Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for October 22, 2010

Rather than critique this, including the incomprehensible center panel, I’ll just ask if there is anything that isn’t wrong here.

Yeah, what the heck is going on in panel two? Whose hands are those, and what are they doing? And how does this image relate in any way to either of the other panels? Or to any element of this story, for that matter?

So he’s been doing this for quite some time, and his wife just noticed he was missing?

It looks like maybe what we’re seeing in panel two is Dick Tracy from behind, lifting up his own trench coat so he can scratch his bottom?

Of all the explanations that I’ve ever heard This one has to be the most absurd Fraud and extortion on a global scale Why wasn’t Interpol on his tail Hiding as he was in plain sight Giving out thousand dollar bills left and right I realize that I’m in no way, shape or form a scholar But why go undercover to make the collar A straight up arrest during the day Seems to me would have been the way Why play around in all the filth and grime When allegedly it was a white collar crime But logic seems not to be in Lochers vocabulary Which explains Napervilles inept constabulary Just where the story goes from here It will be all downhill I really do fear.

Thank you all, for your comments the other day.

I keep coming back here to see how much worse it can get.

And now Inspector Torquemada of the Spanish Inquisition steps in to Reveal and Explain All:

“Thou fools! Do none of thee recognize the truth? 3-D movies which one views without special glasses? Such can only be witchcraft!

“Is that not enough of a clue to reveal the truth? Mr. and Mrs. D’Buckworth are in fact Hansel and Gretel! After they popped the witch into her own oven they took over her Gingerbread House. Then they read all her books on magic, and signed a pact with Locher, er, Lucifer, rendering themselves immortal and wealthy!

“Doubt my words? Then ask yourself why old Hansel leaves a trail of thousand dollar bills, which will surely vanish more quickly than the trail of breadcrumbs he once left! After all these years he remains the dimmest of bulbs!

“And even as we speak he heads into the cemetery where a stone falsely bears his name. Should he reach it by midnight, he will cast a spell that brings forth Neon Noodle!”

Another good one, WW!

Excellent as always, Wonder Warthog!

You raise a good point about Interpol. If Thick had run a proper investigation, and if Locher hadn’t just today made up the international angle, then Thick would have contacted Interpol. He would have asked for any reports they had involving D-cubed. They could have told him what police organizations around the world had to say about him. (Interpol doesn’t do arrests or conduct its own investigations; it’s more of a clearing house for information and a co-ordinator of international law enforcement efforts.)

http://www.interpol.int/default.asp

I wonder if anyone working on this strip reads our comments and knows how badly they are screwing up this strip?

What’s the big mystery about Panel 2? It’s simple. It’s a rear shot of Thick pulling on his donkey tail. After all, he’s the biggest bleeep around.

That “ass” in case you’re wondering.

Note to GoComics Net Nanny: EF U!

I agree, Panel-Panner, Thick is playing pin the tail on the Spacy. Either that or it’s Locher pulling tomorrow’s strip out of his posterior. It couldn’t possibly be Thick reaching for a gun so he can escape the sinister government agents who are now treating him like a rational man.

Is this the same story we started out with or did I fall asleep and miss it?

It just dawned on me–here’s the solution to the Mystery of the Vanishing Cap Caper! Look at Panel #1 and you’ll see Thick facing his doppelganger! Locher has added a touch of surreal existentialism to the strip by showing us that Thick is really the Thompson Twins from Tin-Tin!

I don’t understand the second panel.

Who does????

Right along with understanding the 1st and 3rd panels?

The second panel is easy. It’s the homeless guy reaching around and copping a feel from the homeless gal.

What is happening in panel two Could it be handcuffs that no-one drew The hands seem to be behind the back It’s just the bracelets that they lack Common practice when one’s been pinched That your hands, behind your back are cinched At least that is my humble guess As I try to make sense of this mess.

Thank you, morgueritem and Gweedo and Bill T.

Maybe Thick has an itch because Marty the Mutant gave him the clap during their close encounter.

I think panel 2 shows Macy preparing to lift up his skirt.

current storyline: an irredeemable mess just start the next one.

(a haiku)

but the next one will be worse

(I don’t know how the next one could possibly be worse, but I didn’t know how this one could be worse than the one before either. Locher will find a way.)

-Cougar :{)

So this is it? After three months where pretty much nothing has happened or made sense, this is our payoff? Pathetic.

This thing is a zombie comic strip…dead and mindless yet still lurching about aimlessly.

Alright, lets just assume this is true. 3-Cubed is some low down dirty scoundrel who had all these people chasing after him. This brings me to ask one question. Saying this was, in fact, real life, wouldnt Dick be sent home right about now? This is way beyond his jurisdiction is it not?

I have a theory on that second panel. Its whoever it is in the third panel reaching behind their back to pull out that thousand dollar bill.

I like davidf42’s theory. The hot chick fed is fixing to get groped. That will definitely make the best part of the story. Macy fixing to scratch his or someone else’s butt works pretty well, too!

Waiting for the SimonPenn Society members to weigh in

That mid-pannel looks like the back of the net man in a men’s doubles tennis match, ‘signaling’ with his fingers to the server that he’s going to run across to cut off the return.

But after inventions like Traze-R and D.I.T.T. http://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2009/07/05 He’s ’reaching’ for a new device in his backpocket (with 3-D capabilities combined with D.I.T.T) to create the ILLUSION that 3-D is Tracy, and good old Dick is America’s Robin Hood

Up ahead, lets see WHICH authority takes him into custody ? Dick might finally get that REST Lizz has been promising him.

Otherwise, we’ll have to guess that it’s Itchy Oliver - somehow there, and with a severe ‘scratching’ attack on his back-side !

A tripping hippie can make more sense than today’s strip.

so did the evil execs from we hirl kill swamp man thinking it was 3D and they could stop the extortion under the “guise” of charity (whatever that means)? did 3D kill swamp man thinking he could escape the clutches of the evil execs? did penny kill swamp man thinking it was 3D (it was a dark and swampy night and he had the butterfly tat) because after all charity begins at home and she wasn’t getting any? did swamp man succumb to swamp gas, trip and become a swamp remnant? did swamp man kill 3D, assume his identity and steal his millions, and is now hiding at jefferson and ewing? inquiring minds don’t want to know and don’t care, just end this travesty and get to the part where macspacy runs, squeals and cowers please!

TWO things - to look for up ahead …

a) Motive !

b) When the real Beggars come back

Maybe Macy is a part- time “dip” (a pickpocket) and is fixing to practice on the feds who have encircled him. I guess in another sense of the word, “dip” does seem to stick, doesn’t it? I’d hate to find out he was groping the feds.

Panel #2: Maybe Locher finally opened his Art 101 textbook to the chapter on “How to Draw Human Hands.” He gets a C+ (because D-cubed has inspired my sense of charity)

Maybe that panel is a sketch for the Halloween strip. People mistake Thick for a trick-or-treater.

billdi, we don’t even know if Butterfly McCorpse has any connection to D-cubed et alia. The ME never properly identified the body or established a cause of death, beyond ruling out any evident sign of foul play. That does not justify a murder investigation.

We don’t even know why the cops who found the body connected it to 3-D. One problem here: when they found the body they could see the Papillon-style tattoo. Either they tampered with the body by pulling back the clothing (gross incompetence, literally!) or the body was unclothed. We only have Penny’s word that her husband had a tattoo–which may be why Thick wanted to look at his chest.

I think Penny lied about her husband having a tattoo. I think she did that so she could grab D-cubed’s fortune and leave the country. I think her only honest statements were about the way everyone hated her husband.

morrow, I think that Thick’s job description involves the word “dip,” but the Net Nanny won’t let me use the second syllable of the proper term.

Looks like Buckworth’s playing liar’s poker in panel 3, outside of having the bill backwards, that is. Then again, that would be par for the course with this strip.

Why is Robin Williams’ (as Teddy Roosevelt from Night At The Museum) picture on the $1000 bill?

Panel #2–it’s a mailman! He’s reaching into his pouch! He’s got a letter with a foreign return address. He hands it to Thick, who reads it:

“Dear Thick, thank you for standing around and talking so much. You gave me the time to go home, shave, shower, put on clean clothes, have a fine dinner, then go pick up Sue Doko and drive to the airport. Sue and I boarded my private jet and left the country for a place where they don’t extradite billionaires. Thanks for the head start! Love & kisses, D-cubed.

“PS, Penny is still warm for your form. DDD”

I can’t believe you don’t understand panel two. It’s right there! The left hand is the Orient.

this makes my brain itch

“The Orient?” Ye gods, Locher is a bit reationary, isn’t he?