Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for April 28, 2021

Grip Fight!

Good morning™, buddies!

Tracy is not working alone, after all. I’m sure Sam really appreciates participating in the “boring” assignment, but maybe it won’t be so boring if Abner has his way.

Good morning™, old “pal” of mine !

With friends like you I need anemones ?!  Once again, into the breech.

Petty. Very petty. Look at all the heavy petting going on.

Nice exchange.

Tracy left his lab coat on the coat rack!

Hope no one steals it!

Thought Balloon: Somebody needs to do the diapers.

Perfect strip, today.

Hey Sam, surprise you are going with me!

As commented on several days ago, it appeared that Tracy was being personally assigned rather than directing the MCU to do the guarding, and he had to pressure/insist to even get Sam assigned with him. Either the plot has given up on any sort of verisimilitude as we understand it (and characters can begin eating light bulbs for lunch or flying if they flap their arms hard enough) or Tracy was being set up

How did Sam lose his fingers? It looks like Tracy is holding on to his stump.

Hmmmm interesting!!!

Is this like the handshaking scene between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Carl Weathers at the beginning of the 1987 movie “Predator?”

“If I go down, I’m taking you with me” personified.

Aaaahhh…. sarcasm. Gotta love it.

Can’t have one without the other….friendship!

They may jest with each other for a moment, but the fact is, Sam is a loyal partner and friend to Tracy, and would not have been happy if Tracy had to do this gig alone. I say this based on how they have acted toward each other over the entire run since Sam was first introduced in 1949.

Those knowledgeable about inking techniques and so forth have explained more than once why Joe’s own inks look so egregiously (my opinion) different than Shelley’s. But I am remembering the trial panels that Joe submitted, way back when he was first trying out to be the new Tracy artist. In those panels, Tracy really looked like Tracy, with a nice Gouldian flair about them. Unfortunately, today Tracy is drawn to look more like a parody of himself. This almost looks like when I myself attempt (unsuccessfully) to sketch Tracy. Just my opinion.

Week #3 without Shelley? She is coming back, right? She really tightens up Joe’s pencils.

These are good friends. I imagine that Tracy is thinking at this point that this assignment may be less than boring and he’ll need someone he trusts to watch his six. The chief, after all, is no dummy and wouldn’t just assign Tracy to this for no good reason.

More of the Talking Head Show.

So..apparently this story is about “couples” or “pairs” ar least. Sam and Tracy, Vitamin and Kandilame then Abner and Rikki…. is there anything in THE TEMPEST that relates to sacrificing a partner?

What’re palsy-walsys for, anyway……(:-)…………!!!

I thought I’d give you a peek behind the curtains by having the characters themselves reveal this writer’s thought process when coming up with new dialog for the drawings. A bold look into the creation process or dare I say, a brief glimpse OF GENIUS!!

1-SAM: Hmmm…I have a piece of paper in my hand…ok, got it Says here Tracy that they’re looking for a new head of detectives. You retiring? Fired?

2-DT: uh oh. I’m stuck. Wait! That doesn’t mean “NEW BOSS”, dimbulb. A “Head of Detectives” is how you refer to a group of detectives. Like a gaggle of geese or a murder of crows.

3-SAM: Insult me will you?_ Thanks for the education, Tracy! Oh, sorry. I had a big, wet, green, booger on my fingertip.

DT: Try to gross me out will ya No worries. I didn’t wash my hands after a #2 in the toilet. I should also tell you also that the stall was out of toilet paper so…

SAM: Why you rotten sonuva… No problem Tracy. The smell will keep me on my diet today.

DT: You’re not getting’ the last comment you bastard…_ I guess you just started that diet because I saw you eating one of those donuts I poked in my search for a Bavarian Crème Filled..

SAM: UGH! I think I’m gonna… URPPP!

DT: Heh heh. Nothing says “I won Improv” like an opponent tossing his cookies!

…no problem… I know for fact that all 3 will be playing Minecraft!

I guess Lee or Liz will be the interim head of MCU while Tracy and Sam have taken a leave of absence.

Tracy insisted on Sam accompanying him with bodyguard detail. Yes Virginia….the “buddy system” still works.

Charlie 21 will probably be giddy with all this attention he is getting. Then when he finds out the Apparatus has a contract on him…"oh gee whiz shucks golly….I didn’t know they cared so much about me.

Off the storyboard and out of our sight, will Tracy and Sam toss a coin to determine who will be first to babysit.

Sam with the Rocky/Stallone look in P1.

Of course, Chief Patton could have had Sam with Tracy when he gave Tracy the “babysitting” assignment, knowing that Sam & Tracy always work as a team anyway. It’s like scenes in TV shows now, when they only have 2 actors in every scene. Stay safe, everybody!

Intense close-ups for the intense relationship between these two veteran partners. They take their sharp digs at one another, but the handshake seals their bond. Sam and Tracy are Brothers in Blue—and co-babysitters for Charlie 21, The Man Who Knows Too Much….