Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for January 28, 2011

I’m incredibly dubious of Tracy’s capability actually… I’ll just step back before he makes another stupid decision.

The story continues to spin its wheels…I think it’s 6 feet under by now.

Okay, so we have our weekly reminder of why Horn Hair and Testicle Chin aren’t allowed to leave the house by themselves. Plus Locher’s hapless effort to do a parallel storyline in which widely-separated people say related things about Thick. Two out of three characters have the appropriate number of finger-shapes at the ends of their arms, and once again we are reminded that Thick forgot to handcuff Morbid after they escaped the sunken car.

Or does panel #3 show some clumsy effort by the Dipsy Duo to hold hands and become S&M snugglebunnies?

Did Liz forget about the storm of the century with all communications down? It’s a good thing the power lines are intact! Even the old granary appears to have lights.

America’s most dangerous criminal is NOT in handcuffs and thinks Spacy is such a moron that he’ll release Mordred’s chains to help him SPEAK better.

And this is what this strip has come to.

OK, Mordred’s left hand appears to be free and it looks as though he can simply slide his right hand out of the massive chain. Opps! I forgot he’s sedated…

Did the decoy vehicles ever show up?

“Why hasn’t Tracy called in Sam”???

Well, Liz, we have been over this several panels ago, It is the “Storm of the Century” All systems are down.

A waste of reading today. Nothing new.

Is it me or do Mordreds arms and hands not seem to secured???

Looked at the sample from the new Dick Tracy team. I think there are better times coming.

Mordred must be Italian. He needs his hands to talk with.

For those interested, next weeks strips are on Comics Kingdom already.

The bad news, northing happens until Friday Feb. 4th.

What is the purpose of the chains if they don’t restrict the movement of Mordred’s hands and arms? Which they don’t.

Where’s Mrs. Pruneface when we really need her?

Haven’t we already seen that Mordred’s arms and legs are completely free of the chains? So it’s no big deal if Tracy removes them.

He was given the key, right? Not that was a little detail Locher thought to tell us, given all the other info that he needed to tell us over…and over…and over…and over…

Maybe nothing happens next week, but if the look on Thick’s face is any indication there should be marathon running and screaming the following week– with a good chance of hiding and cowering.

It figures.

Why does Mordred want the chains removed and WTH have they to do with speakinganyway - all they seem to be doing is hold his clothes on. As a matter of fact the way the chains seem to be draped he could easily shrug them off.

I can’t believe how this story arc is bogging down, even for a Locher DT strip.

I can only wish that Mordred pretends he’s securely bound, and waits for Thick to move closer to him. Then, wham, he sheds the chains and attacks him. Too much to hope for, though.

As usual, Horn Hair’s horn is on the side of her head opposite the viewer. She really ought to quit the day job, patent whatever causes her hair to move around, and become a fashionista.

In panel #2, the shape under the Sign of Evil bears a strong resemblance to Thick’s profile. Maybe he died and will haunt Police Hooters, while Mordred curses him for dying of natural causes. “How dare you!” he’ll say. “After all we’ve gone through, I earned the pleasure of killing you!”

So a complete rehash of 1/14’s comic Storm of the Century and an almost verbatum copy of 1/24, including a bit more distant artwork, Panel 3.

Must be nice to have the cruise control on.

When is it time for the funny dead duck?

Are we getting near the end of the Dick Tracy strip?

The perspective in panel #3 baffles me. The balloon indicates that Moribund’s head is off to the right, yet the hands and arms reach down from the top. Those arms appear to wear the same coat and shirtsleeves as hick wears. Yet how can he handle Morbid’s chains with his hands in that position? Have the Dipsy Duo assumed a position that will require an update to the Kama Sutra?

”I can’t believe how this story arc is bogging down, even for a Locher DT strip.”

Get used to it. Now that we know the date of Locher’s retirement, don’t you suppose he’s going to just stretch this thing out until March? He couldn’t do a simple convenience store stick up in less than 2 1/2 months, so there’s no way he could finish this AND do a whole ‘nother story arc in the time remaining.

(Man, I just depressed myself.)

So, um, how’s the weather out there?

Are communications working well?

-Cougar :{)

TALK IS ACTION DELAY IS SUSPENSE BOREDOM IS EXCITEMENT

Locher’s usual MO is to drag a story out for a few weeks and then wrap it up in a few days with half the questions unanswered. In this case the dragging out part has gone way beyond ridiculous.

This is getting to be like spending February in Siberia–in a pup tent

Marg, who is the lady (I can tell she is a refined lady) on your avitar? It has gotta be bad when a reader of this strip scrolls the avitars. She looks like rock collector (measured in carats).

For some real excitement, check out Frank and Ernest… it moves as quickly as DT…yawn, yawn….

Safeway said about 9 hours ago “For those interested, next weeks strios are on Comics Kingdom already.” WHATEVER YOU DO, DON’T READ NEXT WEEK’S STRIPS!!! Just when you think, “It can’t get farther away from the Dick Tracy we all know and remember, it does! And how high can water from “the storm of the century” get in a grain storage building?

sknnzzz! zzzzzzz!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWoGCdXT07g

the last panel shows that froggy’s hands are already free

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ…..huh? What? Oh…hello. When Locher retires, won’t Bronzman take over? (Or…maybe Matthew?!)

Why would Lizz expect an answer to her question ? Wasn’t it Sam who more than a month ago tried to rally the troops to go out and save Tracy (Dec.26th)

http://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2010/12/26/

There he is back then in his brown Juan Williams (Fox News) jacket, ugring them to get into their “all weather gear RIGHT AWAY”. What a flash of urgency !

No leadership by example, Sam has become a verbal, Sam Nothing kind of man, under Locher’s direction. Perhaps he want’s Teevo’s ‘messaging’ job (?).

No wonder Commissioner Locher appointed Lizz as the new Chief when Patton retired

If you are tired of the storm of the century,

our weather in International Falls, MN is calling

for 5 to 7 inches of new snow this afternoon.

That will bring us up to over 70 inches of snow since Nov 1, 2010

Some boys from California are up here spending the winter playing hockey on the Canadian side of the border. They play in the Superior International Junior Hockey League

No sun or surf here in “Frostbite Falls” LOL!!!!

Tomorrow marks 10 weeks of this storyline. Yawn!

Ten weeks? Time draws flies when Locher’s having fun.

morrow said, about 5 hours ago

Marg, who is the lady (I can tell she is a refined lady) on your avitar? It has gotta be bad when a reader of this strip scrolls the avitars. She looks like rock collector (measured in carats).

That is Greta Garbo. I think that she collected many pieces, er carats, of highly pressurized coal in her time.

I still remember a Superman TV story where he took a piece of coal and applied enough pressure to it to turn it into a diamond.

I’m waiting for the new team to take this lump of coal and restore it to the diamond it once was. If you Google “Joe Staton” you will find several sites that shows his art work in many different forms - from comedy to bizarre - from plainclothes detectives to super heroes. I’m counting the days :45.

Why is Testicle Chin listing to port in panel three? Could he be drinking to deal with the boredom of being trapped in POLICE HOOTERS for the two months that this storm has been raging? Or has the storm blew in the windows, and is it now threatening to blow him clean out of the building? Aha! Perhaps that’s it?! The storm will blow TC bodily out of the building, just in time for his body to come between Spacey and Mordred’s knife…

Don’t listen to him Dick!

Don’t let him trick you!

Question; in case I missed something. Have either the police in Police Hooters or Dick Tracy done one thing— even one only— right? It seems they’ve made every mistake it’s possible to make, violated every procedure and done the most incomprehensible things imaginable. Throw in the FBI on this, too, after all they were the ones who supposedly arranged this method of prisoner transfer— something that would never be done this way in the real world.

If/when Tracy dies, it won’t be either the storm or Mordred which gets him. It will be his own monumental stupidity which finishes him off. Everybody else will be bit players in the drama. Example: getting caught in the granary in this flood. In real life, this can’t be the first time something like this happened there and it would have to be well known in the area that this place floods like this. Think of it! Lose the car in at least twelve feet of water, climb to higher ground and seek shelter in a place that floods like we haven’t seen since Katrina. Who would do such a thing? Tracy, that’s who.

Sorry, had to vent a bit.

Well, this is what happens when you start drawing a comic strip story without THINKING OF AN ENDING! Lesson learned.

Michael, I can’t think of anything these characters have done that makes sense. Right now they’re dealing with a flood which has risen at least thirty feet in the space of a few hours. Noah didn’t see that much water, that fast. The cops weren’t even aware of a storm on the rise; in reality they would have received a warning from someone–NOAA, or FEMA, or at least the Weather Channel.

I haven’t found any numbers, yet, on how high floods get along the upper Mississippi, which would be a worst-case location for the Nappingville/Rivertown area. But notice that none of the other cops seem aware of the flooding as more than a problem at one intersection. And it is absurd to believe that ALL fricking communications would die. Police car radios? CB sets in cars and trucks? Ham operators with emergency power supplies? The National Guard? Military bases?

It’s impossible to vent over every frustration in this “story!”

idarke, if my opinion matters, I think Locher started with an idea for a clever ending, but couldn’t figure out how to write the story that would set it up. I’m convinced that Moribund will die an ironic death in the granary, and that Thick will be an uninvolved bystander. But Locher couldn’t think of a rational way to get the two characters alone, so he tossed off this dreamlike plot.