Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for March 31, 2011

Good morning everyone…

Interesting. The technologies Diet’s talking about already exist and/or are in the works. Are Curtis and Staton making a statement about the encroaching powers of police states?

Once again, the coloring job here is much better than elsewhere. http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/comics/index.html?featureid=DickTracy

On the other site Diet Smith wears a green suit, for cryin’ out loud.

Those villains appeared in the years that I missed. Fun to see what they looked like.

Ah Mr. Bribery, and Ugly Christine what memories that brings back! They were great villians. The only thing I didn’t like was that I thought Tracy was never going to catch up to them. Their story seemed to go on forever. But maybe that was because I was just a kid then.

I remember those guys from when I first began reading the strip decades ago. The cigar-smoking cat originally belonged to a wild-eyed gangster named Matty Square, who had a cigar habit himself. Mr. Bribery – the model for Dick Van Dyke’s character in the movie? – adopted the kitty after Square rolled into a vat of acid during a misfired ambush. Although he did switch him to cheaper cigars. Lord, the stuff one remembers.

Great art work today, as usual.

Diet Smith is kidding himself. When someone invents a device, it’s a safe bet that other people are working on the same idea. The jet engine and the telephone are two classic examples. Patent disputes show that simultaneous developments happen often. (It’s no surprise; scientists and engineers usually have access to the same basic information and theories. When you’ve got 2, and 2, and the concept of addition, getting 4 is inevitable.)

If I were Smith, I’d work on those inventions while looking for a way to counter their effects.

barticle35, I checked on Keely. I couldn’t find anything about him and the War Department, but if they turned him down, it’s because he was a con artist. His work had four classic earmarks of a fraud: 1: Invest now and you’ll get a huge return much later. 2: Sorry, I cannot reveal my secrets to anyone. 3: Sorry, I cannot let anyone else use or examine my invention. 4: Most scientists and engineers call me a fraud, but what do they know? (If I could insert a picture, we could have a midweek Crimestoppers)

I couldn’t find anything I’d trust on Tesla’s flying machine, and I’m not going to wade through all the crackpot sites I found. But Tesla had other ideas that didn’t pan out. He thought he’d detected radio signals from Mars, and he thought it was practical to transmit electric power without wires (well, he could do it, but the range was short, most of the energy was wasted, and you really don’t want to have all that energy passing through your body. Which may have been the inspiration for Heinlein’s “Waldo.”)

Margueritem, The website ilovecomixarchive.com contains the full series of Mr. Bribery as well as many other past villains.

Total agreement there, Radish. That riot-control weapon ignores the concept of innocent bystanders. Not to mention the problem of when it’s a riot and when it’s a peaceful assembly.

Both weapons sound like they could do a lot of collateral damage. Anyone want to risk zapping someone who has a pacemaker? Or accidentally crashing an aircraft, or zapping the electronics in, say, a hospital?

I still think Smith should work on the stuff, to find countermeasures for those weapons. He could have a big market for protective gear. And you have to show some trust in the integrity of your local police.

What does “BGing” mean?

Yet another great strip today.

So, Warren Beatty won his lawsuit over the rights to DT.

http://www.deadline.com/2011/03/warren-beatty-wins-dick-tracy-lawsuit/

I personally wish he’d do something with it already! Besides that (we’ll never see it/ this’ll shut em up) “TV Special”. I’ve heard talk that Frank Miller has shown Interest in making a movie, Rumors of TV shows, and an action cartoon. Unfortunately nothing ever comes. I wish Mr. Beatty could just stop with the “It’s MINE! IT’S MINE! IT’S MINE!!” already be an executive producer and let someone do something. Personally while I enjoyed His Dick Tracy movie, I wouldn’t want to see him in the role again. Who knows, maybe that’s the problem, he can’t let anyone else play the lead. Maybe Carly Simon was right…..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQZmCJUSC6g

3 dialog balloons in one panel! Don’t the new artists know that they could make 2 or 3 days worth of strips from that and then repeat them on Sunday?

The story moves at a rapid pace With a flashback to outer space The space coupe(deville) and flying buckets Memories of past Tracy junkets Mr. Bribery, Fugly Christine and a cat smoking stogies Bring back fond thoughts for us old fogies Signals from above now can disable your car Making sure you’ll not get far Whenever a new device is put to use There is the chance for abuse Taze a granny that gives you lip Zap a citizen because he’s a dip No need now to stomp and beat Fifty thousand volts is really neat Whether distant or very close Just give them a electric dose Some seem to do it on a whim They think it a case of “us or them” “A quick short, sharp shock” causes pain Makes sure they’ll not do it again Sonic waves and micro too Might be used on me and you So be careful of those in power Lest you wind up in the Tower.

Hey, I’ll second you, APersonOfInterest! This team is a quantum leap ahead of Gould for crispness of style.

Thanks for the shout out!

Am I dreaming? A Nay Tay and Smoking Cat and shrunken head reference in 2011?! THANK YOU!!!!

Obviously Bribery and Ugly Christine were my favorites. Love the blue glasses on Bribery, makes him look even creepier. This strip is fantastic.

You are not imagining the length of the Bribery story. As I recall, it lasted well over one year. Thanks to whoever provided that link to Archived Comix. I was so happy to find Brick Bradford strips. It also finally resolves a problem I have with my own collection of strips. I had no idea what to do with them and a few years ago dumped about half of them. I wish I had known someone may have wanted them.

I’ve been reading the Moon Maid story for the first time on ilovecomixarchive… And I have to say, in one respect it reminds me of Locher’s last story.

Moon Maid wanders from the vicinity of the police station ON FOOT, and discovers a car crash (?) and a woman giving birth in the middle of a snowstorm. Within just a couple of weeks of increasing storm intensity, the location of the crash is in a wilderness with giant cliffs and roaming packs of wolves. It’s rather silly.

Great strip.

Dick Tracy just keeps getting better!

I loved the Chester Gould-style first panel, and the sharp close-up of Diet Smith, as well as Smith’s reasoning and dialogue.

By the way, I’m sorry Warren Beatty won the lawsuit - after that mess his movie was, I was hoping we’d see a better Tracy film, one with a real plot, instead of “let’s throw all the bad guys Gould ever created onto the screen.”

Gould’s style is the CLASSIC version…even just before he retired, his work was great. Staton is doing Gould justice while retaining his own style.

I loved the Beatty movie, but agree it’s time to let someone else play with these toys.

My choice for DT would be Chris Noth from Law & Order. Selma Blair could play Lizz, and Paul Giamatti as Sam Ketchum ( although Seymore Cassel was perfect in the ‘91 movie ).

Right, Rightwingmoron, the point it isn’t that the new team is “better” than Gould, it’s that they’re doing a great job.

I started reading the strip last year, after a friend told me how interesting it had been when he was young. Henry said that the strip was something everyone talked about in the Thirties and Forties. Gould would no doubt feel pleased that the tradition lives on here.

What does “B’GING THE PROJECT” mean?

We are not better than Gould. We strive toward the goals Gould set and hope that we come close. More than anything else, we hope to see Tracy adventuring to the point that we hand him over to some other team someday. But thanks for all the nice words.

Diet’s actually saying “86’ing the project” - in other words, cancelling it. “86’ing” is apparently rhyming slang for “nixing”

Groundzero7, it looks like Diet Smith said 86’ing. When you 86 something, it means you kill or permanently stop it.

Nightshade09, I also wish he would of lost the suit. I did enjoy his movie, however, I was pretty young at the time. I haven’t seen it in quite sometime, don’t know if I would still enjoy it today. I would love to see a reboot done by someone else though. I do think a Frank Milleresqe version would be great. But, I heard The Spirit wasn’t that good, I haven’t seen it myself. Still, I would love to see something new. Definetly without Warren Beatty, but at least we’ve got a great DT strip to enjoy, doubt if we’ll see anything else for quite sometime (if ever).

WW: Welcome back, been a long time and another good one only with an upbeat theme. Every one, please stop comparing the present strip to Gould all the time. These people are giving us a good plot that moves along and great art work in spite of the coloring that other people do.

I’m still hopeful for a newer film, if they could just get Beatty to produce it. That way he’s not as involved as last time. Hard to believe it’s been over 20 years, but it has since that lack luster’ summer of 1990. But seeing how D.T.’s still popular when so many others have folded, the opportunity is still ripe.

willamp, What’s kept it ALIVE, is the strength of the original concept and it’s unique CHARACTER CREATIONS.

Those who succeeded Gould have reused his creations or variations of them, relentlesly.

The big test has always been - HOW GOOD (?) will their “new character designs” be ? When their turn comes ?

One third of Max Collins 44 stories used Gould’s villains or variations of them.

This new team headed by Curtis an Staton are top class. The pacing is the ’best’ I’ve ever seen, and the ART refreshingly impressive. Locher’s latter day work makes Staton look like a genius. I can understand the widespread Euphoria, heck, I feel it too !

It’s obvious that both creators have a STRONG SENSE of what the original creation was all about, they have restored many critical things. We’ve had a happy start.

‘Fingers crossed’, that we and they feel the same way - one year from now.

How could we ever forget…

http://home.assets.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2010/02/22/

Floooom!

I don’ remember Mr. Bribery wearing blue Ray Bans, and if memory serves me, the cigar smoking cat originally belonged to Matty Square.

Matty did have the cigar smoking cat, and took it upon himself to wipe out Moon Maid. After several attempts failed, he threw in with Mr. Bribery and when Matty died, Bribery took on the cat. Ugly Christine died when she fell from one of the air cars down a smokestack.

It is great to see Sydney positive about the strip. It is a long time coming!

The pacing of the new team is brilliant - no other contemporary strips are match the dialog with the art and angles. I’ve always wondered what the Coupe looked like from that angle. The dialog sound like a rebuttal to 1970 Groovy as the Super Cop.

Smoking Cat adoption: http://www.ilovecomixarchive.com/D/Dick-Tracy/Dick-Tracy1965/10982840seCjF#768044953xQ4au-A-LB

brinrik said, about 20 hours ago

Margueritem, The website ilovecomixarchive.com contains the full series of Mr. Bribery as well as many other past villains.

Thanks, I bookmarked it.