Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for March 24, 2011

Man, they got to the auditorium quickly.

When Tracy said “Let’s roll!” he wasn’t kidding!

Good morning one and all…

Just enjoying panel #3. The irony of the Fifth’s words, plus Tracy’s clenched fist. There’s a whole conversation right there.

I think Fly-Face needs a heavy duty zapper! Maybe one that goes “flooom!”

How does Fly-Face take a drink without getting zapped?

So Fly Face dislikes the flies? Enough to wear a bug zapper? This, to me, indicates that his problem is not one of hygiene. Surely bathing oneself regularly would be easier than wearing a bug zapper all the time. Therefore, I conclude that Fly Face suffers from some bizarre disorder which causes him to smell like rotten meat. I could easily imagine that causing a person to hate life and be a criminal.

Seeing Tracy from behind is an interesting angle, yet they captured the body language beutifully. I love it - this is art.

This strip is really well done! They even kept the color continuity when Sam put a brown coat over his green clothes.

I guess he is calledFly Face because Bugsy Moran was already taken.

“safeway674 said,

I guess he is called Fly Face because Bugsy Moran was already taken.”

Good one Safeway

Lorelei5 said, about 2 hours ago

Seeing Tracy from behind is an interesting angle, yet they captured the body language beutifully. I love it - this is art. —————————

What are you talking about? Every villain Tracy has encountered over the last several years has seen Tracy’s backside as Tracy has fled in terror.

Dr. Mordred also spent a lot of time seeing Tracy from behind while they were holed up in that granary, but that was for a different reason.

This story seems strange like I have seen this before. I do recall Fly-face being questioned about the fly zapper, and his answer being the same. The “we’ve worked with Detective Tracy many times” honestly rings a bell from the old past. I’m not too sure on how to look into the D.T. archives, but this is not a new storyline.

Keep the color daily strips coming!

Flightsuit, there’s a huge difference in the way we see Tracy’s backside. During the Locher era, we saw his backside as he was fleeing danger. Now we see him facing it, and we’re behind him as he leads the charge.

I had a look-see over at Comics.com, where they’ve got Dick Tracy in Black and White. Honestly, I think the color is better. But then, that’s just my opinion.

John Russco— we have seen this before. Not that long back either. This is from the other website these guys were doing for a couple of months.

Thanks MMM

Flight Suit, maybe it’s his eau de Venus Flytrap after shave. Or, don’t bug zappers ATTRACT flies, with UV light or CO2, so they can kill them? Maybe if he took off the zapper, the flies would leave. Otherwise, for the fly population to stay up through all that zapping, he must have maggots growing in his…somewhere.

I’m wondering if that zapper is going to somehow lead to Fly Face’s undoing down the line.

Anyone who is an aspiring comic artist should be taking notes - each strip has been a lesson in staging, composition, and lighting. Magnificent! And the writing - keeping the story moving with an economy of words. Wonderful! This is how comics should be done!

Someone or more than one are doing the coloring . Look at the different colors on the NY Daily News . I wish somebody would make up his mind . Make just one color version . PLEASE !

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/comics/index.html?feature_id=DickTracy

Another wonderful day for Dick Tracy comic strip!!!

Hmmm. The comics kingdom colored version is way more garish than this one. But the interesting thing is the difference in Fly Face’s outfit… Purple here, green over there. I guess we’ll have to go to the Sunday strip to resolve this one.

Looking at last Sunday, it looks like the green and orange is what they’re going with for Fly Face.

At the risk of duplicating myself, duplicating myself … Noir B&W for weekdays, please.

I second that opinion. Save the color for the professionals on Sunday.

imo color is fine for the new DT – it would be sacrilege to colorize the classic strips, but i’m thinking gould would have taken advantage of color techniques if they had been widely available during his time.

The strip is wonderful. The coloring is hideous. Washes out all the detail of the artwork. Black and white for daily strips, PLEASE!!!

I get this strip emailed to me by GoComics, and the emailed version is B&W.

The coloring in the daily strips is not done by the Staton/Curtis “team”. Only the color in the Sunday strips is “official”. The daily strips are intentionally inked to be in black and white so any colorization is added by whatever publisher is doing it. I find it hard to imagine that Staton and Curtis approve of this “enhancement”.

Finally, a story line that moves. Like the old days. Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t several years ago they have a story line where the criminals were lined up a block long to get into the police station to confess their crimes? Don’t remember what the motivation was, but at least it was a story line with imagination!

New writer, New artist, Now color, How about a larger format? Just thought I’d give it a shot.

I consider myself a purist when it comes to Dick Tracy, meaning, I think the best representation has always been Goulds’ original version.

I consider Rick Fletcher’s DT to be a great continuation of Goulds’ work. I also feel that Dick Locher did a great job of retaining the ” look ” established by Gould. But, with all due respect, Jim Brozmans’ version ( and the rest of his art ) was severely lacking.

Now we have the great Joe Staton. I don’t mean to dispute his talent, and I’m happy with his work so far. But there is a distinct difference in his portrayal. He has captured the essence of the characters ( and vastly improved Sam Catchem ). But I don’t imagine we will be seeing the traditional shot of DT looking at his wrist radio/t.v./computer/geenee, with the ” shortened ” arm. I also prefer the traditional Lizz, who had very distinctive ( almost scary looking ) eyes.

But I’m not hatin’ on the new team…I look forward to each new episode. I’ve even geeked out and am making my own collected version…hopefully TMS will collect this new storyline(s) in tpb.

Okay, I won’t call you Fly-Face. How about Shirley?

If his face didn’t look so much like…well, what it looks like to me, maybe he wouldn’t attract all those flies.

Hey, let’s put him in a room with B.O. and watch all the flies starve to death like the donkey that was placed the same distance from the two bales of hay.

I LIKE the color weekday Dick Tracy.

Folks… DO compare the colors on the dailies with that of the Sunday Strip. There is no contest: Only color art directed by the producers of the strip works. (These dailies seem flat and washed out to me.)

OKAY, Maggot Head! The flies have to be coming from somewhere.

But seriously Color, B&W, makes no difference to me. Great artwork and a story that’s moving along. The strip has been saved.

I agree with the body language and the clinched fist. Yes, I like the old explanation feature like for the fly zapper. I also like color. As long the color is inside the lines.

Although Fly Face’s suit is the wrong color. It was green on sunday and his shirt was yellow.

Regarding the color differences, is it possible they’re doing different colors to accommodate the fact that different avenues of distribution might have different requirements and capabilities?

Looking at panels two and three of the Comics Kingdom version, I see that the backgrounds have been colored in with a gradually fading color.

Perhaps the version we’re seeing on GoComics leaves that off for the benefit of newspapers that might have some limitation as to how much of a subtle color fade their printers can manage?

Well, as long as people are weighing in on color, I cast my vote for B&W weekdays.

And by the way, I don’t think it is a question of technical capability. The Sunday funnies have been colored for quite some time, way back when there were 6 teams in the National Hockey League.

I bet Locher isn’t a happy camper now that he’s seen what we really were carping for. His version of Thick as a stupid weenie and the new DT. No comparison! “Let’s Roll!” - Todd Beamer. Inspiring! Heroism!

I can’t wait to see if the storied “restrictions” from Tribune keep the new team from any real action. After all, that’s what Locher told us……

Huh? JanCinVV said I can’t wait to see if the storied “restrictions” from Tribune keep the new team from any real action. After all, that’s what Locher told us……

nix on the daily color. it doesn’t match the more subtle coloring of the official sunday colorist. and yes, sam alway wore green back in the day … luckily me email version comes in glorious b&w. bet you color lovers thought ted turner’s colorized movies were nifty too!

also, for the dailies, back to the gould original four panels. if it was good enough for “doonesberry” to rip off and retain, then it is good enough for this great neo- retro strip!