Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for September 22, 2023

“In the meantime, I’ll strike this pose so the GC Commenters can admire my profile.”

Good morning™, everyone!

The whole thing seems screwy to me. For once, we don’t really know anything much more than Tracy does. “Have the ME call me” threw me off for a second.

Good morning™, crisp dialogue writers !

P.3. Dick’s verbiage has real snap like I haven’t seen since I can’t remember when.  P.1. The words “ME” (medical examiner) should have a period after each letter to denote separate abbreviated words while subsequently Dick says the word “ME” as in “myself and I”.

Holding that cup in his hands, Sam suddenly had a flashback to a period in his childhood when he enjoyed playing brunchtime with his mommy!

Tracy, look in the mirror!

The only thing screwy going on here is this extended minit mystery!

What do you get if you take A.C.T.I.O.N. out of the word action???

This story!

Tracy, struggling to stay focused, can’t seem to stop his thoughts from wandering back to that lost weekend at Gweedo’s farm!

Where is Dr Quincy when you need him ?

Have the me call me? What the what is that is suppose to be means? After using they for single person yesterday now this? As if Engleesh was not already confusings enough.

you can’t put your finger on anything at the crime scene, Tracy .. you’re wearing gloves.

So, Ms. Claxton was security conscious enough to have a hidden safe, but not enough, apparently, to have a door-cam system to record people coming & going from her house. Tracy is right. This is screwy.

Have the me call me.

The odd thing tho…aside from the obvious punctuation error…is that it seems the me’s are standing right there, unless they are **me**rely underlings to the actual me and if they are, then their shirts should say **me**dical examiner’s office instead of just **me**dical examiner

To me the Medical Examiner seems oddly happy in panel 1 !

The WIKI discussion about acronyms and their punctuation [if any] is very lengthy due to there being no consistent rules and many exceptions.

Oh, no worries about Stealin’ Sam ‘collecting everything.’

To quote Elmer fudd: : “There’s something awfuwwy scwewy going on here…”

For whom Is DT posing?

must be all the cops running around

I recognize Sam’s gloves! Those aren’t the vinyl gloves used by the police when collecting evidence! Those are the gloves the killer wore! Sam is the killer!

DT has become another zombie strip kept “alive” by various writers of varying skills and capability. The glories of forties/fifties Gould’s DT belongs to an unrecoverable past. Be content by the occasional a bit more than decent story

Tracys’ detective sense is tingling! It’ll be cool if it’s later revealed that something important was in one of these strips from the beginning of the story, like the face in the mirror in Profondo Rosso!

That’s three times this week someone’s addressed Tracy as just ‘detective’. Haven’t seen that title bandied about so much since Batman’s last tussle with Ra’s al Ghul….

CSI: The City.

Dick , you firmly GRASP something screwy . You don’t put your finger on it .

ME do so love the DT community therapy with ME coffee and massage chair in the morning.

“ME” is “Medical Examiner” abbreviation.

The whole “ME” problem is because comic strip lettering has traditionally been done in all-caps. Had Tracy’s sentence appeared in a book, it would have read: “Have the ME call me.” I agree that periods would have solved the problem nicely.

(For some strange reason, I caught the correct meaning when I read the strip this morning, and didn’t realize the potential stumbling block in the dialog until I read the comments.)

Possibly old age Dick?

“I know there’s something else screwing about this scene….but I can’t put my finger on it”! Probably will stay that way unless Tracy touches one of those wall paintings where the safe is hid. Does seem off the wall (no pun intended) but why would someone be murdered while drinking tea?

Some young demographics are being brought here such as those two from the M.E.‘s office and the C.S.I. photographer. Added dimensions to police work…it’s about time. After all we are in the 21st century.

Tracy is channeling Elmer Fudd:

https://www.youtube.Com/watch?v=0knqB68_DEM

MOVIE QUOTE—

“Everything’s been going very smoothly. One beating and three square meals per day”.

Bud Abbott—-DANCE WITH ME,HENRY—-1956

1-BILLY THE M.E.: CAN WE HAVE THE BODY YET?!?! CAN WE PLEEEEASE?!? DT: Keep your pants on, Billy. And I mean AFTER you’ve got the body ya little freak!

2-SAM: This tea set will make a swell Christmas present for my Ma! DT: You’re Jewish, Sam. SAM: Oh, yeah. I forgot.

3-DT: Time to “Vogue” in case I get in one of the CSI Crime Scene Photos. I call this pose my TRUTH, JUSTICE AND AMERICAN WAY pose. I should copyright that!

former 198.23.5.11 checking in.

Well, at least no villain with a horribly guilty face of ugliness has arrived yet. Maybe Tracy will get to use the old noodle and arrest a normal person for a change.

And Rikki Mortis’ baby just applied for Medicare

Medical examiner

And remember…if there was SUCH A PERSON AS cHEATER gUNSMOKE, HE WOULD HAVE DIED OF LUNG CANCER A LONG TIME AGO

M.E. Tarzan …You Jane

Have them call me, I think….

Please notice The Guy in Yellow featured prominently acting like a detective, albeit a puzzled one.

Tracy is right to have Sam pack up all the tea cup-and-saucer sets as evidence. That could be important, once they are tested and the results analyzed. Betimes, he supervises, as the chief investigating officer, the entire Crime Scene, in all aspects, including directing the M.E.’s crew and the CSI forensics team.

But what is he overlooking?

Good strip today for anyone who appreciates “procedurals” and asks to see more detective work….

The screwy thing about “this scene” is Sam Catchem wearing latex gloves. Sam has finally caught up with modern crime scene processing. We saw Sam handling evidence in panel 5, Sunday 23 July 2023 when he was holding the candy wrapper with his non latex glove covered hand, thus contaminating the crime scene evidence, that is, DNA and fingerprints. Everyone is wearing latex gloves, except the C.S.I. gal in panel 1 taking the pics – Tracy please have a word to her.