Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for December 28, 2010

Try this: Go find the heaviest chain you can carry. Now beat the window of a car with that chain. See if it breaks.

Another day in La-La land…

Women and children first.

In panel #1, Mordred’s voice emerges from the submerged front of the car, and although the car is tilted down we see the steering wheel.

Safety glass, Locher. It’s not just a good idea, it’s the law. Safety glass has been around since the late 1930s. You can’t shatter it like old fashioned glass. It holds together thanks to the plastic layer sandwiched inside the glass. Even if you could break it, let’s see you swing five links of chain in the confined space of a car.

And how does the chain switch from Thick’s right paw to his left paw between panels #2 and #3?

Abandon ship, Thick? Here the more appropriate saying has to do with rats and sinking ships. He’ll direct that slur at Mordred later, if Thick doesn’t get him killed.

Q: How does the chain develop enough momentum to shatter safety glass, and cause the shards to somehow fly backward into the car?

A: Locher based his calculations on Fig Newton’s Laws.

Abandon ship! You’ve already abandoned all logic.

So the car filled with water before the window was broken?

To those who are wondering how it is possible for a flooded intersection to be that deep, it’s important to understand that Tracy’s terrified bladder has raised the water level considerably.

You’d think he could shoot out the glass. Or brace himself and kick out the rear window. He’d have to kick like a mule, which isn’t much of a stretch for such a jackass.

Flight Suit, that turns the Priapus into this vehicle:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lMMdUywFo4

About breaking the glass: The windshield would be quite unbreakable as far as escape is concerned, but the side glasses will break out. They’re designed to break into pieces with rounded edges instead of the sharp points that plate glass will break into, but break they will. I’ve had enough windows broken and radios stolen from my cars to know.

Whether Tracy could do it with a chain from inside the vehicle, with water slowing his swing, might be another issue. But, the side windows WILL break.

It is time now to sing the classic song from 1976, by “GORDON LIGHTFOOT”

“The Sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald”

The sun comes up, the sun goes down And here we are stuck with this clown The car is head down and sinking Who can tell what Locher is thinking The car, it changes most every day Now the water level is the same way As Tracy whacks at the safety glass with a chain He should get nothing for his efforts but some pain Everything he has done is wrong I know I’m singing the same old song But if only he had watched Mythbusters on the tube He wouldn’t be acting now like a boob Breaking the glass in the air pocket Will make the car sink like a rocket Beneath the water is where to do it Otherwise, for you they’ll write an obit But this is the land of the Locher Where it is proven that he is off his rocker And Dr. M is still wearing his suit With forty pounds of chain to boot Soaking up all that water Sink like a stone, he certainly oughter But Tracy will do his Sub-Mariner imitation And much to our frustration Not succumb to the murky deep Lord, how this strip makes me weep.

Thank you BillT, and MerryMarg.

If you want to break a car’s side window, you need something that will concentrate the force of the blow a lot better than a chain would. Something like this, for example, which is designed specifically for that purpose:

http://www.images.asidatabuilder.com/images/prodbigimgs/5900000/5906204.jpg

I see what you mean, Michael MacMillan, about breaking the side windows. (And I doubt it would work in a proper police car, designed to transport prisoners, but that’s Locher all over.)

I’ve seen footage of crashes where front and rear windows pop out; maybe they weren’t properly installed. But it seems Thick would have a chance of kicking one loose. That would give him a larger area through which to drag Mordred. Even if he gets all the glass out of the side window, the egress will look like a Mercury astronaut trying to wiggle into the capsule. Once they’re underwater Thick won’t have much time to move his captive, especially if his suit or chains snag on an obstruction.

Forty pounds of chain. Is this why Locher kept harking on that point? To set up this scene? If Mordred is bound in twenty feet of chain, then Thick is swinging two pounds of metal. I think he’d do better to use his pistol, either as a club or as a handy hole-maker.

I have a question about whether they could escape through the window anyway. Tracy might do it, but Mordred is still wearing that suit. About opening the doors: Yesterday I mentioned the problem of outside pressure holding the doors closed. The window is broken now so that problem no longer exists, if Tracy has half a brain he can easily open the door now.

Mordred is still wearing forty pounds of chain, even if one end is hanging loose. That’s a lot of ballast. I don’t see how Thick can swim with him. If panel #1 means anything, the water is at least six feet deep. They aren’t going to wade out of that. Once the car settles they might get onto its roof and stand there, if the water isn’t rushing around them and if they don’t lose consciousness from hypothermia.

That suit and mask could get Mordred killed even if he makes it ashore. If the mask retains enough water he could drown inside it (that almost happened to Paul Blaisdell during the filming of Corman’s “Day the World Ended.” He was encased in a monster costume that filled with water during a simulated rainstorm. Blaisdell nearly drowned on dry land.)

Of course their best hope is to have Mordred’s associates standing by. They could have Mordred and Thick out of the water before Testicle Chin pulls on his galoshes. Then–some fava beans, a nice Chianti, and it’s dinner al fresco with the doctor!

Despite all the ups and downs of their relationship, it’s clear that Thick is attached to Mordred. With that in mind, here’s a song for them:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDx-YAjpa9E

I certainly hope the crew back at HDQTRS locates their all-weather gear soon so they can head out to rescue Tracy…

Does anybody actually like this cartoon strip? The comments seem to indicate otherwise.

Safety glass? We don’t need no stinking safety glass!

Must be some old Soviet bloc vehicle built during that magical era when safety was a nothing more than a pleasant afterthought.

I think the problem is that Dick thought he was turning onto Mississippi Street.

pcolli, the problem is that we all like Dick Tracy. This strip is a travesty, and everyone hopes that (1) Locher will retire soon and (2) TMS will replace him with someone who gives a damn. Until then we’re playing “What’s Wrong With This Picture?” like the way the chain went from the right hand to the left hand in today’s strip, or the biohazard warning sign in the bottom right corner of the first panel.

At least Thick didn’t remove all the chains, which seems to have been what Mordred had in mind.

Every time Jim Brozman adds his signature to the bottom of these strips he must ask himself why he bothered to go along for the ride (?)

His TMS Bio reads : “Brozman’s latest endeavor as the artist of the legendary comic strip …watch for new characters and old friends”.

Seems he’s not allowed to do squat. Locher ‘hogs’ all the pencil work. He doesn’t want to let go. You have to wonder why Brozman’s allowed to put his name on the strip (?)

He’s assigned little creativity, Locher puts him down,… he’s “just an inker”. Perhaps he got a little ‘break’ to do the chain design in panel 3 - note it’s flattened appearance (?)

Here is Tracy’s dress minutes before the now famous power approach to the water flooded road. Note the Gloves, Hat and the signature Yellow Coat (panel 1).

http://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2010/12/20/

Not wanting to ‘nit pick’, but while one can understand the hat falling off as the car flipped, how the heck did Tracy get out of those gloves and slip off his coat while holding the car’s wheel (?)

You’d have to think that by the same rules Mordred could have shed his garb too (?)

It would take something on the order of Hurricane Katrina to make the water in a city this deep…

Obviously, a city the size of Naperville, with a skyline full of skyscrapers, would have a Rescue Squad. That is, of course, if Testicle Chin isn’t said squad.

As far as Thick’s actions before and during the present predicament, he’s playing up to his par. Isn’t that why he is called “Thick?”

Good story spinning, Bobby! In real-life, that is the conversation that would definitely be going on and probably occurs daily in many older policemen’s homes.

Happy New Year’s gang! And a special one to Max and G6793!

Morrow

those chicago potholes are really something – must be the corner of jefferson and ewing… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0PmEXlPvZM

Laminated safety glass (the stuff with the layer of plastic in the middle) has pretty much disappeared from cars, in favor of “tempered” glass, which is fairly hard to break, and crumbles into small pieces (under 1/4” in any dimension) when shattered.

I own a used cop car, and far as I can tell from the markings on the glass, it’s the same stuff civilian cars use.

In any case, panel three is still wrong: to shatter tempered window glass, you have to strike it with a sharp object (like the special escape tool), and then it would crumble, not shatter into big shards like those seen in the strip.

Of course, by Locher’s standards of accuracy, the panel’s somewhat above average…

Tracy isn’t wearing his overcoat anymore. Something tells me that when they hit “dry land” the coat will be back (and so will his hat). Continuity is not a strong point for Mr. Locher.

Suspension of disbelief severely damaged…losing consciousness…must read….decent comic…with…better…writing…

(THUD)

Hitting safety glass with a chain doesn’t go SMASH! but clink.

Radish said, about 14 hours ago

Tracy is the captain of this Titanic mess.

No. Not Tracy. I believe the captain’s name is Locher.

Very good, BB. You must be doing something wrong, however, because yours makes sense….

WW Another great one. I don’t know what you are going to write about if this strip goes down the drain, which it looks like that’s where it is heading. You have a talent that shouldn’t be wasted.

BASSMANBOB6 Good story writing. Should be made into a play. It’s better than the one Thick was in at the museum.

In the last panel, why is there water on one side of Thick’s paw and not the other side? Does Thick have some special power to part the waters? Why didn’t he try that before he made his power approach to Intersection Lake?

Bravo, WW and BMB!

BASSMANBOB6 said, about 4 hours ago

http://s1226.photobucket.com/albums/ee418/AnnieComics/

Wow, he’s doing a great job!