Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for January 09, 2019

Good morning™, detonatees!

The police lab has been hard at work piecing together how the bombs were triggered inside the plastic toy. It looks to be a clown, as a couple of people have already surmised.

Good morning™, Real gone gassers !

If the slightest movement sets them off how did the gas man handle these without a premature detonation ?

P. 1; To the clown’s left must be the device itself.

Hard to believe this is all going to be solved and over so soon…..

Sounds like the work of the sinister Toy Maker. A man refusing to grow up and turning toys into deadly weapons.

We will see more of this, anon.

That clown had one bad case of gas that his belly burst open like that.

Everyone exposed to the poison gas has died except the Tracy clan?

Really Donnie?

But at some point in the past, wasn’t the clown moved? It had to get into the box in the first place.

todays strip needed more than just two panels. at this rate the unveiling will take forever

can somebody sign this Pitchford guy to a long-term contract please? ;)

This almost sounds like something either the Joker or the Toy Maker would do.

Looks like Tracy have time to investigate this time and he has to do it in a two-week story.

That still leaves 2 cases besides Sparkle, there were 5 previous to her, plus the video tape. So how was the 6th detonated?

Also the motion activated device couldn’t be a trigger since Bonnie carried the video cassette to Tracy’s home, without it detonating.

(See my explanation to Ahz as to how a motion detected device can be armed without blowing up in the bomber’s face)

These Minit Mysteries don’t really do it for me. They don’t “play fair” and give the readers all the clues that they need to solve the mystery.

I love Tracy showing the charts and research to the rest of his team. This was always common during Gould’s day to keep the rest of the team and the reader always apprised of Tracy’s thinking.

Well done, Donnie. You’ve really captured the many of the elements of a Gouldian story. We need to see more of this.

If this fiend is setting the devices in toys, with the exception of Sparkle and Bonnie, isn’t there a great possibility that kids could get gassed?

I am liking this story with the exception of Sparkle suffering!

A clown – what a surprise! LOL

Clown: my latest favorite curse word. Especially when I see the stupid things they do when behind the wheel.

A very enjoyable story, overall, but I’m still not sure why the criminal hid the gas bomb in an old box that he had no idea would ever be opened again. Hopefully all will be explained at the end.

Now we know! That indistinct plastic blob was the remnants of a clown, a clown that exploded because it had been booby-trapped!

We know what and how, but still need to determine who and why!