Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for March 12, 2023

Locked away another day with many books to read

Anticipates a flower great. For orchids he has greed.

Behind the glass the hours pass. Wolfe reads of Ancient Rome

Waiting hours for precious flowers keeps him from his home.

Reads his book and when he looks up from it he does see

Beauty wears black. Sensory attack. As promised, it shall be.

Zeck is playing a game of giveth and then taketh away with Nero for SOME reason…

Tracy Meets Doctor Fix!

Chapter 12

Tracy was stunned! After all these years he’d moved well past that crazy weekend in the Catskills and all about Hilda. He knew his back was against the wall and he had to fix this right now or everything he worked so many years for would be lost.

“Well Ugly Crystal, since you seem to know all about that unfortunate situation from my past, you must also know that I was framed and blackmailed over it!”

B. O., pointing his shotgun at Tracy spat out some chewing tobacco at Tracy’s feet and snarled; “Dagnabbit, I done already told you not to call her Ugly Crystal!”

Crystal, putting her hand up motioned to B. O. to stand down.

“It’s ok, I want to hear what the great Chief of Detectives Tracy has to say. Go on, explain how you were framed and blackmailed over Hilda’s death!”

Tracy proceeded to share how as a young, naive rookie beat cop on the force he was assigned to accompany the then chief of detectives, the infamous, brutal “Ben from Toledo” on a business trip to the Catskills. While there Chief Ben took advantage of an innocent waitress named Hilda, and after killing her told Tracy if he ever told anyone about what happened he would make sure Tracy would be blamed for the murder. To his great shame Tracy choose to remain silent and Hilda’s murder has remained unsolved all these years.

“Ok Tracy, I’m impressed that you’ve finally told the truth about something. My Uncle and I have always known what happened to Hilda. I’m going to give you the chance to make this injustice right by exposing Chief Ben’s crime to the world!”

“Now why would I do that?” Tracy blurted out.

“Because if you don’t I’ll release all the false evidence Ben From Toledo put together and you’ll be charged with her murder!”

Tracy, enraged, asked; “Why do you care so much about Hilda anyway?”

“Because she was my Aunt!”

To be continued,,,,,

Good morning™, Indian givers !

What torture chamber did this guy learn his trade in ?  He’s damm good !  Closest to a ‘sex’ experience Wolfe will come to ?

I just know that firestump will attract to that term like a week long starving wolfe or moth to the UV zapper grid. ;-p

Waiting for the contusion or continuation of the revenger story.

“He’s very excited!”

I’m glad someone is!!

“What the – he’s eating them!”

Finally, a Mike crossover I can enjoy!

Kojak rules!!!

Good morning™, all!

Arnold Zeck was the only villain ever to appear in more than one Nero Wolfe novel. The three novels were gathered together into one volume called The Zeck Trilogy: And Be a Villain, The Second Confession, In the Best Families and from the other publisher, Triple Zeck: A Nero Wolfe Omnibus. So, Zeck is Wolfe’s ultimate nemesis or archenemy.

Black orchids……..Brenda S????

Although some Cypripedium pubescens were mentioned in the novella Black Orchids, Wolfe was referring to some other orchids that he had seen downstairs at the flower show, not the black orchids which were exhibited upstairs.

Cypripedium pubescens (considered by many to be the “Pubescens” variety of Cypripedium parviflorum) has the common name “Large Yellow Lady’s-Slipper” and looks like this:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/68/Cypripedium_parviflorum_pubescens.jpg/200px-Cypripedium_parviflorum_pubescens.jpg

A newly developed black variety would certainly have a different name than the yellow variety found in the wild. (I’m more familiar with the Pink Lady’s-Slipper, which is the provincial flower of Prince Edward Island.)

DT fans, we’re nearing a threshold.

When Chester Gould created Dick Tracy over 90 years ago, the strip made its debut on Sunday, October 4, 1931. The next strip was a week later, Sunday, October 11. The first daily came out the next day on Monday, October 12. Gould would be the writer and main artist (and only credited artist tho he did have assistants) for over 45 years, until his retirement, his final strip released on December 25, 1977. In all, Gould had been writer/main artist on the strip for 46 years and 77 days’ worth of strips.

December 25, 1977 was 46 years and 77 days ago.

The DT strip has now published as many regular strips without Gould as writer/main artist as it did with him.

This storyline reminds me of a Twilight Zone episode … as I recall, one character who belonged to an exclusive men’s club needed a lot of money, so he bet another member that he could remain silent for a year, & lived in a glass enclosure built at the club so he could be constantly monitored. At the end of the year he was released, after not having a spoken a word & winning the bet. However, the twist (there was always a twist) was that a) the loser of the bet did not have the money, & b) the winner had had his vocal cords surgically removed so he couldn’t speak. I hope this storyline turns out to be as entertaining as that TZ episode.

Like his excitement in panel 3!

Will Mr Z be able to get the orchids away without being eaten ?

A stunning image of the Black Orchid in the top right panel by Shelley : )

he’s reading a Roman joke book

“Er…sir? He’s EATING hem.”

“Oh, well then he can keep them. Ewww!”

So now the Black Orchids story is a confrontation with Zeck.

So the guy’s name is St. John Zeck (since of course he was the one who truthfully signed the telegram LOL). What a coincidence! :)

Something about that panel in the upper right strikes me as OBSCENE!!! AND ON A SUNDAY YET!

The Black Orchid is from a another old time comic.

1-JERRY: Some flowers arrived for you.

2-NERO: SOMEONE KNOWS WHERE I AM! WHERE’S THE CARD??? WHO SENT THEM?

3-DUNCAN HINES: Hee hee. He thinks someone from outside sent them!

4-ZECK: Yes, he’s finally cracking up…

5-…In an hour, have Jerry take a phone in and tell him he has a call. And when he gets all excited, you just pull one of those classic prank phone call gags on him.

DUNCAN: Oooh! I know just the one – “Is your refrigerator running?” No, wait. “Do you have Sir Walter Raleigh in a can?” Hang on, “Would you page Mike Hunt for me?” HOLD IT! I GOT IT! “A Peter Gun is here to see you, Mr Wolfe”

When Nero Wolfe is not solving mysteries, does he offer his services as an orchid consultant?

Yes! I knew it was going to be Arnold Zeck behind it all!

Why is he calling orchids “Lady Slippers”? Wolfe is supposed to be an expert.

Why is Captain Picard the villain here?

Only a monster coul do that to poor Nero Wolfe.

Since when does Nero Wolfe grin?

Can Nero Wolfe not tell when he’s being played?

when the ‘Wolfe’ has a meal of roast lamb…

get it?…

That’s the same way he looks at food ! Someone rescue those Orchids !

This is a training period for Nero Wolf before the questions begin.

Hmm. Is it possible that Shane, the “official” colorist made a key error today, and that the flowers Jerry brings in should be yellow? —But Zeck said explicitly yesterday to bring in the black orchids. So, did Wolfe refer to them by the wrong name (or did Mike misname them)?

That is but a minor vexation. Today’s big news is that Patrick Stewart is now playing the part of Arnold Zeck, Nero Wolfe’s real bête noire. One may accordingly deduce that, yes, Wolfe has been kidnapped, and that he is being subjected to some sort of psychological torture….

Stewart also did a one-man show on Broadway—-all the characters in Dickens’ A CHRISTMAS CAROL