Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for November 24, 2010

No, Thick, their law enforcement works. Your law enforcement works about as well as a pig on stilts.

Well that’s convenient: Yet another story arc where Tracy won’t have to do any police work. It’s pretty innovative that this time around, the case is being solved for him before the story begins, instead of at the end. Bravo Dick Locher, for always giving us something new!

By the way, who wants to guess the year, make, and model of that police car? It looks to me like a four door Saab 900 from 1985 with the front end of a 1997 Mitsubishi Eclipse grafted onto it. Only uglier.

Flight Suit, I was thinking Tonka Toys for the vehicle make. The sad thing is that the front end not only appears to have eyes and a mouth, but expresses emotion more forcefully than Locher’s two-legged characters.

Just think, if Thick hadn’t become so engrossed in tracking down a man who committed no crime that he could name, he might have caught that serial killer himself. Instead Nappingville was left exposed to the Fiend Without A Face for several additional months. Of course Thick isn’t entirely to blame, seeing as every local newspaper was more upset by the Mad Donor than by any trail of bodies. As Thick is never responsible for anything that goes wrong, and depends on the papers for information, it’s obviously their fault.

Okay so they found the culprit already, what does this have to do with Dick? No wait, Locher isnt done with 3-Cubed yet! Its the murderer of Butterfly McCorpse! Ms 3-Cubed had her story all wrong!

ROTHFLMAO!!!!

The front end of that car is a scowly face. It’s s’posed to be ugly and scary because it’s a police car. You can tell by the sign on its door.

Hmmm-m, the P-O-L are flat, but the I-C-E are 3-d….

About the only way it would make sense for the FBI to call in Thick would be if they feared that a local gang would try to free or kill their prisoner, and believed that Thick was the officer best-qualified to thwart a gang. But of course Locher will have some other explanation.

Perhaps this was Locher’s inspiration:

http://pictures.topspeed.com/IMG/crop/200611/2006-dodge-charger-3_460x0w.jpg

Panel 1, theres no car at the police station. Panel 3, theres a car at the police station. Whats going on? Are they leaving? Is that their ride waiting for them? People need to know these things Locher!

Rightwingmoron, anyone think Locher is doing this just to see if anyone is paying attention? I mean come on, some of these things are blatantly obvious.

Spacy is so pathetic that they have to turn over solved cases to him.

NVash, if Locher did it once in a while, I’d believe he did it just to see if anyone was paying attention. But twisted perspectives and changing images (like Thick’s beard and rags the other day) are the norm.

I don’t know why he does that. Maybe he despises his audience as much as he despises everyone else. Maybe he just can’t be bothered to keep things straight when they don’t interest him. Maybe he doesn’t spend any time in sketching out a rough draft. The only consistent imagery in his drawings are the Walther pistol that almost everyone carries. Why he gives that gun so much care is anyone’s guess.

Interesting observation, Bill. Maybe it’s because Locher wants to shoot everybody.

OK, if the FBI captured the killer, what do they need Tracy for?

They need Thick for the main course. Throw in some fava beans and a nice Chianti, and they’ll have a happy prisoner on their hands.

Well that car sitting outside sends the first ‘signal’. Locher is (I suspect), about to squeezy REALITY out the window by molding conditions so that Tracy ends up transporting “Hannibal 2” alone in full sight - in an ‘open’ Squad car. This ‘no doubt’, to allow for an escape attempt (?)

You’d think that if this guy was as dangerous as they’ll make him out to be, that they would use a (no rear windows) Armoured Car with a Swat team (Locher loves to use them) - riding along for security.

But no ! The whole idea needs an ‘escape’ attempt and DickyL doesn’t have enough creative ‘marbles’ to find a unique one, so after the unnecessary stall with Tess, he’ll likely spend another week setting up this impractical one.

He should have consulted with Simon Penn for innovative ideas, one without ‘superlatives’ !

The POLICE sign continues to morph. that is one ugly car.

That ‘Mexican Jumping Bean’ Building Sign worries me more than the twisted ‘light bar’ on the Squad car. It keep moving down from atop the Building to just over the entrance door and then Back Again ??? Like a Locher mood swing ?

And Simon Penn won’t tell us if he thinks that too is ‘superb’ !

Sydney Phillips, the Police sign has held still lately–a sign that Locher is on some effective medications? Or does the sign go into hibernation at the onset of winter? (Unlike the vegetation outside the building, which looks like it’s still growing.)

And how can Locher squeeze reality out the window when he never let it in the door? Not that he could draw a door. The police entry looks incomplete and the car has no trace of doors or door handles.

margueritem: “Hmmm-m, the P-O-L are flat, but the I-C-E are 3-d….”

Obviously D’Buckworth’s doing his community service as a sign painter, but he got only half the job done before being released on appeal due to Macy’s incompetent police work.

As for the squat car–I mean, squad car–it reminds me most of an early Dodge Intrepid. Rumor has it these cars were originally designed to have a rear-wheel-drive option for the police market, hence the longitudinally-mounted engine (unusual for a front-wheel-drive car). But Chrysler ultimately decided not to go through with that project.

By the way, get used to blobby cop cars. The last real police car, the Ford Crown Victoria Interceptor, ends production in 2011. After that, cops will have to get around in modified Tauruses, Impalas or SUVs… none of which carry the authority of the P71 Interceptor…

Puddlegum, you’re forgetting the Dodge Charger. See my link above.

Also, in addition to the FWD Impala, Chevrolet will also be selling a new RWD Caprice, available only to police departments, and based on Australia’s Holden Commodore:

http://www.insideline.com/chevrolet/caprice/2011/2011-chevrolet-caprice-police-car-coming-next-spring.html

Actually, the feds made a deal with the serial killer (is that a Federal crime? Maybe, depending on the circumstances) and he agreed to some kind of a plea bargain if they “accidentally” let him escape. All the FBI agents immediately yelled out “THICK!” They were excited because 2 things are guaranteed. (1) the guy is guaranteed to escape, and (2) he won’t get shot trying. At least, not by Thick!

yeah for some reason the feds will place the killer in spacy’s custody. the killer will escape and then we’ll have our long-missed chase sequence with thick running, hiding, cowering and squealing…now that’s comic strip entertainment! sadly the only kind that locher is capable of doing.

Great. This sounds like it’s right up Tracy’s alley.

Wait, did Tess ever sign off on this?

That is a Saab with some sort of hybrid front clip

Looks like they went to Pick-A-Part and found a Peugot 4CV for effect. The wrecking yard guy threw in a wrecked Saab to get it off his yard.

NG49, you are correct; it seems that to be an accepted member of this club, you can only post negative comments, some many times a day by the same author.

Wait a minute, why do we expect the FBI to have a motive? Locher runs the strip and he takes a reality-challenged view of life. He probably woke from an afternoon nap and said “That dream would make a good adventure. The FBI asks Thick to transport Jack the Ripper from, uh, their custody to, uh … I’ll worry about details later.”

In that case Thick is only in danger if the killer starts at the bottom of his list.