Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for July 01, 2021

Good morning™, collectors!

When you’re having a good time, it sometimes seems like the day will never end—well, this one won’t. As some of us expected, Mr. Archival’s place is indeed easier to get into than to get out of. The game is finally afoot!

Good a shoot out is coming. Can’t go two weeks without a shoot out! LOL

Will Mysta zap him, or has he some counter to that? Tune in eventually!

Is that you, Tanleer?

Good morning™, dun dun dunnns !

And so it begins… It would be so easy if Mysty lets go a zap or two, but that would be shortcutting or maybe, that is how we arrive on the “Sweatbox”. Aaaaaaaal aaaboooaaard !!!

Brock is so cool and confident. If he knows Mysta’s capability then I’m sure he has a counter measure all ready to go.

So disappointed that Archival is now officially the „designated“ villain.

So, emergence from this house likely will be the end of the story.

I’m with Gweedo. This has all the hallmarks of a Sweatbox Ending.

Mike, you can do better than this!

Just as I pointed out two days ago. So obvious I can’t take credit for it.

No more originality in Tracyville!

Dun-Dun Dunnnnnn!!!

OOOhhh! The spider has his two flies! At last we have a villain!

One thing’s for sure.

The thighs have it!

I almost forgot, happy Canada Day to all my Canadian friends!

Finally…

One thing’s for sure: Alldid isn’t in league with Archival. In fact, Alldid may be a kidnap victim too. I can’t see Archival keeping one and letting the other go. He may even want Alldid to produce his strip from his mansion from now on, like in Stephen King’s Misery. He may even make himself the strip’s writer. There’s other possibilities, I’m sure, but it’s 1:35AM here and I need to get my beauty sleep.

Hmmmmm! Interesting turn of events!

Oh no. He wants to turn Mysta into a statue and Vera has to disappear!?!

Suddenly, in a twist no one saw coming, it is revealed that Alldid and Mysta have been lured to the largest piece in Archival’s collection… the Hotel California!

Won’t the syndicate miss the next few issues of Alldid’s strip? Or do you think it’s going to play out like someone said—Mysta calls Honeymoon?

And are we SURE Archival’s mansion is in Tracyville? Might be a jurisdictional problem. Could also be yet another return for Fritz Ann.

“I’m going to be storing you both in mylar snugs.”

why not?

archival= arch evil?

ah…

Hotel California?

Prisoners! Will Honeymoon holding hands or (gasp) kissing Astor contribute to their rescue?

non-chalantly saying I’m afraid that won’t be possible. Sounds more like last words of a fool!

Aaaaand, here it comes!

Sounds like shocking times are ahead.

\\//_

1-STAN LEE: I wondered when I had this lunar landscape painted what I would ever use it for. Cheesecake photos would’ve been my last guess but they’re better than nothing I suppose.

2-VERA SIMILITUDE: Here’s the fee for the modeling. Just make the check out to CASH. You’ll note that I gave you the “CLOTHES ON” rate. HORNY: Wait? What?

3-STAN: What? Well here’s my fee for the “Meet And Greet”. You think I talk to people like you for free? I’M FAMOUS! You’re just some no-talent ripping off Dick Tracy.

VERA: We seem to have come to an impasse. STAN: I think I have a solution…

DUN DUN DUNNNNNN

“Not after I place you under the floor and am driven further mad, mad, maaaad by the beating of your horrible heart. Mr. Sock Puppet will now bludgeon you.” Can you say ‘creepy situation’?

Yes, you can check out any time you want…BUT You can never leave…enter great guitar riff.

Mysta is basking in the spotlight, Vera is drooling, we can’t see because the GC censor erased it.

What does Vera do now? Mail in his drawings from Archival’s estate? Won’t the place where he works notice he is missing? Surely Diet Smith Industries will note the absence of Mysta. If not Honeymoon and Crystal will.

Chances are that Honeymoon and Crystal are going to get the investigation portion of this storyline rolling. Be on the look-out for a “Missing Person” report.

“I’m afraid that won’t be possible”. Oh shucks golly…wonder what his “fetish” is. Between him and Vera…Mysta may join a convent of nuns.

This does not bode well. I sense a kidnapping to the mancave.

I’m afraid I can’t do that, Dave.

Just like a Harts mystery show episode in which Jennifer Hart had been abducted by an ‘exhibitionist’ collector and her hubby Jonathan came in to rescue her with the help of their manservant!

UH-oh, DA-TA-DA!

You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave.

Its about time. This story line has gone off in far to many directions. Now, the main story starts. Did Mysta tell Honeymoon where she was going? How long will it be before VA is reporting missing? When will Honeymoon discover that Mysta is missing? How does Archival think that he can keep Mysta from just walking out?

“I locked all the doors and swallowed the key! Now for the REAL fun!”

To quote a line from : " A Bronx Tale " bar scene : " Now, youse guys can’t leave "…

I was also thinking of the “Saw” and “Cube” movies…

Never trust a billionaire!

Following the afternoon’s frivolous pin-up shoot, evening turns sour for one or both of Brock’s “guests.”

Sounding to me very much like HAL, Archival announces (panel 3) that some or all of what Vile Alldone just said (panel 2) won’t be happening. It is not yet clear whether he intends to detain them both, or just Mysta, though I am inclining to “both”; how he expects to be able to collect Mysta successfully, given her powers, is not clear, either. Maybe he has some device ready that will dampen her electromagnetic energies….

[imagine a monotone]

Wow. What a surprise.