Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for February 25, 2021

Yup.

“A Stink.” ✨

Nothing like a little coke to get Cheesecake motivated.

Good morning™, cooks helpers!

I don’t know how she’s going to make a chicken dinner out of tofu, but it does look like she’s high now, so she must have taken that sniff of cocaine. She’s not so dense that she doesn’t know what that smell signifies, is she?

Good morning™, odor detectors !

Looks (smells) like the kind of gas that makes you want to get out of the house. I am thinking the chicken dinner line is just a rhyme to “winner winner” and that there will be no chicken, unless it has yet to come out of the freezer.

Ye Gods, that’s the widest basement staircase I’ve ever seen!!! You can roll a body down without touching either banister!

Odor, odor, but no exploder…

And sadly for Cheesecake, also no clue!

The oven in panel 2 appears to be an electric range top. It’s not inconceivable that she’s spent her whole life around all-electric appliances, but to think she’s reached adulthood without learning what a gas leak smells like? I suppose it’s possible to be that sheltered from the actual way things work that she’s never encountered nor given any thought whatsoever to the systems that allow her to flip a switch or turn a knob to activate everyday conveniences.

Next panel: o°o “Is THIS where Aquarius has been disposing of Auntie Bellum’s adult diapers?” °o°

Artwork like an Archie comic strip, today. :D

No one died yet, but she will if she doesn’t get out of there on the double.

Love the art today, well done guys!

“What died down here? Love it!

Being coked up adds little circles to your speech balloon and a curvy arrow toward your head.

And, by magical coincidence, five seconds later Pouch will knock on the door and report the gas company believes there is a leak and he needs to check (and then evacuate) the house.

Wil she even realize that it’s the smell of gas? Maybe she’ll tell someone who’ll check on it? Nah. She’ll get the spuds, and Pouch will be sitting in his SUV waiting for someone to notice…

Will she even recognize the odor? Or will she get someone to check? Nah… Pouch will be stuck in his car waiting and waiting for the brain dead to notice.

Little known historical fact – Some years later when “Cheesecake” had escaped the clutches of Aquarius she got a job as a Weather Girl at a local TV station. The director would always have her stand sideways to the camera so that when she pointed to the weather map, everybody could see her “Warm Fronts.”

I draw your attention to the photo on your left. After months of searching, I am pleased to announce my coming out…wait…that’s not it…my PICTORIAL DEBUT. I carefully curated a great many selfies until I finally found one that would 1) NOT result in a great number of marriage proposals from the female readers and 2) NOT cause the male readers to question their sexuality. I can only pray that I’ve been successful.

NoT what, who.

I will accept Cheesecake is the cook for the purposes of the story. But, isn’t this a commune? Wouldn’t other commune members also be assigned to help cook for such a large group?

Powder enjoys a playful, chemically enhanced afternoon at home

1-POWDER: She lines up the kick…BAM! GOOOAAALLLL!

2-… Today viewers, we’ll be making that man-pleasing specialty, Tofu Served Nude First we’ll get a hot cook – me – throw Tofu on a plate, then strip and serve – Voila! One very satisfied man!

3-…With Hermes Niloticus Crocodile purse and Jimmy Choos on full display, the ingenue makes her way along the fashionable Rodeo Drive stores…

EEEEEK! AXE BODY SPRAY ON RODEO DRIVE! POLICE!!! I’VE BEEN ASSAULTED!

@Neil Wick – indeed…tofu?

One thing Pouch hasn’t anticipated: What if someone in the house gets a whiff of his stink bomb and calls the real gas company? Will he be able to (as Lawrence.S suggests) get in and find his balloon before the real utility workers show up?

The only thing missing is a radio blaring out " Hey good looking, what ‘cha got cooking, how’s about cooking something up with me".

I haven’t gotten past the first panel…Cheesecake got back. Probably the most interesting thing that’s happened in a month.

Tofu “chicken” with chickpeas.

Note too that skunk defense odor smells like decay.

Something bad could well happen to her, and the tofu is there so that folks won’t feel too sorry.

OH NO!

A little sniff of Nose Candy and Cheesecake is up for making some vegetarian-hippie din-din for Auntie and herself and, if he gets back in time, Aquarius (I see tofu and carrots and celery and onions, some less readily identified items, and a big bottle of olive oil). She is not, I’m pretty sure, cooking for the whole commune: as we have seen since early on, Alex and the Bellums have what seems to be a private apartment within The 1312.

But hark! What odor is this wafting up from the basement, whence our Dreamie Girl in Pink would retrieve potatoes (and it’s a Good Thing that the potatoes weren’t being kept in the old root cellar!)?Is it time to run, run, run?

wow she’s full of get-up-and-go

In this place, Cheesecake’s question isn’t completely rhetorical.