Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for December 15, 2010

It appears Dick forgot to close his door before he started driving.

The steering wheel is back inside the car!

And it appears the mouth openings on Mordred’s mask move like lips when he talks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKbPUzhWeeI

Mordred loses points here. Not only does he reveal that the sedation has failed, but he talks to Thick, which is as pointless a thing as I can imagine. Zip it, Mordred!

Is that supposed to be a dividing line in panel #3? If so, Thick is driving on the wrong side of the road.

Good eyes, Bill! Are you really surprised that Dick wouldn’t know which side of the road he was supposed to be on?

Dr. Mordred is definitely more chatty this time around. Last time he played the silent and sinister game, and even his froggy mask always seemed to have a scowl on it’s face.

Next week, Dick will shock and amaze by predicting everything Mordred will say.

Dr. Mordred: “You and all your law enforcement people think”

Dick: “Think it is so simple, yeah yeah. Tie you up and think it’s the last we’ve seen of Dr. Mordred! Yeah yeah, whatever.”

Dr. Mordred: “… Well I still have a trick up my sleeve!”

Dick: “What, you mean the four car with four flat tires? Yeah, I know.”

Dr. Mordred: “…Bing!”

Chains, Tracy’s thinks he’s got me locked up in chains And they ain’t the kind That can put a hold on me Yeah Oh, these chains of steel Will never make a prisoner of me Oh yeah Chains I can break away from these chains Any time I want, to be free Whoa, oh these chains of his are a joke to me I want to tell you Dick Tracy I think your swine And I want to kick you And wrap you up in these Chains, Tracy thinks he has me locked up in chains The jokes on him as you will see Oh, these chains of steel got no hold over me. Apologies to Gerry Goffin and Carole King.

Thanks margueritem, mrbribery and billdi.

I suspect that Tracy will slide off the road and get stuck in the mud. He will take the chains off of Mordred to put on the tires for traction and at this point Mordred will overpower Tracy, toss him in the trunk and then get the vehicle unstuck and make for a getway. Film at 11:00.

Also, Mordred is speaking words and not thinking them according to the bubble. So Tracy should know, Mordred is no longer sedated.

Maybe Thick thinks he’s in England?

Wonder Warthog, free versin’! Excellent job as always, my friend.

Thanks, Flight Suit. The funny thing is that my uncorrected eyesight is like 20/400, but I can still see better than the Locher Mess Monster.

Maybe Thick saw Locher and Brozman on the road and swerved to hit them. Put the pedal to the metal, Thick!

“You think it’s so simple.”

“Just put some chains on me, and that’s the last you hear from Dr Mordred”

“You men are all alike. You never call, you never write. And after I gave the best years of my life for you…”

wnderwrthg: have some Cookies!

Maybe Thick can use this to call for help when Dr. Mordred springs his big surprise.

http://tinyurl.com/26eood8

Do these Beatles’ lyrics sound familiar?

Chains, my baby’s got me locked up in chains. And they ain’t the kind that you can see. Whoa, oh, these chains of love got a hold on me, yeah.

Chains, well I can’t break away from these chains. Can’t run around, ‘cause I’m not free. Whoa, oh, these chains of love won’t let me be, yeah.

I wanna tell you, pretty baby, I think you’re fine. I’d like to love you, But, darlin’, I’m imprisoned by these…

Chains, my baby’s got me locked up in chains, And they ain’t the kind that you can see, Oh, oh, these chains of love got a hold on me.

Please believe me when I tell you, Your lips are sweet. I’d like to kiss them, But I can’t break away from all of these…

Chains, my baby’s got me locked up in chains. And they ain’t the kind that you can see. Whoa, oh, these chains of love got a hold on me, yeah.

Can’t think why they suddenly popped into my mind…(but nice job as always, wndrwrthg!)

TinyURL.com, Comic_Reader:

http://tinyurl.com/27jsjhv

Thanks Anthony2816

For someone who’s sedated Doc sure talks a lot.

Huh. The car’s melting.

You’d think a story about the transfer of an imprisoned serial killer so deadly that he has to be kept in chains and a mask to keep him from killing his captors would be exciting, wouldn’t you? Well, turns out you’d be wrong.

Panel 3 = The Ballad of Dr. Mordred.

And they’re headed for the Island of Dr. Moreau, where they’ll get Thick an upgrade.

I’ve been gone a week and it took all that time just to get moredead and duck into the car.

Maybe this is a case of parallel universes.

@comic_reader and Anthony: Yikes! I just remembered having something like that when I was a kid (1952, though, I was still a glimmer). It was black plastic, stood almost an inch off my wrist and was maybe 2” in diameter. Don’t ask me how it was powered or how it worked - it’s enough I remembered THAT much! Thanks for the memory!

Seriously, though, in what way is this acceptable?

With the weather, I don’t see the “decoy” thing at all. Why didn’t the police furnish a car with inner security………..? Kind of like the one they throw you in when they take you in for drinking too much eggnog at the office party.

Me and you and you and me No matter how they toss the dice, it had to be The only one for me is you, and you for me So happy together

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1rArjZ_z6c

-Cougar :{)

” Four flat tires … strange … we’ll ’back up’ and try another route ” – 12/10/2010

Mighty STRANGE, seeing that THIS time round - at the moment of truth, he’s not taking a *new route *.

” Water too deep … Tracy ” !

” Gotta chance it. I can’t … etc etc ”

*… * a lot of Daily strips just for Naperville’s Locher Mess Monster to change his mind.

thanks for the for the Riders on the Storm link BT! I also listened to People are Strange, which also seemed very appropriate.

thick: I know those nasty chains are uncomfortable, but you know i’ll never forget you. we’re like two riders on the storm. I’m going to pull over in a minute because there are four cars ahead with flat tires. maybe you can get up here in the front seat with me and if you’re a good boy i’ll even loosen those terrible chains and we can get more comfy…

…It was a rainy night outside of Napperville… Mordred was goona be an actress… And tract wa gonna learn how to fly…

First ‘Annie’, now ‘Brenda Starr’. How much longer until the Chicago Trib Syndicate cancels ‘Dick Tracy’?

In regard to which side of the road Tracy is on, it depends on wich way the car is headed and that isn’t clear. I think it could be headed west (as on a map).

Man, I’m still laughing at you who pay $.99 to be called a genius. Easy money. Take a REAL IQ test (not any on the Net) to find out you’re not. Is this group a bunch of 50-year-old men who read comic books?

So cars heading west drive on the left side,and cars heading east drive on the right side?

marvee, I think the car is driving toward the Satanic emblem because (1) that looks like a passenger-side rear view mirror ahead of the door and (2) the car appears to be leaving a wake in the slush. Although Locher has such a weak grasp on reality that he might not know what a car looks like when speeding through rainwater and slush.

The direction of the rain/sleet/snowfall does confuse the issue; in all three panels it falls from upper right to lower left. Maybe the road winds a lot, or Thick got lost. (I’d ask where this strip fits into the unscrambled arc, if I thought that would make a difference.)

Not that Dick Tracy doesn’t deserve some of this criticism, he does! But what in the world are you folks going to do for past time if he gets canceled too?

CougarAllen said, about 9 hours ago

Me and you and you and me No matter how they toss the dice, it had to be The only one for me is you, and you for me So happy together

That was a big hit for “The Turtles”.

I think Thick is driving in the hi-speed lane of a divided highway so he can get back to Naperville sooner. The cars with the flat tires seemed to be on a more country road. Not that that improves the story any.

Dberrymanal1, after DT is cancelled our futile and empty lives will be utterly devoid of purpose, so we plan to commit mass suicide. Anyone who posts here implicitly agrees to join in. What flavor of Kool-Aid do you prefer?

That’s a relief. The last couple of days made me think that the Dickster and the Doc had gotten stuck in a Groundhog Day loop. Along with the rest of us.

Panel 2

Can we guess or determine what that - mask is made of ? Seems to be metal (?) Aren’t those metal studs running up the side ?

Sydney Phillips, after doing a Google image search for gimp masks and fetish masks, my guess is that it’s a black leather mask with metal studs; vinyl would be my second guess. The lower jaw must have some sort of filler to create that muzzle shape.

I wonder how the mask’s purchase would look on someone’s expense account? Especially as there are, what, three decoys out there dressed to look like Mordred? “Fetish mask, four, purchased from Wanda’s Whip Emporium.” And wasn’t Liz put in charge of this operation? The background on this arc now becomes more interesting than the arc itself.

Thanks to this arc I now know what a “gimp mask” is. It could lead to some interesting conversations around my more uptight relatives. “What was that bizarre costume on that depraved show last night?” – “It’s called a gimp mask.” – “Oh? (smirk) How do you know about these pervy things?” – “It was in Dick Tracy.”

Dberrymanal1, if DT is cancelled I will continue to post appreciative comments about good comics. I doubt I will snark at a different bad one – there are other bad comic strips but I don’t care enough to snark at them. Besides, none of them that I know of are bad enough to be this funny to snark at – and if there is one this bad it’s probably a web-only comic drawn by some kid who’s just starting out and might get good someday, and I wouldn’t want to discourage him.

-Cougar :{)