Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for January 03, 2021

It dawns upon Aquarius he needs more information

Detectives knocking at his door create fresh consternation.

There’s a man who sells balloons, he haunts a local park

Mysterious and hideous, intentions foul and dark.

Said to sell the hidden dirt, the skinny and the scoop

What he knows, the story goes, puts others in the poop.

Aquarius so curious, he has a need to know

Who did slaughter Dollar Bill? Who laid his dealer low?

Wow, looks like Aquarius is going to do the cops’ job for them and solve the murder of Dollar Bill. Putting Tracy to shame.

Good morning™, people with the answers!

So, I’m guessing that Ty warned Aquarius that Tracy might be coming before Tracy even got there.

Aquarius considers Pouch to be a “rival.” I assume that he thinks Pouch is also selling drugs, but I’m pretty sure that drugs are not something that Pouch sells. In fact, he seemed quite disapproving of the drugs that Dollar Bill was selling.

Pouch is a long time Gouldian character.Aquarius is a newbie.Gee, is someone gets killed off, wonder who it’ll be, lol…

Good morning™, correctly colored flames® !

Ty looks appropriately scruffy in P-2.

Remember Pouch when reading Dick Tracy has a kid in the 60s. I was always impressed that he had a small gun in one strip in his pouch.

Aquarius’ visit to the park should prove to be interesting. I believe that Pouch has been around long enough that he is a well-known “fixture” in the crime world. So even though he doesn’t come right out and say it, Aquarius knows that Pouch sells information not drugs. I’m curious to see which will prove to be the stronger virtue in Pouch’s own code of honor: protecting an associate, Tiger Lilly, from someone whose criminal activity he dislikes — or protecting his personal reputation for trafficking in reliable intel even at that associate’s expense?

Oh-oh…could this be the end of the line for our faithful (sometimes) informant?

Next panel: (Cheesecake, sounding like Donald Duck) “He’s got some primo helium. You should try it.”

We have been speculating on the poor condition of the house. Today, some of those snowflakes are falling inside, unless they are standing on a patio of sorts. They are surrounded by windows, but there are snowflakes in front of his jacket and her hair.

Wow! “Pickled-nose cop”. Them’s fightin’ words!

If Sam ever falls to the Dark Side and becomes a criminal, there’s his tag: Pickle Nose! (And it would go so well with his green wardrobe.)

BTW What are “Wildman’s Organics”?

“Pickle nose”? Popeye once described Olive as having a nose like a pickle.

Great art today – Really like those inset images with the flashback and the ominous image of Pouch.

L Silverman’s response says it all!

That girl’s hair looks as if it is filled with helium.

“Pickle-nosed cop”?! Sam, did you hear how that big thug you chased and lost is describing you?! What an insult (everyone knows it’s your Tribune Content Syndicate partner, Broom-Hilda, who has the prize pickle-nose!).

While it seems that Aquarius is just out for information, a commodity in which “that baggy old guy in the park” (Pouch) is known to deal, the facts of the situation—that Pouch used his hired (from the Dick Tracy Home for Retired Characters) muscle, Tiger Lilly, to discourage (but not kill) Dollar Bill—could easily lead to direct conflict between the hippie commune leader and the balloon-fronting snitch over the park as Drug Turf….

At Wildman’s counter in P. 2; I see what looks like an honest to goodness snood on one of the patrons.

I guess these “hippies” aren’t so cool after all.

1-POWDER NOSE: OOOH! Is that a new hoodie? I love it!

2-NARKY MARK: Yes. Motorhead Moe saw it at Hippie Mart and told me I just had to get down there and get it…

3-…you don’t find the color too…feminine…do you?

4-POWDER: Of course not! A lot of contestants on Rupaul’s TV show are wearing that color and they’re all men.

5-NARKY: Thanks bae. You always know the right thing to say. Well, I need some fresh air and helium – in that order. I’ll bring you back some deflated balloons. POWDER: Tell Motorhead exactly how long you’ll be gone if you see him. Or call before you come in the house… NARKY: Will do!

Up up & away in my beautiful balloon……

Oh, dear. Aquarius is going up against the Pouch. Nice knowing you, pal.

Cheezycakes is about to become a widow.

Makes it interesting when there’s bad guys fighting each other rather than just the heat.

Still waiting for the Auntie reveal, for some reason I’m thinking it’s a guy in drag – and there’s nothing wrong with that.

Wow! Sam has a “term of endearment”….pickle nose….long as Aquarius doesn’t call him Vlasic.