Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for August 28, 2019

Good morning™, surprised readers!

It seems that Doc has had some kind of reaction to his extra-pure cocaine supplies since we last saw him, maybe an overdose reaction. After a quick search, all I know for sure is that injecting cocaine is the most likely way to overdose.

A smart dealer doesn’t use his “product.”

The disappointment, failure and being handcuffed by Tracy must have been too hard for him to take

A new entry for B.O.’s list

I MISS Mysta Chimera!

Wait, who died, and when? That’s seems like some seriously off-camera stuff.

That was unexpected. ✨

I have to admit, Liz never looked that good under any other artist!

“It was hard to tell her” what? Is somebody proofreading this strip? Also, Doc was verymuch alive and kicking yesterday. Did we have a time jump and he OD’d, went into coma, MCU realized they had a crisis, they called grandma and now this strip follows? Where are the missing panels? Is there a dilligent mental gymnastics gentleman who could fill the missing parts of this story for us? Of course. No worries, we’ll hear from him soon! We’ll realize this actually was good storytelling!

Paging @tsull2121 Paging @tsull2121

This is gonna be fun.

Could it be Mitchell?

What? What and who are they talking about?

I’m getting the feeling of a few strips numbered and presented out of order here …

Obviously to me anyway Doc could not take the over excitement and the cocaine killed him. Heart attack , convulsions, seizures are all cocaine side effects, that could also explain his madness.

I hope Sally was not a user, but being associated with Doc, the odds are she was and maybe why she hung around with such a “loser”!

Wha? Oh heck now I can’t wait for tomorrows strip!!! (new surprise?)

Seems like a missed opportunity for an extended chase scene and some suspense. Perhaps the PG rated half explanation is a way to keep from showing the rough stuff that Gould didn’t shy away from. Stuff that wouldn’t get past the censors today.

It does seem that a couple of strips have been censored. While I surmised yesterday that Doc had been using his own product (the giggling, histrionics, and glasses lenses were clear indicators), we did not see him use or OD. I assume things fell apart as he was being taken to the station. Why the powers that be would want to spare readers from depictions of drug abuse and its consequences is puzzling. You only have to glace at the front page (or screen) to see the worst culprits brought to some kind of justice: Johnson & Johnson to the initial tune of $572 million, and Purdue Pharma starting at $3 billion, with the total expected to rise to $10-12 billion. This settlement “would not be a straightforward cash payout. The bulk of the funds would come from restructuring the company under a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing that would transform it from a private company into a ‘public beneficiary trust.’ That would allow the profits from all drug sales, including the opioid painkiller OxyContin, to go to the plaintiffs — largely states, cities, towns and tribes.” As early as 2007, Purdue and three top executives pleaded guilty in federal court to criminal charges that they misled regulators, doctors and patients about the drug’s risk of addiction and its potential to be abused. But despite paying a fine of $600 million, the company continued its aggressive promotion of the drug, playing down its risk and overselling its benefits. Makes Doc’s little thermos look like kid stuff.

I guess Doc didn’t pass the audition…

We’ve been thrown a few curves recently. I’m not completely convinced that Doc is the dead guy. Could be Mitch. Could be Jack.

Bald guy in panel 2 has award winning comb over

So Doc died of a delayed overdose? I miss the Chester Gould days when Tracy would simply shoot the perp in the head.

AAAAAAANNNNNNNNDDDDDDDDDD HERE COMES THAT GOOD OL’ SWEATBOX EXPRESS!!!!!!

Jesus, can’t they simply apprehend anyone in this department? There was ZERO signs of Doc being a user at ALL in this now ridiculous storyline that at least waited til the end to call in the sweatbox express.

I guess trial by jury doesnt apply to Tracyville… there’s a LOT of judges, prosecutors, and defense lawyers out of work in that town.

Once again a potentially promising storyline goes down the crapper because mike doesnt know how to actually tell a story within his allotted time.

New rule of thumb when reading Tracy strips… don’t get too attached to the villain because they NEVER make it out of the story alive, no matter WHO it is!

Hmm… this “two week vacation” might just be a good “jumping off point”

Soo… Doc just up and died?

Yes, a person can overdose on cocaine. An overdose occurs when a person uses enough of a drug to produce serious adverse effects, life-threatening symptoms, or death. An overdose can be intentional or unintentional. Death from overdose can occur on the first use of cocaine or unexpectedly thereafter. Many people who use cocaine also drink alcohol at the same time, which is particularly risky and can lead to overdose. Others mix cocaine with heroin, another dangerous—and deadly—combination. Some of the most frequent and severe health consequences of overdose are irregular heart rhythm, heart attacks, seizures, and strokes. Other symptoms of cocaine overdose include difficulty breathing, high blood pressure, high body temperature, hallucinations, and extreme agitation or anxiety.

Tracy apprehends Doc in the theater, cuffs him and supposedly he is led out by police. Obviously its the next day in todays strip and SOMEHOW Doc managed to overdose on coke and die…… this causes A FEW big questions/problems

1) where did the coke go after Tracy took it off Sally?

2) when did Doc suddenly become a coke addict? And how did he happen to get enough to overdose on when it was supposedly in police custody?

3) i guess now some smart ass is gonna say “Oh he was smoking crack in that first cameo appearance.” to which i call bullshit because up until the mention of snow nobody even HINTED at him being a user. And even THEN he was depicted as a trafficker and not a user at all.

4) Mitch had apparently left the theater before Tracy apprehended Sally which would have given him PLENTY of time to get further than “down the street”

5) If Mitch had left the theater, wouldnt Doc have seen him exiting since Doc himself was just across the street?

6) “Doc’s apartment had all the signs of drug dealing and *use**"**… none of which, of course, was EVER presented to the readers

7) And it, oddly enough, didnt show ANY signs of the exploding books which is HOW Doc was introduced to the strip

8) and it STILL hasnt been explained why, during a “secret sting operation” the ENTIRE POLICE FORCE was on hand

9) and it also wasnt explained how the “rehearsals” ended up going on from broad daylight to the dark of night.. when Kandilame and Vitamin showed up, and Sally appeared.. it was light out, when Doc was outside, it was nighttime.

10) Unless the rehearsals began at 4pm and ran until 8pm (rehearsing a play for four hours seems highly unlikely) then the darkness when Doc was outside makes no sense

11) No mention of Tracy being almost killed by Doc in the beginning.. in fact,it was COMPLETELY BRUSHED OFF

anybody ELSE notice Sam is wearing gloves while handling a box in the first panel?

i took this image as Sam handling the coke and not wanting to get any of it on his fingers or hands….which NOW makes no sense. How could Doc have overdosed on the coke if it was in police possession?

“Oh, he had some in his apartment and took it before he left to go to the theater” again another bullcrap excuse. If youre going to make the character a coke fiend and ultimately have him die from an overdose.. YOU DAMN WELL BETTER SHOW THE CHARACTER USING for SOME sort of context.

As far as any of the readers knew, Doc was simply a trafficker who had lost a “pure stash” and needed to get it back. I had gone under the assumption that he had set up some deal for the coke that Mitch inadvertently screwed up by losing the thermos.

the “Big Reveal” of Doc not only being a junkie but having overdosed is a “Classic Curtis Ending” ending where some hiterto unknown FACT about the character doesnt get revealed until the absolute end of the story reinforcing just how haphazardly he crafts a story and ends it when he realizes that he has run out of time to tell a meaningful, well thought out, well planned story.

by the way, by MY calculations there were at LEAST four wasted days in this story that *COULD** have been used to at least ATTEMPT to introduce the fact that Doc was a junkie which would have made this ridiculous ending make SOME type of sense

As to Sam’s gloves: There is a report in the non-comic “Real world” of an officer needing treatment after exposure to fentanyl.

Wait, what?

When did Doc take cocaine?

1-SAM: They sure box-up donuts nice these days. 2-CHIEF: Dammit Tracy! Another dead suspect?!?. TRACY: Yeah, sorry about that Chief but he slipped outta my grip and fell down the stairs. A buncha times. BUT, before he died he confessed to every open crime we have on the books. We can close ‘em all now. CHIEF: What? Even the ‘Stacked Chick In A Tube Top’ robberies? TRACY: Umm, sure. I guess he was a cross dresser. CHIEF: WOW! No other chief in the department has ever had this kind of success. Great job Tracy! 3-DOLL: We just got a report of a new robbery by the ‘Stacked Chick In A Tube Top’ robber. TRACY: Oh no! We got a copy cat on our hands!

To sum up Tsull2121: This is a new low in “storytelling” even for these yahoos. Great art is fine, but these guys really, really, really need to find someone who can string together a consistent narrative so this “WTF happened?” doesn’t continue to happen. WRITERS WANTED!!!! Must not insult readers’ intelligence

Doc’s grandmother may have believed him but a Stage Manager job is not one a person could do part time. The Director’s job is basically over when the show opens. Once the show opens, the Stage Manager becomes the boss and takes the place of the Director. It is the Stage Manager who runs the show backstage at each performance. He calls the cues for the lights, sound effects, and the movement of scenery. He sets schedules, holds rehearsals. He is responsible for maintaining the Director’s staging and not allowing actors to ad lib too much. He is the boss after the show opens.

It almost appears as if a couple of strips were left out. It’s a bit confusing to see Doc defiant even as he was being arrested and the next thing we know he’s dead of a cocaine overdose.

And, oh yeah, great artwork on Lizz this morning.

Measles also died of an overdose but before he did, we saw a dramatic fight where he was cleaved by an axe swung by Gravel Gertie and a shovel full of coals scooped on him by Sparkle. We also saw his body laying there after his death and the police and coroners around the body. In today’s situation, which I don’t think was a censored one when compared to Measles, it seems like Doc’s death is just a toss off.

https://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2012/11/04

https://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2012/11/11

Good afternoon™, troubled lady cops !

Even though he is/was a bad guy Lizz shows a sympathy for a wasted life.

It does come as a surprise (to put it mildly) to learn abruptly that Little Doc died of overuse of cocaine. But in retrospect there were plenty of hints that he was using, and using heavily at that. His crazed expressions, his monomania, his James Cagney-like rant at the top of the stairs, his constantly wearing gloves: all these things, looking back, can (and should) be read as signs that he was a user. Tsull2121 exaggerates to state his case, and others, especially Neil Wick, have to labor mightily to provide some refutation. Some hint of the pending death by OD should, I think, have been provided, yet the basic outcome may be a surprise although it is not illogical. Sam’s comments in panel 1 must carry some of the burden; laconic but sufficient. IMO….

Footnote: Yeah, Lizz is looking good today!

Folks, it is entirely conceivable that Doc had ingested the coke, done what he did, and then died. Although that’s unlikely had he injected it, since that dosage is of course immediately in the blood stream. But all those saying he couldn’t have died without another dose after arrest are wrong. There are several indicators showing that he had already ingested cocaine prior to firing the shots and it is very feasible that he could have dropped dead at any point thereafter, when the drug dosage hit its peak. So just because he had been cuffed doesn’t mean he couldn’t still die from using cocaine before the arrest.

Retroactively theorizing on the inexplicable

Everything was going smoothly in this week, and this whole story, until Panel 3 of this strip. Lizz’s comment felt like it came out of nowhere. Contrary to some on here, I do think Syndicate censorship is to blame. I have 2 theories as to what happened:

1) Originally, P3 of the M 8/26/19 strip was going to show Doc collapsing from an OD. I don’t think this likely since Tracy’s remark in P3 of that strip fit so perfectly as a retort to Doc’s rant.

2) More likely, originally, either the Tu 8/27/19 strip or the W 8/28/19 strip was going to show Doc collapsing from an OD. That what ended up as this day’s W 8/28/19 strip was originally going to be the Th 8/29/19 strip.

Years earlier, Curtis had shown Measles dying of an OD. He probably thought he could show that here, especially if Doc was always going to survive, albeit comatose, only to be abruptly told at the last minute that he couldn’t show that. So he had to scramble as best he could. I’ll do some more theorizing in the next few days’ strips.