Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for October 27, 2021

Good morning™, everyone!

Well, for you admirers of Briar Rose, we now have proof that she’s in this very deep. She’s right about barely escaping being nabbed by Tracy. I’m surprised they didn’t run into each other.

Yesterday

I hauled riches up from far away

Now it looks as though away they’ll stay

Oh, how I long for yesterday.

Suddenly

I’m not half as rich I thought I’d be

And Dick Tracy may be on to me

Oh, yesterday went suddenly.

“That’s better. I couldn’t fire up a good stogy while playing that reporter gig!”

~ Good morning™, uncovered undercover reporter moll !

Even though I was expecting her to finally show her true color it was a shock to see her comfortably ensconced at Bad Guys (st)Inc.

Finally!!! Some cigar smoke!!! It’s been far too long since I’ve seen you, my precious!!!

Poor Jonathan K. I bet he changes his avatar now!

I like panel 3, with the shadows on Rose’s face and hair. It makes her look cold and heartless, with the light source below her face.

MAYBE Sterling messed up?

Speaking of which I’d hate to be the undertaker doing the job on Sterling’s corpse…

MAYBE… Sure he messed up!

Most likely it was the fault of those two guys from last Sunday’s page.

Green eyes?

Ace has no idea that Sterling’s last job was for himself

Why are her knuckles black? Don’t tell me it’s the cigars shadow, not according the the shadow of her hand on her blouse.

Anyone recognizes Ace’s eyes?

I wonder if Sterling got slung into the future or past? Or just dead?

Will we learn why Rose was at police headquarters and Smith industries? She had no reason, we can see, to ask about either. And Elliot had been doing a fine job of sending in information – so there was no reason to check up on him or serve as a courier. Will we get the details or will the issue be ignored (meaning she was merely a plot device to have Tracy reminisce and bring back the obvious news that Elliot messed up and her movements really unimportant)?

Or maybe this happened: An American criminal is lost in the swirling maze of past and future ages, during the first experiments of Diet Smith’s greatest project, The Time Drone. Sterling now tumbles helplessly toward some new adventure – somewhere alone the infinite corridors of time…

BTW, kudos to Pleger on making facial features visible through that silly mask of the Ace of Spades.

the plot thickens

Gee, Ya Think?

Orrrrr, could it be Smith’s answer to a wholesale demand for unionization among among the employees? I have this insane mental image of him, finger on the infamous Red Button, chortling away like a five-year old who’s found Dad’s hidden stash of Baby Ruths.

Rose must be playing football or baseball later given the black she’s applied under her eyes to eliminate cheek glare. Good for her!

More quality art in all three panels. The red rose is named Briar. She crosses her legs and lights her smoke, unruffled by the gaze of Ace. More bluster than brains, Ace is not suspicious of one of his “best operatives.” Briar forcefully asserts that Sterling may well have messed up. She may be the most captivating female criminal since Venus. I don’t doubt that she could have gotten herself free from bondage, although the security guard may have been following protocol to remove the cuffs in the wake of the violent explosion.

1-RATFACE: HUBBA HUBBA! Do those legs go all the way up? OOOOH. Draw on that thang, baby!!!

2-…SAY. Does this new mask hide my features? I think it’s too revealing. What do you think?

3-SUKIE: I think you should stand up, Big Boy, so I can see if anything of value is really being revealed.

RATFACE: You’re about to see the Levitating Desk Trick Chickee!

SUKIE: I’m waiting…

RATFACE: Ummm, hang on. There seems to be a problem with the, uh, hydraulics…maybe if I…no, that’s not helping…

SUKIE: Uh huh. Well, I gotta go. Lemme know if you get your wand straightened out.

RATFACE: DANG IT, LITTLE RATFACE! YOU’VE LET ME DOWN FOR THE LAST TIME! PUNCH OWWWWW!

We agree with Rose on this assumption

The art’s a little different, but I like it.

Nothing is unsexier than women wearing neckties and smoking cigars. Blaaah

Briar Rose smoking cigars can kill you!!

“Maybe Sterling messed up”. How would Ms. Rose know what his specialty was unless they were briefed together about the time drone.

All those books they sent Mumbles to buy….I wonder if the bookstore has a “satisfaction guaranteed or money cheerily refunded policy”.

Hmm…one of requirements about being associated with the Apparatus must be are you willing to smoke cigars?

Oops did the Apparatus put all of their eggs in one basket? Guess they’ll have to go back to “fortune hunting” the old fashion way.

Loving the mask detail.

I was kind of hoping that after a certain Presidential administration, that the cigar craze would have passed away.

Talk about Tracy time: Ace’s dialogue tells us that this strip is just the day after the explosion. And that happened in the evening! Is this the morning after?! The explosion happened ten strips ago. Could this strip be a flashback?

I think Ms Briar Rose has been fitted for a red shirt, which will be delivered soon.

EVERYBODY smoked cigars!!! Who’s behind this criminal gaggle? George Burns??

Gee, you think, Briar? —Our red-headed sprite is, as we now see, just another Bad Girl operative of the Apparatus and of the Ace of Spades in particular, unlikely to do a “face turn” in this story. Maybe that cigar is clouding her judgment about the late Sterling Eliot. Being at the very epicenter of the explosion, he was likely instantly vaporized, so that there are no substantial remains to be found, ever. Best hope for learning what occurred is the use of a new-and-improved Time Drone….

Ace’s features (panel 2) are so clearly defined beneath that spandex hood that it ought to be possible to identify him. The problem is that he is apparently “nobody”; that is, no one we know from any previous appearance….