Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for January 31, 2017

The way Mike & Joe have staged this, it looks as if Julia is bidder #5.

Good morning all!

♫♫ And it’s true, yeah, I’m confused ♫♫

I see four packets of earnest money around the table, but there would need to be five to add up to $1.25 million. If the Spirit is a bidder, he’s not sitting around the table with the other bidders.

She has her bid in her crop.

Good morning, Vista Bill, retired crop farmer, and to all the bid speculators !

In the words of Al Gore, “Your numbers don’t add up!”

… to which G.W. replied, “I know they don’t, but if you’d just listen to me for a second.”

— From one of their Presidential Debates, give or take a few words, as I’m quoting from memory.

Where’s Dolan? He is probably the fifth bidder.

So the $250,000 – Which is indeed the bidding fee – affords the bidder limited vetting rights?

I have to say, it is rather amusing to see Tracy standing shoulder-to-shoulder (sort of) with Doubleup.

Has the immortality potion been peer-reviewed by Dr. Zy Ghote?

If the colorist in on cue, we see the fifth bidder’s hand in panel two, as his (?) sleeve doesn’t match any of the other bidders.

Suppose one doesn’t want to ask any questions? I’m impressed with Ms. Flammel’s hotel suite, complete with conference table and all the trimmings. I’m not impressed with Tracy standing next to an indicted thug who is wielding a weapon.

It seems that there is a standard carrying case for $250,000 in cash. Brush and Kitchen won’t need a big truck for it.

Math has never been my strong suit, but…

US currency bills are 2.61 inches wide, 6.14 inches long and .0043 inches thick. A stack of $250,000 cash would most likely be in hundreds, giving us 2500 $100 bills. And doing the math, 2500 bills would result in 5 stacks 2.15″ tall, 2.61 inches wide and 6.14 inches long. The $250,000 would easily be contained in a 14” x 7” x 3” envelope.

Today is the last day for Dick Tracy at Houston Chronicle online. Is there any other site that shows the strip in B/W?

http://www.chron.com/entertainment/comics-games/comic/Dick-Tracy/

This is a weird optical illusion, I’m sure, but if you stare at Oliver Warbuck’s profile in the last panel, the shading lines create the outline of another profile. Oddly enough, the size of the ear works for both Oliver’s real profile, and the profile of the “second face.”

I suspect the arm we see in the second panel is the fifth bidder and that he might be a character from another franchise that Mike and Joe can only hint at, like how they hinted that Broadway Bates is the brother of the Batman villain the Penguin, or that Dick and Tess vacationed with Popeye and Olive Oyl.

If that’s the case, my guess is that it’s either Bruce Wayne (since it’s already been hinted at that Batman exists in this universe) or the billionaire version of Lex Luthor (since Mike Curtis is a big superfan.

Still no clear identification of a presumptive Fifth Bidder. Curiouser and curiouser.

If the hand in panel 2 is that of the mystery bidder, it seems it would have to be Tracy (no!), the Spirit, or DoubleUp DoubleUp. I doubt that naughty Julia (who seems mostly interested in Diet Smith) is a Shape-Shifter!

Julia’s looking at Diet Smiths hand and thinking “finger food!”.

Perenelle should hire a stylist. What she is wearing does not give her justice in panel 1. She looks fat and old. :)

If it is a shape-shifter it isn’t Diet Smith!

If I was asking questions I’d want to know about the availability of the ingredients. No use getting a formula if any of the components is unobtainable.

Think of how many homeless people their “antes” would feed. If Ms. Flammel would give just a portion to Mole to help his enterprise, I’d think higher of her.

Do any of you have your posts inexplicably disappear? I have a post from earlier today which is listed on my archive of posts but is not posted on this page.