Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for January 30, 2022

Boss is none too happy

‘Tis well known what runs downhill.

Ape and Ferret called to task

They have no news to spill.

Someone is eliminating

clients left and right.

Boss demanding answers

Yet the help is none too bright.

This we know: We reap and sow

It’s said crime does not pay.

Boss learns who has done him wrong

It’s them who he shall slay.

WOW! Great Sunday Page! How I miss the days of full beautiful color Sunday pages in the newspapers….. this is a keeper.

Good morning, fellow sewer dwellers! It looks like Yeti’s made a couple of new friends. It will be interesting getting to know these two a little better as well as learning how Yeti survived the spider bite. As a closeted Arachnologist, I could not positively identify the spider so this could be interesting as well.

I’ve got a bad feeling about this story.

No words of reason why,

just a feeling and a sigh.

Funny thing is, turns out she’s “Ape” and he’s “Ferret”. The more you know.

PS: Neil, this is a joke.

Ferret is like a punk version of Squirrel Girl, LOL! Hey, they better bring back Clyde, that giant spider! I want Clyde!!!

Who was the last villain that was killed and has stayed dead?

Why the need to keep recycling these lame nut jobs?

Good morning™, everyone!

The last time we saw Yeti (December 5, 2020), he had been left for dead by a giant spider. Apparently, he wasn’t as dead as he appeared, but it seems that living in the sewer full-time now. I believe that his assistants, Ape and Ferret, are new. If you’ll recall the beginning of that 2020 story, He killed an incompetent assistant named Rabbit on the first day of the story.

I suppose that he’s still in the business of selling poisons to criminal gangs. I wonder who could be killing his customers, and whether his clients are being specifically targetted.

I love Shelley’s newish methods of forming the newspaper headlines to follow the curves of the newspaper. It looks quite nice.

Good morning™, loonie goonies !

A very interesting comicy looking pair here. They look of the low intellect type to follow a crank like Yeti. Next to these two, DoubleUp looks like Ivy league material.

“And now for something completely different”

Turns out I was wrong. I thought that after the Mr. Bones case was settled, Tracy & Co would go full bore on the Second Ace of Spades & Apparatus, so when they started going away from Bones/Blackjack and talking about the subplot of the Apparatus on January 24, I assumed the case was over and put up my list of Tracy stories available on GoComics. But not only did they resume talking about Bones/Blackjack on January 25, but here we can plainly see that the next story (probably) has nothing to do with Ace/Apparatus. However, I’m not going to go over the entire list today. Instead, I’m just going to correct the last story on the list:

2021

The Second Ace of Spades, Mr. Bones, & Blackjack (December 10, 2021- January 29,

2022)

And post the html of the Dick Tracy wiki page that has the full list, with the corrected dates at the end:

https://dicktracy.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_Dick_Tracy_stories_in_GoComics

So who’s Mark Barnard and why is he writing this story?

A Bradley, Illinois Police Officer was killed and her partner seriously wounded in a recent incident,

Yeti!

He sounds like a guy who can’t remember or doesn’t want to know their names.

P.4  Oaf boy is pinching himself to see if this is really real. He is in a dream of nightmare proportion but doesn’t know it yet.

He’s got that “I’ll kill them myself” look on his face.

WOW ! Super great images today , BIG TIME . What is that in the top right image ?

A week of reprints, then a week after the wrap up we have a guest writer unannounced…hmmm

I thought he was dead?!

So, now we know that Dick & Sam found nothing but an empty lab when they finally breached the Impenetrable Steel Wall. No wonder they hushed it up….

As for Ferret? Certain persons who shall remain unnamed gave me some flak for killing Rabbit right off the bat. By way of atonement, I give you Ferret, his more focused and tough cousin.

As for Yeti? Evidently his repeated exposure to previous bites likely built up a certain degree of immunity. However, there’ve been some changes made to his psychology. He is now EXTREMELY paranoid about being betrayed or having the execution of his ordered fail.

And yet another “escaped by convenient girder” arch-criminal resurrection…

Okay. full story. I was contacted to do a story and initially worked up an outline on Oni, a slightly weird gun-for-hire. It was suggested I do something more with Yeti, so I blocked out a second outline and turned out the story in a sort time. Then I sat back and frowned. Though I liked the structure, Yeti didn’t pop up until Day 3 or 4. Day 1 opened with a panicked gang boss calling Tracy, hoping to make a deal for protection (we all know how THAT would go over). Page ended with a gloved hand opening a door behind his seat. Day Two was a dull day at the MCU, with Sam , bored out of his skull) doing a crossword. The call comes in and, as Tracy takes it and hears a few brief details, a shot is heard. Buuut, Yeti wasn’t introduced for nearly a week. So I reworked it.

Yetis’ actually pretty tame. Israel Tell, the baddie in a story I wrote for a proposed anthology, is much worse. And a little creepier.

As a ferret-lover, I approve of Yeti’s new hench-gal. Although, as has been previously mentioned, he hair style does make me think a bit of Squirrel Girl.

I wonder if there is a new vigilante murdering criminals a la the Punisher.

Ape resembles the Igor character from Dr.Fankestein. Ferret looks frightened. All panels nicely drawn.

which one is ape?

Beautiful art today, Shelley; and I am looking forward to the story, Mark.

The one who chucks his poop.

1-APE: Do you think we’ll ever meet Ed Norton down here? That’s the only reason I took this job.

FERRET: I took it because the acoustics are so good. Listen: ♪♪♫ Spiderman, Spiderman. Does whatever a spider… ♪♪♫

2-AL BINO: I TOLD YOU I NEVER WANTED TO HEAR THAT AGAIN!

3-FERRET: Sorry Boss. Hey. Speaking of The Boss… ♪♪♫ Now I work down in the sewer, where all it ever does is rain… ♪♪♫ I changed “carwash” to “sewer” because…

4-AL: SHADDAP! AND NEVER REFER TO ANYBODY BUT ME AS “THE BOSS” AGAIN!

5-…Now go get me some Charmin. I’m tired of wiping with the Tracyville Daily! The ink leaves my bum as black as my heart!

FERRET: That’s poetic, Boss. I’ll need money.

AL: STEAL IT YOU DOLT! WE’RE CRIMINALS!

FERRET: Oh yeah. I guess I’ll need my big purse for this caper…

…Ape…..Ferret……..so: which one’s which?

Maybe this new guy will be able to tell a story. Avenger..just like Marvel…no villain ever dies. It’s called lack of imagination. I mean Gould seldom resurrected villains…Shoulders, Mumbles come to mind. These guys just won’t let go.

Fortunately, the danger of the venom from that dog sized spider is inverse to its size just like with scorpions and octopi.

Apparently Yeti tastes bad to spiders.

This guy Yeti really looks fit to be tied. Someone is messing with his “paper” (slang in some places for money) Sure enough is intolerable, especially if he has to file for bankruptcy.

Heck of a place to have a hide-out/office…the sewer?

Haven’t seen this baddie before. Looks like a cross between Doctor Doom and Ranxerox.

Okay, in defense of Big Shaggy. Sure he’s evil, an elitist snob, can’t dance, kills a few henchpeople, and smells of elderberries, but hey, he visits his mother in the attic every year or so! Okay, okay. Visits her when he needs a loan, now that that meteorite thing fell through.

Oh, Yeti. I thought it was Lightseid.

Wasn’t he supposed to be dead?

Good old Tracyville Daily: If it bleeds, it leads! Someone is offing gang “bosses” (how many bosses can there be? Or, how many gangs in Tracyville? N.B. These are the old style gangs, not the street gangs of ethnic groups who control bits of drug-dealing turf.) and upsetting the albino golem-like villain, Yeti, who is a supplier of poisons and/or perfumes.

And one notices a trend: not only is the arch-villain called Yeti, but (so far) all his subordinates have animal-names (or nicknames): the late Rabbit, Ape (who, in the penultimate panel, resembles Charles Laughton’s Hunchback of Notre-Dame), and Ferret (who does not resemble Esmeralda).

The sewers of the city are creepy places: ’gators and spiders and gangs, oh my! What will emerge?

well ferret looks cute. hopefully she’ll last longer than his last flunky. maybe yeti and shelob made up after their tussel

Meanwhile, at the start of a new story-arc, what stories do we think need to be told? I can think of three or more angles on George Floyd and #BlackLivesMatter. Or maybe he wants something about Oath-Keepers or Proud Boys?BTW, don’t stories about hitmen, drug-dealers or thieves start getting a big boring?

Who are we going to see next? Ed Norton?

In the second-to-last panel, Ape’s pose and expression are priceless. Whatever that is he’s doing, he’s clearly not one to give undivided attention for more than about four seconds. Immediate insight into his nature at one glance.