Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for December 16, 2019

Good morning™, alligator allies!

Lorenzo looks hungry. I suppose he has no reason to escape from the zoo, so long as he’s fed.

Looks like Nomad still ain’t talkin’ much. ✨

I am disappointed with our heroes. All four of em. They simply just walked into that trap so easily. After so many years if experience with crooks, why would they do rookie mistakes like this? Okay, Lorenzo. Enjoy your feast now.

Good morning™, real gone gassers !

I can’t wait to see someone wake up while their leg is being “sawed” off.

I think I can enjoy this,,,,,If I suspend all rational thinking!

I CAN’T, I CAN’T!!

A hungry crocodile about to eat hapless people? This looks like a job for…. The Jungle Justice Ape Man, Tarzan!

Hmm, either our gullible gang DID fall for the same trick twice (shame on them!) or we have another surprise crossover when it’s revealed that Pussy Galore switched out the gas-filled canisters for harmless air ones.

Wait I know!!! One of them will wake up at the last moment and save them all!!!

Hmmmm…pretty big action skips and bigger plot holes. Come on. Dick Tracy deserves more than just going through the motions.

It’s awfully cold, won’t the Gator be Logy?

It’s snowing so I hope Lorenzo has a heated pool.

You have a gun, Splitface. All four of them are unconscious and tied up. So just go BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG, and be done with it.

So Tracy and Sam WERE that stupid? Despite just having left a car bombing connected to Splitface? He just calls them and says, “Meet me at the zoo, I want to turn myself in” and they go?

And when he has them unconscious, he’s not going to just shoot them he’s going to kill them by feeding them to an alligator?

What if Lorenzo decides he’s full after only eating one of them?

Well we all know Lorenzo is going to be hungry a little while longer as soon as Tracy and Roper awaken. Tracy may even end up with some new shoes and belt!

Snack time!

Hmm…I don’t think that eating the crossover characters is allowed in the contract with their comic syndicate.

Yeah, that’s ok, no need to explain exactly HOW tracy and Sam ended up unconscious OR the other two for that matter.

We’ll just accept it as one of those “things that happened off panel” and move on

Can we get a refund for this insult of a story?

How did tracy and Sam get knocked out?

When you escape from the circus and you’re still several climate zones away from the soft life, you have to go with the best option and bide your time.

Of COURSE you won’t just kill them outright. That would be too easy!

Dick has alligator fighting experience courtesy of Abner…..

So after botching a bombing, Splitface and Clybourne convert an armored truck into a rolling gas chamber, but only administer a nonlethal dose so they can use our heroes as crocodile food? The reptile must be named after Lorenzo Semple Jr., the screenwriter who dreamt up the campy 1960s Batman TV show.

1-GRANDPA: Knock it off Shady. I don’t care if you do need a new turtleneck…

2-…take Sam’s hat why don’t you? I’ve never been able to figure out the purpose of that muffin-top thing you wear anyway.

SHADY: It’s called a Henchman Grandpa. Very chic.GRANDPA: I’d sooner wear a pot on my head.

SHADY: Make it a bag OVER your head

GRANDPA: What was that?

SHADY: I said “I think this guy’s a fed?”

GRANDPA: You big…*WHAT THE????*

3-LORENZO: Yum! Smorgasboard! I better get the lively ones first. I didn’t bring enough water for a very effective death roll which everyone knows is a gator’s go-to kill tactic.

SHADY: Don’t worry Grandpa. There’s not enough water there for him to death roll us which everyone knows is…

GRANDPA: That’s not water fool! I think he’s drooling!

SHADY: Yeah or your slobber…

GRANDPA: What was that?

SHADY: I said “offer him a dollar?” No, “I wish he had a collar?” Wait. I forget.

GRANDPA Idjit…

When and how did our 4 “heroes” succumb to gas? Was the truck a gas chamber, is H&H overly flatulent? We got time jumps here like the DC Multiverse. Maybe Tracy expert Neil can fill in the holes. Here’s a bet for those with bated breath though, no one other than maybe Clybourne will be the Gator’s lunch. Lorenzo? OMG

First Two-Face, now Killer Croc… when is Tracy gonna start sporting a cowl?

What crazy Splitface and clumsy Clybourne don’t realize is that Lorenzo won’t be too active or hungry since it’s winter and reptiles go dormant…

Also, it would be both poetic and ironic if Lorenzo turns on them instead… given how the bombing worked out…

In Memory of William K. Raley “Vista Bill” October 27, 1934 – December 16, 2017. A lover of this strip.

Off course Lorenzo might not recognize Split Face in his new configuration…

The alligator schtick is alright, but I like to see the hero’s tied to a railroad track, with a train comin’ round the bend! Much more exciting!

King Tut in the Batman tv show had several Nice crocodiles in his feeding room. Real footage and fake ones.

It wouldn’t surprise me if Lorenzo ate Splitface instead. Interestingly, In real life, instances of alligators preying on humans aren’t that frequent. They do happen, but they’re rare. It’s crocodiles that are the real man eaters.

Again, the criminals are DUMB! Why not just put a slug or 2 in each of their heads and be done with Tracy forever? But no, we have to have drama with a crocodile, which will undoubtedly fail.

Bummer! Four ostensibly smart crimefighters all fall for this looney’s ambush?! Are we supposed to think this is credible?!

And then “Lorenzo” shows up, a fat, torpid alligator (or maybe the ’gator who ate Lorenzo; the reference is not terribly clear). Apparently we are supposed to cringe in fear that this alligator will eat all four of the knockout-gassed Good Guys, while Splitface either gloats fiendishly or splits with his goon, Clybourne.

One good thing about this turn of events is the names: Clybourne; Lorenzo. Who (or what) is next? TMNTs?

Do we have two female characters from Roper & Nomad who could team up with Lizz and Mysta to save the gullible male heroes? LOL j/k

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ComplexityAddiction

Lorenzo hit the bottle pretty hard after his wife left him, and started thinking he was an alligator. Nobody took seriously until he got the surgery, but after wards his arms and legs were too short to be an escape artist anymore. Thankfully, there was an opening at the zoo.