Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for February 21, 2021

Pouch no slouch. He has a plan. The man from “Citywide”

Must retrieve the blue balloon ‘fore turning of the tide.

Situation bleak. Faked gas leak a possible solution

Find balloon then very soon to the park for restitution.

Cheesecake loves the pretty lights. The room now all aglow

Aquarius delirious. Now he’s in the know.

The Balloon so teal glows to reveal binary numbered code

Sell back to Pouch, that nasty grouch. Hit the jackpot mother-load.

Aquarius oblivious. There’s danger near and soon

“Citywide” lurks just outside to take back his balloon.

Ah, so it is the balloon, not something in it.

The cat’s out of the bag!!

Good morning™, fans of UV!

That “black light” effect brings up a very interesting aspect of the blue balloon. It could be that the secret information is printed invisibly on the outside of the balloon, rather than contained inside. I’m not sure that Aquarius even realizes what right in front of him, though. He too distracted by the new ceiling decorations over their bed.

It’s nice to see the tribute to Brian Sicknick. Considering the normal lead time for the Sunday feature, they got that done quite promptly after the Capitol Hill incidents.

Good morning™, secret code finders !

Aquarius exactly realizes he is seeing something special and will either bargain a price for Pouch to get it back or will find himself in a battle royal when Pouch gets to that room. We hope it doesn’t happen but Chet might have Cheesecake perish in the hail of gunfire that is bound to ensue when these two men meet.

Something as delicate as binary code on the surface of a balloon. Delicate as in, one misplaced one or zero usually destroys the entire sequence.

Okay, I guess, if it moves the story along.

Do hippies even say, “Far out,” anymore?

A mighty thoughtful and considerate side of Ty. Seems there is a real friendship beyond the bossee-workee relationship we have been seeing.

That bird Cheesecake,

What a gal

A groovy chick

Everyones pal

She loves to please

And make you smile

If only she’d shave

Once in a while

If I was French

It’d turn me on

But underarm hair’s a no

Even for a sexy blond

A Code?

192029913COL?

It’s hexadecimal, which as near as I can make out (I couldn’t quite read the next to last number) reads (in hex): 31, 39, 32, 30, 32, 39, 39, 31, 33, 43 0F/4F (unclear), 4C. In decimal, the numbers are: 49, 57, 50, 48, 50, 57, 57, 49, 51 67, 15/79, 76 If it is an ASCII code it would translate to characters: 1, 9, 2, 0, 2, 9, 9, 1, 3, C, Shift/O, L. The characters don’t make much sense, so the hex code or the decimal values may be the significant info here.

Next panel: (Cheesecake) “Ooo, I don’t like that… math is hard!” *POP! (Aquarius) “AAARRGGH!”

Great idea.

Another amazing coincidence, that this would be the day Cheesecake puts up the black light. I’ll be nice and not ask how Pouch put the information on the balloon, or how you know where to start reading binary if it is printed in a circle. (There may actually be an answer to the binary question, but my field is history so I’ve no clue how to begin the reading.)

I like the different art rendition today and on most Sundays!

! WOW ! , What great images today as usual , The fox Cheesecake and the light bulb in the upper right corner plus the ( Peace Sign ) it the middle bottom . I wonder what the numbers stand for ?

Anybody out there read binary?

Autopsy results are pending. First reports of Sicknick being hit with a fire extinguisher have not been confirmed by any video or witness account taken on the 6th. The NY Times has withdraw the fire extinguisher story and changed it to ‘while on duty’.His eldest brother said he died of a stroke.So while the death is tragic, I believe until we know all the facts, this tribute should have waited on the results, not on suspicions.

1-POWDER: Check it out, Narky…

2-…I went to the No-Tell Motel and bought a couple of their bedspreads.

3-…You’re not gonna believe this but…

4-LOOK WHAT OUR BLACK LIGHT REVEALS! I think I could turn this into the next Pop Art rage! I’d use your paint brush if it wasn’t out of ink . No matter. The No-Tell rents by the hour. Plenty of canvasses available there.

5-NARKY: That’s nothing! Look at what that balloon salesman is able to produce with his “ink”. INCREDIBLE! But also… EWWWW!

There it is…the blue balloon….with a lot of numbers?

Bitcoin wallet password?

Brilliant! A computer code on the balloon! And we were all wondering if there was a piece of paper hidden inside.

The latest is: He WASN’T hit in the head by rioters; he had a bad reaction to being sprayed with bear repellent, and died from a heart attack.

i suppose someone here can read the balloon?

And no one even mentions the binary code in the balloon…

Plenty of mention of it in the comments, so I presume you mean by the characters in today’s strip?

You should have waited until the real cause of Officer Sicknick’s death is reported. There is no evidence that the ‘mob’ of ‘rioters’ were responsible for his death. In fact the autopsy has been kept from the public. The ‘fire extinguisher’ story has also turned out to be false reporting. Check your facts before wading into political commentary. Unfollowing you.

Aaah adios manny. Certainly those “patriots” played no part in the officer’s demise

Really, in response to NG49 above:

Sad, too. So many comments (and at least one I know of that was deleted) all trying to say that the cop who died on the scene was not killed by the rioters – or the riot.

Binary code on balloons to deliver a secret message is a new twist on an old idea. Could Pouch’s great-grandfather have been in The Adventure Of The Dancing Men?

https://everbosity.wordpress.com/2016/12/31/dancing-men-cipher/

But now I wonder if there isn’t a “dancing symbols” code also embedded on Aquarius’ shirt!

Aquarius has seen the Light!

Well, someone had to say it…. Cheesecake’s fortuitous scheme to decorate their bedroom with a blacklight display suspended-ceiling “viewscreen” (for want of a better term) has led to the serendipitous discovery of a blacklight backlit message in code on the Famous Blue Balloon, and Aquarius is mightily pleased. He likes Cheesecake’s ceiling-display, too. And Cheescake.

Too bad the sinister Pouch has less pleasant plans for The 1312!

If you can read binary, it’s a word balloon.

It’s already been verified that Officer Sicknick was not injured on January 6 and that his mother said he died from a stroke.