Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for October 28, 2020

Good morning™, guys!

So, the police got him after all, but it was his own fault. Despite calls for backup, the surprising thing is that they were on their way to another call, not to this one. Of course, they would likely wouldn’t have been on the highway ramp if they had been heading to this one.

SPLAT :-)

Good grief! Even quicker than Sweat Box! We don’t even get to see the wreck!

“And we wouldn’t have anyway!”

No point to the “JAZZ FEST” banner?

If only he’d jumped on a girder.

Crime doesn’t pay!

McGruff would be pleased.

That’s taking the bite out of crime…..

Good morning™, fresh mortems !

On their way to a call suggests that they were going at a significant rate of speed. A trial and long term incarceration would be far more costly for the tax base. The girls need not worry that an eventual parolee will come after them.

The Professor attempted to evade the police and he got killed by a police cruiser.

What’s going to be entertaining about watching someone hit and killed by a car going at high speed?That’s what happened to my best friend last spring….. not pretty.

Now, Bring on Hallabner!!!

And, as I said before, I hope we get a post-mortem to this story to understand why he was targeting these women.

Cops: “You’re keeping the fangs?”

Tracy: “Yes, for the memories.”

Good but not great storyline.

Liz: Okay, you can go now. I’ll call you if I have any more questions, Officer Van Helsing.

Meep Meep! (Road Runner raspberry)

“Reed! Malloy! That’s the THIRD ONE this week! Take it easy with the Code 3, will ya, guys?”

All that blood and nowhere to go!!!

Sigh… This had such a promising start with the textless strips and air of mystery. Then the cross-overs took over, the professor was reduced to a moron, and Brenda Starr solved it with a flimsy coincidence.

No worse than some TV cop drama endings I’ve seen.

That was abrupt. No pre-teen girls involved. I figured there’s be menace and hostage taking before this was through.

Fangs a lot, officer. We’ll take it from here.

Wow…. can we officially change “THE SWEATBOX ENDING” to “THE STOKES ENDING” or “A VAMPYRE ENDING” now?

1- LOVELY RITA FORMER METER MAID: We’ve arrested Harold and Ethel for callously running over an endangered Vampire. They’ll never see the light of day again. DOLL: They might as well be vampires! HA HA!

2- DT: Lookit his teeth all over the ground like so many Chicklets! Awh. Poor old Vampire. Had to have false teeth.

3- JOE EMT1: I’ve changed my mind. I now want pizza for dinner.

THE SHARP TOOTHED INSULT COMIC PROFESSOR: Hey! I’m not dead yet! It’s only a flesh wound! Not guil-cup! No one expects the Spanish…uhhhhhhhh.

MACK EMT2: You were right, Joe. Saved us time wrapping this guy up before he was officially dead.

JOE EMT1: Yeah. Experience saves time. I’ll admit I’ve been wrong a few times. Nothing that couldn’t be solved by a long coffee break before going to the morgue though.

I was hoping Stokes would have a fall that would impale him with his fake teeth, and while he was lying unconscious, he’d be killed by his own device. But that would be too gruesome for today’s standards.

so much for honeymoon’s reporter gig. gee pop pop did you have to kill him before the interview?

In the immortal words of Leonard “Bones” McCoy: He’s dead, Jim.

Well it as a POLICE car that hit him. At leaast there’s a little twist.

Finally another bad guy bites the dust

Maybe he will rise again as a true vampire?

No Joe Staton Mike Curtis signature logo

Okay, now It’s probably gonna be an Alley Oop performance. This latest was really exzzzzzzzzzzzzzzziting

—An ironic end for the Wannabe Vampyre. Brought down after jumping down, by police even as he was fleeing police, and as he thought successfully..

As a general rule, one should probably never recklessly jump over a fence way down onto an expressway ramp; or, as the old saying goes, look before you leap!

With Stokes expired in this Wednesday strip, we have a few days of filler/backgrounding into Halloween (Saturday), I suppose, and then a new story….

“Of course, we thought he was a real vampire, so I hit the gas, as is department protocol when dealing with the Restless Dead.”