Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for May 10, 2021

Good morning™, tell tale signs !

We knew Ab’s garb would give him away and now we are back to the Tracy Kadaver fight coverage, with a memorial shout out to Vista Bill & Comet !

Tracy is ‘far’ sighted…

Good morning™, all!

Look! Up on the roof! It’s a sniper! It’s a cape! It’s Abner Kadaver! But didn’t he die?

Abner: “Ha ha ha. Come on, Rikki. This is going exactly according to plan.”

With apologies to Bauhaus…

Abner Kadaver’s dead

Abner Kadaver’s dead

Undead undead undead?

Undead undead undead?

The watery grave presumed his tomb

Unknown his resurrection power

Poison dart delivers gloom

Missed the mark, impending doom

The chase…

Abner Kadaver’s dead

Abner Kadaver’s dead

Abner Kadaver’s dead

Undead undead undead?

Undead undead undead?

Undead…

There’s a Swedish movie MAN ON THE ROOF with a sniper attacking cops from a rooftop…

I knew it. Sam is the Big Spoon!!!

Sigh, does the building have a waterfalls?

“I’m going after Kadaver. And this time I’ll make sure he’s dead.”

And we thought he was dead as a doornail!

Great art today, fellows!

“Sam! Get Charlie under cover!” It looks more like Sam wants to get his wounded hat under cover. Why is he swaddling it in a cloth like a baby?

And when you die in Europe, you die in real life!

Just like Abner wanted… he’s probably botching the Charlie 21 job on purpose just to have another go at Tracy…

Right, because we all know Tracy goes after lethal criminals without backup.

Sam (and Tracy) don’t know about Rikki Mortis being sprung from prison by Abner, who was not at all trying to conceal his identity from the guards?

Panel 1: Sam’s hat, that the dart barely pricked laying on the ground. Panel 2: with his bare hands Sam has picked up hat with dart. Panel 3: Sam is using handkerchief to hold the hat. Anyone want to guess why? I would assume he is not trying to protect any fingerprints.

Amazing how accessible the roofs to buildings across from courthouses are.

1-DT: POW POW PIT WHEEEE! I THINK I GOT HIM WITH THE RICOCHET!

SAM: That’s your finger, not your gun!

2-DT: I MUST’VE MISSED. CLICK CLICK DAG! I’M EMPTY!

SAM: HERE! THROW MY HAT AT HIM!

3-DT: I’ll reload my Fistol and go after the sniper…uh, Sam? Why are you cleaning your hat with that cloth?

SAM: In the Jewish faith, a body must be properly prepared for immediate burial.

DT: Makes sense to me. Carry on! I’m off.

CHARLIE: Ai yi yi. And I thought I was the nut in this bag of trail mix…

Funny how tracy never mentioned that professor brown’s cape looked like abner kadaver either

Looks like that dart scared the crease back into Sam’s homburg. Tracy’s faux bow is back too. Another good hat day!

Dick Tracy has keen eyesight! Sam remembered Europe. Tracy is after Abner and his cape. Charlie 21 looks completely confused. Great cartoon art!!!

I’m Sure Ab will wait while Dicko scales the skyscraper. Good art though

“See that cape? It looks like Abner Kadaver”. I can’t believe this guy is stand up where he could be seen like that. Why couldn’t he settle for reading the results of his attempt in the newspaper or see it on television.

How does Abner think he is going to get away? All the exits will be covered.

Maybe that is the plan…..go out in a blaze of glory….Rikki probably is the beneficiary on his life insurance policy. Oh wait a minute! Policy doesn’t cover suicide by cop.

Dang! He blotched the job. The Apparatus is not going to like this. Maybe they can, as an old song goes, move to the outskirts of town.

Well, the cadaver is out of the body bag.

You want action? You got it. You want a gritty, determined Detective Tracy? You got it. You want pursuit of Kadaver even though Catchem and others believe him dead? You got it.

You want focussed and ranked stacking of characters, culminating in a major close-up? You got it (panel 3—I really like the progression from upstage to foregrounded Tracy, through arriving copper-backup, bewildered and maybe shocked Charlie 21, and Sam being very cautious in how he handles his dart-pierced hat).

Professionals react to the moment: Sam covers Charlie (literally); Tracy spots the shooter and determines to go after him.

You got it! A blast from the past with Roy: https://tinyurl.com/ybmewfac