Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for October 29, 2022

Good morning™, everybody!

Surprise: Uncle Steelface is more pleased than upset! He should be able to keep one step ahead of the police now. Advantage: Steelface.

Sloppy work by Sam. Never leave your police stuff in your car!

devious old Steely… he knows what he’s got and he’s gonna put it to good use… wonder if Tracy and co. can backtrack the two-way when Sam reports it missing?…

Steelwool managed to switch his cigar from his right hand to his left in a millisecond.

‘Little’ Henry Warbucks seems petrified. Uncle Steelbolt must dish out severe discipline.

Good morning™, stolen surveillances !

Sam better speak up fast and then MCU should be able to trace its location and then do some dummy communiques to throw off Steelnuts to where he trips up based on the phony cop talk. His facials look real authentic and a bit scary/creepy in P.3.

Technology marches on, courtesy of Diet Smith. We’ve gone from 2-way wrist radio, to 2-way wrist TV, to wrist wizard (combination iPhone/iPad/AmazonEcho, now to . . . The 2-way wrist radio with a built-in analog clock!

Betcha it has a tracking device in it

What the heck? Sam doesn’t keep the radio on his wrist at all times? He’s more negligent than Honeymoon!

Hard to believe an old veteran like Sam could be that careless, & he probably didn’t inform Tracy.

Sounds like Robert did just fine. His boss sounds pleased.

Still say “GPS tracker?”

Surprised Sam did not miss it right away and tell Tracy that it, along with his car was stolen!

If Sam had his wrist radio, shouldn’t he have been wearing it?

Wasn’t shot/beaten/kidnapped Dick once located and rescued with his wrist thingamajimmy?

With luck the modern wrist TV watches are on different signal and Steeleface will only have limited access because wrist radios would then have lesser priority items coming over the airwaves. He might get good money selling it online or to bigger crime orgs.

So why did Steelface need to see Robert so urgently?

Steelface begins to hypnotize Robert in panel 3. He waves the shiny wrist radio side to side. “Look deeply into my eyes, Robert. You will steal more cars for me. Many more cars. You will forget all about Derby Dugan…”

“And if nothing’s happening, I can keep up with my TUNES, man! Wonder if I can pick up Car Talk?” (And yes, I know the series ended.)

“TAKE IT BAAACK! I keep getting these weird calls from Hemlock Holmes!!!”

From today’s Comics Curmudgeon:

Look, we’re all thinking it, so I’m gonna say it: The Dick Tracy creative team didn’t have to make Steelface’s eyes so darn dreamy. But they did, and I think most of us sincerely appreciate it.

I know it’s a plot device. But it’s one that doesn’t make sense, why would Sam leave his wrist genie in his personal car?

In the last panel…Steelface resembles an angry George C. Scott!

You haven’t kept up with the story in a while… haven’t you?

1-ROBERT: Sup, Unc? STEELY DAN: New rule – if you’re gonna work for me, you have to have a steel plate on your head.

2-ROBERT: Jeepers! That’ll kill my chances to be a star of stage and screen! STEELY: Yeah – that was gonna happen…

3-…Look. To make the idea more palatable, I’m throwing in a Timex analog plastic strap watch with every forehead plate that gets attached. Sounds pretty nice to ya now, don’t it. There’s another option of course – Concrete Galoshes.

ROBERT: Hmmm, I could still act with those. I’d just be a little noisy crossing the stage.

STEELY: What a dummy…

why would Sam leave his watch in the car? why wouldn’t he be wearing it?

Don’t they have reverse tracers in those to see where they are in case of emergency?

Diet Smith gonna give Samuel a severe tongue-lashing for leaving a valuable piece of technology unguarded in an unattended car…but what idiotface doesnt realize is that just because you have a wrist device DOESN’T put you one step ahead of the police, it allows them to track your location.

can someone give the writer a Dick Tracy Handbook so at least HE will know how the thing works!?!?

#YEGODS

These have superseded the wire-up-the-arm aerials.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractal_antenna

And the police can track the signal and close you down.

Steelface in the last panel looks amazing.

Uncle Steelface chastises Robert for his stupid move, boosting a cop’s car, but then turns it around and, in effect, congratulates him for scoring the wrist radio that Uncle expects will give his operation an edge on the cops (by knowing their moves beforehand). But Bobby may still be skating on thin ice with Uncle, and with the Patterson production as well.

It’s time for Robert Parrish to take a stand and commit to his future: either as “Booster Bob” or as musical actor “Robert Parrish, matinee idol” [modifier borrowed from old-time radio show].

Will he rat out Uncle to the MCU and seek Witness Protection Program status, or will he risk the burden of criminal life? One way or the other, his Fate awaits….

Sam, you left your wrist radio in your car?!? What were you thinking? Were you thinking? Might as well left your badge in the cars as well.

I’m seeing shines now in Steelfaces’ 5 o’clock shadow, I assume to show off the metal in his face and that’s stylish! I dig it!