Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for July 29, 2023

This strip is an endless circle of talk, talk, talk and nothing is done!

“I’m hoping to find some more stucco. Sam ate the last piece.”

Dick’s holding on to his hat with his stubby little fingers like he expects someone will try and steal it!

There are at least a dozen loose ends to this sloppy story that will probably never be explained or revisited.

Good morning™, everybody!

Well, at least they’ve been investigating security footage. Meanwhile, Tracy wants to just look around instead of seeing what was on the security cameras?

My theory about two police vehicles may have been wrong. This doesn’t look like the building where the police SUV was parked at all as it was in the warehouse district.

Good morning™, chief investigators !

Talking they are, but now we get an inkling that surveillance records have a story to tell but it’s always good to follow up with a personal inspection. I like the looking up from ground level view in P.1. and the office scene with the outdoor greenery and cityscape backdrop is doing well too.

Hey Tracy, why don’t you just sit down and listen for once?

Was Madsen caught on security footage doing the deed or did he know where the cameras were located? Is Tracy banking on finding the same candy wrapper? That would be a long shot. (no pun intended)

" If you don’t mind, I’d like a second look around while we talk"? Ooh! Ooh! I am about to witness the keen insight Tracy has acquired through the years to solve this crime. Henceforth his rank, chief of detectives. Maybe on second the aforementioned might be a “seniority thing”.

It is best to inspect the areas in question to put the security pictures in perspective to their locations!

So, what originally looked like a small business, with a handful of employees in a one-floor office with no security that an armed, suspicious character packing a gun could come & go from at will is now a large company with a whole building, complete with gated entrances & camera surveillance, & basically the last several weeks of Tracy tracking down “clues” in the one section of TracyVille has been a complete waste of time. I have no idea what the thinking was behind this editorial disaster, & apparently neither do the writers who were called in to fill in after Mike took ill. Maybe this just shows how little regard TCA has for the strip & its readers at this point. Maybe it’s time to put the strip out of its misery.

TRACY: “Got any candy wrappers? We’re stumped!”

What a merry go round……………

Looking forward to tomorrow’s eye candy .

I was going to go to a mysterious tv station that’s using power despite being abandoned but I thought I’d come see you instead. You have doughnuts

1-DT: I congratulate you for treating your employees like prisoners in a Super Max facility. It’s been my experience that a lot of them will end up there anyway. EDWARD VICKERS: Yes. We’ve found that the 500 to 1 pay difference between Executives and “them” tends to justify theft in their little minds. They simply can’t fathom the pressure we’re under…

2-…Now if we could wrap this up? I have a tee time at 2 and I really should sign whatever this paper is before I go. DT: Tee time? Do you need a fourth. EDWARD: Ahem…it’s a private club and while we may occasionally bring a guest I fear I’d be drummed out if I brought the likes of you.

DT: Understood! Well, I’ve forgotten why I came so I’ll be going now. EDWARD: Good. Secretary! Get security to show Mr. Tracy out and call housekeeping to delouse the chair he’s been sitting in!

I think we’ll find out that Silver has been brilliantly masterminding this from prison using Crystal as an outside contact for the sole purpose of cooking Chick Tracy’s goose to feed to his hyena.

No, wait. That would make too much sense.

OT: typos are funny things. I REEEEALLY want to see what a ‘duckubus’ would look like.

Major retcon here!

Argos abruptly changes from being a penny-ante operation in a shabby location to being a huge major corporation with a massive HQ building. Okay, if it suits the New Plot Line….

Add “Mr. Vickers” to the Cast of Thousands! He is a mighty straight-edged Corporate Man and Regional Manager/security honcho for Argos Incorporated. We are left to speculate as to WHY Tracy wants to look around the corporate HQ. What does he expect/hope to find? Hot merchandise?

…And so it goes.

2-panel stretching and talking heads. I’ve been on vacation all week and have missed nothing.