Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for October 31, 2021

There was a time of future crime when Sterling he did seek

To gaze into impending days and give that time a peek.

Time and space is not the place to shrug and roll a die

To future place we shall not race. Only a fool would try

To go to where we cannot be. To sneak behind the curtain

A reckless game would earn one shame. Regret both fast and certain.

The future does not want us there, the present ours to bear

Hope and plan is all we can do now to get to there.

Present always with us, while the future is a dream

Sterling stuck his hand in, yet he had no time to scream.

The future dropped what did intrude. Gave Sterling back his hand

Once time did catch up with it. Time travel not so grand.

Good morning™, all!

Now, we have a real mystery! Anything that makes Tracy’s eyes open very wide has to be extremely significant. “He just left it there.” What can that possibly mean? That one has me stumped.

OK, so Eliot was thrown forward in time when the drone exploded, but wasn’t completely inside the transfer zone, so his hand was outside the zone and was sheared off. If he was trying to get a look at the winning lottery numbers, we can expect him to reappear, screaming and bleeding profusely, shortly after the winning numbers are announced, probably the next morning (if he was trying to get a look at a morning paper).

Considering it’s Halloween, are we certain that hand is dead?!

Was Eliot a Cyborg, or something like that?

Evidently the Time Drone only worked properly when delving into the past. If memory serves, Diet Smith noted it didn’t perform right when trying to view the future when he was trying to perfect the gadget.

Allstate salesman on the side, one of the “Good Hands” people? Sorry!

This’s turning into one of the best stories in a long time. I’m loving this. Good story and good art. Congratulations Mike and Shelley!

Maybe the hand escapes and starts killing people? And Tracy is helpless to handcuff it once caught, lol?

Good morning™, Thing(s) !

If they don’t get some nutrient tubes and cooling for the hand it will soon start to darken, shrivel and then finally grow mold. I doubt Eliot will want it back then. Team Tracy’s Halloween themed strip is outstanding.

Great strip today. Perfect for Halloween. I love Tracy’s expression when he looks at the hand. It’s definitely nothing he’s seen before. The writing is great and so is the art. I like the greenish pallor on Tracy’s face, even though it’s mostly caused by his face shield. All they did was talk, but they moved the story along. I don’t think we’ve seen the last of Mr. Eliot. Or is his hand the last of him…?

One little thing: Shouldn’t it be “coroner’s office?” Or “coroners’ office?”

Jack? Sorry, I spell my name Tracy.

“Like he left it just in time.”

Based loosely (har!) on the Edgar Allan Poe short story The Left Hand of M. Valdemar.

Val-de-Mar? Hmmm. Valley of the Sea ? Isn’t that some kitschy tourist trap in Florida?

I think only the hand went to the future that’s why they recovered it intact. The rest of the body which was in the present were blown into smithereens

I would echo the Crimestoppers from today. I was involved in setting up several Neighbourhood Watch groups back in my uniformed days. While a lot of the initial interest faded in most groups once the signs had gone up, some of them were very effective. One of our groups once called in a report of a strange car parked up and looking suspicious, so a constable was asked to take a look. It turned out to belong to one of the “high tech” British government security agencies who were conducting surveillance! Rather embarrassing for them to be spotted and reported by a little old lady. :-)

Called it! They must have identified him from his fingerprints.

The first panel is awesome!

The images today are just fantastic , BIG time . Tracys eyes in the second last panel are wild . I wonder what is " up " now ?

Ooo! A nice and creepy strip for this Halloween!

We have his hand—but do we have the rest of the body?

Relative to Einstein’s “spooky action at a distance” ?

The view of Tracy’s face, especially around the lips and mouth, behind the face shield is highly detailed. I think Chester Gould only did that two or three times during his entire run on this strip!

Hmmm. I think that the “Lost in Time” theory has just been revived.

So, Mr. Eliot’s hand is here…then where (or when) is Mr. Eliot?

Tracy is thinking, “This’ll be great at Tess’ Halloween party tonight!”

SQUAREJAW McGEE: “Sterling Eliot was at the heart of the explosion, so finding any discernable remains is frankly impossible”

GHOTEFACE AND SAILORMOON: " Hold our sippycups"

Let’s give the writer a hand!

Eliot was vaporized.

There’s not much left to find.

His left hand was the only thing

that seems was left behind.

No doubt it is SOP but wouldn’t it be funny if, when the coroner does fingerprint the hand that it ISN’T Elliot?

If he’d left an eye behind, too, he could be a pirate.

A Tracy Halloween tale…

1-DR. FLUNKOUT: I’ve heard that some of you cops don’t like to get shots or mask up but this mask is just so you won’t slobber on the corpse and mess up the DNA results.

2-DT: Hey. I had me a little scale like that when I was on Weight Watchers. But yours is nicer.

3-DR. FLUNKOUT: Yep. Just one of the benefits of being a coroner. My favorite is that I don’t have to buy one of those big chest freezers for my house. I can store a whole cow here!

4-…but that’s not why I called you here to discuss…

5-…I found the human equivalent of the infamous Monkey’s Paw in Diet’s lab. What I need to know from you is…with all the fingers splayed out…do I have 4 wishes available or does it mean they’ve all been used up?

DT: Beats me. Wish for something and see what happens.

DR. FLUNKOUT: OK. I wish I was…AWASH IN SEX APPEAL! LOOK! One of the fingers curled up! …wait a minute Tracy! What are you doing??? That look in your eye. I didn’t mean for it to work that way!

DT: ZIPPPP!

DR. FLUNKOUT: Put that thing away! OH NO! THE CURSE IS REAL! IT DOESN’T TURN OUT LIKE YOU HOPED! AAAIIEEEEE!

Happy Halloween, Dick Tracy!!

“He just left it there”….am I to understand that Eliot knowing he was a goner did the equivalent of throwing himself on a grenade like the time drone?

All points bulletin….be on the look-out for a crispy critter with one hand.

The rest of him was teleported through time.

Only one hand was severed in the explosion? This story goes deep….like a rabbit hole.

“And over here’s a TOE. Nasty corn there. I’d give him six months tops, based on that.”

Well, he did hire on to give Diet a hand.

What? He was transported away into the time stream in the blast?

Okay, they’re about to reveal that Sterling Eliot is really the crook Manny Quinn.

the detail on this day’s strip is a VERY nice change! The artwork is very nice.

Maybe this hand can join FlyFaces’. The last villain to give us a hand.

https://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2011/04/22

Is it just a coincidence that that was also a Diet Smith related story?We gotta hand it to Diet Smith, his experiments love to explode in the hands of criminals.So the hand isn’t aging? Hmmm… A new eternal life device? Sounds handy.No Diet! Just leave it alone! Hands off!

A little body horror just in time for Halloween!!

Hmm… as long as it doesn’t grow a face and look like the Quasi hand sculpture by Ronnie Van Hout. That thing is creepy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wF692TN88PY

that sure was an off-handed comment

Don’t you just hate it when people (yes, you, Sterling Eliot!) leave a hand lying around while the rest of them goes on a blast of trip to oblivion?

Seriously, Coroner Jack has a real mystery on his hands—or on Eliot’s hand. I suppose somehow the Time Transgression is involved, but Temporal Mechanics make my head hurt (even more than Janeway’s).

All kinds of Halloween-ish science-fiction/fantasy possibilities could ensue. Mike is certainly keeping us guessing as this story unfolds, bit by unpredictable bit….

Maybe an “uncorruptible” but we only have the severed hand.

Ok! In proper p5 of the strip. It’s primo!

The heck with the hand.

What we have here is a touch of the old Chester Gould ghoulishness,with a morgue setting.He did this all the time.Staton not so much.

I remember 1936—the “ice bullet killings”.The censors were up in arms because of teh detailed morgue examination of ADdie Gothorn and the hole in the back of his head,