Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for October 12, 2015

88 Keyes …?

“Midnight Mirror” begins.

Good morning guys!

Strip’s in glorious b&w today.

Didn’t “Adventures of Superman” actor Robert Shayne (“Inspector Henderson”) play a blind newsstand vendor on “The Flash” …?

Reggie sure looks familiar somehow.

Over at the Dick Tracy Fan Club on Facebook, Mike Curtis has revealed that Reggie is a familiar face, but not from Dick Tracy.

I’m not on Facebook, Neil. You or anyone else here is welcome to pass along the guess.

A quick check at IMDB 99% confirms my guess.

Also, Robert Shayne was legally blind when playing Reggie.

Possibly a flashback.

Being in b&w today … whether by accident or design … certainly adds to the noir ambiance.

I don’t think it’s black and white because it’s a flashback, because Gasoline Alley is black and white today, too. On the other hand, this may not be present-day because if it’s 88 Keyes, isn’t he dead?

Just below the word “Keyes” there is a book called “Flash comics” so I think that clinches it. Here is a picture of Reggie in The Flash for comparison purposes:

Reggie appeared in episode 1.5, which aired November 8, 1990 and episode 1.9, which aired January 10, 1991.

The news man reminds me of Ray Walston in Johnny Dangerously.

Another one back from the dead? The one shot by Tracy might be a look alike.

GoComics colorist is probably on vacation.

Beside the Flash comics, the books appear to show a woman aiming a weapon at a dinosaur. It seems to show “WO_ _ _ comics” with a possible word above that. I think those are Wonder Woman books. Up at the top, it looks like “Melman’s Cars.” If that refers to anything in the real world, I don’t know what it is.

" Did you mean: Lemans Cars "

No, it definitely starts with “MEL” but after that the writing becomes gradually less clear, just as the “WOMAN” lettering (as I read it) definitely starts out as “WO” but the letters after that are subject to more speculation.

So, the early edition of The Midnite Mirror is featuring a crime wave in a blazing banner-head, eh? Must be part of the yellow press….The weathered old downtown news"boy," Reggie is a fine character-type (whether based on anyone or not)….

Gweedo said,Get Abner up ! I think he’s about to be on. … for possibly the last time-———————————————————————-.Shudder!

A pleasant day to all my friends.-—————-Is Keyes all keyed up for his next job? Is he the Key player? Is he the key to solving the crime wave?-—————-Be happy and healthy everyone.

Black and white, eh? Re-run, or are we starting this story arc on a “film noir” note?

Very much a film noir atmosphere. Love the B&W, the fine work by the gocomics colorist notwithstanding. There is a crime wave in the city. Sorry! The “G” is sold out. The Gazette? Thus we begin with questions of where and when.

Good morning, Dick Tracy loyalists! This is Joseph Anthony from the Dick Tracy fan club facebook page. I love the black and white today. Takes me back to when I actually could read the strip in my morning Trentonian. For me, I love the two panels of early newspaper delivery. I’m one of the old school folks out there who still loves reading the morning paper without having to scroll or click. Everyone have a great day, and always remember…even in 2015, Dick Tracy will ALWAYS be relevant.

Lovely black-and-white strip today!

I really like the B&W for this strip.The whole look, from the newstand and delivery truck to the skyline are vintage 1940’s.(Okay, that plastic strip holding the papers is present day, but everything else…)

Oh this is going to be quite interesting. Monochrome, Mr Keyes, an ominous newspaper headline? An interesting blind man?

Lets hope Honeymoon doesn’t get a case of the crushes as poor Nelie did.

Well, it can’t be Andy Capp, because he’s working WAY too hard.

@everyonere: magazine stand titlesMy guesses:Mechanic CarsWonder ComicFlash ComicsWhat about the sign on the bottom right? “Sorry! The G____ is SO(LD OUT).” Any ideas as to what the G stands for? Maybe The Globe?

Today’s strip is strictly B&W. If the colourist was going for a film noir effect, you would have seen a few shades of grey added.

Ray Walston in ‘Johnny Dangerously’

So. 88 Keyes is back

Gasoline Alley which comes before this comic in my line-up was also in BW

88 Keyes? Is Chester Gould back writer Dick Tracy? And what happened to the color?

“Sorry! The G____ is SO(LD OUT)”After some research I am going to stick with my guess of The Globe, since Tracyville is loosely based on Chicago. I found out there actually was a Chicago Globe. It was only published from 1887 to 1895.

Np, it can’t be 88 KEYES, unless it was another “body double” Dick Tracy shot! ;-)

In glorious black and white today? I wouldn’t mind if it stayed that way. Hearkens back to the old days of black and white dailies in newspapers before color was added.

I prefer color myself, but it does look pretty good today. I suspect this is just a gocomics thing, especially since Gasoline Alley is also B&W today. The Comics Kingdom version is colorized:

88 Keyes is dead fish dead. Plus him reappearing wouldn’t exactly qualify as something we’ve never seen before.

Actually, this second mention of wire bailing makes me think they could have been bailed with metal straps — probably not, but maybe.

Gweedo mentioned,We follow, at a safe distance, the one going through the minefield, Bill.-————————————————————————-.The leader is in a dangerous position at times!. “Lead, follow, or get out of the way!” (Gen. George S. Patton, Thomas Paine, and others).

Gweedo sympathized,We need to organize resistance to the (possible) loss of our dear resident ghoul.-——————————————————————.I’m afraid that Abner’s fate has already been decided by Messrs. Curtis and Staton. Mr. Kadaver did survive a burial in concrete before.

APOLOGIES

Missing Ugly Christine’s strips with logo

Newspaper guy looks like Soupy Sales.

I don’t know what happened to my wikipedia link but here it is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_two_cents. Usually I test things like that after I post.

I like it in color myself. Biased having color vision.

Well, we did finally get our coloured strip and I like the colours much better than those of the strip from another site that was reposted here.

I like both black and white and coloured versions but for different reasons. I know from two decades of renting out videos that there are a lot of people who really don’t like black and white films.

Dead which is in this case is dead, no clones even.

We know that 88 Keyes is dead in the present day, but there are already subtle clues that this may not be the present day … or maybe it’s a parallel universe … or something.