Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for November 05, 2010

Tracy shouts encouragement from the side It’s a miracle that he didn’t run and hide Trey-D it appears has finally been foiled And Tracy’s pants have already been soiled And Penny, the agony that she felt Was because her face had begun to melt An escapee she is, from the wax museum She’s a prime candidate for a mausoleum And look, there’s Einar and what appears to be the Khan Such upstanding citizens as ever have been spawned And now weeks of explanation are soon to follow All of which will be extremely shallow.

Thank you, BillT, davidf42, morrow, JCFremont, Rightwingmoron, billdi and g6793, I truly appreciate your kind words.

Thick at long last indulges his secret fantasy and reveals himself as–a cheerleader! “Go Homeless! Rah! Rah!” Is the gun still in play? Wait, Team FBI has it–it’s Fursten ten! “Yea Team!” Thick cheers, waving his pompoms.

No, wait, they fumble the gun and Team Homeless has it! Have they remembered that it’s nearing the anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution? They’ve got a gun! Run, Thick!

And what is Penny talking about? “Oh, Thick, what a horrid nightmare you had! You mumbled in your sleep that I had a gun, you silly little thing!”

Tracy’s giving the orders now! Is that a face of relief on Penny?

The first guy looks like one of the magi…

So are the guys in panel #3 Feds or homeless today? Which way is the wind blowing inside Locher’s skull?

Who can ever forget these immortal words, “Done in by the people he tried to join.”

Brings tears to my weary old eyes…

“Done in?” Doesn’t that mean “killed?”

That’s what it usually means, Flight Suit. And look at the hungry gleam in their eyes … like wolf cubs with their first kill … don’t worry, Thick, you just have to run faster than the Widow. And will she get the mourning act right this time? Any more hysterical laughter from her?

Say, what if the two men in panel #3 are the patrol that Horn Hair dispatched during the last Ice Age? The patrol has been on the road long enough to grow beards. Maybe they want to know what Thick was doing while a suspect was pummeled to death in his presence.

Is this nightmare really and truly over??

No, can’t be over yet, the local press hasn’t put in its two ¢ worth just yet.

Maybe the nightmare is over because Penny’s dream has been to live out the scenes from various women-in-prison movies. Or will Thick will disappoint her and forget her girlish folly with her .25 caliber divorce-maker?

What surprises await us? Will the homeless, enraged by the intrusion of an authoritarian government into their carefree lives, rise in revolt? Will Sue Doko turn Nappingville into a Marxist state with D-cubed’s last invention, the Infra-Red Ray Gun? Or will Thick slink home to discover that Tess has front-row tickets to Les Miserables?

That’s it? How many more weeks of standing around and talking do we have to put up with?

margueritem - Yes, The Gift of the Angry, Angry Magi. That could definitely liven up those live nativity scenes.

LudwigVonDrake, we have fifty-six days to the end of the year. At three panels per day, plus eight panels on Sundays, that gives Locher 208 more panels in which to do nothing. What can be worse than making Thick look like a rabid TV wrestling fan? Easy. Making Thick look look like a rabid TV wrestling fan who thinks he won the bout.

And we still have to hear from Sue Doko and the Lost Patrol.

I can’t help but see a resemblance in the first panel’s flying legs with that of Popeye. It’s looks exactly the way that Bud Sagendorf use to draw the characters when they fell over or fainted in surprise.

And the two guys in panel #3…they look like they just stepped out of the Clutch Cargo cartoons!

But the one guy in panel 3 feels real lucky-his day to wear the nipple hat

I think DT has just hit rock bottom … or, was it already there?

Panel 1: at least DT is using his voice to help, he hasn’t used much else up to now.

Panel 2: what a weird thing to say.

Panel 3: this strip is so bereft, they’ve had to bring in a character from Orphan Annie to fill a vacancy.

Does that mean the horror of this strip is finally over? Can we go on with our lives? Oh the humanity…………………………………

WW, I usually don’t have a chance to comment on your incredible contribution because I often read it at work (oops) and don’t have time to stop and comment. Just wanted to thank you for what you do to bring some semblance of entertainment to this mess. Excellent work every day - thanks!

This, THIS, is what the Dick Tracy comic strip has come to!? My God, just shoot it and out it out of its misery. I’ve been looking at it for several weeks now. To one who remembers Flat Top, Beebee Eyes, Brush Face, Mr. Bribery, Dr. Aorta, Small Mouth Bass, Moon Maiden and the rest of the Lunar crew, what horrible junk this strip has become. Chet Gould must be turning over in his grave, not least due to the truly putrid dialog. Eeecccchhhhh!!!

Of all my years (way too many) reading Macy, I’ve never seen Macy encouraging others to do the apprehension for him. Never. I’ve yet to figure out what laws 3D broke. Penny, however, threw down on all of them, which translates to interfering with policework, probably a misdemeanor of some sort.

To all who are waiting for Sue Doku and a credible description to the corpse/butterfly/ME situation, don’t hold your breath! Maybe Simon Penn and the Woodstock twins would enlighten us “unimportant” people as to WTF happened. As I said before, for every factoid they list, I’ve got a dozen contradictions Locher drew.

“Oh, the Nightmare is OVER!”

If only, Penny… if only.

People, if you don’t like the strip, DON”T READ IT! WHY DON”T YOU JUST ENJOY IT FOR WHAT IT IS! Read this quote from the Wikipedia page about the strip: “”whodunit” plots were relatively rare in the stories since the comic strip format is not suited for that kind of plot. The real focus, they argue, is the chase, with a criminal seen committing the crime and Dick Tracy solving the case during a relentless pursuit of the criminal, who becomes increasingly desperate as the detective closes in.” It isn’t supposed to be a complete mystery. There ARE some people who just want to read the strip and enjoy it. So if you don’t like the strip, please stop complaining about it and go find a comic strip that you do like.

The strip every day is driven by the dream Locher had the previous night - SPICED UP with some ’unexpected’ twist which represents the core value of his writing style.

That’s it … even if it makes no sense and contradicts what he wrote yesterday.

I guess, he’s leaning back and expecting to get a compilmentary (‘well tried Dicky’) … Reuben Award (?)

Right. A policeman tells civilians to grab a criminal and pin him down. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

-Cougar :{)

@WiiR4Him: If you don’t like the comments, DON’T READ THEM.

See, it goes both ways! :)

WiiR4Him, You’ve pressed the CORRECT button when you quote Wikipedia on how inappropriate those “who dunit’s” scripts are for this strip while noting that the CHASE sequence works best. Gould always used the latter. Early crime always ‘kick-started’ excitement in the chase

Unfortunately, despite being at one time a Chester Gould Assistant, the ** chase sequence** hasn’t been used since Max Collins’ departure back in 1993.

Where most will disagree is ‘enjoyment’ of what is essentially ‘CRAPO’. Reading those ‘kicks in the butt’, — that’s where the real FUN is !

Is it over? Someone please tell me its over and someone is taking over that can actually write. And a decent artist wouldnt hurt either.

’SHAZAM !’ : And the street bums with “C” on the cap are back again

’SHAZAM !’ : (tomorrow) - and they have vanished again !

wndrwrthg, The caption “genius” - really applies !

In just a dozen lines you have brilliantly summed up the travesty this strip has become …

a ’Fearfull’ Fosdick without the relief of HUMOR !

Too bad panel 1 is a close up of Tracy. We don’t get to see his arms flailing over his head as he screams, “Pin him down, don’t let him hurt me!”

“Then pin me down! Please for the love of all that’s holy pin me down and do what you will with me!”

BT – you’ve reached new heights. WW - brilliant

Ah, for the days of Max Alan Collins’ writing when there was actually some mystery going on in this strip.

WiiR4Him, I have to ask if you’ve been reading the strip. One of our gripes is that DT does usually have a chase sequence. The problem is that it’s the detective who’s doing the running and making the mistakes while the criminals close in on him. Now, if Locher went back to the Chester Gould model of having the detective chase the bad guys, you’d be surprised at how fast many of these complainers— myself included— would change our tune. In another website, we’ve been treated to a version of Dick Tracy who is smart, brave and a match for any criminal that comes along. That strip is a pleasure to read and it’s a real shame that the authors of it have indicated it will have a short life span.

Well said, Michael McMillan, well said. I’d gladly sing Locher’s praises if he at least tried to live up to Gould’s standards.

Panel 3. Jay & Silent Bob are not aging well.

Thank you for today’s verses, WW…I love the way you grasp the situation :)

morrow, an actual cop would arrest Penny for assault.

To quote Black’s Law Dictionary, Assault is “An intentional, unlawful offer of corporal injury to another by force, or force unlawfully directed toward person of another, under such circumstances as create well-founded fear of imminent peril, coupled with apparent present ability to execute attempt, if not prevented.” And in one of the cites, “Intention to harm is of the essence.”

There’s a subheading, “Assault with intent to commit murder.” “To constitute this assault and specific intent to kill, actuated by malice aforethought, must occur.”

Assault doesn’t include an overt act of physical violence; that’s “assault and battery.” Penny produced something that at least looked like a gun and threatened to shoot her husband. So we finally have a crime–and it’s one that might never have happened if Thick had done his job.

What goofball twist will Locher reveal next? Will this turn into a bizarre assassination plot, where the Eeeevil Feds make D’ummy’s death look like a mugging? Is Thick now marked for death because he stumbled onto a conspiracy? I don’t think Locher is going to let this end soon or sensibly.

And it looks like the Shopping Spammer has got the boot, for which we can all give thanks.

For those of you who were Annie fans, there is an attempt on her site for GoComics to begin reprinting the Leonard Starr era. Several of us have already e-mailed GoComics our request but we need more people to become vocal. Anyone interested? We need all we can get. Show Annie your support!

A follow-up to LittleRedDress’s post, copied from the Annie forum:

APersonOfInterest said, 4 days ago

I just clicked on “HOME” then on “BLOG” then scrolled down and clicked on “CONTACT US” - I asked that gocomics rerun Leonard Starr’s “ANNIE” daily the way they do “CALVIN and HOBBS” … I assured them that we would all visit it every day, etc.

Try it … contact them … who knows?

Could someone post again the link for the alternate Dick Tracy?

marvee, try this:

http://www.plainclothescomics.com/

There were some intriguing comments on the Annie forum. Does anyone know about a recent shake-up at TMS? Please let it be true that someone in authority is unhappy with DT’s deplorable state!

Panel 3 looks like a scene from Clutch Cargo.

the pointless pain is over…please?