Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for November 07, 2022

“Arrest Vitamin Flintheart immediately!”

Suspicious. ✨

Good morning™, everyone!

Sam finally got his old radio back, but he can’t figure out how it got into his coat pocket. To us, it’s very obvious. Also, we know why Robert didn’t just hand it to Sam. He’s afraid of incriminating himself.

So Sam says his old wrist radio was broken … but Steelface was using it to monitor police transmissions, so it had to be working … but it’s broken. & why is Sam still hanging out at the Patterson PlayHouse? & why did Steelface let his nephew, who seems to have the IQ of a stage curtain, get totally away with the wrist radio? The wrist radio that is broken. But Steelface was using to monitor police transmissions. Talk about a writer phoning in a story.

So Sam says his old wrist radio was broken … but Steelface was using it to monitor police transmissions, so it had to be working … but it’s broken. & why is Sam still hanging out at the Patterson PlayHouse? & why did Steelface let his nephew, who seems to have the IQ of a stage curtain, get totally away with the wrist radio? The wrist radio that is broken. But Steelface was using to monitor police transmissions. Talk about a writer phoning in a story.

what ARE you up to, Robert?… what’s your long qame?… he’s GOTTA be in the chits now, as Uncle Steely Arce has no doubt missed the two-way by now… and did we miss an installment?… Steely wanted to see Robert and now Robert is back at the Playhouse and has already deposited the two-way into Sam’s possession… dam right something funny is going on here… the story continuity sucks…

I haven’t completely given up on this story.

Fascinating!

Guess it wasn’t a trap or a loyalty test. Robert’s still gonna be in trouble.

Robby probably should have secured his exit from crime before growing a conscience. Dude’s still jacking cars and taking them to the chop-shop, he’s definitely looking at jailtime if Steel Face goes down. Though this is the DT universe where multiple-murderers like Mumbles get sentenced to like a year so I guess he won’t get in too much trouble.

Good morning™, Amazing confounding discoveries !

Did I hear Sam say Shazzam !?!  He sure is confuzzled by this sudden turn of good luck. Good luck getting prints off it, with yours, Robbie’s and Ferric Eric’s all over it.

How goofy can one get?

…What the hell did that accomplish for Robert?

He hasn’t made amends with Sam; Sam’s still lost his car and everything else in it. He hasn’t done right by Steelface, a relative who has helped him out in the past. He also hasn’t done him terribly wrong, since the wrist radio theft wasn’t going to help forever and Steelface was an accomplished crimelord before he got it. Does Robert somehow think that Dick and Sam will stop looking for the car thieves now that Sam has his stupid gimmicky watch back?

If the police had any doubts about whether someone in the playhouse was involved in the car heists, those doubts are now gone since it’s been many days or even weeks since the theft of Sam’s car and the sudden reappearance of the wrist radio at the playhouse won’t fool even a prize-winning moron like Sam. And that was on top of the risk Robert took to place the wrist radio in Sam’s jacket without getting seen. This is 100% self-defeating without any upside. Why not just turn himself in properly if that was the goal? What IS this? Good grief.

A plot twist which needs some extra kayo power! Yes, it does increase suspense and emotional tension here, but it is rather weak. Robert risks his neck by defying his Ironclad uncle and he helps the MCU cops with thwarting Steelface’s crimes, but this won’t be lost on old Nickel Noggin. He’s going to go after his nephew. Tracy has been too slow to act and this mediocre plot has been slower to blast off. If Mike had been a Mission Control Specialist for NASA, right now he’d be unemployed.

So… It was so broken Sam couldn’t use it, but not so broken Steelface couldn’t?

OK so it’s not all bad guy bad, etc…but I’m finding this entertaining. And now (alas) Tracy and Sam have learned that there’s a Steelface operative in the playhouse.

My opinion, I like where this is going, Robert is a good egg torn between 2 worlds, Uncle Steely’s and his acting ambitions, and really having a hard time figuring out how to handle it! Maybe the 2-way wrist radio was working but finally crapped out for good and Steely discarded it, we will see!

Wrist radio, wristTV, wrist wizard, wrist geenee….kinda reminds me of that old quote “WHAT’S IN A NAME?”

Confess Robert and end this story !!!

…perhaps Rob-O dropped it umpteen times on his way back to the theater….nerves, you know……..

there goes tracy’s plan for misinformation

Patterson Playhouse: Great plays, crime, intrigue! (Come on the right night, and we may even have a live arrest for your enjoyment…)

It would be to Robert’s advantage to say, uncle I cannot pull any more jobs, conflicts with rehearsals. Now don’t be ticked off after all you used your connections to get me through the door.

When the sibling of Steelface gets wind of what he is doing to his nephew, the title of “persona-non-grata” will be his without a doubt.

Looks like Tracy is in a car. I hope the city finally sprang for unmarked patrol cars.

Well, could have at least FIXED the darn thing! I see his disappointment, though. It’s stuck on the All Hannah Montana Channel.

TRACY: Er, about that ‘glitch’, Shady Sam. The boys in IT get bored sometimes. Riger deliberately rigged it to only pick up dispatch calls for the old CAR 54 WHERE ARE YOU SERIES. Which may also explain why your stolen car periodically spouts Ann Southern dialog from MY MOTHER THE CAR.

SAM: Yeah. I got tired of repeatedly being told to brush and floss AND date a nice girl. You think it was a careless accident when I left it parked with the engine running and the door open??! ‘Stolen’, huh. Riiiiight.

“Jeepers, maybe Mr. Sam really IS a cop!”

The intrigue is the unknown of Robert’s motives here. Did he wipe fingerprints off of the watch? If not, it could still have his and Uncle Steelface’s prints on it, given that the police have either set on file.

Does he want to be caught?Does he want Uncle Steelface to have the best shot at reformation?Does he want to protect Uncle Steelface from the police tracking the watch?Does he like his first fan, Sam, and feel sorry for boosting his car?

Otherwise, this still feels like a Tonsils2 parallel, minus the love interest.

I think we may all be looking at this sideways. Everyone is thinking Robert is really a good guy. Maybe he’s just more clever than his uncle. Not being aware of the “glitch” , Robert has been concerned that the Wrist Radio will ultimately lead Tracy and company to the chop shop thereby ending his career AND HIS PLANS TO BUMP OFF UNC AND TAKE OVER No?

Never mind.

1-SAM: HEY TRACY – What time is it?

2-DT: Hang on – I’ll text it to your Wrist Radio. SAM: Thanks.

3-…HANG ON! I got two text message buzzes, Tracy! I found my other Wrist Radio!

DT: I told you to check your butt earlier!!!

SAM: I did! That’s not where I found it. IT WAS ON MY OTHER ARM! Well, over and out. Say. Did you hear that twice because now I have TWO Wrist Radios? Also. Could you text the time again – it’s later so that earlier text is wrong…

MOVIE QUOTE—-“I ask a lot of questions.Habit of mine.And nobody asks why I’m asking them”

Jean Simmons—-ANGEL FACE—1953

Okay,the kid has made the first move.Maybe a panicky move.

Will Steelface be boiling over enough to directly confront him at The Playhouse;forgetting that the walls have ears?

An open “letter” to Mike Curtis:

Dear Mr. Curtis:

If you’re reading this, you know by now that today’s comments have been particularly harsh. No one here wants to hurt your feelings (at least, I know I don’t), but we are passionate about Dick Tracy, and these recent stories are putting the strip at risk.

Here is a friendly, constructive suggestion from a concerned fan:

When you took over the writing of this strip, you said in an interview that your favorite period of the strip was the 1950s. I remember that, because that is my favorite era also. Why not go back and re-read some of Chester Gould’s best work from the 50s, and reacquaint yourself with the elements that made it great: police procedure, lab analysis of clues, judicious use of coincidence, interesting villains and contemporary crimes, and, yes, the famous chases. Come up with a new villain and crime that has nothing to do with cos-play, crossovers or the Patterson Playhouse, and tell the story in a linear style! You can cut back and forth between Tracy and the cops, and the villain’s efforts to out wit them. Gould did that all the time. But the events should be chronological, with one action or event leading logically to the next. Just look at how many comments here over the years have been basically us asking each other “What is happening here? Did we miss something? Where did that come from?” If your readers are constantly confused, that can’t be a good thing.

Let’s have Tracy finding a matchbook in an ashtray, or a scrap of notepaper in a wastebasket, or following up on the last-number-dialed at a crime scene. Interviewing witnesses. Examining fibers and dust. And please remember that Sam is a sharp, modern cop as well. “Meanwhile, on the other side of town. . .” GOOD LUCK!

Robert is left alone with the radio, and an hour later Policeman Sam has it? Sure, what’s the problem?

Ma and pa Rockwell—-car thieves

Maybe he meant his “OLD” wrist radio instead of “broken” ?

Good work, young man.

…the IQ of a stage curtain…I love it!

Today: devious doings with devices!

So, Bobby boosts wrist radios as well as cars: but heisting from Uncle Arceneaux and returning, albeit surreptitiously, to Sam could be bad for Nephew’s health.

Tracy transmits; Sam on new wrist-thingie also, whilst the old one fizzles as Bob peeps around the stage curtain.

Tomorrow: Uncle furious? (Real World note: tomorrow is Midterm Elections Day in the USA. Remember to vote if you haven’t already….)