Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for April 02, 2023

Cowabunga!

Now Tracy’s hand will smell like orchids all day.

What does Lady GaGa want with black Orchids???

Good morning™, ooshy-gooshy  tie ups !

Beautiful rendering of the annoyed Nero. Whoa !  there is Action in today’s. Check out the runners on the left in P.1. LOL !

I suppose this week will be spent in explaining and clearing up whatever mess Mike has concocted and happened to Nero during this waste of time of an arc…

Good one !!!

He is holding something that is not food !!!

Greetings and salutations, not so helpless captives!

Well… It seems Wolfe didn’t need help from Archie or Tracy. I would refer to this as kind of a wild and useless goose chase. I understand the need for the Top brothers to escape, otherwise the Tracy canon would be a game of 52 card pick up. What I (and many others) don’t understand is the whole point of this crossover. Unless there is still a twist coming up in this story, I don’t see the point of it. Is the Pickard wannabe still in the cafe across the street watching this happy reunion? Is he choking on his pastrami while watching his “captive” barter over black orchids? Will Wolfe and Tracy break bread with the villain in the cafe? We’re left with more questions than answers at this point.

He escaped or the building collapsed from his weight so he could walk out !!!

Good morning™, everyone!

So, essentially, Nero Wolfe ended up rescuing himself. We have yet to hear how he did it, but neither Dick Tracy nor Archie really ended up confronting the kidnappers. In fact, neither they nor Wolfe knows who the actual kidnapper was.

Once again this is Mike’s way of telling a “mystery” story. Keep introducing mysterious characters and goings-on, never connect them or explain anything, really, rely on improbable coincidences to move the story forward, rush to a contrived conclusion, & then leave the readers mystified as to what the whole thing was about.

What did Nero Wolfe do to get his black orchids?

He got out because of his pocket knife?

So Nero Wolfe was just bookends for this story?

So Zeck isn’t good at hiring competent people is he if Wolfe was able to escape?

Absolutely perfect, Wolfe is no damsel in distress.

I like the Lady’s pillbox hat, harkens way back, and I am so glad that wolf (Wolfe) is not the howling kind!

After this story I am sure the Black Orchid market will skyrocket!

NOW we know what Mr. Wolfe did with his pocket knife!

For those that doubt Wolfe’s ability to pull off such an escape, do consider his background.

From Wikipedia:

“Wolfe is reticent about his youth, but apparently he was athletic, fit, and adventurous. Before World War I, he spied for the Austrian government’s Evidenzbureau, but had a change of heart when the war began. He then joined the Serbian-Montenegrin army and fought against the Austrians and Germans. That means that he was likely to have been involved in the harrowing 1915 withdrawal of the defeated Serbian army, when thousands of soldiers died from disease, starvation, and sheer exhaustion[d]—which might help to explain the comfort-loving habits that are such a conspicuous part of Wolfe’s character.”

i must say it is cool to see these two shake hands

Connoisseurs of DT, me thinks thee takes this too seriously. The art, color and character period are excellent today.

WOLFE: Got any VEAL on you, detective?

……..darnsies, Ven-Gee!! Not like it didn’t keep the mirth-provokin’, chuckles-inspirin’ shenanigans in the comments section afloat…. I mean, “what chu WANT man, good grammar or good taste?”…!!!????!!!…oh wait, not THAT one! Never mind….heh!

Watch out Tracy ! He is grabbing your hand like a turkey leg . And it might be close to feeding time !

This is the 2nd time in a week big brother took down a post of mine being critical of the strip.

Somebody has thin skin!

All right. At least we finally got a taste of that old Wolfe charm. Still, I hope we will get a bit of an explanation from him as to why he was kidnapped and how he escaped. I doubt he’d tell Tracy about who did the kidnapping — or even Archie. In the books Wolf was afraid of Zeck — well, as much as he was afraid of anybody — and took great pains to avoid a direct confrontation with the man. Because he knew if it ever came to that, it would mean all-out war, and that would mean Wolfe would actually have to put in a day’s work

A sudden flurry of street activity over orchids brings Tracy andNero Wolfe together! Great art work!

Broad daylight! Something’s not right: armed thugs are on the street

Gather up some purloined cash, you’re sure to draw the heat.

Archie thought he’d grab quick cash and take a cop to lunch

Robbers waltz into the joint, it’s more than a hunch

This scene is wrong the whole day long. It’s said crime does not pay

No telling who Blowtop may shoot and slay to getaway.

Woo Gosh! You best get going! We need to split this scene

Reinforcements on the way! Last chance to escape clean.

Nero spotted on the street, Black Orchids in his grasp

“These flowers, they are not for sale!” he shouts with a faint gasp.

Tracy and the Wolfe do meet with smiles and handshake

The robbers quickly ran away to hide, quiver, and quake.

Well, most of the posters correctly guessed that it was Wolfe that Archie saw on Saturday, but the phrase “I see someone I know” seemed out of place when it was the missing person that he and Dick had been searching for. Well, the Sunday resolution of that mini-cliffhanger was good – better than another one of those one-day interludes! LOL

Clearly Nero Wolfe must have a great deal of respect for Dick Tracy; he never shakes hands. But how does he even know who Dick Tracy is? He doesn’t read the funny pages.

…I don’t think I’ve seen anything this slow-paced since Dragon Ball Z.

Tracy: “….and I shook Wolfe’s hand, then he bellowed “ARCHIE, TAKE ME HOME IMMEDIATELY!!” and off they went.”

Sam: “All ya did was shake his hand? I stood here five lousy weeks just to hear that??"

1-NERO: I can assure you, madam, that I am *_NOT_** looking for a date!

2- …ARCHIE! Fancy seeing you here! Tell this woman… ARCH ERWITHOUTABOW: SMELL MY FINGER! I DARE YA!

3- …So you’re a hooker, eh? Do you take Food Stamps? I’m skinnt at the moment.

4-NERO: Your fashion choices offend my very soul, sir! DT: If you’re Nero Wolfe I guess I can add another success story to my long string of success stories. If not, I still got work to do I suppose…

5-NERO: I am he for whom you search my good man. Excellent work on your part. However did you know that (hours pass while Nero recounts his capture and ultimate escape)

DT: I’ve never held a man’s hand for hours before. It’s a “sweaty palm” endeavor. NERO: INDEED! INDEED IT IS SIR! HA-RUMPF!

Next to last panel, is DT talking to Nero or Archie?

Wolfe shaking hands? But shaking hands is one of Wolfe’s biggest “phobias”!

boboscar, while re-reading the comments sections from years ago, posted a “thank you” to me today for a link to an article I posted on this board back in 2016. It is about what made Gould’s writing style so compelling.

Old links in the comments have apparently been removed from this comment board, but all good things bear repeating.

This is an excellent read. As it states about what made the classic strip famous, “Gould’s aggressive, angular art style, and his off-kilter visual juxtapositions, have gotten lip service from the art world, and from a handful of writers on comics whose viewpoints can outwit the trap of nostalgia.”

https://www.tcj.com/the-gould-rush-the-mad-allure-of-dick-tracy/

It looks like GoComics now only counts those comments that start a thread in their “comment counts”. Replies are no longer considered part of the count, it seems.

Nothing like a firm handshake to seal a new-born friendship.

But this little brouhaha over the precious black orchids with the blonde lady in the pillbox has sucked up whatever room this Sunday strip might have had for throwing light on Wolfe’s escape or any of the other dangling themes of this apparently ending tale….

I guess the essence of this story is that Nero Wolfe and Dick Tracy met face to face. Plus they shook on it. How did Wolfe escape his captors? Either he used his jackknife and stuck it to the one left behind to watch him. Or…and this is a maybe…he huffed and puffed which blew the door right off the hinges and walked away.

Wonder if Sam will feel short-changed by this narrative Tracy has been telling. It is not so much what was said but what got left out.

@ Mike and Shelley, I sure hope yawl got a humdinger of a story line coming out. The sheep I was counting went to sleep on this one.

OT: The Wolfe storyline (in specific his bulk) reminds me of an incident. We were in Texas and waiting for our hotel room to open up. To pass the time, I had an episode of THE FAT MAN on (I collect old time radio). In one scene a women tries to put him between herself and a stalker. As one, I heard us both say “So THIS is what it’s like to be in an eclipse!”

The actress should have said that line!

Is there any way to contact Lt. Reimer for the Roll of Honor?

MOVIE QUOTE—

ABBOTT:“How stupid can you get?”

COSTELLO:“How stupid do you want me to be?”

ABBOTT&COSTELLO MEET THE MUMMY—1955