Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for March 27, 2011

Locher should have had the “Old Granary” as a

“Meth Lab”

Great Sunday Page.

Good Morning to Vista Bill???

No recap but added info on the rally, discussion between Sam and Tracy regarding his FBI meeting and then something new - Diet Smith is back!!!

I wonder where they have kept

“Diet Smith - Couped Up”

these past few years????

Yea! Diet Smith returns!

Good morning all…

The difference between the weekday colorization and the artists’s choice of colors is obvious here. These colors look right.

I suppose that’s Diet Smith in the last panel.

Dick was just too infatuated to notice all the signs of a meth lab at the granary. Thank goodness, he’s come to his senses, and things are back to the way they should be.

It’s the Space CoupeI

Are The Fifth and Flyface members of the Tea Party?

Woo-Hoo - Squared!

Classic villains, Pat Patton, Jim Trailer and now Diet Smith!

And the (yes, I loved it when I was a kid) SPACE COUPE!

By the way, remember Chester Gould’s old line, ‘whoever controls magnetism controls the universe’? Considering mag-lev trains and superconductors, he just may have been right!

Can’t wait for what’s next!

The squad has a red strobe on the left, a blue one on the right, takedowns inboard of the strobes, and what appears to be a yellow beacon in the middle. sam and Dick are tooling about in an airport squad for some reason.

Hey NightShade09, Shelley was talking about the same quote from Mike just awhile ago. I was telling her the Flyface puns about a “No Fly Zone” and she told me Mikes Flyface misquote. He replaced “magnetism” with “maggotism”, so it became ‘whoever controls maggotism controls the universe’. OK everybody, all together… (GROAN). Sorry Mike, if I spoiled your chance to show your wordplay. All credit goes to Mike Curtis. (grin)

No flies on Mike, Terry. ;D

Wonder about the MPG?

Wait, now we have to read the Sunday strip?

I remember that line as, “The nation that controls magnetism will control the universe.” I used to quote it while demonstrating my Levitron flying top.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wI2xPP30-4&NR=1

In that last panel, I see the Space Coupe, one of the single-officer magnetic hover-crafts, and what looks like some sort of control panel. Can anyone identify that last item?

Great Sunday strip! And I agree with Bill Thompson about the color. The Crimestopper was great too, actually informing us of something important.

And I have a question. Concerning the way Sam’s face is being drawn, has he been castrated now?

Wow! A sign on a building that’s level and NOT abbreviated!!

Great sunday strip! And a great crimestopper!

WOW, Diet Smith! So thats where they’ve been storing everything. Now, if whoever does the color, for the site, looks at this and matches it all week. Everything will be right as rain.

FINALLY, a continuity issue we can notice! Today, The Fifth’s name is “William Millyun” (panel 2 narration). In earlier strips, his name was “William Millyuns.” Thanks for throwing us a bone, guys!

(Seriously, Mike & Joe, INCREDIBLE work since you’ve taken over the strip. If this tiny little detail is the best we can come up with to nit-pick, we’re in great shape. THANKS for saving our hero Tracy!)

argghhhh! I’m getting an overload of realistically drawn hands! Can’t we have a few more itty bitty hands with stubby fingers, for old time’s sake?

Nice to see the inker and the colorist actually getting credit in the strip. Good job, guys!

I am TOTALLY blown away by today’s strip. I hope the do get the Space Coupe out of mothballs…

It just keeps getting better. Tracy’s face in panel 3 is awesome. He looks like he’s about to kick some serious butt.

It just keeps getting better. Tracy’s face in panel 3 is awesome. He looks like he’s about to kick some serious butt.

Now the big question is, is the Space Period paraphernalia actually back, or are the Space Coupe and Air Car just making a cameo to set up the next great Diet Smith breakthrough? (I point you to the “looks like you’re going to have company” line.)

For myself personally, I’m hoping it’s the latter. I’m one of those who never was a big fan of that era of the strip (feeling it represents the period when Gould finally lost his mind), but on the other hand maybe Staton and Curtis can change my opinion. I’m perfectly willing to be proven wrong.

The Fifth is really going in for risky behavior here. Having immunity from prosecution for trivial crimes like murder, extortion, and the like isn’t going to protect him from the army of crazed public health officials turning a water cannon on that stogie.

A year or two back I joked that they needed to bring the space coupe back, because things couldn’t get stupider. Now I’m totally psyched, Staton and Curtis have saved my hero from his most dire trap of all!

I found a snuff box and two beer cans by an old barn yesterday. I want to stop crime. What should I do?

What’s the scratch-side of a matchbox supposed to mean? I guess I am older than I thought I was. Are they gonna outlaw emory paper?

Oh, I get it! In California, they chop up the emory panels from matchboxes, roll ‘em up, and then smoke them. Understandable.

Space Coupe – yes!! Hints at a new, improved, 21st Century model to keep it company! Can a trip to the moon to visit Moon Maid, Junior, and their family be far behind?

Now Morrow, your just being silly They only smoke that stuff back in Philly Out in California they smoke herbal gold Well, at least that’s what I’ve been told And I know it sounds rather sappy But it’s what makes all the cows there so happy Once upon a time in the days of yore There was a comic strip that was really a bore The dialogue was dull and slow was the pace Now it feels as if I’m caught up in a race No time to sit and think Things pass by in a blink The artwork is fine, the story too What’s a carping magpie to do Old friends and villains have returned Kudos and cheers are well earned By the duo who write and draw So well that we detect nary a flaw.

@ HARLAN; The Moon Maid was killed off in 1978, and Junior later married Sparkle Plenty. Junior’s daughter, Honey Moon Tracy was adopted by Sparkle Plenty, and Junior and Sparkle have a daughter, Sparkle Plenty, Jr. Speaking of kids, what about Dick’s son Joseph Flintheart Tracy, and daughter Bonnie Braids? As for the Space Coupe, could a adventure on the International Space Station be in the works?

I thought match box scratch panels were used for toilet paper in outhouses.

@ slick willie: Geez, I’ve been away from the strip longer than I thought! Thanks for the apparently much-needed update!

Now that we will soon have no way to get to and from the ISS unless we pay the Ruskies their extortion fare, perhaps Diet Smith’s new Space Coupe will ferry the astronauts back and forth, to and from the ISS!

still can’t get over how great the “real” colorist is. the colors are not garish, and not only primary ones! back to the.black and white dailies, then wondrous well though out color on sunday.

a new space coupe for the 21st century? can’t wait, just, pleeeze don’t fly it to the moon! once was too much!

Wow! the Space Coupe, can the air-cars(flying garbage cans) be far behind? Haven’t seen a Sunday this good in forever.

Space Coup going to have company, eh? Can’t wait to see.

What is in front of Tracy in the 3rd panel. Looksa little like a computer with geometric shapes - are they just a screen saver? Probably a simple answer but I’m simpler.

I’m against a return of the Space Coupe and the Moon People. This is Dick Tracy, not Flash Gordon.

@noonan- no the colors are not “off” today. the “real”colorist just has a more subtle brush than the hacks messin’ round with what should be b&w dailies!

Seems to me Diet’s going to add another past invention to the retirement heap - maybe that robot from a few stories back?

Moon Maid’s death was a Collin’s story. As I understand it, a lot of what he did was undone!