Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for April 03, 2017

Good morning all!

Art is looking sharp today, as always.

Well, at least he’s honest. He could have said Ramon planned the killing. But why in the world were both peeps waiting around to get nabbed?

Double Am shows he’s a craven fool by (1) copping to a murder instead of burying it with his dead compatriot and (2) committing the murder in the first place when he got caught which only made his situation worse.

I do hope Tracy did Miranda him before he got started…

AM might have to face the wrath of Double Up! He was truly distraught that he had failed Perenelle!

I’m surprised Double Am admitted it instead of pinning the actual murder on Ramon.

When exactly does Shelley’s run begin?

And when will we know the Harvey Award nominations for this year?

[ Or did I miss the announcement? ]

What I’m wondering is… why didn’t he lawyer up? I’m sure MR KLEEN could have made the charges go away

Fake Am said yesterday that Ramon approached him about this robbery plot. How did Ramon know to approach him? How did Ramon know he wasn’t the real Mr. Am? And that, being a double, he wouldn’t be faithful to his employer, but go along with the plot?

Since it now has been established that both Fake Am and Ramon were in the room at the time of the murder, what was the point of Ramon going into Perenelle’s room with the breakfast tray and trying to wake her up? Who was he acting for? He was alone with the body at that point. Mike has done this sort of thing before: having characters say and do things to fool us, the readers, when there is no one else around. When that happens in a mystery story, It feels a little bit “off” to me – like the writer hasn’t been fair with his readers.

The March 5 strip makes it very clear that when Ramon entered the bedroom that morning, he did not expect to see that Perenelle had been “silenced”.

Why treat Doubleup the way the writers did? Here, Perenelle hired him as a bodyguard and with all the ruckus that followed, he is nowhere to be found like Sam. M&J spent more time (ugh!) throwing red herrings around than spinning the real tale. They took what COULD HAVE been clever, and turned it into something much less.

Okay, Am Not and Ramon are searching her room, she walks in, catches them, and he “silences her.” Then he puts her in her jammies and tucks her into bed? With Doubleup just outside? And Ramon pretending he knows nothing when he walks in the next morning – for who’s benefit? Ours?

Arrrgh. This was a fun story until the Brush showed up. And the robbery. And the murder. And the double Ams. All this has given me a headache.

Exactly, Jim. Couldn’t have put it better myself. They could have stopped waaayy back with the story and wrapped it up neatly. But to continuously morph deeper and deeper into situations that are impossible to explain works against the grain. But that is just my opinion, which doesn’t count.

Hmmm, wonder why my post was removed?

Still think it’s just a coincidence Neil? LOL!!

I get it, I really do!

As Micheal Corlean would say to me,

“It’s not personal, avenger09. It’s strictly business.”

Well, of course you did (have to silence her), you Big Ape! But did you have to kill her?

Anyway, I guess this would have saved Ramon from the chair/gas chamber/lethal injection/gallows/firing squad, whatever might be the Ultimate Penalty in Tracyville (Punjab’s magical carpet?). Double Am can perhaps get off by pleading Temporary Insanity or 2nd Degree Murder/Crime of Passion/Reckless Manslaughter. But he is facing a very long time in the pen, without benefit of the Elixir of Life….

Crime Does Not Pay…. The shadows show (excellent art)!

I’m not sure if anyone has yet mentioned the nice shots of the Spirit in silhouette in panels 1 and 2, highlighting his hat (which the CBR story had Mike noting it was from early in Spirit’s career).