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

today’s installment feels like the end…

“I mean, what would the police know about justice?”

I can’t wait! The first Dick Tracy Christmas strip to feature an autopsy!

Good morning™, all!

Well, Tracy finally seems to be finished with his multi-day speech, but they are back to spelling “Xaviera” as “Xaveria.”

“Owen, have we milked this absolutely mindnumbing, life draining, snorefest of an alleged story for every possible drop of blood?”

“Well Dickyboy, ah reckon so!”

Ohhh, Shelley messed up the spacing of the word EXAMINER on the ambulance because of the baseball cap!

For shame!!

LOL!!!!

as the doors close on the Medical Examiner vehicle, hopefully, the story closes today, as well…

Good morning™, final curtains !

This could well be the story closer but I am braced for additional ‘testimony’. (Nervously clutching his paper products.)

WTF does that answer from Tracy to the question mean? Does he mean that’s a question for a psychologist?

Xaveria Libris was truly a mystery person. Can’t help but feel Mike and Shelley are buying time before the next guest writer makes their debut. If so, I hope the individual brings a story with a plot line whereas I won’t need Cliff Notes.

Time for a RETURNING villain now….but which one? Or a combo, as the Mole did Christmas as first.I honestly felt this story, although slow paced, had potential for a cool ending …like Tracy being captured going to interview her again, and put in a death trap….or lots of other possibilities with creepy Epee Lady….but all that build up just for a fall…..

This is funny, the rest of my comment got banned because I used Putty P. as an example and “spell correct” added y after the uss lol

Justice served? Of course it was not. Poor book binding guy entirely forgotten for his brave service and sacrifice of his life. What a bunch of elitist clowns.

Considering no one seems interested in what drove Xaviera Libris to become a cold-blooded female serial killer, I think Tracy has it pegged in his comment in Panel 2.

Say a couple of days ago me is come across this comics called Lil Abner and there appear to be a Tracy parody going on over there?

https://www.gocomics.Com/lil-abner/2023/12/21

Good Lord, by the time they got the corpse out of there I’m pretty sure that decomposition would have set in

Rather trite comment from Tracy.

“Justice, in its broadest sense, is the concept that individuals are to be treated in a manner that is equitable and fair.”

That, of course, is the one size fits all definition of justice. And I tell students such definitions are seldom very accurate. Certainly the victims didn’t receive justice. Having a killer fall to her death while defying physics (or even if the physics had made sense) doesn’t bring justice to her victims, nor does it somehow magically equate with justice to her.

The best thing that could be said is, “Rare book and manuscript owners can now rest easily in the world of Dick Tracy.” Yeah, it’s dumb. The best thing that could be said for the arc was dumb. Dressing it up with a trite rhetorical question doesn’t help.

And X’s dry cleaner was affected by her crimes. And so was the busboy around her dinner table. And the cashier at Staples…

“Disappointed?” Not “shocked”? Or “stunned”? It seems like the wrong choice of words.

I dunno. I learned not to run up a spiral staircase in spiked heels. There’s always that.

Now we need a Plenty Christmas! “Was justice served, Tracy.” “No, the chicken was…..”

Once again , I got nuthin’ .

Tomorrow, ready for the BIG HOLIDAY PRESENTATION! Yes, it’s three whole weeks of holiday festivities, as Sam launches his big musical extravaganza! THIS year, it’ll be Erwin Berlin’s classic much-dreaded ‘Salute To Panama’!!

See Vitamin and Sam dressed as Carmen Miranda doing the ‘funky frog’ dance while juggling sleeping kittens and anvils! And, while you’re AT it, thrill to Sam singing the tear-evoking nega-hit theme song, ’I’ll Be Home for Isthmas’, while riding a huge prop bow tie past a poorly-painted full moon on a backdrop made of old newspaper comic pages, using the Yma Sumac shriek…er…singing voice that’s made him a celebrity for over two blocks!

YOU know. The one compared (be numerous terrified citizens) to ‘two sasquatches caught in a cotton gin’.

What next? A real pulse-pounder, as a mad scientist kidnaps flawed and ill-conceived toys, makes them normal, and sells them to Mattel!

TRACY: Grab your flying boots, Sam! There’s been a kidnapping on the Island of Misfit Toys!

SAM: Great! This will let me try my improved Helicopter Bow Tie! GOLLY! I sure hope we’ll develop engine trouble over Snora Snora, the isle of mystery!

TRACY (in his best Rocky voice: AGAIN? But hat trick never works!

1-DT: Wanna taste of my banana, Owen? OWEN: Where the hell did you get that and is that the “banana” you’re referring to?

2-DT: The ambulances all carry them for when they find that someone is low on potassium. They administer it inter-anus-ally. OWEN: EWWWWW! Oh…by chance did they believe Xaviera was low on potassium?

DT: CHOMP Why yes they did. How else do you think I was able to get an important medical supply?

OWEN: Umm…that’s the ME’s “meat wagon” – not an ambulance. You AND XAVI have both been ill used by the crew. DT: CHOMP Really? How so?

Another Fake has requested the links for the songs I wrote and recorded for my grandchildren, Olivia and Gilby. If anyone hasn’t heard them yet, I hope you enjoy and let me know what you think of them. Be honest, I can dish it out and I can take it! LOL!

https://youtu.Be/u-GSVJMmVGo?si=Ko7Ip-hUK1RMsK-g

https://youtu.Be/56MyGefbTFE?si=pLPbRuVZdxV1fGvo

The drawing of Owen in p1 reminds me of Milkman Dan, from Red Meat

Was justice served? Yes. She got what she deserved, and her own hands.

So Tracy, an enforcer of the law, doesn’t feel qualified to rate justice?

I think Owen is mixed up in this somehow.

Why this prolonged agony of an ending to the current storyline? And Is Xaviera Libris dead or not? What did she say to Wendy Wichel? "I know you are suscribed to questionabile sites? ’ " I know you’re selling state secret to the Chinese?"

I admit I’ve only been a Tracy follower for a few years, but I don’t recall this much epilogue after a case before…

Tracy is, in his own view, just a LEO, not a moral or ethical philosopher. But he does have much experience upon which to draw, should he choose to answer his friend’s self-questioning. I’m not really sure why Owen Cormac Desmond is so troubled over the fate of Xaviera Libris. Maybe he feels some sliver of responsibility for her actions. Be that as it may, this installment of the story doesn’t do much to answer the questions that still remain after a week’s worth of epilogue….