Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for August 21, 2016

Out on the edge of the fearful ledge see Tracy and KadaverAbner quite the chatterbox, no end to his palaver.Stab and punch. Duck and shoot. Until both men are bleedingTracy calm under duress, yet first aid he is needing.“Die, Tracy die!” Abner does cry, his desperation growingReady to fall along with Dick, yet all the while knowingHe’s seen the last of Rikki, she was his better halfCould barely bear the sight of him, yet he could make her laugh.A midnight ride in the Death Coach, deadly deeds forgottenHe’d hold her hand, feeling grand, forget that he was rotten.As he and Tracy take the plunge into the dark abyssKadaver has but one regret, the gal whom he shall miss.Tracy made of sterner stuff. He won’t leave Tess so fairBreaking through the guardrail, he plummets through the air.Who shall live and who shall die? Farewell, the great Detective?Abner’s suicidal plan both foolish and defective.

Oh, the SUSPENSE!!!

.Good morning fellow DT and Abner Kadaver fans!.As promised BeeGee Productions and the BMBG present Farm Boy yodeling the winner of the battle of the century. Background music provided by the acclaimed BMBG musicians… VB on the accordian, Neil Wick (hummer), JPuzzleWhiz (lead vocals), conducted by our own Gweedo. Enjoy the wrap-up show (available for a limited time as a free digital download and on DVD)...*We are assuming that DT is the winner.

The “SMACK” frame reminds me so much of (and I think must be an homage to) this famous 1965 Batman frame:

That frame has become an absolute Internet meme lately, with numerous parodies appearing all over the Internet in recent years. You can read the history of it on knowyourmeme.com

To Rikki Mortis. From the BMBG Broadcasting Group. (Signed) Gweedo, Vista Bill, Neil Wick, and JPuzzleWhiz..

.“My work is finished here." See you guys later today. Good night all..for now.

Over and out …?

Spectators watch upThe plaque reminds us death’s nearNo more words AbnerSmoke waterfall hides them bothDo comic strip lives matter

I’ll preface this with: “I could be wrong, but…”Why do any of you think Abner’s dead?(I’m just relieved that his ‘brilliant scheme’ was more than a fistfight at the falls.)I think he and Tracy have disappeared in a puff of smoke, as per Abner’s plan.So after a week (or two) of Reichenbach this was just a prelude to Tracy having to play the part of the hero in a series of horror movies (Holy Dr. Phibes!) to save Tess.Remember, this is the Big Summer Story Arc.

Abner K, full of rageone more trick up his sleeveAnother puff of misty stuffGave him reason to believeThis master plan, definitely not blandWould finally complete the taskof getting rid of his nemesisIn glory he’ll finally get to baskNow you see them, now you don’tMagically gone in a whiff of smokeWho will win this classic battleThe good against the bad and uglyWe can only hope that in the endThe Tracy’s will be warm and snuggly

Who’s face is that in the rocks in panel four?

Abner will not die. Mike and Joe will keep him alive no matter how illogical it may be. All they need to do is have him fall into a pool of cement. LOL!

.BTW, Gweedo is not among us tonight. MIA? GNA..GNA=Good Night All. Those darn initials!

.What a relief! Gweedo turned up! He was covering the broadcast from the base of the falls. We feared for him!.*Needlessly. There’s no keeping the likes of Gweedo down!

avenger09 harkened in his own jovial way,Hmmmm, I hope Gweedo wasn’t keeping Tess “company” Yikes!-——————————————————————————-.Yes, avenger09, “Yikes!”. Gweedo’s reputation precedes him!.Gweedo is a magnetic attraction for the opposite sex. Especially “North Pole” gals and “South Pole” gals. IE: Eskimos. He warms up to them and calls them cool!

Gweedo, now present, bellowed,More as I get settled in !-——————————————————————.The ball is in your court, Gweedo. Time for my nap. Take the reins, guy!

The strip two weeks ago had Tracy planning ahead. He’s rigged a safety harness for himself anchored below the trail. As he would be unwilling for Tess to die because Abner left us.

I do think Abner is not the monster he’s acting as and he’s back to masks.

My trip back from town with additional refreshments was delayed due to the naptown express having come derailed.

You always have to watch out for that. That, and the motorcycles that are always zooming around the town. You’d know about them if you happened to read the magazine article I likned to. I can post that link again if you want.

.As tonight’s radiocast winds down, the staff of BMBG takes a much needed break and enjoys refreshments with guests. We thank our listeners and also Farm Boy for his splendid yodeling of the winner..

Gweedo enlightened us and then inquired,Bill, it is with profound sadness that I affix my “John Henry” to this solemn document. (How long before she is available ?)-————————————————————————-.Rikki is extremely unpredictable..Perhaps Dethany can tell us.

Abner has a face only a Rikki could love. And oy, that dental work!

I did not hear someone falling, I mean no one screamed either of fear or triumph. Did Abner and Tracy fell? I have doubts that they didAbner led Tracy to a secret entrance to a cavern where Abner is holding Tess – Right this way detective.

… and yes, please re link the link !

Here it is: http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/sherlock-holmes-pilgrims-conan-doyle

It’s a reasonably long article, but it’s well written and well worth reading to get the flavour or Meiringen and its Sherlock Holmes fans.

It is still not time for Farm Boy to yodel as the Fearful Place adventure is not yet over.Part 2 of the Swiss adventure starts tomorrow.

I stand by what I said before. Abner never really expected to get out of this alive.

Did someone say CLIFFHANGER!?

Gweedo climbed aboard the time machine and brought this my way,I hope our early declaration doesn’t become a (pix of HST) Bill !-——————————————————————————-.As I posted the results, that entered my mind. I was 14 at the time and was a newspaper carrier. The local tabloid (Washington Daily News) that I delivered had Truman as the winner covering the front page. I was happy to deliver these results to the subscribers! Those were simpler times for all of us.

I hope to one day do battle with Neil Wick at Reichenbach Falls!

WOW!! What a cliff-hanger! At least let’s hope that is what Tracy is doing — hanging on to the cliff.

Why didn’t Tracy aerate Abner? After all, he had a pistol in his hand to begin with. I think I’d have unloaded (and re-loaded) that gun on Abner before I’d take the plunge off the cliff.Good verses for Av and PQ! Bravo to the both of you.

So we finally get a full frontal on Abner’s “new” face. I still liked the mask better…

Can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings!

It’s just German for “The Tracy, The.”

There’s no stopping JPuzzleWhiz as he broke out in song,“♪♫ Bah-bah, bah-bah-bah-bahBah-bah-bah-bahBah-bah-bah-bah-bah-bah-bah-———————————————————————.Ah. Those immortal words!.This is all too much for me. I’m gonna take a much needed break today.

No mean feat to create such tension when we know Tracy can never die. Kadaver was too full of himself to consider that Tracy is superior. The dramatic is his thing, so the location was fitting for a fight. The Falls are less forgiving than a death trap of one’s own design. The outcome is not what Abner had imagined. He should have shown Tracy the respect he granted Gruesome.

Thanks to Willy007, Vista Bill, Neil Wick, capt mutt (nice), Gweedo, Chris Sherlock, Morrow, Pied Puzzler and Ray Toler for the kind words. Very much appreciated!

NeilWick, PhD-UofT, can you please respond to my challenge? Thanks.

You can read the entire magazine that panel came from…

I’m going to have to read that as soon as I get a chance to.

lol, I like reading Dick Tracy with you guys. When I was a kid, I used to read the “Dick Tracy Casebook” a collection of classic Tracy comics. It featured one classic storyline from each decade, right up to the 1980’s.

Gweedo proudly stated,I have the book, HST by MT. Her take painted him as a pretty good guy and I’m sure I would have pulled his lever had I been of voting age at the time. I was not to “exist” for another 9 years.-———————————————————————.**I also have the same book. Pres. Truman was a favorite president of mine. He was usually considered to be a good guy, but on occasion… .https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8f-NkRfLYoM.This is a favorite of mine:.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEPH162n3r8

Since this strip is titled DICK TRACY we know who’s going to survive….question is how?

This strip seems a bit confusing to me. I can’t figure out exactly what happened in the last 2 panels. Tracy and Abner have disappeared and the fence is broken but no sign that either of them fell. I wonder if we’re going to get a surprise tomorrow? Seems like there’s more to this than we know. What I don’t want to see is a breakaway to another scene somewhere else not relevant to this.

Who, if anyone, took the plunge? It is by no means clear, thanks as it were to Kadaver’s smoke pellets. The lingering cloud of artificial smoke obscures all. We can see that the fence along the ledge of the Fearsome Place has broken, but there is no unequivocal evidence that either Tracy or Kadaver or both are re-enacting the legendary fall of Moriarty with Holmes over a century ago. Since Tracy needs to find out where Tess is being held, he has a vested interest in keeping Kadaver alive if he possibly can. And while Abner earnestly wishes to off Tracy small pun, the eponymous hero of this comic strip cannot stay dead for long, if at all. Can the dailies carry the weight of a denouement, or must we wait for another Sunday? Perhaps the cutaway to another scene (what’s Rikki up to?) that Jerryjohn52 fears will serve for a few days as a bridge.

Aside to famed broadcaster and ex-newsboy Vista Bill Raley: when I was in college in D.C., the Daily News used to be distributed free of charge to every door in our dorm; I suppose it was a ploy to enable the management of the sinking tabloid to inflate circulation numbers (carefully avoiding any reference to paid circulation, of course). But it was not much read, even free. Most preferred the Post & Times-Herald (now, simply the Post) or the late lamented Star. Ah, those were the days, my friend! Three dailies among which to choose—or, as in my own case, to subscribe by mail to my hometown paper, the Chicago Tribune….

Searching for a body or bodies is a probable next step, I think.

Night-Gaunt49 came right out and proclaimed,Such beautiful birds! Thanx for the picture of them.-————————————————————————-.I love birds, pleased that you enjoyed the photo, Night-Gaunt49.

In the last row DT asks: “Where is Tess?” and in the next panel Kadaver replies: “Right this way, detective…”

Most people seem to have assumed that means that Kadaver, having somehow damaged the fence, took DT with him through the gap and they are both on their way down, down, down…

I immediately saw it differently. What if there is a concealed door to a tunnel going into the rock? What if the plaque itself is such a door? Could Kadaver have led DT through the entrance and DT followed him on the promise of being told or shown Tess’ whereabouts? ____________________

Are we gonna hang on in suspense for another week or two? Or are we going to be treated to the typical cartoon where Tracy reaches out and grabs hold of a brush growing out of the rock? Who’s Bribery going to pay the hit fee if Tracy accidentally does buy the farm? Rikki?

I can’t believe Ab would give Tracy the relief of him knowing that Tess is safe, provided he even has her !

I agree. If he has her, there’s no way he’s going to just show her to Tracy, just like that.