Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for July 19, 2023

aHA… now Dick has a lead…

and Ernie is off to obscurity possibly, never to be seen again… wouldn’t surprise me Ernie being a one-shot one-hit wonder within the strip… would have liked to have gotten a small bit of a backstory on him and how he and Tracy met… maybe a tale for another time, but for now…

Good morning™, everyone!

A sudden hike in electricity usage in the “Abandoned Warehouse” district is definitely suspicious.

Good morning™, confabulatin’ coppers !

Talking business with scene changes. Good. Rooftop view in P.2. Like !

Electricity usage could also lead Tracy to a growth house where drug dealing pimps are growing pot plants.

Eh maybe them Ghostbusters has set up new business there. What better place for em than ghost town eh.

(My cuz has taken a few days off and asked me to cover for him)

Tracy looks almost Vulcan in the last panel, with an unusually very flat face and small hat!

Sam has that smug, “Gweedo smoking a cigarette afterwards” look on his face!

There’s definitely hope for the strip. Very little, but nevertheless hope!

I would hope the last few days would satisfy those who have been clamoring for more “police work” in this strip…….

“Unusual electricity use in the area”. I guess this rules out everybody firing up their hot plates at the same time.

Visuals great as always!

We still don’t know why Tracy assumed the scammers were working his city, since they work internationally. But, assuming his ESP tells him that, couldn’t the electrical company give him a read for unusual spikes in electrical use anywhere in the city? His ESP is so good he knows the area from which the scammers must be working and limits the search to that area?

Dick Tracy is an American comic strip featuring Dick Tracy (originally Plainclothes Tracy), a tough and intelligent police detective created by Chester Gould. It made its debut on Sunday, October 4, 1931, in the Detroit Mirror, and it was distributed by the Chicago Tribune

So, is Anders comatose at death’s door? Or are Lee & LIzz quizzing him while Tracy & Sam pursue what’s watt with the electrical activity?

Q’s we got, A’s not so much….

“Ghost Town”? In a well developed city like “Tracyville”? I wouldn’t thin that there would be many abandoned buildings, much less an entire neighborhood.

Wow ! Cop talk in Dick Tracy . Who’d a thunk it ?

Tracy, people move into haunted houses all the time! They make movies all about them.

I told them they need to get generators!

This is all well and good, and, like others here, I am pleased to see Tracy and Sam doing actual detective work. But, what does any of this have to do with that piece of stucco Tracy found? He went looking for an informant who would know something about the area of town that has lots of stucco buildings, if I remember correctly. He couldn’t find the person, so then he looked for this kid in another part of town. If it turns out the crooked call center is HQ’d here in the old ware house district, what did the stucco have to do with anything?

Some movement, and it’s procedural! Are we back on Wichita’s script?

Sam said what we were all thinking!

You know, I get the distinct impression that they are trying to tell us a more complex story, with actual detecting rather than just action scenes.

1-DT: You got time to lean, you got time to clean – WASH THE WINDSHIELD OR SOMETHING! SAM: This ain’t McDonalds so pizz off, Tracy. That reminds me though – it’s lunch time! Some lemonade would go good with a Quarter Pounder. Does McDonalds sell…

2-DT: You can’t talk to me like that! SAM: Oh yeah? I just did. DT: THAT’S DONE IT…

3-…I’m telling! Patch me through to the Chief. I have some insubordination to report. OPERATOR: HEY CHIEF! TRACY WANT’S TO TATTLE ABOUT SOMETHING!

CHIEF GENERAL PATTON: TELL HIM TO PIZZ OFF! OPERATOR: The Chief said to… DT: I HEARD! C’mon Sam, let’s find some lunch.

You move to a ghost town to avoid high cost of living after your old place was gentrified.

The detective following clues.

Looks like the MCU (and we) might be on the brink of a break-through thanks to Tracy’s old fashioned foot work with a street informant combined with electronic records-checking of electrical use in the Ghost Town neighborhood. Tracy is making heavy use of his wrist gadget (not quite sure what is the correct name for the current iteration of the device: Wrist Genie?), while Sam thoughtfully props up their squad car so it won’t fall over (oh, what a Good Fellow is he)….

First thing Batman always did in the was to check for unusual electric power use—-and telling how HE HIMSELFavoided being found out that way.