Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for June 10, 2016

RUH ROH!! Did Notta hear that?

Oh the tales we love to believeOf royal flushes and cards up a sleeveRisky business being a tattle taleOne bad move and you’ll start to wailMercy, Grace, forgiveness of sinFound outside these walls, definitely not withinSurvival depends on whether or notReaction time is dead on spotYourself to blame for this quandary of woeLoose lips will cause a ship to blowThe lost little girl so confused over muchAt best has the chance of a fighters last punch!

.Good morning fellow DT fans!.Uh, oh! Notta’s not asleep!

The walls have ears …

… and also a beard.

Blaze should have stepped outside of the house. I’m getting bad vibes about what will be happening next. :-(

Gweedo greeted,Good morning, Flagship Fan, VB !-————————————————————————-.Good morning Gweedo. Flagship Fan? Where in the name of Hoover Dam did you ever conjure that one up?

Blaze has a short shelf life.

Good morning, DT fans!Is Blaze about to meet her twin sister in the afterlife?Hope Notta is hard of hearing…

Watch out, Blaze! Behind you!

Notta is approaching but that yellow thing in front of her (a door, I think) still separates her from Blaze. Maybe she didn’t hear what Blaze was saying. For Blaze’s sake, let’s hope not.

I wonder how she manages to sleep with those earrings on.

(Sorry, Willy. It looks like I almost copied what you already wrote.)

I like the cliffhanger in panel three. Notta’s slinky silhouette makes it even more fun.

What the heck is Tracy holding in panel one that he’s looking so lovingly at?.a chocolate covered twinkle?an idol from Survivor?Some sort of “hand pump”?Dinosaur Turd?

OH,, it’s his phone!

NOTTA: “Who are you talking to, Blaze?1?”BLAZE: “It’s Jake, from State Farm.”

Will Notta shoot Blaze, and scram, or will she wait and try to kill Tracy, too?Will Tracy’s voice get a reaction from Purdy? (She did say he sometimes can wander around…)

So Notta even sleeps in that strange body suite? I guesss that would cut down on the laundry for Blaze. How many of those does Notta have?

Theres one blaze about to be extinguished!!

Gweedo, you forget Bill’s important role in “Tracy Lore”. Not only is he Vitamin’s ‘running buddy’ but he is also 1/3 of the “ABNER/RIKKI/BILL TRIANGLE”

Notta Sleepar

Perhaps Lassie and little timmy can come to Blaze’s rescue!

 VB, I never thought of you as a crypt wrecker!

LOL

Recently Lou and Chris Sherlock speculated that Notta’s costume was inspired by a costume Diana Rigg wore in a 1966 episode of The Avengers named, “A Touch of Brimstone.” Neil Wick and I were intrigued by this, and we put our heads together and researched the matter and posted our results in this forum. I thought it might be worth posting my results again for more people to see, since it seems to solve one of the mysteries about Mrs. Chin Chillar — the inspiration for her costume.I believe Lou and Chris nailed it. You can see in the photos below the clear similarities between Mrs. Peel’s outfit and Mrs. Chin Chillar’s. The corset, spike-heeled leather boots, and beehive hairdo are all reminiscent, and the choker collar/necklace is especially telling, though Notta’s necklace is more feathery instead of spiky. Add a few tweaks and accessories and you have Notta! The timeline fits well in relation to when the Avengers’ episode aired, about a year before Gould began working on Mrs. Chin Chillar. It also fits that Gould traveled to England on occasion and seems to have had a special interest in British fashions. (Sydney Phillips told me once that Gould visited England in the mid-60’s and remarked about all the miniskirts he saw.)I’ve wondered at times if Gould modeled Mrs. Chin Chillar after a specific look. Saloon girl? Playboy bunny? I have little doubt now that Mrs. Peel’s roaring hot “Queen of Sin” costume was his primary inspiration.By the way, the Avengers’ episode in which Diana Riggs dressed like this (“A Touch of Brimstone”) was the most watched episode in the history of the Avengers. (Interestingly, it was banned in America for being too racy! Never shown here in the 1960’s, though Gould could easily have gotten his hands on some still photos, as there were magazines that printed them.) This parallels the success of Notta’s original story, which sparked a Dick Tracy newspaper circulation peak (late 1967, the peak for the decade), and it’s also interesting because in a 1968 NBC documentary, Gould identified Mrs. Chin Chillar as one of his most popular characters ever. The fans obviously loved Mrs. Chin Chillar’s look, just as the Brits were dazzled by Emma Peel’s.Mrs. Peel’s attire (designed by Diana Rigg herself along with fashion designer John Bates) was definitely intended to be a dominatrix submissive costume, which fits with what some have wondered about Notta’s costume. It appears conclusive that Notta’s look was heavily influenced by dominatrix attire.Note, too, in the below photo that Mrs. Peel was shown with a chain on her left wrist and a collar around her neck. She, the “Queen,” was also a collared and leashed submissive. It’s an ironic erotic combination, and it correlates well with the Tracy story, where we saw Notta play the role as Piggy’s love goddess, along with her dual role as his submissive and slave. The following is a quote from the article I linked in the last paragraph (I’ve bolded the most pertinent language):“Emma may see her role as the Dominatrix Royale, but Cartney has also cleverly garbed her as the collared and leashed submissive, he wants to discipline her, enslave her, possess her…Is it possible that Mrs. Peel provided inspiration for Moon Maid’s costume redesign, which launched two months before Notta first appeared? There are clear similarites between Mrs. Peel’s corset and the corset Moon Maid wore for the first time in April 1967, as well as between the opera gloves and stiletto-heeled boots (MM almost always wore flat-soled boots before then).All in all, it’s pretty compelling evidence: the primary inspiration for Notta’s attire was Mrs. Peel’s dominatrix costume, circa 1966!

The least Blaze will get is another whack on her head. That vase seems to be handy in dealing with Blaze. And vase rhymes with Blaze. They are destined for each other :)

Notta heard enough.

“Panel 4: Blam !!!”That’s my fear, too. Either that, or I hope for Blaze’s sake that she’s a fast talker.

Ah, geez, I was hoping Blaze would get a chance to reform.

Eek!! Don’t do it, Notta!

I haven’t commented much but I’m enjoying this story. Things are about to heat up! Is Blaze going to die?

Cliffhanger! Tomorrow I suspect Notta comes out of the shadows, gun in hand, eyes flashing in anger at Blaze’s betrayal.

But will she kill Blaze? Tracy will not be in time to stop Notta if she does pull that trigger, so who would?

The only one there aside from Notta and Blaze is Purdy, so will he miraculously stop his sister from committing murder?

Mind you, this is all wild guessing on my part. But wouldn’t it be weird if Purdy would rise up and stop Notta? Yikes!

Notta sneaks aroundWill Blaze go out in glory?Dick to the rescueWhat did she hear wonder weTension fear surrounds us all

If we lose Abner and Rikki, Bill will simply be inconsolable !

I think that losing Abner and Rikki is inevitable eventually, but I think there were tentative plans the last time there was a major storyline involving Abner and those plans changed. At least, that’s my understanding, reading between the lines. This might be the end or there might be an extension. We will have to wait and see.

Gweedo mentioned,If we lose Abner and Rikki, Bill will simply be inconsolable !-——————————————————————————.I worry about Abner’s future in the DT strip. And, if Abner goes, so goes Rikki. Will I have to turn to Dethany for satisfaction?

.I prefer the original asbestos filled “Glow in the Dark Twinkies” fortified with radium..

I’ve been saying this will end badly for Blaze, but I hope I’m wrong.

Indeed, this apparent eavesdrop by Notta does not augur well for the longevity of Blaze Rize. Maybe I’m wrong; I would hate to see Blaze whacked just as she had the opportunity to turn her life around. Maybe Notta will be expedient and let Blaze live long enough to complete preparations for scramming—and long enough for the MCU cops to get there and rescue Blaze!

Gweedo mentioned,I prefer the Plutonium 238 with a hint of Strontium 90 recipe. It gives me a nice Glow in the Dark crunch!-——————————————————————————-.Looks appealing, Gweedo. I do like the baked in symbol. They would be the highlight of a person’s day!

Gweedo remarked,Well, Bill she is the closest to a Rikki lookalike that we (YOU) will have if we (YOU) lose Rikki. I think she has a pleasing personality so, score in that department !-———————————————————————.I wonder if any of Count Dracula’s brides are available?