Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for September 11, 2010

It’s almost like the panhandler has gone from being an old man to being in his mid twenties overnight! It’s almost like the weird photo disappeared from the newspaper while I was holding it!

No, it couldn’t be.

Tracy’s got us wondering…

At least 3D (or whoever the homeless guy is) has a clean shave!

”NO, it couldn’t be.” This bad, perhaps?

Almost like you’ve been played for a fool, DT? Drop the “almost” and you got it. Quick, DT, call the cops and tell them you need a detective! Wait, you are a detective! Quit schmoozing the widow and get to work! Have the ME make a positive ID of that corpse, follow the trail of that hundred million dollar withdrawal, and have somebody else check out the recent activities of Mrs. D’apostrophe and M-S-D.

Even money says that if the homeless guy is D-cubed, DT still won’t arrest him for complicity in the murder of whoever the corpse is. No, DT will examine him, find that he doesn’t have a butterfly tattoo on his chest, and arrest him for impersonating the late D-cubed.

He looks like he should be on a playing card………..Like a Jack.

leakysqueaky712 said, “He looks like he should be on a playing card………..Like a Jack.”

Leaky, that story was a year or so ago. Remember the casino guys that looked like playing card figures. One of my favorite DT cases.

Yeah, I think he is a Bauer or (Bower) in Euchre.

Yes, Doofus Tracy, your laxative is finally kicking in!

Flight Suit, I noticed Homeless Guy’s sudden youth, too. It fits in with a theory I’ve been pondering for the past five or six seconds. Have you noticed that we never see Mrs. D and M-S-D together? How the old lady vanishes and the young lady suddenly appears?

My theory is this: Doofus Tracy has just realized he’s dealing with vampires. Anyone who’s read Dracula knows that vampires appear old when they’re hungry, and turn young when they’ve just fed. Doofus is sweating because he’s been hitting on a vampire, and once the widow bites him she’ll rejuvenate and appear as M-S-D. And she has an ally in D-cubed, who she recently turned into a vampire and is now using thousand dollar bills to entice victims into his reach!

VistaBill…….do I remember that story from last year you ask?? hmmmm

I remember “Johnny hadda Plenty” who was married to “Fresh Upp” who had a wicked alcholic mother named “Burpie Upp” Fresh Upp had a baby who was born with a beard and was being exploited by Burpie. Spots and Ogden came upon the scene to wreak more havoc. That was in the 60’s……….and you ask me if I remember last year…………….No what happened??

I can’t make sense of the idea that Homeless Guy is D-cubed. If his plan is to make it look like he’s dead, why does he draw attention to himself by handing out money? (And DT can’t possibly know about Homeless Guy at this point.)

Maybe we’ve been misdirected about D-cubed. Perhaps he’s only hated by crooked executives who realize that he’s really a good guy with a conscience. Perhaps he, M-S-D and the missus are working to destroy the mob at We’re-Lyin’-terprises by making it appeared they murdered him to protect their corruption. Perhaps he’s giving money to families who were victimized by the bad guys.

But. If he’s a good guy, how to explain the corpse with his tattoo? Good guys don’t murder innocent bystanders to cover their plans. Possibly the ex-partners sent him to kill D-cubed, who got lucky and won their confrontation. Perhaps M-S-D killed him without telling her boss, because he stumbled onto the truth and she’s a fanatic about getting the job done. Perhaps the widow lied about the tattoo, thinking this would be a good way to inherit her flaky husband’s fortune.

What we need is for Doofus to get his act in gear and deliver some reliable clues to the readers.

Lizz looks at the headline of the paper, then comes to some decisions she’s been thinking about for some time. She calls Sam into the office.

“Sam, I want you to get Dick Tracy in here. I’ve got some bad news for him, maybe he can detect that his days with the department are through. Next, I want you to find that reporter who’s been doing these stories. He’s got some great skills, the department can use some detectives like him.”

Sam leaves the office in search of Tracy. He’s a little sad, since he likes DT as a person, but he has to admit that the old guy just isn’t cutting it anymore as a detective. He has to admit to being impressed by the reporter too, he wonders if the reporter would be as good on the police force as he is for the newspaper.

“Score one for the good guys?” “Revenge from the grave?” “No, it couldn’t be?”

I can’t wait for tomorrow’s Sunday spread to tie all this together. Or will that be next Sunday? Or any Sunday?

It must have been a shock. Tracy finally opened his eyes.

Yeah….. I like BillThompson’s logic. But I don’t give Locher an ounce of credit for being capable of weaving an interesting story. There’s the makings of a Guiness Record here (a plausable plot involving Macy), but I ain’t buying in. I’ve seen too much of Locher during the past few years.

“My friend, can your heart stand the shocking facts about - grave robbers from outer space?”

In panel one! Could it be? Yes! It’s Shaggy from Scooby Doo! The long awaited Dick Tracy/Scooby Doo crossover is happening. With Scooby and the gang on his side, Tracy is sure to solve this mystery.

“No, it couldn’t be….

IT HAPPENED!!!!!!”

At least we know that newspapers will never disappear as long as there are bums in pirate costumes and detectives to read them.

Great Dick Tracy comic strip today and color Sunday on tap for tomorrow… Looking forward to Sunday’s all-new color Dick Tracy! Always great seeing Tracy in full color, not to mention Crimestopper’s Textbook!

Sunday’s color Dick Tracy is usually a series of flashbacks and ends with a cliffhanger to boot! It’s great if you miss the strip or don’t get the daily paper and only read the Dick Tracy strip on Sunday.

Super Stylized Dick Tracy in the second Panel! Very cool! My favorite spot on Tracy that we’ve seen here for a while. Great stuff today!

You Go, GoComics!

I’m with Morrow. There’s no way Locher can write a plausible storyline.

Most recent strips have been silly,nutty,and fun to make light of but this one is just plain boring.

I’m here agreeing with morrow too.

Locher has a five year history of slow paced tales - ‘puctuated’ with an overload of contradictions. Many serving to make Tracy look stupid and cowardly

T’was Murder determined yesterday, on one flimsy butterfly clue

While the newspapers AGAIN do the work Tracy should do

it’s almost like… magic! he’s really alive! i should get a butterfly tattoo, or at least a remnant!

The old guy is now the young musician from the previous episode, the buddy of the guy with the bomb in the violin.

Simon, I have a question— well, actually, two questions.

What are you smoking?

Where can I get some?

Tigger, it’s still possible that Homeless Guy is not D-cubed, and that the waterlogged corpse is D-cubed. Locher hasn’t given enough clues to settle he issue.

One of the possibilities is that M-S-D and D-cubed went jogging, and M-S-D drowned him as part of a scheme to abscond with that hundred million dollars he’d just withdrawn. Alas for M-S-D, Homeless Guy saw the murder and instantly recognized both her and his victim, then cooked up a brilliant blackmail scheme. “You will become a force for good!” he tells M-S-D. “Use your insider knowledge to help destroy We’re-Lyin-terprises, and give me oodles of cash to hand out to people!”

But, yes, it is just as likely the Homeless Guy is D-cubed. D-cubed is an old man, to judge by his wife, and is a clever businessman. He should have found a more sensible way to hide than as a street person–and when was the last time common sense figured in this strip?

BillT, you write a credible story, but there’s no way the “clues” in this strip will fit in a credible story.

marvee, I’m afraid you’re correct. This strip depends on what damon knight called the “idiot plot.” The story’s plot only works if all the characters are idiots.

trickdacy, you may have something there! Homeless Guy just might be Shaggy from Scooby Doo, and that dog we saw with him might be one of Scooby’s relatives. Maybe there really are vampires afoot here! (re my earlier theory–notice how Mrs. D’apostrophe and M-S-D both wear the exact same type of bracelet. Coincidence? Or proof that they are one and the same vampiress, changing her apparent age after she drinks blood? And that mysterious hundred-million-dollar withdrawal–was it taken from the blood bank?)