Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for September 27, 2010

Tracy, please remember to “be safe” while cruising for anonymous hook-ups with young boys.

RERUN…Zzz-zzzzzzz

Let’s give credit where credit is due. Spacy could never have achieved his homeless look so amazingly quickly without the help of the miraculous new Chia Beard. If you order within the next 20 minutes you also will receive the fantastic new Chia Chest Hair for teenage boys.

Sniffing around?

Panel 3:

“Hey, bud, I’m new in the city, where’s the action?”

Hey, Thick, did you ever see that movie “Cruising” with Al Pacino? You’re creeping me out!

That’s not Simon Penn doing a guest shot, is it?

Liz has only one star on her epilet today! Looks like the homeless guy has new trousers! He carries the satchel with his $100 million like it was almost weightless!

And Bud says: “The action was last Friday, dood, when we toasted an undercover cop.”

When I saw the first frame I thought Thick had run home to mommy after he hit the streets last week. Then I realized it was the inevitable pointless recap. I wonder if he remembered to take off his Wrist Geenee and turn off his cell phone?

Thick didn’t go to church this week-end and didn’t shave since the middle of the week,

I wonder what won’t happen tomorrow? Butterfly McCorpse shows more life than today’s strip!

margueritem:

“RERUN…Zzz-zzzzzzz”

Wake up! The Barn is really funny today. Why does it only have 8485 subscribers when Thick Spacey has 22856? OK, The Barn is “cute” – I’m not a big fan of cute – but at least it’s ENTERTAINING unlike this smoldering train wreck.

Panel-Panner,

Brewster Rockit and Flying McCoys are really good comics.

OldTracy:

I do follow Brewster but where is he this morning? I don’t see the strip in my usual line-up.

Thanks for the tip re: Flying McCoys,

Panel-Panner,

Just my opinion, but Flying McCoys is very much like Gary Larsson’s old “Far Side”, but I think it is often more clever. Brewster is brilliantly written and contains more educational information (on occassions) than any comic I’ve ever seen. The writer must be exceptionally sharp.

an ax ? I thought it was Thor’s Hammer if he gets in a tight spot he can tap it on the ground and call down thunder and lighting on the Homeless.

Sniffing around Homeless people.. thats just gross Tracy !

Never the man of action Thick hopes to get some traction So hip, cool, suave and debonair You can tell by the way he musses his hair Speaking off the cuff He’s about to be rebuffed Tracy you degenerate old cop Your silly assed plot is going to flop “Where’s the action”, you do ask Only shows your not up to the task Do you think at the end of their day The homeless have an elegant soiree A fictional detective, who is supposed to be a star Wouldn’t be so utterly asinine like you are But on you I must admit I transfer The outrage that Locher should incur But TMS shoulders most of the blame For printing this drivel that borders on insane Our dear sweet Annie, from us they took And left us with this pathetic schnook.

Thank you Fusnr and Bill T. Bill T., that was great- “tour de farce”, that was hilarious.

Oh man, will the entire week pass with Thick searching the streets while Homeless Guy sits in the alley and smirks? That would make for a Sunday recap so dull even Locher would die from boredom.

Something’s got to happen, if only to give Doofus a chance to cower and hide. Maybe he’ll spot Sue Doko walk into the alley and give Homeless Guy fresh batteries for his Gooseberry. Rather than approach them and ask questions, Thick will avoid the risk that one of them might be armed by sitting against a wall, head down and hand out. As she leaves Sue Doko will spot him and drop a clue into his open hand. “Here, Thick,” she’ll say, “buy a better disguise, you’re embarrassing Alley Oop with that look.”

Thanks, Wonder Warthog! Thanks for the compliment and the new poem.

“Hey Bud”? Why don’t you tape your badge to your hatchet. you stick out like a sore thumb.

Macy does resemble Alley Oop ! And, Locher’s idea of street talk is worse than arcane.

Note to scuttlebutt99, responding to his comment yesterday–I suggest you have a look at this story:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91555835

O.K. Call this the start of phase 3

Phase 1 started on August 7 (the discovery of a body) and ran for 2 and a half weeks. Result, really NOTHING. Cause of death ? The last we heard, M.O. said : ” We’re working on it, Tracy ” ( That was 7 weeks ago.) Just an ‘assuming’ that it was D’Buckworth based on a tattoo, and without ANY ‘evidence’ - a further assumption that a murder HAD been committed ! (?)

Phase 2 started on August 23. This turned out to be a fevered effort to interview ‘suspects’ - Fred Wehrli et al, a pointless effort that served to consume a full 3 weeks of story time. Result, a dead end that led nowhere, a big fat NOTHING !

A total of 5 and a half weeks of spurious ‘non events’ … WASTED time and panel space. And a grotesque imitation of interesting story-telling techniques.

Ultimately, there must be some ‘meaningful’ result. How LONG will Tracy be seen ’DRIFTING’ on the streets before that time ? Why do I think that 4 weeks from now he’ll still be there in a continuing cauldron of uncertainty ?

As morrow pointed out yesterday, Tracy is conducting an investigation, on a premiss that a Crime has been commited - one flagrantly ‘faked’ by an Author who has tied himself up in tight knots !

Panel-Panner, I remember some of that Dragnet episode. It’s the one they ran around the time of the Apollo 4 launch (I told you I was a grade-school science geek).

Just to keep on-topic for DT, Locher should take a warning from camp stuff like Dragnet and “Reefer Madness.” It he wants to inspire respect for the law and order, he needs to stick closer to reality. Instead he has everyone with more than a room temperature IQ laughing at him.

Oops – the pacing got too fast there, gotta go back. He didn’t hang around the station showing off his disguise long enough before going out in it – gotta pretend that didn’t happen already and do it over. Slow it down! Slow it down! Sheesh, if you go too fast you might run out of ideas….

-Cougar :{)

Is that guy wearing a back brace? Or a tiny backpack with no straps, sewn to the back of his shirt? It’s up so high he can’t possibly reach it unless he takes his shirt off…. ???

-Cougar :{)

“Hi sailor..Fleet’s in?…New in town?…looking for action?”

What a waste of time. Four days of the same thing.

you want the action? you can’t handle the action!

Funny, funny stuff.

Most humorous Tracy EVER!

Moves the story along from the Week-end and a GREAT START for the week!

What a Hoot!

Nothing’s as funny or clever as Gary Larson’s “Far Side” was.

Go Comics didn’t get Miss STARR (Brenda -that is) on the internet today either. Even a day without her causes more action than THICK/

AAUUGGHH!! Will this strip never cease to achieve new lows?? “Where’s the action?” Really? That’s the depth of Tracy’s interrogation skills? This is an abomination.

In a remarkable development which no doubt explains Simon Penn’s rapture, panel #2 shows Thick not only with a rare happy expression on his face but from a slightly tilted perspective. This shows an abnormally high degree of artistic effort for this strip. Notice how it is highlighted by the typical ineptness of frames #1 and #3. Liz’s face looks more human when inverted; as she stands now, she looks like a badly-done stencil of Boris Karloff in “Frankenstein.” And enjoy the shifting perspective of #3, as you try to decide if they’re on a sidewalk or outside a tunnel.

Tomorrow, Lefty Dubuque discovers that his new-found bud is Norbert the Nark!

Didn’t this happen last week? Are we backing up now?

disturbing one man gives young boys money for good deeds (sorry still creepy to me) another goes cruising in the streets for someone

Macy’s gonna look up Sue Doku, lay a few puns down, and then pop her with the age old “sideways” question. That’s his idea of action.

I’m surprised he isn’t dressed in a sailor suit, even though Naperville is inland a thousand miles.

Morrow, what is “the age old ‘sideways’ question?”

The current and sorry state of affairs of Chester Gould’s masterpiece, my favorite comic strip of all time, breaks my heart, but I can only imagine how Sydney Phillips, a leading expert on Tracy, must feel.

At least in a strip like Gasoline Alley (and the late lamented Annie) the artist shows great courage . Everyday he gives his all to swiftly diminishing newspaper audience. The drawings of the school bus and crowd scenes in Gasoline Alley are not only wonderful, but hard to do and in correct perspective. Tracy should be so lucky.

Flight Suit, you can look here:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=sideways

but Urban Dictionary has several terms that might apply to this strip. One definition has to do with scurrilous allegations that Asian females have a unique orientation to their primary external female characteristic (bleeep that, and bleeep yourself, Netnanny!). The problem with this theory is that it implies Thick is aware that sex is something more than a label used in identifying suspects.

Another definition has to do with plagiarism and reusing old material. The flaw in this theory is that it would require Locher and Brozman to admit, however tacitly, that they recycle in ways Gaia never intended.

The third relevant definition has to do with leaving the scene of a crime, as in “The bullets started flying and Thick went sideways at warp nine.” Decide for yourself!

I second the emotion, graysmith. I started looking at this strip earlier this year, after a friend told me how much he’d enjoyed the Chester Gould strip when he was young. Henry died recently and I’m glad I never told him how badly the strip had deteriorated.

I think Locher tries to use Gould’s storytelling technique: create some characters and a general situation, then start writing and see what happens. Somehow Gould made that work. All Locher gives us is Bizarro Tracy.