Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for April 01, 2011

In somewhat honor of April Fool’s Day, would anyone care to contribute their favorite blooper from Dick Tracy’s past?

Despite morphing buildings, my favorite blooper has to be when Louise Trapeze was called Lousie Trapeze.

The Plot Thickens!!!!

Good Morning Vista Bill!!

I think we had our April Fool’s Joke early, thanks to Locher!!!

It was the “Decoy Cars”

Speaking of Fools, I wonder what Locher is doing today.

Well, today’s wrist-genee looks nothing like the one we saw on 14 March:

http://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2011/03/14

Meanwhile, Diet Smith’s mention of an armory echoes the newspaper headlines that announced the death of two DT felons.

Goodmorning, VB! Another fine Dick Tracy this morning!

Today’s is weak.

Good morning everyone…

As far as the “Wrist Geenee” goes,

maybe the team felt the earlier drawing was wrong and went back to the traditional ‘Wrist Geenee”

Just a little “Fine Tuning”

I would just like to say that I really like the artwork and pacing of this comic under the new people. Nice work guys.

Any improvement from the previous years is welcome.

Maybe this wrist genee is more of a flashback, then the one he actually uses. If Mike pops in later prehaps he’ll clear it up.

Here’s a link for some of DT Inventions

http://www.dicktracymuseum.com/dick-tracy/inventions/

Old Tracy, my favorite blooper would have to be Warren Beatty won the rights to DT. Sorry I’m kinda bitter about it.

The museum says the two-way wrist radio dates to 1946. That puts it before the invention of the transistor. Well, maybe Gould was thinking of the miniaturized radar transmitters/receivers used in proximity (VT) fuses for five inch artillery shells and air-to-surface rockets. Or perhaps he saw the 1936 HG Wells movie “Things to Come,” which had people in AD 2036 using two-way wrist radios.

What Locher did today ? He cracked an old Whip !

He gave us a before shot, of Mrs Pruneface riding on a bus. Seen before that disfiguring Circus Fire that gave her a skeletal face.

Recall, Gould only provided the after (1943) appearance ! http://www.gocomics.com/dicklocher/2011/01/01/

Hard to beat the pig on wheels

I liked Tess’s disappearing act during Tracy’s acting days with The Blank…

And I miss Diet Smith drinking his milk from a carton….

Who could forget Tracy vs Nothing at the Science Museum’s Stuka exhibit?…

http://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2010/06/22/

I second the motion.

I agree, APersonOfInterest. There is no need to continually disrespect the man. How would any of you feel if people just sat around and bad-mouthed you all day? Weren’t you raised with ANY manners or sense of decency?!

Power approach!

Sounds like Smith is saying he’s not going to make anything else for law enforcement, because criminals might get their hands on it. That…doesn’t really make sense.

I’m still afraid of those moose antlers that he’s got over his eyes.

Good morning guys. Another good strip, today. Yes!

Please, give us a break on the Locher jabs. He’s gone, okay?

Some of you are acting like the only reason you read Tracy - and made comments - was to carp about Locher.

Panel 2 is the classic wrist radio, from decades ago.

A favorite Locher ‘BLOOPER for April Fools ? So much to pick from but a temporary RELIEF from the deserved “Ooohs! and “Ahhhs! we’ve been reading these past *3 weeks.

In balance I’d have to stick with the Morphing Power HQ Building - there have been at least 6 or 7 variations (up to 3 floors ending with a one floor only depiction on the last Sunday page (2011/03/13)

Included was the agile, Mexican ‘Jumping Bean’ Sign atop the building then down over the Porte Cochére on the ground floor, before BOUNCING back up !

The portruding 3 dimentional Morgue sign did give eartquake concerns http:/www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2010/08/21/

But what took 1st Prize was the abreviated spelling : http://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2010/04/27/

There were three crafted like this but this particular date was ‘accentuated’ by the inclusion of 3 rubber ducky symbols in the windows of the building.I think it was John Locher’s birthday.

NightShade09, it’s the classic design, but it doesn’t match what we saw on the fourteenth. It could be a flashback, but it looks like Diet Smith is pointing to Dick Tracy’s wrist in the present.

Have there been any stories where criminals made use of stolen wrist units, or found a way to subvert them?

Again, why am I getting emailed to me a black and white strip when on the website, and in Locher’s strips, it was in color? Does anyone know?

Here’s a MAJOR Dick Tracy blooper from gocomics, if you go back to ANY of the DT strips on this site it says by Joe Staton and Mike Curtis. While we should put Locher in the past and move on. He does deserve ALL credit for his version or maybe I just don’t like seeing Mike and Joe’s name on Locher’s #@!$, it could go either way…

Here’s a MAJOR Dick Tracy blooper from gocomics, if you go back to ANY of the DT strips on this site it says by Joe Staton and Mike Curtis. While we should put Locher in the past and move on. He does deserve ALL credit for his version or maybe I just don’t like seeing Mike and Joe’s name on Locher’s #@!$, it could go either way…

—

It’s probably just a technical limitation of Gocomics.com, due it being comparatively rare for a newspaper comic strip to change its creative team. In any case the older strips do carry the names of Locher (and where applicable, Mike Kilian or Jim Brozman), so it’s not totally misleading.

Hi All.. FInally signed up today, but have been reading since the first days of Mordred. Been a Tracy fan for a long time, since DC Comimcs published the Limited Collector’s Edition back in the 70’s recalling the first appearance of Flattop, and Vitamin Flintheart. What a way to be introduced ! I was 9 or 10 I think. Anyway, I almost stopped reading the strip when the Mordred “story” showed up cause it was SO BAD. The only thing that kept me around was the reader comments section which were hilarious. I do agree Locher should be just left alone now. Anyway, looking forward to chatting you folks up.

Sardonis said, “…How would any of you feel if people just sat around and bad-mouthed you all day? …”

Answer: Married.

The device Tracy’s wearing today is clearly a 2-Way Wrist TV (1964-1986). What happened to the GeeNee?

…For whatever this worth , DT , under Staton as well as Locher , is one of few daily strips now that are drawn with a black and white publication of it in mind , in other words with a B&W version as a ” true ” one , making the B&W version look rather better I think . I realize that this will not impress many people…However , if you would like to see the ” real ” , not colorized , version , Comics.Com carries it that way . They carry Gasoline Alley in that way as well .

One last DT as seen by DIck Locher…

http://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2010/12/22/

The Power Approach!

I wonder what Gould would have thought if he could have seen today? Our teenage kids have stuff that would have amazed even the most sci-fi types of the day when he came up with the wrist radios. A 1940’s era detective would have given a year of his life to have the communication devices we walk around with today.

Here’s a picture of Raymond Massey using a wrist communicator in the 1936 movie “Things To Come.”

http://tinyurl.com/3e7o8dn

So who pays diet

VanDork, the financial practices of Smith Industries are obscure at best. Does SI have an exclusive arrangement with the Naperville PD, or do they market their products to other agencies? Because if the NPD is their only customer for Diet Smith’s inventions, there’s little margin for profit (barring some massive corruption, which presumably is off the table here).

It seems likely that Smith develops his inventions with an eye toward the market, and uses the NPD as a testing ground. It’s hard to imagine a situation where one police department comes to Smith and says “We need an electronic crowd-control gizmo for riots.” If Naperville has enough riots to justify that, then the city is doing something wrong.