Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for December 30, 2016

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Good morning guys!

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“weighing in.”

Neil and Bill, got your late posts and Yes !

Sounds like Sunday might be Fun-Day.

For those who asked yesterday, you can see the string that holds The Spirit’s mask on clearly in Panel #3.

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Much as Steve Ditko was known not to render all of the web patterns on Spider-Man’s costume in long shots, just because you don’t always see that string doesn’t mean it’s not there.

Damn, Joe’s iteration of The Spirit is about as spot-on as anyone could have hoped.

Guessing that Sunday might fill us in on the history of the “Philosopher’s Stone,” which likely serves as the MacGuffin for this chase.

It seems that Tracy and the mayor are not on the friendliest of terms. No surprise there.

So, Spirit and Sammy are staying at the (rather pricey) Hotel Siam. Interesting, but not much of a clue. The Spirit seems to know more about why he’s there than Tracy does.

The Spirit has his mask… Tracy, the shadow of his hat. Glad to see Spirit again, but Tracy is definitely cooler on this one.

So, then, my crimestoppers, what can “this Flammel matter” be?

The Spirit and Tracy both seem to know what we do not. And somehow, as I feared, Mayor Armstrong seems to be involved….

From today’s information, it looks as if this Sunday might be the strip we were shown sketched out, but without dialog. As I recall there were panels showing Tracy, the Spirit and Mr Am in conversation, with fancy hotel appointments in the background.

Not that it affects the story in any way, but Tracy appears to be having indecision about whether he wants to wear his gloves while driving. From the positioning, that almost has to be Tracy’s gloved right hand in the last panel, unless the Spirit is reaching his right hand across his chest to gesture at Tracy. Yet, Tracy’s right hand is not gloved on the steering wheel in panel one. Oh, well. The Lone Ranger used to pull his gloves off, then put them back on for nor apparent reason on the old TV show. But, of course, he wasn’t driving at those times.

I’ve noticed a couple of times that “The Spirit” has close to a smile on his face. I think he knows something that Tracy does not. I wonder what Howdy Doody is up to in the back seat. On the other hand, maybe I’d rather not know.

Where is Dolan staying?

Spirit is the main focus/emphasis in panel three so it looks to me that there is a gradation from complete shade on Tracy with his [ungloved] hand being in the transition zone. I also note less detail which gives the appearance of a glove. The positioning of the hand indicates to me that it is Tracy and not The Spirit reaching across.

So, this was the hotel introduced during the search for Annie a couple of years ago, the one which Oliver Warbucks can’t afford? Was it ever established that Mr. Am was a (part) owner? Maybe Am is Tracy’s contact! (That would make sense if Perenelle is in fact immortal.)

Mike and Joe told me this crossover was coming up when I saw them at the Baltimore Comic-Con in September. I thought we had a while to wait for it yet, so seeing it start now is a nice surprise.Joe’s versions of the Spirit, Dolan and Sammy are really nice.

So, at the hotel, will he be using Flammel pajamas?

Going to the hospital soon. Be back late !

So no hint yet on the event that brings both The Spirit and Perenelle to Tracyville – although it sounds like we’ll soon be listening in on some exposition that Spirit will be providing Tracy :)

Annie is with Am today in the reprints. She is having a fever dream of back when she first met Am. Alan Kupperberg does such nice work in having Annie dream in Harold Gray’s drawing style. She dreams of a variation of Am’s introduction from 1937, so Asp is along for some of the fun. I first read this story in the collection, Arf! The Life and Hard Times of Little Orphan Annie – 1935-1945.

It can be found at http://www.stuartliss.com/loahp/mram.html

Good Day to All..

Both of them, Flammel, got their weird reputations postmortem. As alchemists they were not just for transmutation of other materials into gold, but to transform themselves, to become one with the universe.