Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for January 17, 2011

Where did Thick get that dry hanky he’s wielding in panel #2? And why did he have to demonstrate his observational skills today? He’s out of the storm? The OLD granary hasn’t been used in years? If he’d skipped the obvious he might have noticed whatever Mordred saw. For that matter, if Mordred had noticed he has a dry roof over his head (as opposed to a wet roof) he might have had enough time to mention what he saw.

It’s very touching that, despite their differences, Mordred is using his hanky to wipe off Tracy’s face.

Whered Tracy get that tissue and who in the World is holding it?

Even though the window is broken, there is none of the torrential rainfall entering the granary…

It’s magic rain, Bill! Mordred’s getting feisty, time to run away screaming, Tracy.

See that ellipsis in the final word balloon? You know what that is? That’s Locher building suspense right there.

You know Mordred’s not done talking, but you don’t get to find out what he’s going to say until tomorrow night.

Can you stand it?

Just think, even though the old granary has been abandoned for years, someone has patched the roof so it doesn’t leak. Maybe the work was done by a criminal gang that now uses the old granary as its hide-out.

What’s in the sacks? Do the sacks have green tear strips?

Sure hope them chains don’t rust.

Flight Suit, we’ll be lucky if we find out by Friday. If Thick doesn’t interrupt Mordred with some distraction (“What’s that noise? Do you smell that odor in the air? Ohmigosh, MICE!”), Locher will change the scene to Police Hooters or Sheriff Chief’s parking lot. Or we’ll pause to see a crudely-drawn, sinister shape peer at Thick from the shadows.

barticle35, I hope you’re right. Nobody wants Mordred to get tetanus before he can kill Thick.

BillThompson said, “Dick Locher is like the creaky old door, slowly coming unhinged.”

“Correction please, he is already unhinged.”

Yesterday’s clue was “Creaky old door is unlocked.” Here’s what it means: Dick Locher is about to make a personal appearance in the strip. How do I know? Because Locher, like a creaky old door, is slowly coming unhinged.

Dick Tracy is Mary Martin as Peter Pan in “Peter and the Creaky Old Door.”

Or maybe it should be “Splendor in the Granary.”

Mordred said, “Perhaps you haven’t noticed, Tracy…”

Could Mordred’s associates be waiting in the granary and Tracy hasn’t seen them yet?

The good news is, I’ve identified the source of the hand with the hanky:

http://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2010/08/30/

Here’s the bad news. The panel shuffle was no accident. It was the first warning sign of a growing disturbance in the space-time continuum, which has been warped by this strip’s lunacy. As the warp grows we’ll revisit the alley … the tiger cage … the Science Museum … Locher will endlessly recycle the same panels …

Today’s ANNIE http://www.gocomics.com/annie/2002/01/17/

Mordred’s gang of criminal scoundrels must have dug that huge pot hole in the road that Duck tried to hydroplane across so long ago. They planned ahead (unlike the cops) and dug it near the granary where they could hide out of the rain. They knew that Duck would try to ski across their little lake for one of two reasons:

yes, the hand holding the hanky is drawn realistically, except that the angle IS all wrong for that to be his own hand.

while In a typical DT comments section that I , on occasion, venture into to make an observation, it makes me feel like I’m in a mob scene in a Frankenstein movie holding a torch and screaming “KILL THE MONSTER!” …or maybe a scene from “1984” when the people gather for their periodic chants of “HATE, HATE, HATE!”

If there is hope, it lies in the proles.

Well the good news is that Saturday (22nd) will be the one month anniversary of Dick’s momenteous decision to - “POWER DRIVE” his vehicle through those flooded waters, and we all know what happened.

The action occured on December 25th thereby depriving readers of the Annual appearance of Johnnie Locher waving ”Christmas Greetings” to his millions of readers

http://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2008/12/25

Readers unaware of the memorial practise that’s been quietly syncronized and evident in the strip on every April 10th since 1987, one, where the name “JOHN” always appears … e.g. http://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2005/04/10/ (last panel)

It should be noted that Locher seems to have dropped the activity these past two years.

WTG, Rightwing! Gould’s Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter messages have disappeared. That kind of explains (to me, anyway) what’s wrong everywhere I look. Actually, if Locher took out a day of his ritual grind of copying and pasting his dailies, he might even be able to stretch out a story a day or two! He’d like that! Woo-hoo!

I’m just glad that after all he’s been through Tracy’s tie is still knotted tightly.

Obviously Spacey’s problem is that big leech clinging to his forehead in the second panel.

Re yesterday’s Slimegobbler’s textbook: there have been a lot of TV ads of late for the new Windoze-Fone. Far as I can tell from the video (I always mute the sound during commercials), the point of the Windoze-fone is that you can operate it with one hand, leaving the other hand free for driving as you text, or any other uses that might come to mind (hint: it’s got full internet browsing capability and a high-resolution display)…

What’s the deal with Tracy’s eyebrow in panel 2? And Mordred’s head in panel 1 (where he appears to be transforming into a toaster)?

If we are in out of the rain, why is Mordred’s head still wet?

puddleglum1066, that’s what Mordred wants Thick to notice! A giant brain-eating slug! It’s the fiendish weapon he developed to murder his victims. It chews through their skulls and feeds on their brains … oh, the poor thing will starve to death!

“Perhaps you haven’t noticed, Tracy, but the artless vandals who scrawled that grafitti on the wall are far more dastardly than me!”

Haven’t seen it mentioned, so, as an old farmboy, I’ve NEVER seen glass on a granary door

”Perhaps you havn’t noticed READERS …

That except for a 10 day intro with a little fuss from Tess, this has been a two month TALKATHON between Tracy and Mordred. Little action, relieved only by Tracy’s foolish “POWER APPROACH” and flipped car accident into the flooded waters, and a one day scuffle to come up ahead

The story lacks the traditional unique villain, Locher’s chosen a mask instead.” Heck ! I popped them so well with Mr.Pops … why not do it again (?)”

”At the start we talked high handed, about 5 look-alike decoy units working together we haven’t shown them and those crumby readers haven’t asked for them yet ?”

http://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2010/12/02/

We can’t be sure if the duo we are following are one of the ”decoy” units, or the real thing (?)

But of greater concern, DOES Locher himself know (?)

We’ve had one visual upside with Tracy wearing the hat but it looks like the ‘talkaton’ will continue until Locher’s contract finally runs out … end of February ??

The Chester Gould Dick Tracy Museum launched its first quarterly content update last week since introducing its Members HQ in October. They added three new biographies to the previously launched Villains Gallery and added 1940s examples of the Tracy strip–dailies and Sundays–to the previously launched Anniversary Exhibition Gallery, as well. They also launched a Fan Letters Gallery and Doodles and Drawings Gallery, both of which feature never-before-published material this round.

There’s also a special sneak-preview video trailer for the upcoming feature-length documentary on Gould entitled, Chester Gould–An American Original. From the description they provided the documentary is scheduled to air on Chicago PBS-affiliate, WTTW-11, in October to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Dick Tracy comic strip. The trailer itself is 17 minutes long and features commentary from the film by Max Allan Collins, Dr. Garyn G. Roberts, Dick Locher, Jean O’Connell and Mal Ballairs–a MUST SEE for any Tracy or Gould fan!

You can access this material by going to www.dicktracymuseum.com to join or, for existing members, you can go right to http://www.dicktracymuseum.com/membership/membership-landing/ to log-in.

Sydney Phillips, we’ve seen panels in which Mordred thinks about killing Tracy, and panels where Sheriff Chief and his deputy make it clear they think it’s Mordred in their custody …

… but you could be right. Perhaps it isn’t Mordred. Maybe the FBI substituted another homicidal maniac while they dealt with the real Mordred. Maybe Thick’s companion is a very determined method actor, or the most annoyed FBI agent in history. It would suit Locher’s perverted sense of irony to waste the reader’s time that way. (If you’re correct, it may turn out that this “Mordred” is armed, and once unchained will help Thick arrest a wandering gang of the Homeless.)

Tracy’s response: What with you, Mordred!! You’re wet, in chains and we’re all alone in a vacant granary! If that’s not kinky enough for you, I don’t know what is!!

Let’s try the link again.

Click on the link below and you can view all the Dick Tracy strips until Saturday.

I was on the site on Sunday and was able to view every strip to be published this week.

Click on the link, then on the right hand side, select Dick Track from the drop down box and scroll down and click the enter button.

http://theodorakis.net/comicskingdomviewer.php