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

Compared to yesterday, Tracy is suddenly a lot farther away from the D’buckworths. I think he’s inching backwards in terror, waiting for just the right moment to take off running.

Just out of curiosity, does anybody remember a story arc in recent history that wasn’t resolved by one of the bad guys just happening to whip out a gun and then conveniently explaining everything for no reason, when if they’d just been patient and kept their mouths shut, Tracy would still be flailing about and they’d still have their freedom?

A butterfly … a bouquet of rhododendrons … the Easter bunny–oh, my mistake, I thought this was a Rohrschach test.

Now we know why the ME couldn’t establish a cause of death for Butterfly McCorpse. Mrs. D’butterworth did it. She talked him to death. She bagged most of Locher’s 23 million imaginary fans, too.

Thick, of course, believes everything she says this time, despite her record of contradicting herself repeatedly in the first week of August.

And what is D-cubed looking at? Has Sue Doko arrived?

I’m afraid that I’m losing touch with this story…

As usual when a gun is out, it doesn’t belong to Spacy the cop. If he runs away like he usually does, at least Spacy can claim he had to go get a shave.

I lost it long ago, VistaBill.

Got it–D-cubed has just realized that a fold in the space-time continuum of the funny pages has put everyone in front of the crossword puzzle. He’s terrified that the next fold will place everyone in Gasoline Alley, where Scancarelli is trying to outdo Locher for idiocy.

I flagged the spammer. That said, he did offer a few items for Thick’s next undercover adventure:

20USD Ed Hardy AF JUICY POLO Bikini

30USD Handbags (Coach lv fendi d&g) $30

20USD Bikini (Ed hardy,polo) $20

And don’t forget:

“you can find many cheap and fashion stuff”

“DELIVERY TO YOU DOOR TO DOOR”

You’ll know DT has been outsourced overseas when the characters start speaking Chinglish.

Thick won’t be interested unless the spammer offers a good pair of running shoes. Although he could use a replacement for that cap he keeps losing. Is Pistol Packin’ Penny wearing it today?

Flight Suit, Anja Nu pulled a gun but I don’t think she explained her problem with Thick.

And we don’t know if Penny is telling the truth or framing her husband. Maybe Sue Doko will shoot her before she can finish, but it’s more likely that Thick will demand to see if D-cubed has a butterfly tattoo on his front shoulder. That would be pointless, but that never mattered here.

This arc needs a shooting. It needs a very accurate shooting. Actually it needs a lot of very accurate shootings, right away, to eliminate as many characters as possible.

Looks like the Feds have gone to the local diner for a cup of coffee and left Tracy with the 3Ds.

As the final panel proves, even Alan Swann can’t save this stinkburger of a storyline. Roll credits, already.

“P Y A P A L?”

With panels like today’s #1, this arc has literally turned into a clone of the original Twilight Zone’s “Shadow Play” episode. The Feds have played their role in this dream sequence, spewing hatred and false accusations about D-cubed as they threaten him with harm. They’ve vanished so the missus can do the same. The arc has the logic of a dream.

I hoot, I holler and I loudly jeer This really hasn’t been “My Favorite Year” In which to read this loathsome pile That has gone from being bad to being really vile Lower and lower it sinks in the ooze And can only be countered with plenty of booze Locher needs to have his own Benjy Stone Then we might be inclined to throw him a bone Gone are McDermott and those finking feds Penny has the shakes, must be off her meds Tracy distances himself from her and Trey-D Another two steps and he will turn and flee Their life together must really be rough They have billions and that’s still not enough Just another inconsistency that we’ve come to expect And another shining example of Locher’s neglect.

Thanks for the kind words the other day.

That’s a GOOD point Flight Suit, Dick Locher patterns his writing style after Kilian (not that of Gould or Collins). When Mike Kilian. died, Tribune Writer Robert K.Elder in an article qouted Jean Gould O’Connell as obseving : _ ”His storytelling was very interesting in that he didn’t go into a lot of DETECTIVE work, but he kept up with current events. That’s what I noticed most of all. He was on top of the very current events.”

Nice comment for the recently departed - but ‘nailing’ the weakness !

And as you note today, it’s seldom that detective work or clues are shown to trap most criminals, their’s is a BLASE attitude with confessions freely flowing out.

Bet this is what we will see AGAIN in the 3–D’s case !

Yesterday the tiny silhouette of Penny D’B appeared to be wearing a dress, which is pretty much in line with the way Locher has always portrayed her. Today she is wearing a shirt and trousers?!?

(Admittedly, a shirt with ruffled cuffs…)

As I’ve noted before Locher says he has 5 basic plot lines for his stories. One of them is “MYSTERY STORIES”, likely his ‘favovorite’, he does them all the time, AND this tale is one of them.

They bring a usefull downside for the ARTIST in that, in a mystery the criminal isn’t ’known’ until the end, so can’t be designed as the obvious Rogue … and so Locher gets a ‘DESIGN’ break, and there’s ‘no need’ for a ‘traditional’ DT Rogue — one dissapointment !

In these tales readers are ’KEPT in the DARK” no one understands - what’s happening,. every development is a ‘surprise’. Readers are excluded till the end. But should be INCLUDED and in on the ‘KNOW’ and ‘AWARE’ of the problems facing Tracy, therby “wringing their hands” wondering HOW he’s going to solve the problems day by day.

The current alternative is to experience what we have NOW — 14 weeks IN, and nobody is sure exactly what has happened, what crimes that have been committed and who is guilty. Only vague hints on the latter.

The strip once famous for it’s ‘black and white’ issues which complimented the art style - has sadly ‘lost it’s way’ !

Penny was wearing a dress, given the danger of having a loaded(I assume) gun in the scene, Pops the clown is making a cameo as a stunt double

I’d be homicidal too if my spouse was working on a plan to make us more money than we could dream of. Especially if that plan involved handing out large bills to random little boys.

This strip is a bafflement engine.

“More money than we could dream of”? If they had a bank account that could handle a $100 million withdrawal, shouldn’t they be in pretty good financial shape already?

Yay! Pops the Clown!

“IT HAPPENED!!!!!”

This is atrocious. Not even up to a “phoning it in” level.

I think there is a big joke that we’re just not in on….

“that’s why i’ve got to kill you – you didn’t play dead good enough, like the guy in the swamp, and make more money than we could dream of!” the only mystery here is how locher came with this incoherent mess and how long it will take 3D and Penny to get shot.

3D looks young enough to be Penny’s son. Hmmm……… maybe there’s more to this than we thought! Steady there, Locher! You might be opening a whole new can of worms there! But then again, it might up your readership a bit!

There’s the Don Quick Oatie arc, running from Halloween 2005 to April Fool’s Day 2006. In it Thick accomplishes less than an escaped mental patient. In fact Thick is saved from kidnappers by the delusional psychotic, and it’s the crazy guy who locates and kills the villain. Thick’s major accomplishment is to discover that if you follow footprints during a blizzard, the snow will soon cover them.

How has Locher kept his job all these years?. Does TMS want a strip that makes law enforcement look incompetent?