Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for March 25, 2018

A sneak attack struck from the back, they did not have a clue

To so assail and car-drag fail then know not what to do.

Make a wish and call on Phish. Reel in outstanding debt

Now on the run from Tracy, there is no time to fret.

Aquarium a thrill for some. The school kids take a tour

Pepper is no innocent, his soul lives in the sewer.

His wound it bleeds. Good times recede. Blood begets more blood

Cannot keep one’s business clean when wallowing in mud.

Phishface knows this place quite well. Here’s where he took a fall

Tried to kill Sam Catchem in the tank in the great hall.

Ghost Pepper needs a doctor with a needle and some thread

Tweezers to pluck the bullet out before he winds up dead.

Coming soon to the big tank a venomous man o’ war

A gathering of zooids colonize, together more

Than the sum of many parts, they look like jellyfish

Do not try to swim with them without a keen death wish.

The siphonophore in the paper looks like Portuguese man-of-war. The bladder at the top normally floats on the surface of the ocean, but the tentacles can be up to 100 feet long or even 165 feet. It looks a bit like a jellyfish but they are a related species that consist of a whole colony of attached individuals with specialized roles.

Some of the individual animals of the colony do reproduction, some do digestion, and some kill prey with a neurotoxin, which should sound familiar. Ghost does not want this as one of his neighbours. He’s in no condition for an attack.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/de/Physalia_physalis1.jpg/220px-Physalia_physalis1.jpg

We never seem to fear

When the danger seems near

For Tracy, Sam or the gang

Although it may seem

More real than a dream

It’s like a tiger that’s missing a fang

We know the comics aren’t real

There’s no pain that they feel

And the good guys almost never get old or die

It’s always the cads

That suffer real bad

Sometimes in a fish tank that’s high

Unfortunately for us

Whether we argue or fuss

There’s a time that we all must say goodbye

To the ones we hold dear

The time might be far or very near

And we’re left with a wondering “why?”

We grieve and we mourn

And we might seem forlorn

When we think of the ones that we miss

First Sydney, then Bill

Left a void that can’t be filled

And now morrow just had to join that list

So lower the flag it’s ok to be sad

It’s alright to shed a tear or two

Tomorrow’s a new day

We know Tracy’s on the way

To help us ease the pain we go through

There are several fictional “Central Cities,” arguably the most familiar to modern audiences being the one which is home to Barry Allen, better known as “The Flash.” ⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️

A shame that Mountie, Sara Beckett died from a simple avoidable car crash.

Isn’t the Daily Sentinel Britt Reid’s newspaper?

I think we now know the method of Ghost Pepper’s demise.

Sarah Beckett RIP. We may never know the full details of what happened on that fateful night. Very sad, had a deep impact on the police forces and the community at large.

looks like ghost pepper won’t be one of the re-curring bad guys. Too bad, he was charismatic enough as well as making the evil grade too…

occuring

Pierre will have a challenge preparing that siphonophore!

In a way, I wish we didn’t know, but since we do:

Since we have only a week left for this story, could this whole setup be one of those segues that Dick Tracy (the strip) has been famous for in the past? Typically during the “chase” part of a story, or near the denouement, the next problem or villain appears as part of the story that is wrapping up. Chester Gould didn’t do that always, but he did do it a lot.

Looks like an easy – and, in this case, ironic – way to get rid of a villain…

The fact that the keys are out of order is a foreshadowing. C B A D (“the sea is bad…”??). Someone will grab the wrong key which will open the tank. The “closet” will fill with water. Ghost and “Manuel” will literally tangle with one another.

Death by the venom of a sea creature. Irony and poetic justice for Ghost.

When the tank bursts, whatever you do Ghost, don’t try to outwit Manuel – remember that Prevagen, the brain power supplement, is based on jellyfish protein…

Does anyone else think Ghost Pepper looks like Voldemort?

I Really like Ghost Pepper, he is a great new Villain , I would hate to see him get killed off.

I Really like Ghost Pepper, he is a great new Villain , I would hate to see him get killed off.

Benicio Del Toro standing by folks.

Benicio Del Toro standing by folks.

This story has had its share of twists and turns.

At the moment the trace of the story arc is reminding me of Selfie Narcisse’s misadventures, which ended in his ‘unfortunate’ death. I hope the Team Tracy cartoonists have a twist for this story.

Central City is one of the five cities left in America with an actual daily newspaper.

It’s good to see that the Tracyville City Aquarium staff are on their toes and have even garnered headlines in Central City’s Daily Sentinel (which is a way of -ahem!-papering over the bridge to the Green Hornet crossover arc). It seems as certain as anything in comics that this giant siphonophore, apparently of the genus Physalia and species physalis, the Portuguese man o’ war, will cause the death of Ghost Pepper (or, less likely IMO, Pierre the Seafood Chef).

O Death, where is thy sting?

—In the big tank, little puffer-Bad Boy! Ciao, bambino!

Be sure to check out the Nancy comic today. They are in re-runs, but today’s is a very nice tribute to several comic strip and comic book characters, and our very own Dick Tracy has an excellent panel. It is Guy’s tribute to an actual panel drawn by Chester Gould that first appeared on December 29, 1949, from the Wormy/Interrupted Honeymoon story.