Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for April 20, 2021

Loving that phone! Not sure who this Ace of Spades is – another crossover with the DC Universe?

Good morning™, everyone!

They have a grapevine? Interesting, not to mention that they know Abner’s number. I think the Ace of Spades is in charge now in the smoke-filled rooms of the Apparatus, but I never had a chance to look at the history of what happened there. I think it was during the Specs and Spicy story.

“Heard it through the grapevine . . . "

INCREDIBLE – the Royal Flush Gang seems to have abandoned going after the Justice League of America and now is targeting Dick Tracy……

Good morning™, temp labor services !

Your old business will be to Crush, kill, destroy Tracy.

When Abner presented Rikki with her new duds, the GoComic colorist colored them purple like Abner’s costume. Today when she’s put them on, they are orange. Did the colorist forget what color he made them the other day? Did the colorist not care? Is it a different colorist every day? I knew Abner had magic tricks but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a costume color change trick before.

Except for his eyes and the card on his chest, he is as black as the…..

Dethany from “On the Fastrack” would love that phone Bill, you watching?!!

“I heard it on the gravevine "?

That phone DOES look like it should be a prop on Svenghoulie.

her outfit is yellow? the other day it was purple

Little known fact: The Grapevine is Pouch’s cousin Vinny. Vinny was a contortionist in the the same sideshow where Pouch worked as the Fatman. Then came the day of the horrible accident and poor Vinny has not been able to straighten out since. Now, under the pseudonym of The Grapevine, he, like cousin Pouch, serves as a communication intermediary to the underworld.

“It’s the Bonephone, sir….”

I know its hard to do one that’s on message for Abner..but wouldn’t a cell phone work better for his purposes?

Perhaps a different color outfit for each day of the week?

Word travels fast in the joint. Rikki’s dramatic exit from jail (“There’s gonna be a jailbreak…”) in a cloud of smoke (and help from a blow-dart) could only mean one thing. Knowing that Kadaver exited the river around the same time as Tracy (albeit downstream), we don’t know exactly when or how he crossed the ocean (not that it matters). What we and the Ace of Spades do know is that a hit-man is a terrible thing to waste when there is someone who needs to be “wasted.” A job offer out of the blue. Will Kadaver blow it?

Deathany!

Love that creepy phone.

The Ace of Spades….oh, this ought to be a riot?

It absolutely matters that we know how AK managed to yet again escape apparent death (who remembers his Houdini escape from the cement pit?)

Anyone who thinks it doesn’t matter has very low expectations. By simply reappearing whenever team Tracy decides it’s time for another failed plot by Abner to kill Tracy destroys all suspense and creditably to the strip.

Abner needs to upgrade his phone service. He should get a cell phone that matches his shower curtains, like this one:

https://ih1.redbubble.net/image.584878773.3276/icr,iphone_11_soft,back,a,x1000-bg,f8f8f8.u1.jpg

I left this post late yesterday for Sisyphos in response to his conjecture that the whole Tracy family might be at opening night:

Tracy hasn’t had a good track record for opening nights.

Tracy once went to an opening night when Vitamin Flintheart and the actor Barry Moore were starring in the play Sleuth. During the performance, Tracy noticed Moore’s face beginning to melt and suspected it was Putty Puss. Unknown to anyone, Putty Puss had killed Moore and taken his appearance and his role in the play.

At the time, Putty Puss was wanted for a string of bank robberies where he disguised himself as famous people. He had robbed banks as Sam Catchem, President Reagan, David Letterman, and Einstein, etc. Diet Smith was running for President at the time and PP disguised himself as DS and made a outrageously anti-American speech that ruined Smith’s chances of ever getting the nomination.

When Tracy saw PP’s face melting, he came onstage during the performance and confronted PP. Since the play is a mystery, the audience saw Tracy onstage and thought it was all part of the show, commenting to each other that it was a clever publicity stunt for opening night.

The set for this play has swords and spears in displays on the walls. Tracy and PP grabbed weapons and were sword fighting all the while getting applause from the audience. Vitamin tried to get the audience to leave the theatre calmly so that no one would be hurt but the audience thought it was all part of the show and gave Vitamin a big laugh because they thought he was making a joke and just hamming it up.

https://myimages.bravenet.com/833/132/922/HDZ_1618895811.jpg

The Ace of Spades was part of the 52 Gang circa 1962, during the much more creative and non-rehash Gould era. Any new ideas guys?

1-RIKKI TIKKI TAVI: It’s a neighbor. They saw me in this outfit and want to complain about it scaring the kids and the dog.

2-ABBY: LISTEN PUNK! If you’re unable to recognize sartorial splendor when you see it, that’s YOUR PROBLEM!

3-ACES WILD Take it easy. I just thought you should know we don’t cotton to flashy colors in this neighborhood. Or any fabrics other than cotton for that matter.

ABBY: Well, the way I see it, you got two choices – 1, move away or 2, wait until I kill you. ACES: NOT IF I KILL YOU FIRST! ABBY: OH YEAH? ACES: YEAH! ABBY: OK THEN! ACES: OK. YOU HANG UP! ABBY: NO, YOU HANG UP!

Love that phone.

That is a quality skelephone!

Abner Kadaver, Assassin For Hire: Have Cloak, Will Hide Scary Face. Wire Kadaver, Tracyville. Or phone 555-KILL.

(The Grapevine sees this business card, which has been pinned/taped next to the public phones at the seediest, most disrespectable dives and hangouts in all Tracyville. The seediest joints always have public phones, even in the mobile (cell) phone era. The Grapevine puts out the alert to Premium Customers, including Ace of Spades.)

Voila! We’re in business, old and new….

Ray Toler asked yesterday how the lockdowns are going in Canada.

The Province of Ontario announced that they were implementing several new restrictions in response to rapidly rising case counts. They said that playgrounds in park would be off limits, but a lot of people objected, so they cancelled that.

They also gave police the power to randomly stop anyone walking or driving and ask them where they lived and why they were not at home. Several large police forces said that they had no intentions of stopping people randomly and the government announced that they would only stop people that they suspected we heading to an illegal assembly.

Road blocks have been put up between Ontario and the two provinces on either side. Essential workers said that it took them an extra hour and a half to get across the bridge into Ottawa (in Ontario) and Quebec. The mayor of Ottawa thinks it’s a waste of money and police resources and says it won’t last until the end of the week.

In Montreal, a 9:30 p.m. curfew was moved back to 8 p.m. and they were protests which ended up smashing several shop keepers windows. Needless to say, this is the last thing that small business needs right now.

I remember something called “52 Gang”……they had a hideout atop a flat mesa somewhere out west, and they “jacked” the original Space Coupe and its pilot……….this guy looks like the Ace Of Spades, who perished along with the rest ’o the deck via a helicopter drop of a napalm bomb delivered SWAK by Tracy and the gang….I think the Queen Of Spades was the last to leap from the burning compound……just a ’lil reminisce…………..

Abner’s reputation must be well known throughout the grapeville to get these phone calls for his services. One thing for sure, he won’t be mistaken for the Rotor Rooter Man.

Ace of Spades? Unless I took a Rip Van Winkle kind of nap, wasn’t he and his co-horts disposed of by Tracy in the 60’s? Strip is getting known for these recycled villians or some of the young folks would call them “throw backs”.

It is just him and Rikki, how can this guy afford to take on extra work? Ah yes….contract labor.