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

Partners in crime all of this time before Domain steps in

Sits sister Sprocket on the bench. He’s in the game to win.

Silver all about the con, to be prudent makes good sense

To work a mark never a lark, things tend to get quite tense.

Public Domain mouths his cautious refrain, “far better safe than jailed”

Sprocket alone. To sadness now prone. Her worth has been assailed.

With her bare feet and clothes not neat, she draws unwelcome eyes

Silver nods when Domain prods. Sister Sprocket frets and cries.

Trouble they barrow. Sprocket feels sorrow. She is now on her own

Alone in her room. Unbearable tune. Harvest of seeds she’s sewn.

Domain shall remain a man foul and profane. His Lincoln con unwise

Silver can’t see that the conned man is he, wholly blinded by the prize.

Further evidence that Mike is a fan of “The Carpenters” …

https://youtu.be/P3aOYALgE_w

Foster children of the same parents, this is probably the strongest evidence we’ve been given yet that the Nitrates are more than brother and sister.

Lizz preceded Office Cobb by several years, I think, but thankfully Lizz didn’t die in the line of duty.

I don’t remember if there’s ever been a Dick Tracy Sunday strip before, featuring only one character. It really reinforces her alone-ness.

Damn… that’s a punch in the chest right there. I know she’s one of the baddies, but I can’t help but feel for her right now.

Yes, unfortunately that robber was a better shot than we would have liked.

Falling, falling deeper in

A whirlpool of insane loneliness

Every ending must first begin

Every heartache starts with bliss

Forever reaching but never touching

Always seeking but never finding

Only tears for companionship

A prison sentence with no escape

A heart that no one will miss.

Good morning all!

Which Carpenters song is that? I thought I knew them all.

Interesting that the Carpenters were siblings, too. (Although we now know that Silver and Sprocket are not blood-related.)

Nicely done strip. Very cinematic.

Very well done strip today, gentlemen. Touching, painful, solemn and yet does it’s job you intended. To bring humanity to a criminal. Sprocket needs to see the error of her ways, leave Silver and find someone who can really treat her right and keep her on the straight and narrow.

As a side note. Karen died of complications of Anorexia, a mental illness that still is difficult to treat and ‘cure’ permanently. It is a condition dealing with depression and several other problems. So I want everyone to understand it’s not something you can just ‘wish away, or get over it.’ We all must understand that and show compassion to sufferers. Mental illness is something that takes hold of you and you cannot easily break free of the bonds unless you have help.

No, I never experienced that, it’s just something I studied for my psychology degree.

I also suspect Sprocket may have this disorder but at the moment it’s not possible to tell.

At the risk of stating the obvious, Mr Domain has a trick up his sleeve which requires separating Silver and Sprocket.

Good roll of honor panel today. The Wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gail_Cobb is also nice, although Officer Cobb’s son unfortunately did not turn out so well without a mom.

Interesting device for playing music. We have seen “smart” phones in this strip. But correct me if I’m wrong: Isn’t that a tape cassette she’s inserting into that machine?

This ditty does more than project sorrow for Sprocket; it exemplifies the mindset of the beat generation. When the chips are down, they turn to meditation, Yoga, get stoned (more), and everything else you can think of rather than correcting the situation. I’ve known a dozen or more real hippies, and have no sympathy for them when reality finally hits home to them. Hard to be a productive citizen with a set of bongo drums and a bong.

On a controversial side-note, only related here by a similar name, in the Utah incident:

It seems the watch commander, Lt. James Tracy who advised Detective Jeff Payne, who aggressively arrested nurse Alex Wubbels on July 26 for refusing to draw blood from a severely injured patient, may not be on administrative leave but the detective is.

With her old-fashioned cassette player (mine is more up to date!), Sprocket, the hippie who never changed (if you think there’s a pun there, let it be on you), finds her musical ideal match in the tragic figure of Karen Carpenter and weeps for her lost siblinghood. I think that she will not be immobilized by her heartbreak, however, but rather moved to action.

Someone is going to pay, and pay dearly….

Great artwork today, as usual, but Mike seems to be falling into a bad habit of simply substituting other writer’s work, such as song lyrics, to convey character’s emotions instead of coming up with material of his own. And at some point somebody in the music industry is bound to catch on, & the Trib syndicate could be looking at a major copyright/royalty lawsuit.

Speaking of music, very sad today to hear of the passing of Walter Becker.

That’s a little much. I mean, technically, her eccentricities do make her a liability for face-to-face work, especially if they need to Nitrates to stay underground and not stick out.

Poor Sprocket.

The song Sprocket is listening to and singing along with is titled “Another Song” by the Carpenters. Listen to it here:

h

t

t

p

s

:

/

/

www

.

youtube

.

com

/watch?v=QEmcGUk5pig