Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for December 07, 2018

So where’s Ballpark? Did the ultrasound bell ray zap him off screen?

Is he finishing up waxing the ice cream truck?

Did Polar decide to send him on a coffee run first?

Is he just another hole in this pothole filled story?

Gee, I wonder who’s voice that is?

Good morning™, forces of law and order!

Tracy is at their doorstep and they are arguing about who gets to shoot him. They are doomed to either be arrested or killed.

So, it appears that Polar wasn’t just tweaking the weapon slightly. He actually disassembled it.

It’s Interesting that Comics Kingdom seems to depict Devil as a caucasian woman, not the person of color she is over here.

This is really fast. Reminds me of several tropes. I’ll discuss it tomorrow. Too many lines of story, not enough energy for them. Now it all seems rushed with nothing resolved. But it could go on for another week or more and help tie up the threads.

Good morning™, potential assassins !

Like I said above, I think Lafayette is in the room.

Is that a man or a woman on the right in the center panel? I know who it is supposed to be.

Lafayette is probably still back at Polar’s office with the files as he has no idea as to what is happening beyond the sound of police sirens…

Maybe Polar will shoot Devil and himself instead of both being arrested…

What’s confusing is whose side Devil is on….

Surprise ending coming up.

Devil caught in a church, Oh the irony…

I’m thinking that it is Lafayette’s voice and that he has his own weapon aimed at Devil.

Mike and Joe have seen Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” recently, haven’t they? ✨

https://goo.gl/images/9JPsSj

I GOT IT!The person on the left is Gweedo!

LOL!

If that’s Laffyboy he sure figured out where to go and got there faster than a speeding bullet says Shazam!

Couple options:Lafayette is telling her to drop the gun – after the Vortex ghosted away (a- not to be seen until some other misdeed, or b-to throw the switch that destroys the files), or it’s Vortex telling her to give him the gun before he a or b. Why? Several possible reasons – for instance, he realizes she was going to pretend to try to hit Tracy, but actually notify Tracy where they are.

Looking on with anticipation!!!

vortex will take the gun and shoot devil

I can’t see any reason for Austin to leave the room with the files. He just made a big discovery. Vortex, like most evil villains, undoubtedly wants to kill Tracy himself.

“A DAY THAT WILL LIVE IN INFAMY!”

yet ANOTHER day that mike and joe have chosen to ignore that is tied into Tracy’s history as well.

And a note to all the men and women who lost their lives that day.. we ALL owe you a debt which can never be repaid.

come and get me copper! bang bang…end of story?

I think Polar Vortex just saved Devil’s life.

You know, if Lafayette gets killed in this I’ll really be pissed. Just saying.

There is just a chance that the artist did not make a mistake in the placement of the characters:

Panel 2 shows PV to Devil’s right, but he is also behind her. So panel one is just showing the sequence of the dialog, not where they are standing, since we can’t see them; it’s an outside view.

Now, if there is someone else up in that bell tower with them,(Ballpark, who didn’t die, or Austin, who somehow got up there in time for this) then maybe it is that third person asking for the gun in panel 3.

We should know tomorrow.

I hope this is the climax, but given the fact we’ve already had one raid at Polar’s HQ, who knows?

There are, now that Ballpark has been tossed/vaporized/hidden, just two (live) people in the old tower: Devila and Piotr. No law says they can’t move around, so I have no issue with the speech balloons in panel 3 (or elsewhere). What I don’t get is why Piotr wants to take the shot rather than Devila; she has the shot: Tracy is a standing duck for her at this moment. By the time Piotr takes the gun and gets lined up, chances are Tracy will already be in the front door. —Maybe that’s the point: Piotr does something irrational (so what’s new?) that spares Our Hero’s life….

I can’t say that Ballpark was done in just yet. But probably so since they can’t afford even one complete strip to show it.

The story lines come to a close quicker than they used to. Whether any villians are lurking in the inkwell of Stanton and Curtis is anybody’s guess. I hope they will look at the work when Gould had the strip and figure out how to stretch stories in 2019. Being that Tracy has been at this law enforcement thing for 87 years, I wouldn’t be surprised to see: him, Sam, Lizz and Chief Patton putting in their retirement papers 6 years from now.