Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for December 30, 2020

Commune or palace?

Good morning™, amazed observers!

I love this house! Here’s my inventory of what we have here:

Lots of hippie-looking residents on the grounds and the ground-floor balcony. Two peace symbols on the walls of the second and third floor. A rainbow on the third floor near the left and a helm (ship’s/boat’s wheel). For me, the wheel immediately evokes “Proud Mary” by Creedence Clearwater Revival. There is a man in the centre of the second-floor balcony painting colourful designs around the windows and the person of the right side of the second-floor balcony seems to be kneeling in prayer. Behind the house are some large evergreen trees and possibly a forest.

Good morning™, McMansions !

What a spread !  I bet Auntie owns the place and those are all her co residents (renters(?), who also have lives and work … at least the law abiding among them.

Stately Wayne Manor?

Alright, Sam, you’ve found the place, now don’t go doing something stupid like going in without waiting for Tracy. (And, if I can dream, extra back up.)

Far out, man.

Next panel: A tie-dye clad Lurch answers the door. “You rang, man?”

The GoComics colorist strikes (out) again. Hope we get to see it on a Sunday, in proper colors.

Sam has met people from the moon, freakish villains on a regular basis, and encountered outlandish plots to do evil – and is amazed by an old house with left-over hippies? This is the complaint I’ve now been whining about for days. The writer thinks we should find this amazing? Sam should be thinking “Ho-hum, I wish they were all this dull and close to normal.”

uh, sam missed a house this big?

Seems a lot better organized and clean than I expected.

that’s a pretty smantchy place.

Quite an impressive piece of architecture!

Wow! FANTASTIC first panel!!

Another potential issue… 12/24 – Sam saw someone buy something from someone in the park. There was no investigation of what was being sold, Sam intuitively knew guy had to be dealing drugs. Seller runs, probably a misdemeanor at least, but not really sure if it rates more than that. 12/27 – “Oh, that sounds like Ty, he lives at the commune.” January 2 (January 1 is New Year’s greeting) Cheesecake asks Ty to talk with officers, “Gee, green-suit guy, sorry for running. You didn’t show a badge (Sam’s empty hand was commented on at the time) and I thought you were a mugger. You saw me sell something? Did you get it for evidence? No? Oh, it was oregano.” There is no evidence for an arrest, based on what we’ve been shown, at this point.

Music coming from the tinny speakers of a dozen iPhones:

HIPPIE: SORRY, SORRY! I’ll pick a different song! ♫ ♪♪♫ Voulez-vous coucher avec moi, ce soir? ♫ ♪♪♫

SAM: Hmmm. My finely honed police sense tells me that this seems an unlikely place for drug activity. Bad intel I guess…

Great list of stuff we can see ourselves Neil. Neil really needs a job. Great art though.

I don’t see much room for a garden.

What a heavy, far out trip!

Hey Sam, have you ever seen a man swallow his own head?

A Hippy commune in 2020/2021 “Chicago Metro” area…right…

Either Sam is a Millennial who’s never heard about hippies, or he’s amnesisc, which, considering his advanced age, it is understandable. That is the problem with long running strips.

There is really not much left to say, except that I agree with Sam’s sentiment!

Will the po-po raid this old re-purposed mansion that was once undoubtedly a flagship of old-line Tracyville Elite?