Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for April 22, 2019

Good morning™, surprised detectives!

Barnabas looks pretty dead.

Why didn’t they expect that?

Does it not fit the perp’s M.O.?

And if not …

Good morning™, first responders !

A tortured soul finally at rest.

Dick Tracy

he tried to best

and now

he is the Devil’s guest.

A torturing and murdering human now dead. Too bad they couldn’t bring him back to face the music. The funeral dirge of his life. A funeral for him preferably quiet and in a paupers grave.

We will never know what made him tick, or why he þargetedgym teachers. Maybe a gym teacher disparaged him as teenager.

You know, the way Joe and Dick are talking makes me wonder if Barnabas Tar and his brother don’t have some kind of REALLY vile relationship….maybe Barnabas picked the victims and his brother did the deeds.

Tracy’s clone should have been at the back door.

Let’s see what now!

Is this case closed or???

In the meantime while you gentlemen are out there shooting the breeze, Bonnie was left with the dinner tab.

Lucky for me Barnabas Tar was a lousy shot… and that I’m the star of the strip…

It’s probably just as well the perp is dead; Barnabas Tar sounds like a character from a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta.

I’m not convinced Reggie isn’t the killer—who set up his richer, more successful brother out of jealousy

Alt Script: SMIRKFACE: What’s happening? You ok? You need help? 2- Hey…is that guy dead? 3- DT: I don’t know. I forgot to check. Probably. Anyway it’s a clear case of suicide. Or attempted suicide. Let’s move along. Quickly now. Nothing to see here but the naked and the probably dead. Best not to get mixed up in other people’s business. SMIRKFACE: But you’re a cop?!?

Actually, I expected Joe to be the one to do Tar in.

AAAAALLLLLL ABOARD!!!!!!! SWEATBOX EXPRESS now loading at platform #3.. please have your tickets ready to be punched (see what I did there?!?) Please step lively!

Lets see if it takes Mike all week to

A) reveal Tar’s motivation for the murders

B) Why he seemed to switch victimology in mid-spree

C) his diverse choice of murder weapons, first a garrotte, then a knife, then a gun

D) the repercussions for Reggie hindering an investigation (tho turning Barney in would probably lessen his sentence)

E) the outcome of Joe and Bonnie

F) Where the rest of the MCU were… this story started off with Lee returning, but everyone else was shown maybe only once in a group shot, and hen they ALL faded out

Like nearly ALL of Mike’s stories thus far, this one started out good, then about two weeks in it all went to hell in a handbasket

Truthfully, i’m shocked that we didn’t have a two week cutaway mid story to some sort of foreshadowing of a future storyline

Overall, I will rate this entry as a C

Wouldn’t it be something to later find that Barnabas was just a decoy and the real culprit is still loose.

Didn’t expect the serial killer to have a WEAPON…

Lousy shot or not, at that range, you have to be REALLY lousy… I fully expected DT to at least get winged… but totally missed at that range? Especially when you’re just standing there… they way the panels went, the timeline indicated that there was at least a few seconds for Tar to take better aim, while contemplating whether to shoot or surrender…

P2: By his question, Joe is implying that he thinks it’s possible that Tracy put a “drop piece” there. ;-)

Nice of you to show up Joe, Tsull you are being kind with a C..but, maybe they’ll find out this guy didn’t do it, and he paid the ultimate price for a dine and dash. In this world, it could happen.

Panel #2- That his gun? Implying what? That Tracy keeps a spare to drop next to the body whenever he kills an unarmed man? Question the cops all have the super-duper wrist radio, why no body cams?

Nobody expects The Professor to be packing!

But he’s leaving now, in the meat wagon!

More seriously, this tale is mostly done, just as Bar Tar is dead fish dead. But there are a few days left before the Minit Mystery from Sgt. Joe Doherty, with its ‘30s Style. So, maybe, one or two loose ends can at least be addressed, most likely being the Joe-Bonnie romance, but also possibly Brother Reggie “Rocks” Tar’s legal fate….

he’s not the killer