Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for January 26, 2021

Good morning™, puzzle assemblers !

And so the fine tuning begins. Other than wanting to remove the stain and stigma of drugs and bodies from their town, Dick and Sam may be secretly grateful the bad guys are winnowing their numbers on their own without the expense of jail or anymore wasted time on digging these rotten taters out.

Good morning™, miscommunicators!

Tracy is talking old-fashioned detective work and evidentiary-based procedure. Sam is not hearing it — he’s gonna make like Bush Jr. and “go with his gut.” He’s angling for Ty and won’t be sidetracked.

This time around, could hearing Tiger’s muffled cries for help give Tracy & Sam the “exigent circumstances” they need to proceed at will without a warrant?

Looks like GoComics is now greatly affected by the pandemic. They furloughed the person who colors the strip. :)

Good morning™, everyone!

I imagine that lots of people knew Bill, Ty included. Although Tracy and Sam can’t conclusively connect Ty with the commune, the house does seem worth looking into if they go about it the right way. Nobody’s going to let them in and I still don’t think they have sufficient cause to get a search warrant.

If only Tracy knew what Ty has been up to while he’s “laying low,” he’d be even more anxious to find out more about Ty.

Dick’s looking very old and tired today.

Sam’s finger looks ready to invade Tracy’s nose!

Any official reason for the extended b/w?

Next Panel: (Tracy) “Fortunately our all-encompassing surveillance system provided his picture since we had nothing to go on but his first name.”

Ty’s laying much lower than they realize.

Stake out time!!!

Panel 1, Tracy starting to look his age.

Yeah, there might be some poor guy in a cellar who could provide a few clues.

Good today but not great , And what is the deal with the image of the bad guy in panel two ? How did that get there ?

Tiger Lily (paraphrasing Berke Breathed): Saved from even nastier criminal by cops… sort of a dream come true, y’know?

“Wouldn’t it be lucky if any of the pushers in custody knew Bill Dolan?”

“Like the one I chased in the park, ‘Ty’?”

Uh, Sam? Tracy asked about the pushers in custody. Ty is not in custody.

Not sure about Sam’s follow up comment, “Yeah, the lead didn’t pan out, but I think we should look again.” ’Didn’t pan out’ means produced nothing (I believe the etymology is from panning for gold) – i.e. totally worthless. The lead hit a stone wall with Aquarius, but that didn’t mean the lead was worthless, only that it couldn’t be confirmed. If Sam thinks it’s worthless lead, why look again? Look again, in what way? I just want it to be legal. And there is no other avenue to investigate?

Tracy seems to have aged during his three week absence— maybe he really did get caught in that time warp he mentioned awhile back!

I invite everyone to join me in a “Color The Tracy Contest”! Using colored Sharpies, color the screen, take a picture of your effort and post it to I_Need_A_New_Monitor@gmail.com

Winners will be announced soon.

1-SAM: Hey Dick, how’s the Tax Return Prep side hustle going for ya?

DT: Well, I got fired for arresting too many customers who tried to cheat the government. I’ll finish yours and then that’s all she wrote…

2-…speaking of, you DO know that the City compensates you for things like bullets and squad car gas, don’t you? So taking those as Business Expenses would be illegal. Also, I’ll need support for the $15K in cash donations you’re claiming as that far exceeds…

SAM: Ya know what, Dick? You look really tired. Just forget my return. I’ll take it over to No Questions Asked Tax Service like usual. They don’t even charge an upfront fee – just a percent of the take…I mean REFUND.

Here’s your choice “colorists”..Story gets a little better in b/w, or we get color and the “Sweatbox Ending”. This art is great, like it was for 40+ years except on Sunday.

“There’s no proof he was ever at 1312 Bedwell”…didn’t Sam follow him there? Maybe I dreamt that I read that particular strip.

The reappearance of Tracy and Sam enables them to make up for their absence from the story line.

“Wouldn’t it be lucky if any of the pushers in custody knew Bill Dolan”? Enter a district attorney to make an offer for a reduction of jail time. Question now is which pusher will go for it.

that could happen in a bit…but Ty’s a ’lil tied up at the moment……..

For what it’s worth.

Sundays, Team Tracy colors the strip. Dailies are black and white. When dailies are colored, someone else colors them. The question is, who?

For Luann, the colorist for the dailies is someone who calls himself “Sheriff Mordecai.” And we have seen different color schemes for the same comics on different platforms.

Since it is Tribune comics only that are black and white, I suppose the real question is, did Tribune make this as a request? And if so, how does it appear colored in Comics Kingdom (as Ray Toler reported).

Yay, magic viewscreen! I especially like the little fluted collars above and below.

When were these viewscreens first introduced into the strip?

Sam’s pointed suggestion (ahem!) to Tracy, that they check out The 1312 again, would only work if they first papered up; and on what pretext could they get a warrant? Suspicion of drug sales/consumption on the site? And even if they could obtain a warrant for entry and search of 1312 Bedwell, would they even notice or having notice be allowed to investigate the root cellar/Tiger cage?