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

Good morning™, box office crashers!

Apparently, a large crowd gathered for the time when advance tickets went on sale.

avenger09 misread 17 minutes ago

@Gweedo it’s legal here Murray

Really? You seem more like a VHS guy!

Under this VHS hood lurks a powaful DVD. I’m a sleeper. Race ya for titles !  LOL !

Well now, this might just have gotten interesting! Isn’t that Lollipop, Vitamin’s side squeeze? Wait until his Kandilame gets a hold of her!

LOL!

Night life is pretty lame in Tracyville if they’re all coming out to see this lecherous old geezer!

Good morning™,skipped dress rehearsals !

Looks like we are at the opening night premiere. Our little tombstone titillator is looking deliciously different; even her eyes are a different color. Colored contacts or coloring error ?

The blonde IS Rikki Mortis! Go back to 5/18. You will see Rikki wearing that same necklace!!

“The crowd is getting ugly!” “They had a head start!”

They sell tickets to the Public for a dress rehearsal?

Hey, I thought this was a closed dress rehearsal by invitation only. How does Rikki get to buy a ticket?

Is that blonde really Rikki in disguise? That blonde hair really screams wig at me.

Wig? I thought it was a hat..

The crowd is getting restless? For “The Tempest”? Who’s the opening act, the Red Hot Chili Peppers?

Rikki Mortis, Mistress of Disguise….(and Mistress of dis guy, Abner)

So the dress rehearsal is done, and Tracy, Sam, and Charlie already saw it?

Vitamin’s theater doesn’t have an IT person to make it possible to purchase tickets on-line?

Can you buy tickets to a dress rehearsal? Oh, and Rikki looks pretty “normal” in her disguise.

Rikki looks good in a blond wig doesnt she?

1-TICKET BOOTH BETTY: Why are you here? GUARD: To arrest you if you sell any tickets. Sugar Daddy’s performances are a crime!

TB BETTY: Yeah but only petty theft at best. I’ll risk it.

2-TTB: WHADYA WANT?

3-RIKKI IN DISGUISE, THAT’S WHAT YOU ARE: Well, let’s think. I’m at a ticket booth with money out. You guess first.

TTB: Wise guy eh? Just for that, I’m gonna put you in the middle of the only crowded row so it’ll be hard for you to run outta this horror show.

R.I.D.T.W.Y.A: Well, I’ll just bring a book and earbuds. I won’t hear or see a thing! TBB: OH YEAH? Oh. Puke bags are $3 each.

R.I.D.T.W.Y.A: YEAH! Gimme two…

(1/2) I’m at Devil’s Tower Wyoming today on the last leg of my vacation. My wife and I are headed home to Chicago after our last sightseeing day.

There is so much odd and strange about today’s strip that I hardly know where to begin.

First of all, @Neil Wick: If you can think of the most famous actor you know today, that is the status of John Wilkes Booth during his time. He was known as the most handsome man in America and drew large crowds wherever he went. Saying he performed in 83 plays in a single year is like saying a popular band performed 83 concerts in a year. Actors of the period had worked their way up from being extras to juvenile roles to supporting roles to leading man status. By this time, they had pretty much memorized all of the Shakespearean canon. The acting style of the period was DelSartian, a method where emotions were conveyed by striking specific poses and the speaking style was declamatory. Booth (or any leading man of the time) could easily step into any Shakespearean production without any or little rehearsal. Opera singers today are in much the same position since opera often has specific and traditional staging. Booth would tour and simply join other productions to play a couple of nights with another acting company. An actor of Booth’s stature would be the star power that would draw the crowd.

Obviously, Mike used the term “private booth” to evoke the way Booth killed Lincoln. That was a term that was more generally used in the 1700s and before. Today (at least throughout my 50+ years in show business) we use the term “box seats.”

Buying tickets in the lobby at the box office can still be done today but generally such purchases are done online like you would buy concert tickets or in big cities from street vendors like Hot Tix or something similar. I have worked as an assistant director to a Broadway show and I have never seen the theatre box office mobbed like this. Rikki could have saved the makeup for another day.

I believe when Vitamin was introduced in the strip, he was a parody of Lionel Barrymore who, at the time, was the archetype of the fading Leading Man who had aged beyond the roles he played.

Later after his marriage to Snowflake Falls, he and Snowflake went to Hollywood and Gould somewhat morphed them into the famous acting couple of the 30s and 40s, Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne.

So… is this makeup on Rikki or her natural color, with the pale blue being makeup?

Uhmm, last time I checked, “Uh” plus “Oh” spells “Uh-Oh”…………..

Neil, there’s no law you have to comment when you have nothing to add. Mr. Toler, if Vitamin was a parody of a Barrymore, it was probably John not Lionel.

Is that Honeymoon? Or Rikki in disguise?

Posted on the DICK TRACY fan club facebook page:

Tribune has been sold!

The company confirmed its sale to hedge fund Alden Global Capital on May 21, 2021. Alden is known for aggressive cost-cutting in companies it acquires.

Read the last line again…“Alden is known for aggressive cost-cutting in companies it acquires.”

Could the future of DICK TRACY and the remaining comics, and features be at risk…

However, Alden Global owns 200 or so newspapers – so that may be a plus – the wealth of Tribune Content Agency’s content. (Plus the valuable IPs of the comic characters.) may keep any current features getting the chopping block.

Tribune publishing still owns the Content Agency – it was not spun off apparently.

I thought this was closed to the public?

At first I thought it was Honeymoon with her antennas covered by her hair by the ink lines used for hair detail.

Wow! Rikki’s disguise is really good; she has fooled so many of the regulars here in the Comments section today. The Tempest starring Vitamin Flintheart is obviously a big, big draw in Tracyvillle for the “arts community,” so the need to get advance tickets for a good box seat (or, rather, seats) explains why she has positioned herself at the head of the line as the box office opens for business!

Too bad for her and Abner that Tracy and Charlie (and probably Sam, possibly their wives) will have already attended the dress rehearsal….