Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for February 05, 2023

Dekko’s skull remains intact. His brains reside within

Kryptonite now feels fresh fright. Dick Tracy for the win.

Drop the gun! To shoot and run is to invite your death

Up on the roof, not bullet-proof, exhale a final breath.

Take a dive. Street shall arrive. Gravity does rule

No time to think. Now past the brink. Physics can be cruel.

Ninety-Nine is so unkind, she paid the hitter’s fee.

He took a fall and that is all. How long might she be free?

Good morning™, everyone!

Well, it looks like Kryptonite was doomed to the same fate as Trigger Doom whom he mentioned in yesterday’s strip. It’s not the eight-storey fall that kills you. It’s the landing at the bottom.

kamikaze from the top floor and swandive to the street… and no Tracy hats were harmed in the production of this installment…

and in a real world, would Tracy have been able to kick in the door, as no door would have been so easily kicked in, as high-rises would have a steel door and NOT a wooden one… so Tracy should be lying helpless on the ground with a possible broken ankle or foot and a hitman coming in for the kill…

On the case

Making haste

To the place

Warrant in hand

Speak to Sue

What else can she do

She’s certainly not a fool

Upstairs is your man

We’ve got the dirt

Put on a shirt

No time to flirt

You’re gonna go away

Plead your case

They laugh in your face

Walk a quick pace

They won’t let you stay

You hear a hiss

See a miracle miss

No time to reminisce

Get me outta here

Shooter is bad

Tracy is mad

Capturing this cad

No hint of fear

For you week in recap reading pleasure

No, I won’t complain today, no sir, I won’t.

Doesn’t matter how illogical the whole Fartart story was, I’m just gonna let it go.

All the blunders, potholes, coloring miracles, Superman references,,

It’s all good!!!

Live Long and Prosper!

I think perhaps this hitman might not be Kryptonite himself. Perhaps Kryp is an assassin broker of sorts, which might explain why his looks have changed somewhat since he was introduced last month https://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2023/01/09?ct=v&cti=2176431 Notice his dialogue in the Jan 9 strip. It sounds like he’s just the middleman who arranges the hits. I could be wrong here, but that’s how I interpreted it

Good morning™, high divers !   My that was an easy one.

Arty can rest easy now that he wont lose his life but he may wind up doing life.

More action by Mike, so GOOD JOB, Curtis!

Tracy in last panel: “That could have gone better. At least Dekko softened his fall.”

and now with Krip most certainly deceased after his face-to-face closeup with the pavement below, it’s almost a sure thing that 99 will never be seen again and fadeaway into Dick obscurity, as there is nothing to really connect Krip to her and no matter how much Art will whine that there was a mystery woman who was blackmailing him and is connected with Paul, there’s no real and definitive proof that she even exists and even if she WAS located, it would be her word against his… so Paul’s dead, his killer has joined him, 99 will be in the winds and Art will be sitting behind monkey bars, with nothing to show for it in his hands, except peeling his banana…

And another felon finds out the hard way you never get in a gunfight with Dick Tracy – The Deadliest Lawman in the Comics World.

Taking a dive.

https://youtu.be/XATCOR-Lgxs?t=1690   Starts at 28:30

Great action strip today, the kind the strip used to specialize in, but which. have grown increasingly rare in recent years. Kudos to Shelley & Mike. do wonder why Kryptonite ran out into the open in panel two, instead of trading shots with Tracy while staying behind that roof fixture for cover. I also wonder why, in panel 2, he has his back to the edge of the building, but in panel 5, now having been hit, he’s falling face forward off the building. I also wonder if poor Willy Lumpkin will have to be the one to clean the mess up off the sidewalk.

Tracy, good aim, you hit the target, too bad the target was so close to the shore!

Excellent.

Sans body ripping bullets to get past the censor board, surprised they allowed gunfire.

Good to see Dick made sure to find and puthis hat back on in the last panel.

I began using direct deposit years ago.

The story, the art, first class today, super!

Hopefully the guy lands on Art Dekko so he can keep a perfect record of completed assignments !

Better yet ! He falls thru a skylight into the room where Art Dekko keeps his forgeries revealing the depths of the criminal’s activities !!! But also impales himself on Sue’s mustache !

Shouldn’t Dick be yelling “Look out below !!!” ?

Yeah, cuz….a rooftop sniper would DEFINITELY have locked the door (his only means of escape) behind him

didnt we see almost the same exact scenario months ago when (was it?) Abner tried to snipe tracy…with a blow gun, right?

Regardless of the plot holes and jump cuts and unanswered questions in this story, today’s strip is an outstanding stand-alone Dick Tracy Sunday Page.

I was going to say…“Over the side Longhair,” but he has short hair, shucks!!!

he stopped and grabbed his hat

“Curses! He made his getaway!”

“Got to drop an anvil on him before he reaachs the street! Darnit here’s a coyote when you need one?!”

Top marks to Shelley for a fantastic cartoon today , her images are just " Super " for sure : )

Dick Tracy: saving taxpayers the money for trials since 1931.

Hope the sniper didn’t hit anyone below.

Up and over for Kryptonite, high diving without a pool

Ah, some good old fashioned violence.

Kryptonite will be finding himself in a crypt tonight.

Kryptonite’s only hope is for a girder suspended on a cable, to swing by about now……

Looking at the panel where Tracy is emerging from behind the door, shouting “Drop the gun!”, I can’t help being reminded of “Duck Twacy’s” nemesis “Neon Noodle”:

http://dailygrindhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/The-Great-Piggy-Bank-Robbery-Neon-Noodle.jpg

Tracy’s hat must have a built-in boomerang.

Now I am left to wonder who put the hit on Art?

The shooter fell: (a) in a dumpster (b) on top of a privately owned automobile fortunately it was parked. © on top of a city bus which startled the passengers, ear piercing screams could be heard, and the driver rolled up onto the curve. (d) the uber driver and his or her passengers got creeped out by the object which landed on the roof and protruded through the windshield.

Really miss Gould’s graphic depictions of slugs tearing through flesh and bone! Looks more like “Kryptonite” tripped over his own feet to cause his fall.

And another large lump of human excrement is removed from the Earth.

Splat !

Most professional criminals try to avoid shooting at cops. It’s a great way to end up dead. Then again, real cops would wait for backup before confronting the armed suspect – maybe just wait in the doorway to prevent his escape and stall for time while dozens of cops arrive.

1-DT: ANY SNIPERS OUT HERE? KRIPTO: NO! DT: WHEW! I’m glad!

2-*POW BANG SHINGGGG! PIT WHEEEEEEE!

3-DT:* BIG LIAR! TAKE THIS. AND THAT. AND THIS!

4-KRIPTO: DON’T SHOOT! I GIVE UP! I’M DROPPING MY FAR SUPERIOR FIREPOWER BECAUSE I KNOW IT’S USELESS AGAINST YOU, TRACY! HEY!!! WHO PUT THAT BANANA PEEL THERE??? DAM YOU ART!!! YOU WIN AGAIN! AIIIEEEEEEE!!!

5-DT: Hmmm. I didn’t hit him but he’s dead so do I still get to put a notch in my gun? I MEAN MY WEAPON! I accidentally notched my “gun” once. THAT’S a mistake I won’t make twice. Probably…

Editor’s Note: It’s so fun for me to have nothing at the beginning of these Alt Takes and to end up after a few minutes with…well, something anyway. Just thought somebody might be wondering why I bother…

Magical hat reappearing on Tracy’s head!

also I’m expecting a new story tomorrow with no wrap up.. per usual.

Is Art going to get away with having Paul murdered, or will Agent 99 find a way to finish him off, or does this finish this arc? Art needs to pay for arranging Paul’s brutal death. We shall see. ☜ (↼_↼)

I, seriously, cannot stop looking at how good the artwork is today. It is extraordinarily good. Shelley is rocking it.

Now, after this big action scene with Kryptonite, anything that happens with Art Dekko and Sue Reel will be an anti-climax.

Tying up loose ends: Blaze Rize will play no other part in the arc. The FunFurCon is likely over and everyone has packed up their chipmunk suits and gone home. Tom DeHaven is back wondering why Mike decided to honor a book written 37 years ago and going over his cel collection looking for fakes, Mumbles just accepted a contract to perform Shakespeare at the Patterson Playhouse, Lee has been spending her time cruising the bars at night, trying to sate her enormous sexual appetite, and Tracy will get a new podiatrist who can fix the damage he has done to his foot over the year by kicking in steel doors.

I guess Tracy was Kryptonite’s… [puts on sunglasses] kryptonite. Yeeah!

Uhm… it’s a comic, not the real world.

could the people who draw this learn something about guns please? There’s a bolt on the side of the gun, good for a sniper rifle but suddenly he’s doing automatic fire?

Ding dong! The wicked sniper is dead!

Kryp bolts; fires at guy in yellow. Guy in yellow fires back, plugs perp, who plunges over the ledge to the ground below—way, way below; not a pretty sight to gaze upon, is it, Tracy?

Great action sequence art.

But: whither was Kryptonite running? Makes little sense, unless he had utterly panicked, which I would not expect of a professional hitter….

It’s a good thing Tracy is a better shot with a handgun than a hit man with a sniper rifle.

I could take another Sunday’s worth of Shelley’s art between the last two panels where Tracy looks to ensure the Crypto was alone, casually picks his hat off the roof and dons it like a boss, then makes his way to the roof’s edge for the last panel.

I take it the sniper lost. :J

MOVIE QUOTE——

“You dope! The fall will probably kill you!”

Paul Newman—-BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID—1969

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again—-

NEVER SHOOT FIRST AT DICK TRACY!!

The way this is drawn,it looks like Kryp got it in the back.Wendy Wichel will have a field day with that one.