Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for July 26, 2010

Hah, hah, hah!

I’d make fun of today’s target-rich environment, but…

Talk about low-hanging fruit! I don’t even know where to begin!

The tongue-twister? The cops who know less than the newspaper? The notion that it might not be a kidnapping? The Special Forces?

Goodness, send in the Navy Seals while you’re at it!

Of course Tracy’s police haven’t been notified. D’Buckworth’s family and friends figured they’d do better by reporting it to the newspaper with the changing masthead and the reviewer who gives good reviews for a play that just stops part way through.

Special Forces?

Liz looking kinda sultry there.

Are those things on Liz’s collar dominoes?

I think it’s collar brass (insignia) and I THINK it’s supposed to say “MPD” for “Metro Police Department” but it looks like “Nerd” to me.

LordDogmore said, “I think it’s collar brass (insignia) and I THINK it’s supposed to say “MPD” for “Metro Police Department” but it looks like “Nerd” to me.”

Your youthful eyes are very sharp, LordDogmore!

To me, the insignia says “MAD”. She might need to be, to be in charge of the department.

OneUrantian:

“To me, the insignia says “MAD”. She might need to be, to be in charge of the department.”

Actually it’s the logo for MAD magazine.

I ran these numbers before and asked for comments. These are from GoComics:

Annie Subscribers: 18676

Dick Tracy Subscribers: 22594

My theory: Tracy had more readers in part because of the snide comments here, not because of the good quality of the strip. Unless there are a lot of SimonPenns out there…

Panel 2: A better word balloon fill would have been:

“Hey, buddy, get your own paper. This is mine!”

Notice Dick’s body language.

Wait, wasn’t the guy missing for a WEEK before?

This can only mean… Dick Tracy can time travel! Maybe he stole the Sphere from “7 Days” and is a terrible chrononaut.

Well, it makes sense. As we’ve seen the last couple years, he’s certainly a terrible police officer.

SPECIAL FORCES ?

Is that a newly created Department at Naperville Police ‘Hqtrs’ ? What ever happened to the Major Crime Squad ? Are they still a functioning unit, or couldn’t take on the assignement as every one was out at a “Play” ?

Will Tracy become involved ?

As CyberV rightly notes it was only yesterday Catchem stated, that 3-D had been missing for a whole week

Wish the Police would strive for greater accuracy on their information

Where on GoComics does Pannel-Panner obtain those reader numbers on Annie 18,670 and Tracy 22,594 ?

Last time I heard Dick Tracy was in only 50 newspapers but TMS had a ‘GENEROUS’ estimate that with Internet readers included there were some 23 million readers (?)

Special forces? could be time for me to step in and screw it up worse than they can

talking heads

I believe in the integrity of Congress I believe the courts are unbiased I believe the NYT

I also believe a lot more but my shrinks told me to keep quiet.

Rightwingmoron said, about 7 hours ago

Gee the Napperville police have their “special” forces? I’ve heard of “Special Ed.” and the “Special Olympics”, but this is the first time I’ve heard of a police department having “special forces”.

The police can’t be using ‘special’ in the same way; otherwise Tracy would be there instead of in the Major Crime Squad. In fact, he’d be a ‘natural’ (in the obsolete sense) to head it up.

I think the things on Liz’s collar say “ORD,” which is of course the designation for Chicago O’Hare Airport. So she’s recently spent some time as checked baggage? I heard Nurpleberry was cutting back on the police travel budget, but couldn’t they have just stuffed her into the overhead?

Come to think of it, given the shape of her face, maybe they did…

Panel 2: “Excuse me while I stick this newspaper down my shirt.”

This is a science fiction episode, set in a future where America has gone to a three day week and the laws prohibiting use of the army against civilian criminals have been repealed, so they can call in the Special Forces as soon as a wealthy person has been missing for a week (three days). Likely a military dictatorship is running the country for the benefit of a few tycoons & entrepreneurs.

I don’t think that’s ORD on the Chief’s collar. It could be ARD or even MRD. Military Research & Development? That could be a code name for the secret police….

“Tycoon & Entrepreneur” is probably an official title indicating a high position with special privileges in this future society. They surely can’t call in the Special Forces every time just anybody goes missing for three days; it would take up all their time and leave the nation defenseless.

-Cougar :{)

Gocomics can keep count of people who “subscribe” to a comic strip (ask to have it emailed to them every day). That would not count people who read the strip on the web, which is probably far greater than the number who prefer it in email. It might give an indication of whether one strip is more popular than another, but that might not be valid. Sophisticated computer users are more likely to set our browsers to open a whole list of comic strips in tabs at the same time, especially if we read a lot of comics every day. That’s the way I do it. Subscribing to a comic is a good way to read one favorite comic every day, or even several, but if you read a lot of comics it’s much more convenient to do it on the web.

So a lot depends on demographics. It’s likely comics that appeal to sophisticated computer users (Dilbert?) and comics that appeal to people who read a lot of comics will have relatively few subscriptions. A comic that appeals to people who only read that comic (and perhaps one or two others) and are not concerned about giving out their email address and don’t know how to set Firefox to open multiple tabs with one click could have a lot of subscribers but relatively few total readers.

-Cougar :{)

P.S. I think people who subscribe only get the comic strip, not the comments.

-Cougar :{)

Perhaps each hit counts as a reader?, so if you visit 2 or 3 times a day to check comments….

“Special Forces”????Was this guy kidnapped in Danang?

They could count hits on the web page, but the statistics Panel-Panner posted are for subscribers, not hits. I don’t know if a hit count is available.

-Cougar :{)

Sydney Phillips:

To get the numbers, click on Comics on the home page, then click on the Comic Strip A-Z Listing. When you place your cursor over a title, a pop-up appears with some info and the numbers.

But like anything tracked on the Web I take such numbers with a grain of salt.

david dead as a dodo? deceased? departed? dashed away to denver? dabbling with the ducks in the deep end? dilettanting with debutantes? do let us know