Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for January 04, 2023

Good morning™, everyone!

Meanwhile, over at Smith Industries …

It seems that Diet Smith is rebuilding after all — but with a “but”, so I wonder what that means. Oliver Warbucks still hasn’t given up on using time travel. I can’t remember. Was that something to do with Annie?

We’ll probably find out more in the next story.

Are we stuck in a time loop?

Not that I’m complaining.

At least we don’t have to see Blaze bringing Lee the bagged lunch she left home! LOL!

My daughter just gave birth to my first grandson!!!!!!!

Celebrate with me!!!

Two in two months!!

Yabba Dabba Doo!!!!

hopefully Diet has learned an important lesson… don’t fook with time, because more than likely, it’ll fook things up and you, as well…

Good morning™, expired timeouts !

Vitamin knows when to let go of a bad thing especially when he had seen the scene before and so has become wary, like a scared of lightning puppy. Will Daddy Wb be looking into funding a time travel capability research set up and can he get all the data of what bits Smith Industries had amassed from the various attempts ?

Boy, Mike sure seems to be going out of his way to avoid focusing on the ostensible main plot of this current storyline. If he’s really that bored or burned out on the strip, which is quire possible after a decade, maybe it’s time to move on.

This seems like a good time to bring up a behind-the-scenes theory I have about the destruction of Diet’s building.

Diet described this image (and it was only described) in the 11/6/14 strip. This future image came to pass, being fully drawn nearly 7 years later in the 10/23/21 strip. But what was also significant of that latter strip is that it was the last daily strip drawn by Joe Staton before he retired as Tracy’s Regular Main Artist (he also drew the next day’s Sunday strip as his final strip as regular and has since come back a couple of times as guest artist).

Perhaps Joe already knew he was going to retire from the strip someday, or perhaps his contract in 2014 had 7 more years to go and he knew he was going to retire then, or perhaps he planned to retire once his assistant, Shelley Pleger, felt confident enough to replace him (and even most haters seem to agree that she’s done an excellent job). In any case, I think at least as early as 2014, Joe talked to Mike about his eventual retirement, and mentioned wanting to draw the DSI building in ruins as the thing he most wanted to draw in Tracy before he was done. So Mike wrote that prediction in the earlier strip, and once he knew Joe was finally retiring, Mike started writing the story that would include the building’s destruction just in time for Joe’s retirement.

Now time travel with Daddy Bigbucks ?

I don’t see how this ties in with the current story arc.

Could he go back in time to visit daVinci’s studio?

Meanwhile the Phantom is trying to change the Mozz foretold future by bringing his wolf/dog Devil along on his latest adventure.

Who else forgot that Mike does this in his stories?

My fear for the main story arc, should we return to it…

In reality it would be impossible for a new fake da Vinci to pass examination by a team of experts and forensic scientists – and the historians checking out the provenance. Same odds as flapping your arms real hard and being able to fly.

My fear is Dekko trying to bribe the experts to authenticate the work. It might harken back to Gould, who oft’ presented everyone but the police as corrupt. (Never liked the theme myself. There are honest people everywhere and corrupt police.) This would be even less plausible than passing off the fake as real. You have to bribe them all. It would take massive bribes, because if you are exposed as crooked you lose your job at college, museum, technology center, they would never be brought on television to share their expertise, and their books are discredited and pulled from sale. And Dekko would need to offer a sufficient bribe for it to be accepted, because if one turns his down and goes to the media the fake is exposed. The da Vinci wouldn’t go high enough at auction to cover the necessary bribes and leave Dekko a profit.

I want to see it exposed as a fraud.

Followed by the ubiquitous idiotic attempt by the villain to flee.

Meanwhile back at the art studio…!

TBH the Time Travel story felt abbreviated. At the time, I didn’t feel it had played out. And Dekko’s story will return, but the “authentication” will take time.

Congratulations!!!!

I remember and enjoyed the tv show Time Tunnel and the concept fascinated me. I found a few episodes online.

Now will this tie into the storyline regarding Annie’s parents (Which I hope Mike doesn’t holds to 2024 and the 100th Anniversary of “Annie”) or is this setting up yet another storyline?

“Naaah. Time travel was dead end. I’m putting the entire future into refining the heat-retaining Pizza Roll into the ultimate WMD!”

Oliver Warbucks visiting. Does that mean Annie will be visiting, too? And, what does those two, the rebuilding of DS Industries research complex have to do with this art fraud story?

How did we get here from dealing with an art appraiser who seemed reluctant to help the police with a known forgery?

….yeah, there was indeed a more than passing resemblance…….and it even had your last name on it!

Okay,another prominent “gay couple”—-united by their love of money.

I still say the disaster got so big because all the stored lithium caught fire

MOVIE QUOTE—-

“They can’t do that to us,Sir”

“They’re doing it”.

Edward G.Robinson&Regis Toomey—-DESTROYER—1943

Buried in a recent news article about the copyrigt on Conan Doyle’s SHERLOCK HOLMES stories expiring wasthe news that the copyright is also expiring on a silent movie called “LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT”

Has Abner Kadaver gotten t he good news,wherever he is?

is this a replacement strip? It’s very jarringly out of continuity with the rest of the storyline. Did someone get so offend and traumatized by the implications of lesbianism that Go Comics yanked the current storyline?

1-DADDY: Will this blueprint burn if I touch my cigar to it? DOIT: I’d rather you didn’t try.

2-DADDY; It appears that your office in the new building will be built such that it will be impervious to explosions of any type. DOIT: Yes…

3- …I’ve finally realized that a lot of my schemes end in disaster. For instance, the Self Driving Cars that ran down several of its designers – they kind of deserved it though since it was their design. And the Artificial Chocolate Sauce that proved to be explosive when exposed to milk-based products. Those poor kids and their ice cream sundaes. But I was able to cover the lawsuits when I sold the stuff to the military who dropped it as “treats” on suspected Taliban sites. Then of course, there’s the Time Drone.

DADDY: I guess you won’t be resurrecting that fiasco.

DOIT: OF COURSE I WILL YOU SHORT SIGHTED FOOL! WHADAYA THINK THE BOMBPROOF OFFICE IS PROTECTING ME AGAINST???

Wait what? New story already? What about Art Decco? He seemed nice.

If we shouldg et around to finding Little Orphan Annie’s parents,I’m remembering the story that ran for all of 1934.Warbucks lost custody of Annie to a couple of con artists—-the woman was such a physical ringer for Annie that the jury thought it was impossible for her NOT to be her mother.

But what if she actually was?

Way to go, Avenger 09! Many blessings to you and your family!!!

Great perspectives by Pleger today! Cool new plotline being developed by Curtis!

avenger09! Congratulations!!

and here’s mike laying breadcrumbs for an upcoming story – a story WHO knows when it will happen. (I’m concerned Mike is waiting till 2024 – Annie’s 100th Anniversary to do the “big Annie Story”…)

We sidetrack for a moment to see Daddy Warbucks (not looking quit himself in panel 2, IMO; Shelley needs to work some more on his visage) and Diet Smith discuss the rebuilding of the main Smith Industries complex that was devastated in the Time Travel Incident. Whether or not there will be any more Time Travel research results in some disagreement between the two titans.

Could be a set-up for a future storyline, as most who have commented seem to think, or could yet somehow tie into the current art fraud arc….

Diet discovered the advancement of the millennium and he’s going to walk away from it? In this “shared universe” are than any advancements known to be beyond this.