribery did have a good scam, making everyone think he was dead.)

Hay Night-Gaunt49, I just now took the time to check the DT story and read all of yesterdays comments …and most of todays……. about your yesterday’s post … why so they call the FBI agents special?

dog gone it the s & d were too close together for mr. bigfingers

I almost forgot…I still have to disagree on Lee’s abilities with martial arts.Just because we’ve never seen her taking lessons doesn’t mean she isn’t skilled in them.Actually, it would make sense (to me) that an undercover cop would know martial arts, if only as self defenseMaybe it would have been better if there was some reference to it in the strip, some foreshadowing with dialogue of her gaining a new level black belt, for example, dropped into casual conversation. Still, unless it’s specifically been ruled out previously, I don’t mind new things being revealed about characters.For example, unless we were told Tracy was an only child, I wouldn’t be upset if a sibling turned up, even if they’d never been mentioned before, especially if it made for a good story.

The above strips showing Lizz, and the discussion of her undercover abilities, reminded me of one of her first undercover assignments. She pretended to wreck her car, and asked for help at a farm where Tracy and Sam suspected something funny was going on. “Granny” on the farm was hiding a huge bag of cash which had fallen into a horse trailer and ended up in the barn. Lizz spent several days on the farm and helped locate the loot.

Well, ya got’cha Time Warp Comics and Games here in town and Mile High Comics in Denver.

Not to mention Graham Cracker Comic in Chicagoland. The Downer’s Grove location is managed by former Dick Tracy artist, Jim Brozman. It says he’s working on a project due out in 2013, but hopefully they just haven’t updated their website lately.

Those are what I call “comic book shops.” There was an explosion of them some years back when everybody started buying new comics for investment purposes instead of to read them. I think things are back to “normal” now. On the other hand, there are “newstands,” which sell newspapers and magazines, but not so many comics. At one point several years ago, I used to spend hundreds of dollars a month on magazines, but then I found that I didn’t have time to read them all, and now I don’t have the money to spend, either. The shop near where I used to live was called “The Daily Planet” and it’s still there.

Apollo you jerk, you crazy foolish dopeYou just might have shot our one and only hopeof getting out alive with our heads attachedTo the rest of our body at a size that’s a matchFigures the phone choses now to ringI’ll have to do a dance as I weave and I singPerhaps a little time I’ll be able to buy While we clean up this mess that was once a moon guyUnfortunely for Melies in a sudden fatal wayHe learned that Death doesn’t always take a holiday.

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The comics are make believe so death is usually not hurtful. The tragedy yesterday almost made me not post today’s poem. Prayers of peace and comfort to all those affected by this horror.