Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for January 20, 2023

Paul’s face was damaged that quickly?… seems like he was in the water for only a very short amount of time…

Such a boring strip today!!

Good morning™, everyone!

Some days have passed? I didn’t suspect. Maybe it’s getting closer to the time when the art experts have given their verdict and the auction can begin.

Wunbrow is being a bit nosey, but I guess he wonders what he got into here, if only briefly.

Good morning™, forensic talkers !

I am looking at a day or two at most since only Paul’s face is altered whereas a longer time would have him rendered to bones.

“Yes, judging by the damage from water and sea life..” Kryptonite got the ball rolling and Mother Nature via the beach and the crabs did the rest.

I wonder whose has the painting now and was Da Vinci’s name forged onto it.

If Paul had a lady friend or buddies in Tracy land, won’t they get suspicious with his absence?

Well Dumbo Dekko goes from a prison stretch for forgery to the chair for first degree murder……

Er, wasn’t it Wunderbar who called up Tracy.a few days ago (January 17) & told him about a murder he thought Tracy would be interested in? Now he’s asking why Tracy is down there in Panama City? Isn’t Mike paying any attention at all to any continuity in this strip? Doesn’t anybody edit this strip? Is Mike that checked out by this point?

I knew some days had passed from Paul’s death and discovery.

Takes a while to wash up on the beach.

I commented 2 days ago how unrealistic the whole situation is.

Excellent drawing of Tracy’s profile on panel 3.

This isn’t the kind of info we normally get from this strip. Dollars to donuts Paul managed to turn the tables on his attacker and somehow managed to mess with the prints.

Why just the face, but not the prints?

Wunbrow called Tracy to come down because he thought the corpse might be of interest to Tracy (because of his home address? we are never told why). Tracy comes and Wunbrow asks why Tracy is interested? Because you called him and asked him to come, idiot! Do police all over the world call Tracy if a citizen of Tracyville dies/is killed on vacation in Walla Walla or Timbuktu?

“Your Cuban Counterpart” who’s just as clueless as the rest of the police in the world….

wow! he got there overnight!

Hm, missing his face? I’m going to guess that Chandler is just fine and it’s Kriptonite (sp) whose body is in the morgue. And Chandler forged the fingerprints somehow, because he’s just that good at being bad.

“I do, so bug off.”

I wonder what the “Cuban Counterpart” has in his trophy room :)

Tracy and Wunbrow are fellow officers. No “rivalry” between them, complete professionals.

Too bad for Art that the crabs didn’t nibble off Paul’s finger tips. It’s almost as if a higher power told them NOT TO DO THAT! (Mike – I’m talking about Mike the writer)

MOVIE QUOTE—

“You’re the best known unknown I’ve ever known”

Anne Jeffreys to Morgan Conway—DICK TRACY<DETECTIVE—1945

1-WUNBROW: These smudges seem to mean something to you Americans. We do not touch a dead man’s hands in Cuba – it is bad luck.

2-DT: Oh yeah? How do you identify an otherwise unidentifiable body then?

3-WUNBROW: Seemple, Dick Tracy. We look at our missing persons case file, choose the oldest one and exacto mundo we have solved a case! Of course it is sometimes necessary to claim that the missing person has had a sex change at some point in their absence…

DT: There is a lot I can learn from you, mi amigo!

Yep,as Sam Catchem said in t he original MR.CRIME story—“they forgot to cut off his fingers”.

Actually,I t hink today’s strip brings back a little of the old t ime grisliness where stories would end with the villain lifeless on amorgue slab and Sam looking UNDER a dead Rughead’s toupee’for clues!!

Readers want scientific analysis?We got some here.Great art today as well.

Now check if Paul made any phone calls from his room.

I suddenly realized that I’d never seen the"Splitface" film!

So I ordered it cheap from “Cheezy Movies”>Dick is NOT Cheezy,change your name!!

I liked it.What was best about the RKO quartet was the camerawork.Expert use of suspense and shadows.Lyle Lattellas Pat Patton.He takes all the lumps and Tracy took all the credit.

Oddly,after Morgan Conway was replaced as Tracy,he responded by quitting show business entirely and going into real estate!!

Also,if you search you’ll find a photo of the premiere theatre marquee.Spike Jones and his Musical Nuts were the live stage show.4 years later,they were in the strip.

So days in the water affected his face, but not his fingertips?

I think a better name would be Unibrow

I really appreciate the attention to detail with the fingerprints – the lineart for the individual fingerprints themselves are the same between the two sets, but they are arranged differently on the fingerprinting sheets. It would have been easier to just copy/paste the whole set instead! So now I’m back to thinking they’re being coy with the body again… could the presumed deceased have resculpted someone else’s fingerprints?

Be with us on Sunday,when we meet Flyface’s dog, Fleaface!!

Look up DICK TRACY DETECTIVE 1945 on Wikipedia.I considerably expanded the plot description.

Another one goes down…

https://www.westernjournal.com/ap-david-crosby-rock-musician-csny-co-founder-dies-81/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=WJBreaking&utm_campaign=breaking&utm_content=western-journal

Great artwork, all three panels, today!

Wunbrow’s expression in panel 3 suggests he is a bit perplexed by the personal interest Tracy is taking in this case; but, then, Wunbrow doesn’t (so far) know the whole context of the developing case (not that Tracy’s knowledge is at all complete—the case isn’t solved yet) as the MCU is putting it together. Art Dekko’s involvement combined with his shady past and the sudden appearance of a “lost da Vinci” masterpiece are looking suspicionable, however.

If Wunbrow’s “business” is finished, maybe he’ll just tag along with Tracy on the case as the pointman in Florida. Somebody has to be trying to figure who the actual killer was and where that person is now (we know Dekko contracted with Kyp/Krip/Krytonite, but Tracy doesn’t, yet)….