Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for November 28, 2015

  1. Komi 0001
    AnyFace  almost 9 years ago

    NOTE TO COLORIST:

    The Coat Is Red.

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  2. Komi 0001
    AnyFace  almost 9 years ago

    “Blisterfield” billboard …?

    Cigarette advertising used to be everywhere

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    Vista Bill Raley and Comet™  almost 9 years ago

    .Good morning guys!.Is the coloring a computerized process untouched by human hands?

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  4. Neil2009
    Neil Wick  almost 9 years ago

    Apparently this is a billboard that blows real smoke. I know I’ve seen one like that somewhere before. This one is advertising what seems to be Tracy’s version of Chesterfield Cigarettes.

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    doctor075  almost 9 years ago

    Tracy is British?I did not know that!;>D

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  6. Neil2009
    Neil Wick  almost 9 years ago

    … and I’m assuming that Boss Tracy’s hat is also red so that it matches the coat.

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  7. Neil2009
    Neil Wick  almost 9 years ago

    Here’s a short home movie of a smoking billboard from 1964: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kls7DSyPalg

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    AnyFace  almost 9 years ago

    Thought this would be a compendium of cigarette ads.____________________

    You mean like these …?

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    Vista Bill Raley and Comet™  almost 9 years ago

    Gweedo remarked,Well helllloooo, pretty Boy Bill !-————————————————————-.I aged 55 years overnight!

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  10. Komi 0001
    AnyFace  almost 9 years ago

    Or maybe I’m thinking of a billboard with a giant coffee pot that was pouring coffee …?

    Maybe on “The Lucy Show” …?

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    jonahhex1  almost 9 years ago

    “Murder is my business” – Dick Tracy

    I think he copied that from another gumshoe of pulp novel fame.

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    AnyFace  almost 9 years ago

    “Kook” was a parody of a cigarette brand which used to sponsor television shows like this one …

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    Sisyphos  almost 9 years ago

    It is now clear that Ken in Ohio and Neil Wick were correct yesterday in their responses to my post. It is Tracy (in the RED COAT!) up on the supporting structure for that big “Blisterfield” (not to be confused with Chesterfield) billboard. And therefore not Tracy in the middle of yesterday’s panel 3. Since I don’t know what the Midnite Mirror script calls for, I won’t try to guess what Tracy is doing in the RED TRENCHCOAT AND FEDORA [see Comics Kingdom, which gets it right] up there….

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    AnyFace  almost 9 years ago

    Red really isn’t Tracy’s color …

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    retropop  almost 9 years ago

    “Murder is My Business” – There’s a line that is so Film Noir it’s perfect! Good one,Mike!

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    AnyFace  almost 9 years ago

    If the red fedora takes a bullet, it’s gonna look very out of place on Tracy’s Wall of Hats.

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    AnyFace  almost 9 years ago

    Compare and Contrast …

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    AnyFace  almost 9 years ago

    If “The Hangman” really wanted to wreak havoc, he’d spike that billboard smoke with something more fast-acting than nicotine.

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    Yngvar Følling  almost 9 years ago

    Of course, this means that Boss Tracy’s coat (and hat?) probably should have been red in the Halloween strip as well.

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    AnyFace  almost 9 years ago

    In other news …

    Maybe this was the coffee pot I was thinking about …?

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    AnyFace  almost 9 years ago

    Speaking of director Raoul Walsh …

    Could Midnight Mirror’s ending be an homage to James Cagney in “White Heat” …?

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    Ken in Ohio  almost 9 years ago

    I never smoked, and neither did my parents, except that my Mom quit before I was born. So I know this is a biased comment, but:How in the world did those billboards ever entice anyone to start smoking? There, right in front of them, they had a giant representation of just how ridiculous a person looks when they are blowing clouds of smoke out of their mouth! You would think people would have “stayed away in droves” when they saw that, thinking “Ech – I sure don’t want to look like that”. I know smoking was promoted as having sex appeal; I just don’t see how that is supposed to be sexy.

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    Ken in Ohio  almost 9 years ago

    “Blisterfield” for “Chesterfield” is a very nice, Gouldian touch!

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    artheaded1  almost 9 years ago

    I’m late commenting, but in my experience as a colorist, that note on the first panel is not how the penciller, inker or editor would leave notes for the colorist. No idea what it’s supposed to mean, and if someone else came up with a good answer, missed it because I didn’t read all 40 of the previous comments .

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    bks253  almost 9 years ago

    The coat is red on “Comic Kingdom”. Go to: http://www.oregonlive.com/comics-kingdom/?feature_id=Dick_Tracy

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    kurtoons.wilcken  almost 9 years ago

    The smoking billboard also appears in the movie “The Shadow”. And if you will indulge a little shameless self-promotion, here is my shout-out to it: — http://www.kurtoonsonline.com/?webcomic1=chapter-23-a-wild-ride

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    crobinson019  almost 9 years ago

    “A cigarette, Sweet Music and you….” “Yes it’s Blisterfield Time…”

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    SKJAM! Premium Member almost 9 years ago

    Chesterfield used to sponsor the “Dragnet” radio show. They had commercials about how their tame researcher had studied Chesterfield smokers and “found no damage to the mouth, nose or throat.”

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    SYDNEY PHILLIPS  almost 9 years ago

    SMOKING BILLBOARDS in Dick Tracy today . . .

    Last night, a Big Police “Shoot-Out” near a recent the Home of the Dick Tracy Fan Club in Colorado Springs. And one Officer died. Several were injured. Gunman in custody.

    It was in that City, that the ‘late’ Andy Fieghery had the Official Dick Tracy Fan Club, and also produced his Dick Tracy Magazine (SPEC Productions) to cover all of Chester Gould’s work on the stripAnd died suddenly about 2 years ago . . .

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  30. Oddball
    Morrow Cummings  almost 9 years ago

    I used to have a tee shirt that said, “Let’s make a deal; you don’t smoke around me and I won’t f@rt around you.” My wife threw it out, dammit!

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    kantuck-nadie  almost 9 years ago

    Although it’s not animated, I do remember one, rather evil, smoking billboard from an E.C. Comic. One of the characters was lobstered by a billboard that blew scalding hot smoke rings.

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    Chris Sherlock  almost 9 years ago

    Such real billboards reminds me of the famous “Leave It To Beaver” episode with the steaming cup of coffee billboard.-————————————————————————————That’s what it was in!

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  33. Neil2009
    Neil Wick  almost 9 years ago

    Such real billboards reminds me of the famous “Leave It To Beaver” episode with the steaming cup of coffee billboard.

    That’s it! That is the episode that I’m associating with Lucy, but somehow mixing up my memories with Leave it to Beaver.
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    Ray Toler  almost 9 years ago

    In the 1949 Marx Brothers film Love Happy, there is a chase across the rooftops featuring Harpo. Harpo interacts with several billboards including the smoke blowing one. This film was also the debut of Marilyn Monroe.

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    Ray Toler  almost 9 years ago

    Harpo on the Kool Cigarette sign

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    Starman1948  almost 9 years ago

    Good day to everyone.-—————--—————-Have a great weekend my friends.

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    dmitri01  almost 9 years ago

    Re: “Murder is My Business” – Sgt. Jim Doherty, the strip’s technical adviser and a writer in his own right, wrote a short story about Tracy entitled “Murder is My HOBBY”. It was available to read on the PLAINCLOTHES website before Curtis & Staton got the job producing “Dick Tracy”.

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    abdullahbaba999  almost 9 years ago

    Makes you wanna run out and buy a pack of “Blisterfields”Big Tobacco…Murder is our Business..

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    Yngvar Følling  almost 9 years ago

    Well, I don’t think there can be any question about it. It can only be attributable to human error. These sorts of things have cropped up before, and it has always been due to human error.

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    SYDNEY PHILLIPS  almost 9 years ago

    <p.-———————————

    _“The shoot out was at a Planned Parenthood clinic. Christian terrorism at work.”_-———————————

    They haven’t announced the motive yet . . .But oddly, the Policeman that DIED, did so “defending” - the right of others, to do something HE didn’t personally believe in !

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  41. Komi 0001
    AnyFace  almost 9 years ago

    Such real billboards reminds me of the famous “Leave It To Beaver” episode with the steaming cup of coffee billboard.____________________

    That rings a bell, too.

    But I need pictures! Pictures of Spider — Uh — Of that billboard!!

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  42. Komi 0001
    AnyFace  almost 9 years ago

    Also, a little digging confirms that the infamous “Leave It To Beaver” billboard was actually advertising soup …

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    fhoffman01  almost 9 years ago

    “Christian terrorism at work.”That is an over the top and unproven allegation. The shooter is apparently a loner, who also acted alone in this case. Though he’s listed as a member of a local church, the reports from people who know him say he rarely speaks about religion or his personal beliefs. He’s also known for prattling incoherently, and for inspiring fear in his neighbors, who suspected he physically abused his dog and reported him for it. I’m no expert, but based on the preliminary reports I’ve read, he sounds like a violent, mentally disturbed loner. Especially given the lack of evidence that the man was driven by religious zeal, your accusation that he perpetrated an act of “Christian terrorism” is extremely offensive, and I hope you will apologize for it.

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  44. Komi 0001
    AnyFace  almost 9 years ago

    Here are the images of the smoking billboard from that article on the Martin & Lewis comedy “Artists & Models” …

    Memory’s a funny thing, in that all of the different billboard references we’ve uncovered are jumbled up in my mind.

    Speaking of “jumbled” …

    Wasn’t there also a billboard gag where someone was pasting up the strips of wallpaper-like material which an image was printed on, only they were pasting them up in the wrong order?

    Maybe that was the “Lucy Show” bit?

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  45. Komi 0001
    AnyFace  almost 9 years ago

    It was this episode!!

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  46. Bill 1960
    Vista Bill Raley and Comet™  almost 9 years ago

    I like this one:This is an animated scale model by Miller Engineering.http://www.microstru.com/Billboards.html

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  47. Komi 0001
    AnyFace  almost 9 years ago

    Maybe it’s just me …

    … but that bag of peanuts looks like it’s come down with a case of – to phrase it indelicately – “Montezuma’s Revenge."

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  48. Komi 0001
    AnyFace  almost 9 years ago

    Today has definitely been billboard day …

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  49. Komi 0001
    AnyFace  almost 9 years ago

    If anyone in Tracyville gets hurt, here’s the number to call …

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    SYDNEY PHILLIPS  almost 9 years ago

    One tends to get the ‘message’ that the current mystery isn’t really on readers minds, when an inadvertently appearing Smoking Billboard can be the ‘mainstay’, in “Clocking Up” a HUNDRED Plus posts, after a relatively ‘shallow’, earlier week - experience ! ?

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  51. Bill 1960
    Vista Bill Raley and Comet™  almost 9 years ago

    What a treat! The small packets of cigarettes that were in the “C” and “K” ration boxes. I would trade my “pan coated chocolate disks” (M&Ms) for a packet of smokes!

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  52. Komi 0001
    AnyFace  almost 9 years ago

    Agreed.

    I’d always found Mr. Mooney surprisingly sympathetic.

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  53. Komi 0001
    AnyFace  almost 9 years ago

    Meanwhile …

    … are billboards effective sales tools?

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    Ray Toler  almost 9 years ago

    Sydney was born in Warrensburg, Missouri. I was born in Independence, Missouri about 45 miles away. Sydney’s father, Doc Toler, raised racehorses. Eventually their branch of the family moved to Independence, Kansas where Sydney built a large theatre (now demolished) called the Toler Opera House. My family came to the new world in 1609 during the Jamestown colony. I have written a book about my family: Toler Book

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  55. Reedrichards
    jimakin  almost 9 years ago

    In the late 80s or very early 90s, I was in Times Square and saw a “Blisterfield”-style smoking billboard, advertising a movie called “Smoking Gunn II.” Turns out the billboard was part of a movie set, and “Gunn” was a fictional film-within-a-film, “The Hard Way,” starring Michael J. Fox and James Woods. Fox played an action-movie star (the “Gunn” movies were his franchise) who was shadowing a real-life cop played by Woods to research a role. Fox’s character annoys Woods’s, but of course eventually helps him catch a real-world killer. (The climactic scene — shades of North by Northwest — took place on the smoking Gunn-head billboard.)

    The setup strikes me as much like the blurring of drama and “reality,” actors and lawmen, we’re seeing in this Tracy arc.

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  56. Neil2009
    Neil Wick  almost 9 years ago

    Did guys smoke at the hospital waiting for their kid to be born ?

    Well, I’ve heard that there was a tradition (I wonder if there still is) of passing out cigars when a baby was born.
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  57. Neil2009
    Neil Wick  almost 9 years ago

    I just found this page about passing out cigars. Among other things, it says, “Some of our veteran smokers out there will tell you — with a wistful smile on their face — about the days when you could smoke inside… even inside the waiting room of a hospital! But the tradition goes even further back…”

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