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

Indeed! Indeed! ✨

Good morning™, all!

An intro for new readers about what Doubleup’s name is and how devoted he is to the bullwhip. It’s kind of review for many of us, but he’s one of Mike’s better characters.

“Mmm, you don’t say. Maybe we ought to take a closer look at it some time, big boy. Big boy.”

“Do you like my hair? I dyed it during a restroom break.”

Doubleup is a freelancer, freelancer.

I guess JJJ got in to see The Ace. We may not find out what they said for a week or two…

Remember the double-talker in GOODFELLAS?

“Wow, the temp agency sure sends me to the craziest job sites!”

The temple pieces on her glasses come and go. At least we can see her eyes in panel 2.

Good morning™, fawning chameleon girls !

“She changes from day to day”.

In P. 2, it looks like she is expressing an interest in a guy who likes to Lash Out. I guess that makes him the “house whip”.

This lady has no nose! She has two nostrils but that’s it! It’s a little disconcerting to say the least!

After all, you can’t be a Dick Tracy villain without a gimic!

“Pardon me, but you’re Clunkilda X. Position, right?”“Please, call me Clunky.”

The professor in a very old 1950s Superman TV show talked like Double up in one episode !

Is someone smitten with someone?

Too bad in panel 2 the receptionist didn’t say “That bullwhip is just for show, isn’t it? Isn’t it?” LOL!

That’s right. That’s right.

He looks like an owl. An evil owl

o/` Minimum waaaaaageeee! Yeeeee-aaah! o/`

1-RED: I turned off that light because the light through the shade made everyone believe I had red hair. Now you can see that it’s actually blonde.

WHIPPY: So why does everyone call you “Red”?

2-RED: That’s a cute story. I tried to make it in show business as Redd Foxx. Because I’m foxy as you’ve no doubt noticed and, before the reduction surgery, I had double D’s hence the two D’s in “Redd”. Who could’ve known that somebody was already using that name?

3-WHIPPY: So you never heard of Redd Foxx AND you took down a pair of ultra rare, natural double D’s?!?! Just how dumb are you???

RED: Well, I’m not stupid enough to bring a whip to a gun fight!

WHIPPY: SHADDAP!

RED: NO, YOU SHADDAP!

RATFACE THE ACE: BOTH A YOU’S SHADDAP! I’M TRYIN’ TO HAVE A MEETIN’ IN HERE!

I guess, in these times, he could not be a school teacher.

Nice story. Nice story. :D

Wait a minute….this secretary was a redhead yesterday. Today she is a blonde…my gosh what kind of lighting do they have in that office?

Ace of Spades hired Doubleup to be his bodyguard…must have been the “whip appeal”.

What’s he up to…what’s he up to!

“Looks intimidating” ain’t worth a dime…if he can’t back it up.

Going back to Sunday’s strip and now today’s just cleared up the lighting matter for me. They all get to the office while it’s dawn.

Considering Ace of Spades has already announced he plans to double-cross the entireApparatus;if I were Doubleup I’d watch out for knives in the back in the back.

SUPERMAN:Professor Pepperwinkle,whatever posessed you to invent a machine that turns people upside down?"

PEPPERWINKLE:“Well,I wanted to be the first!”

Putting a square jaw on Dagwood Bumstead makes him look “intimidating”?

What’s your safe word? safe word?

If you need a whip to look intimidating you’re just a punk. A punk.

You don’t say, don’t say??

It could be worse; he could be “Triple up.”

Inquisitive office temps want to know. Doubleup, who is big and burly, square-jawed and menacing. looks intimidating enough without the whip. With it, he’s just plain scary! (And I’m sure that’s the image he cultivates.)

He’s all an evil genius (Ace of Spades) could ask for in a bodyguard, a bodyguard!

I think that may be the longest sentence we’ve heard from Doubleup before he repeats himself? More characteristic of his usual rhythm, to my ear, would have been:

“I’ve practiced with it my entire life. Entire life! And in my line of work, it never hurts to look intimidating. Intimidating!”

Buuuuut, there wasn’t enough room in the panel for a five-line speech balloon.