Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for July 31, 2023

What Tracy doesn’t know is that Sam licked all the donuts first.

Good morning, fellow Donut Coppers!

I like that the cops are actually investigating a case (even though it’s filler), but how much longer is this stall tactic going to go on?! I could watch grass grow faster than this. The PTB should have stuck with Wichita’s script instead of boring us to death. C’mon Tribune, get on with it already!

Good morning™, all!

Well, at least they are investigating what happened at the Argos office. The way he is holding that donut, he’s going to end up with the maximum amount of icing on his fingers. Do people really hold a donut like that? I would pick it up by the edges.

Love the little sarcastic “Ha.” by Tracy.

Alternative reality version of today’s strip: Panel One: MCU office. Tracy enters. Sam is at desk, looking at a monitor. Sam dialogue: Security footage from Argos arrived. Panel Two: Monitor screen. Footage of Madsen running from building. Dialogue, Sam, V.O.: We I.D.‘ed this guy as CarrotTop Madsen, known hood & gunman. Dialogue, Tracy, V.O.: Any address? Panel Three: Exterior, Nomart street. Madsen is heading to TV station. Dialogue, Sam. V.O.: He has a flat on Nomart street, near the old TV studio. Dialogue, Tracy,. V.O.: We’re on our way.

Tracy’s got some sort of hat head going today, probably from that too small fedora in panel one. Shelly is spot on so often, then, like today, it seems someone is subbing for her.

Big, important mistake. Sam meant to say, “Rigor mortis has checked in!” regarding the current story.

Good morning™, break time snackers !

Which for these guys comes any time and often. I wonder if Mike or the sub scripter gets paid for the halfway endorsement ?

Footage soon to be seen on the “See no Evil” TV show!

Any box that just said “Kreme” on it I would expect to be full of beauty products.

Is Tracy breaking the fourth wall in panel 3 to reassure us that all this redundant tedium is actually leading someplace?

The doughnut jokes will roll today .

OK now I am totally confused. Sat DT is at Argos to pick up the footage and other information yesterday continues that story line, then today, DT says the security footage was delivered a half hour ago. Just how many writers are there? How about some continuity?

“I keep all the security camera footage here in my retainer case.”

Couldn’t the Argos company just have sent the footage via the internet? I’m sure Diet Smith has made sure that at least the Major Case Squad’s server is more secure than even the Pentagon’s.

They have so much security that they don’t even the Internet to deliver important information!

Brian I donut really care.

I like donuts as much as anyone. (We usually have some at our Saturday morning Men’s Bible Study.) But in the Chester Gould days, Tracy was usually shown eating an apple while he pondered the cops’ next move against whatever villain they were currently dealing with. Our current team seems to be giving in to the cliché about Cops and Donuts.

Is Shelley drawing the strip? The past few days have looked subpar.

I bet Sam has a mini refrigerator under his desk. He seems to have every else!

Tracy: “Actually, I prefer croissants… but it’s a cop thing, after all.”

well there’s always bagels with creme cheese… they go down great, but they’re dam-ned filling as all hell… unlike Lay’s potato chips, you don’t want another…

MOVIE QUOTE

“Do you mind if I smoke?”

“I don’t care if you burn”.

Philip Van Zandt & John Archer—CITY OF MISSING GIRLS—1941

Yes,they actually said it!!

Ah yes……..the old security cam footage trick……….

Krispy Kreme—-MY HEROES!!

Love TRacy’s sly smile in Panel 3—-hopefully,his optimism that he’s finally broken t he case will be justified.

Tomorrow,Madsen wobbles into Police Headquarters and asks if anybody has a cure for a hangover.(Since that “drunk scene”,hedoesn’t seem dangerous anymore)

1-SAM: Hello. DT: Good morn to you sir tips hat

2-DT: YE GADS! WHAT IS THIS ABOMINATION? SAM: Uhhh. It’s a donut. Are you feeling ok? Do you smell smoke or have an odd taste in your mouth?

3-DT: I’m feeling jolly good my dear fellow! I confess to having developed a certain fondness for BBC America TV detectives. Perhaps that explains whatever you perceive to have changed. “Donut” you say? It will never replace Bubble and Squeak but it is rather convenient, eh wot?

SAM: Uh… hoot mon?

Man, looks like Tracy has a horrible backache in P2. He can barely reach the donuts. And what the heck kind of donut is that? Pink icing around the outside of the donut but none on top?

Hey, kids! It’s Cop Stereotype Day! Back in the MCU offices, we see Sam and Tracy chowing down on a box of (probably a dozen) “Kreme” donuts, while they provide exposition on the evidence so far—a thick file on Anders courtesy of RM Vickers, and now the security cameras footage from Argos Inc. A little snappy repartee between the detectives gives Tracy the chance to eat donuts instead of some real lunch, for which he apparently hasn’t had time, being so busy….

No coffee in sight? What are they washing down the doughnuts with?

If that’s a box of gender-reveal doughnuts, then “It’s a girl!”