Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for September 24, 2022

Good morning™, everyone!

Still no crime, but we finally have Anita on the scene and, like Tracy yesterday, she says that everything is good. Nevertheless, everyone is on high alert.

That cop has gone into a trance. Maybe he’ll channel the dead. The original Tonsils!

Good morning™, entranced security !

Is that cop communicating with the spirits ?  Dick is tense but will relax once the crime has been done where he can pretend to feverishly search for clues and then the whole thing falls into his hands, like manna from Heaven. Time for Sam to go on a coffee and pastrami run.

Has she ever met B.O. Plenty?

Ahhh…..that cop may be focused on by no accident…..crooked security would have a leg up on stealing…

Veteran comics illustrator and writer Matt Wagner wrote a great Shadow Minit Mystery-like tale in 2015, entitled, “The Shadow: The Curse of Blackbeard’s Skull.” In only 8 pages, the author weaves a truly wicked web.

Where’d they get Dr. Bath from? An Agatha Christie book?

The cop looks a bit bored!

Doctor, I need a bath?

Sorry, I couldn’t help myself when I saw that line.

I’d be worried too! If nobody tries to steal it, they will cut the police budget.

Well that was a week we won’t get back. Anyone spot any suspicious clues?

….looks like that cop in the foreground is already “relaxing”……ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ………..

…check out Anita’s headgear: looks like an old pith helmet from that old “Jungle Jim” T.V. series…..painted purple with Rust-O-leum spray enamel to match her outfit!…….

Where’s the thermos? Anita Cuppacoffee.

better drink too much coffee so you’ll stay plenty alert… after sometime in the restroom. :)

TRACY: SO JUST STEAL SOMETHING, SAM, SO WE CAN GO HOME AND I CAN CRACK OPEN A FEW COLD ONES!

SAM: I DIDN’T YOU YOU DRANK, TRACY!

TRACY: AFTER YEARS WITH Y…ER…I MEANT CHILLED WALNUTS! YES, WALNUTS! AND MAYBE A KLONDIKE BAR OR THREE.

Tune in tomorrow, when Scooby and the gang cozy up to the lady in purple. It’ll be a nail-biter! (when we find ‘she’ is actually perpetually grumpy neighbor Joseph ‘Mr. Wilson’ Kearns, trying to make a comeback in comics).

Joe , your images are just great , thanks : )

So one week into a “Minit Mystery” and nothing seems to have happened at all.

Tracy; when the exhibition is over, there will be something else, besides Tess, and, your family, that will grab your attention.

IS this still the moon?

Why does everyone just ASSUME there’s going to be a crime?

It looks like that cop in panel two is already napping.

DT: You swing your arms weird when you walk, Sam.

SAM: I swing both ways.

DT: So I’ve heard…

The cop in front is already relaxing.

The Mystery is we’ve wasted a week just jaw jacking, Why?

We are now halfway through this two week “Minit Mystery” with no mystery in sight……

“Is Anita here, last name, Bath?”

You know, with all the people here complaining because things are going slowly in these tales, maybe we need a story where a group of hoodlums show up and just start shooting up the city in a wave of armed robberies…….

Hmm. Dr. Bath makes a token appearance in her big purple hat (is she a latter-day “Hedda Hopper” type?). That would seem to suggest that she is not a Main Character and will not play a significant part in the rest of the story. That would leave only Jett and Christopher as potential suspects, if a crime has happened in connection with the exhibit! So far, no KNOWN crime, and only a week to go!

I guess she stinks with a name sounding like ‘ I need a bath’ , maybe a relative of BO Plenty !!!