Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for April 29, 2018

Apparatus angry. ‘Tis no fan of Hornet stings

Topper says he has a plan. Could he clip Hornet’s wings?

A buzzing pest creates unrest with Red Wasp there to gloat

Dual danger from sharp stingers. Like two butterflies they float.

MCU now gathers clues in aftermath of bust

Counterfeiters ratted out, yet Hornet buys no trust.

Dick Tracy is not comfortable. Won’t clasp a helping hand

Suspicion rules. Trust is for fools. Green Hornet can pound sand.

Good morning™, Red Wasp fans!

Did Antoine guess that name? I’m pretty sure someone did.

You’d think “The Red Wasp” would wear red, as opposed to merely being a redhead. ✨

Kato does look like Bruce Lee!

Never mind the fake check scam. What about all those phone calls from people claiming to be from the IRS or that say they’ve detected suspicious financial transactions on your computer? I’ve been called repeatedly by both.

The slowness of this story is grinding my gears!

LOZZZZzzzzzz,,,,,,

I came across a website once featuring a woman with a business who deliberately would lure the check scam guys with promises to cooperate. She would then pretend to be in love with them – like a stalker – or to have delays in the process which the scammers would get really frustrated and in the end she would turn all evidence over to the police. It was really funny to read the back and forth exchanges between her and the scammers. Some of these guys even threatened to turn HER over to the police for defrauding THEM.

I’m guessing the “Red Wasp’s” picture is being processed by facial recognition software. If so, Tracy might figure out quickly who the Hornet is.

If Kato was ever captured by the police, the arresting officers probably spent time on medical leave afterward. And, with the help of DA Scanlon, Brit soon got Kato out. However in the Hornet continuities I’m aware of, Kato, while acting as the Hornet’s Chauffeur/Bodyguard is never named. (To easy to trace someone name Kato back to Brit Reid.) And, Casey’s name, while substituting for Kato, was used by this Kato’s sister in Now comics, after she returned from a leave of absence to return to Japan, to help run the Kato family electronics business.

Love the name Red Wasp! a new character? And where is Kato? Mysteries abound!

Back in the day… an “Acquaintance” gave me a check for a small amount (no big loss if it bounced), but rather than deposit in my bank and risk a fee, I took it directly to the bank named on the check. Stood in the teller line etc. Signed it again on the back for her, and lo and behold … insufficient funds!

Ok, about the last panel: I know how the screen panels in the MCU are shaped, but notice with only a certain part of the monitor showing, it looks like part of a heart! LOL (Yes, there is a slight curve at the bottom, but it isn’t very noticeable.)

Lucky thing for the criminal element that not all police sketches are that accurate.

Remember the terrorist who kidnapped someone and then beheaded him? The authorities were able to ID him even though he was wearing a full-face mask, a la Spider-Man. GH’s mask wouldn’t be enough today. But I suppose we have to allow for artistic license, right?

I don’t think the police would know about Kato by name. They’d know he had a sidekick who was oriental. But as Kato was the name of Britt Reid’s valet, had they known the name, someone would have connected it with Reid as the being the Green Hornet.

Sam looks like he got a perm. The original Wasp will be teamed with Ant Man in a few weeks. Kato is part of the PC police roundup

“It grinds my gears that once again I’ve been reduced to playing a supporting role in my own strip.”

“It was easy to bust Kato, he was living in OJ’s guest house.”

The newly-identified Red Wasp, with her long red hair (wig), continues to remind me of Batgirl (as in the classic TV show Batman). I don’t know much of Lenore “Casey” Case’s background, though, so I’m not sure the analogy with Barbara Gordon (the late Yvonne Craig), daughter of Police Commissioner Gordon, holds up any farther than the red wigs both wear when in disguise. The Police Sketch is quite good, indeed. Scary-good. I note that we see the gridded scan in the throwaway panel (top tier, right).

We see a Central City image (from a photo?) of Kato today, but I still have doubts that we will see him in person in this story; the Red Wasp has effectively taken his place both for The Green Hornet/Britt Reid as sidekick and for the police as “the Green Hornet’s accomplice.”

Tracy is acting a bit more like a department head today than we usually see. Even in a comic strip, bureaucracy asserts itself….

I love Red Wasp already. But I can’t wait to see what happened to Kato. By the way, Staton did an eerie-good rendition of Bruce Lee.

Reminds me of Canada’s prime teamup, the Red Panda and Flying Squirrel.

Now Comic’s version of the Green Hornet (1990) had a Crimson Wasp who was the daughter of the original Kato , but had gone off on her own.