Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for December 04, 2010

I hope Locher is playing it straight for once, I really do. I hope it really is a vicious, unstoppable lunatic inside the chains and hood. Thick, being a backslider on the slopes of evolution, will taunt him, feeling safe because Mordred is in chains and they’re all alone. Then Mordred will break loose and beat the snot out of him.

See also this picture:

http://www.nndb.com/people/418/000103109/

Those chains must not be too tight, given that our prisoner is constantly able to move his hands from in front of his body to behind his back and vice versa.

Oh yeah. Panel #2 appeared on 27 November. It’s only been a week and the Frog of Doom has his hands back on his lap, evidently wiggling his tadpole. Who is this guy, Onan the Barbarian?

And what does Tracy’s comment even mean? He’s comparing the killer to one of our ancestors?

Har de har har. At was a good ‘un.

After nearly two weeks lying in the sack Put there by my aching back I arose to see what I missed Let me say I am really pissed The loathsome dialogue, the execrable art The strip exudes the stench of a doggy fart The only redeeming value of this strip Are the people who gather to post a quip The plot speculations that are rife Give this degenerate pile a spark of life And all of us aged and ancient wonders Who gather here to peruse these blunders And vent our well earned frustration At the source of our collective indignation Now in our later years We shed some bitter tears For he who was a childhood friend Who has been broken and cannot mend With creaking joints and aching hips And imprecations on our lips We shake our fists to the sky And are left asking why. Belated thanks to all, for the kind words on 11-20-10. Sorry for the delay in responding.

Welcome back, WonderWarthog! Hope you’re fully recovered.

How wonderful to see WonderWarthog back! I love today’s entry. Sorry you haven’t been feeling well, and I hope you’re much better.

Flight Suit, I think that Thick’s remark about the missing link means that Locher should take his thesaurus and shove it back where he found it. Locher is trying to establish that Mordred is very bad. Most of us got the idea when the term “serial killer” came up.

Today’s strip is a total waste of time. Two panels just to tell Thick that Froggy is in chains? Federal prisoners are normally shackled during transit. What else would anyone expect? “Just so you know, Thick, Mordred won’t be in chains, because he promised to behave himself and his conduct has been good ever since his capture.”

You’d think Horn Hair could find a moment to brief everyone on the details of The Plan.

Great to have you back WonderWarthog! Hope all is well and youve recovered.

Panel 1: Youre killing time again Locher. Two panels to give one sentence that is blatantly obvious?

Panel 2: Wait. Wait. Stop right there. Did Dick seriously think he wasnt going to be chained up? Someone just send Dick home. This man is nowhere hear the right man for the job.

Panel 3: No Dick. Youre not funny.

And here we go, another day with this drawn out strip. This time Locher has told us all something we already knew and has been obvious since this whole thing started. Not only because of the fact that this man, Dr Mordred, is so ridiculously evil but also because Lochers been drawing some horrible looking chains on the man since day one. Is Locher just killing time until he can figure out what to do next?

Welcome back WW Todays post is great. I almost died laughing. You really have talent with poetry.

Rightwingmoron, we can’t see a new drawing of the mask until Locher shows us a couple of Talking Building scenes, and repeats at least one earlier drawing of Mordred. Locher hasn’t drawn an urban landscape since Tuesday and he’s getting twitchy.

Thanks to you all for giving your ages the other day. Baby Boomers are the big fans of Dick Tracy. So sad, that we only read the final years of Chester Gould. I have been collecting the original comic strips and Sunday comics from books sold on Amazon.com.

When I see your ages and some of the places where you live, has anyone of you gone fishing where I live. I, live on the American-Canadian border with Fort Frances, Ontario, Canada on one side and the nation’s icebox, International Falls, Minnesota on the other side. There is a small river separating us.

Chester Gould had a friend who fished here and through him, is how I received a personal letter and drawing of Dick Tracy.

Also, International Falls is the fictional town of Frostbite Falls, in the Rocky and Bullwinkle show.

Plus we are the home town of Tammy Faye Bakker.

Okay, six weeks of similar discussion, some vague action, and then somebody explains what happened. I’m ready.

Welcome back WW!

PREDICTION - It’s a diversion, remember? Dick and company won’t be transporting the real criminal. They will transport a decoy while the real criminal will go by way of another route. At the the end of the story, the hood will be removed and Sam Ketchum will be revealed.

Missing Link? Thick, you are the Weakest Link!

Hey guys, the 80th anniversary is coming up!

Feeling better about yourself Tracy? Keep up those snide remarks about a criminal in chains

Want free Dick Tracy movies? Check the following article, and you’ll learn that there are three available for free download from the archive.org:

http://tech.blorge.com/Structure:%20/2010/08/11/top-40-best-free-legal-movies-you-can-download-right-now/

safeway674 said, … we are the home town of Tammy Faye Bakker.

True story, Safeway… I was Tammy Faye’s webmaster. Yep, I was responsible for tammyfaye.com.

Sorry to hear about your back, WW.

I refuse to give my age, but I remember when Doritos were “with it.”

“Froggy went a-courtin’ he did ride, Hands chained by his side, Cr-cr-cr-cr-crambone…” (That’s the hard part right in there, ne-ne-nephew.)

Huh-huh. Dick made mit der funny shtuff. HA HA HA HO HO HA.

Maybe the sewer will speak to us again. It can hardly be less intelligent dialogue….

-Cougar :{)

yay! ww is back and in top form! Speaking of eyebrows – spacy’s are so thick they look like an oil slick. anyway, Free Gould! Gould Lives! Bring back classic Dick Tracy!

Lets give the kid a chance, he’s doing the best he can .Chet Gould took his lumps also. Remember B O Plenty?

This marks 2 weeks of just standin’ around, chatting. Can the suspense get away worse?

The suspense of when something will actually happen, that is. SIGH

Too much talking and no action.

And another week of talk as Thick meets the Feds, and another week as he and Mordred get in the same car, and another week as Thick courageously taunts him during the ride. Then, for excitement, the Feds will try to run Thick’s car off the road. This whole arc reeks of a lame Hollywood-style set-up. Lots of fuss, a super-bad villain, suspicious actions by the authorities. Through it all Thick will do nothing but talk.

Especially as yesterday’s Frog of Doom looks so much like Tor Johnson, complete with chains:

http://www.nndb.com/people/418/000103109/

although “The Black Sleep” wasn’t an Ed Wood flick.

I think the real secret to outguessing Locher is to pretend the strip is a Mad magazine spoof. What’s the most ludicrous thing that could happen? Thick and Mordred get chained together, then find they both must flee the FBI in a wacky, fun-filled mixture of “The Defiant Ones,” “The Fugitive” and “The Parallax View.” With hints of “The Odd Couple,” because let’s face it, Locher is really getting into some weird territory with his uptight fussy cop and his wild-boy psychokiller.

Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, … … … and more talk. What a bore.

neonleon59 - Tammy Faye wasn’t born in International Falls but came here at a young age. She worked at the local F.W. Woolworth’s (cosmetics maybe). But during the scandal and for a few years later, a local bar held a Jim and Tammy look-a-contest in January each year. It took our minds off of the 40 below zeroweather we get at that time of year.

How difficult would it be to bring back some of the characters that made this strip great at one time?

I just don’t get it!

@Safeway: I went to high school down in Minot, North Dakota. Yes, “down in.” We lived about 15 miles north. Not as cold as I-Falls but we and Fargo and Grand Forks and Winnipeg were all north of the Continental Divide and drained to the Arctic. I-Falls is in the Saint-Laurent basin and drains to the Atlantic. Eventually.

I read this strip in part to remind me of good action comics and - in larger part - to see how many strange thing I can spot before there’s a comment.

Speaking of which, like the car crash in the snow storm with its unknown consequences, did we ever find out who the victim with the tattoo was? I thought not. :-(

Question: How does the prisoner do things that other prisoners do? Maybe Thick will help him. Good job for Thick. Perfectly qualified.

What happened to Pat Patton anyway? All I found on Wikipedia is that he was promoted to police chief back in 1948. Lizz joined in 1956 and apparently got promoted somewhere along the line. Dick was offered the position of Police Chief in Moon Valley in 69. All of that and reading on Wikipedia makes me ask three questions.

1) What is it with Dick having partners that keep getting promotions over him? 2) Where in the World is Pat? 3) It seems Dick has been offered promotions and keeps turning them down. Everyone around him is aging, people are marrying, having kids, so on. How old is Dick supposed to be now and when in the World will the man call it quits?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Tracy And it seems Locher started writing this in 83.

Welcome back WW ! We have been missing your exceptional commentry on current events

Looking forward to future episodes.

At the same time it would we good to have back the diversity bassmanbob (what # is it now?) provided, also in an inimitable style.

Seems Liam has moved on (?)

I applaud Mr. Locher for having tried to to keep Tracy alive, but all he’s done is ruin it, actually. It’s gone from four panels to three, and his “villains” never last more than three weeks. And it’s all so sloppy-looking. Why can’t they re-print Chester Gould’s masterful art work from the 50s to the mid-1960s?? Chester Gould RULES!

Thank you, Sydney Phillips, for adding SPOTS on your ‘panel’. He was one of my favorite villains (along with FIFTH).

Not quite NVash ! Locher succeeded Rick Fletcher as artist when the latter died in mid March 1983, but Max Collins was the writer at that time.

Max and Rick had taken over when Chet Gould retired at the end of 1977

In early 1993 Collins was terminated by TMS, and (after one story solo) Mike Kilian came in as the new writer.

The Locher/Kilian partnership lasted about 12 years. until Kilian died in late 2005.During this partnership circulation fell from 350 newspapers to only a slender 50 today. An 86% decrease

It was at that point that Dick Locher the Artist also assumed the role of Writer, under what we heard was a 5 year contract. That should expire in early January 2011. The “quality” of plot lines in the strip and (more recently), the art have deteriorated significanty since that event.

Patton’s retirement and Lizz’s appointment as Chief were Locher decisions back in February 2007.

http://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2007/02/11/

http://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2007/02/15/

The latter strip shows the final panel with Patton. Many readers think that Locher treated the Patton character shabbily. Not even the semblance of a farewell party and we havn’t heard of Pat Patton since.

It’s worth noting that back in 1969 (when Tracy was thought blind) Sam Cathem was appointed Chief Detective and again in 1982/83 when Collins had Patton missing and Tracy had resigned Sam was appinted Acting Chief of Police !

Locher would in 2007 create a Lt.Teevo as a replacement - a communications expert, but in practice - little more than a ‘verbal message man. And the novelty soon wore thin.The creation was a flop !

And it only served to break up the Major Crime Squad and leave readers with a “lone wolf” detective !

YIKES…..Locher can’t even do a pun properly or at the right time.

Sydney Phillips, thanks for all that information! Ive been wondering that for quite some time. I read those strips and I must say, that is indeed a horrible way to treat Pat. I know Dick is always on the run but bleeep, when youre the writer you can fix that. Locher couldve given Dick a minute somewhere to hear what Pat had to say. I felt horrible reading that last strip with Pat, he deserves so much better. Those strips bring up even more questions.

Why is Dick in Lizzs face like that in panel 1 and 5 of 2007/02/11? Whats up with that heart behind them in panel 2? And it continues in the first panel of 2007/02/12! I thought he was married to Tess! Am I that behind the times?

Why is Pat so old? I think its safe to assume that Dick is older than him, with Pat retiring doesnt that make Dick ancient? Isnt he, legitimately, entirely too old for this mess? How old is he supposed to be anyway? I would assume they started in their mid 30s, Pat looks like late 50s when he retired. Dick must be pushing 60s. Someone tell the man to take the cushy promotion or give it up!

Why was Max Collins terminated? Wasnt he a halfway decent writer for the strip?

Youve given concrete proof about Lochers contract! Ive been looking everywhere for that! So there is yet hope that this strip may get better. However, the way Locher is dragging this out and with no evidence online of his retirement, Im thinking he might get his contract renewed.

NVash, that heart-shaped background with Thick & Horn Hair refers to their just-finished misadventure:

http://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2007/01/01

Dr. Froid had invented a mind-reading machine. He brought it to Police Hooters for a demo. Using it, Thick embarrassed both Liz and Sam. Liz had once had a crush on Thick (and Thick didn’t approve of Sam’s political affiliations). Humiliated and angry, as would be expected, they denounced the use of the machine. Thick, being Thick, took it home and used it on Tess.

Later it was found that the machine not only had a brain-washing function, but could also destroy the mind of its target. Thick was quite pleased when it was handed over to the government to, somehow, fight terrorism.

Thanks BillThompson! Would I be wrong in saying that arc looked interesting? Locher took almost a month to end it but it did look promising.

NVash, the arc starts here

http://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2006/08/27/

and in mid-December there’s almost some action. Most of the interest lies in the unintended humor about Thick’s mind. Locher flashes his Freudian slips like a psychic hooker.

Early in the arc Diet Smith asks Thick if he remembers the stir caused by the first atomic bomb. Thick says he does. That would make Thick well over sixty at this point.