Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for January 21, 2024

Bold magic and illusions are Fata’s stock in trade

One false move did squelch the hit. She’s right to be afraid.

Tracy wishes for a word. The curtain does now rise

Morgana there to entertain, astonish, and surprise.

Look to see the Pachyderm! Tusks jutting from its jaw

Trumpets and then stomps a foot. The people gasp in awe.

Elephant does raise its truck. Magnificence asserted

Tracy takes another look to see the stage deserted.

“Allakhazam!” her final word. Performance at an end

Now too late to change her fate. Foul ways she shall not mend.

no chit, Cherlock…

“Rikki? Meet me out back. And bring the BIG van!”

Good morning™, all!

As many figured yesterday, the search is on now to find Fata — and one large elephant. For the first time ever, she says. It seems she was prepared.

Allakhazem? Really?

Tracy, you should have listened to all of us yesterday!

Good morning™, escape artists !

She sure gave Dicky the ol’ slipperoo. LOL !  You’d think Tracy would be expecting a sneaky bugout. Now all FM has to do is make a quick stop at the Tracy house for another go at Tess before leaving town.

Famer Coffman done good. :-)

If and when Tracy and the other MCU officers eventually catch Morgana, they better bring the “magic” darbies (handcuffs) as magicians usually make mince meat of ordinary cuffs.

Hmm…was there a giant trap door on the stage? In sight, then out of sight.

I can see it now, Fata Morgana will be on “Penn and Teller Fool Us”.

Can you make his huge droppings disappear?

Here is more about Officer Coffman who was first on the scene:

https://www.observerlocalnews.Com/news/2023/sep/25/fbpd-officer-leaps-into-action-rescues-swimmers-caught-in-riptide/

He also received a commendation from International Union of Police Associations:

https://leorf.Org/2023/10/02/hero-spotlight-police-officer-dylan-coffman/

Tracy got the opportunity to see her show free of charge and he did not need a backstage pass either. Rikki is outside warming up their escape vehicle.

…..begs the question if she is so well known and would obviously be a highly paid performer, why do the other at all?

Actually, Houdini was the first magician/illusionist to make an elephant “disappear”.

Ha. See me tolds you yesterday that she do the old disappearing act trick.

And now to arrests her assistant. Say where she disappear too.

Tracy only finds her assistant.

“Rikki, what are you doing out of prison?”

“Work release!”

“That makes sense. Run along.”

Fortunately, Tracy had put a GPS tracker on the elephant.

Wow! I didn’t see that coming…..

Who did not see THAT coming?!

Maybe she is Seven of Nine and just beamed out of there .‘There be whales here, Captain ‘, Remember when Scotty beamed two whales onto the ship .

Did she make the rest of the squad disappear? No one else accompanied Tracy to the theater .

And, in a moment of reflection, Tracy wonders why he was the only cop that came to the theater and there are no backup officers at any of the exits.

“Hubris,” told himself sadly. “I’ve got to get over thinking I’m the only police officer in the city who knows which end is up. Especially after a bonehead move like this… I need to start doing policework again instead of just drinking coffee and waiting for crooks to fall in our lap.”

I guess we CAN’T talk about the elephant in the room! And I’m certain Penn and Teller weren’t fooled.

who didn’t see this coming? well, finding a girl with an elephant shouldn’t be too difficult

Who has the best mustache, Mandrake or Dr. Strange? Discuss!

Not everyone has a magic spell dictionary.

Beautiful images by Shelley today : )

Sam, sitting out in the alley behind the theater and eating a Subway sandwich, suddenly jumps up and spills his Big Gulp when an elephant’s backside appears out of nowhere and crushes the front end of his squad car. While Sam screams like a little girl he hears a woman’s voice shout “Unc, Tantor!” and the elephant thunders off into the darkness.

How magicians really make an elephant disappear:

https://Www.youtube.Com/watch?v=RFSLRvCfnhI

Eh no big deals. How hard it gonna be to finds a FATa elephant eh.

quite thee escape artist she is… but now she’ll have to watch her back now. :J

“How To Dispose of the Elephant in the Room” in one easy lesson??

Well, sort of. Might want to get a SPOON, Tracy. The trap door opened, but she landed underneath the elephant. Case closed. Get a Mason jar.

I really like her cape thingy, it’s cool and looks neat! Nice trick with the elephant! Did she really just give Tracy the slip? :O

Suspect and elephant are gone….Tracy says, “Wow!’

1-BOUNCER THE ANNOUNCER: LADIES AND GENTS – AN ELEPHANT!

2-FATS: CONTRARY TO POPULAR OPINION – ELEPHANTS DO NOT WORK FOR PEANUTS! HAR HAR! WHAT KIND OF SOAP DOES AN ELEPHANT USE? IVORY! HAR HAR! BY THE WAY – THIS IS AN ASIAN ELEPHANT. HOW DO I KNOW? HIS SMALL EARS AND HIS POOP SMELLS LIKE CUMIN! HAR HAR! ??? Nothing? Fine. Now for some magic…

3-Distraction

4-BIBBIDI BOBBIDI BOO!

5-DT: WTH?!?! SHE USED A LASER BEAM TO COMMIT SUICIDE! AND IT MELTED THE ELEPHANT TOO! Poor thing! Oh well. At least Tess is safe now…

APB: “Be on the lookout for an elephant! Last seen in a Chicago theater”

Nice view of a crazy Fata in panel 5.

Minor trivia point: Houdini actually did make an elephant disappear at the Hippodrome in NYC. While there has been some debate about the method among illusionists over the decades, Jim Steinmeyer pretty much nails it in “Hiding the Elephant: How Magicians Invented the Impossible and Learned to Disappear”. Great book; just finished rereading it about a week ago.

P.S. Houdini’s illusion was completely different from FMs. As depicted here, FMs is basically impossible without some sort of fake elephant or a stage trap the works really quickly with a huge amount of weight on it.

Well, if David Copperfield can make the Statue of Liberty disappear, why not this? BTW folks, it’s a CARTOON strip

Still trying to figure out why she looks like a Borg….

Hey Gweedo, it’s finally legal here too!!

In the two so far, careless of Fata Morgana to leave such traces that can be tracked back to her for questioning. Abner Kadaver wasn’t so careless, eh? BTW, did she obtain the poisons from Yeti? ?

Resistance is futile (^_-)

There was an obscure Batman story from the 1950’s about a kidnapped magician that actually SHOWED how the disappearing elephant trick was done.

A lookalike stage curtain would drop down between theelephant and the audience—it looked like nothing had changed

In Vegas, once saw an obscure magician make a private Lear Jet plane appear on a bare stage

Hey,you! Where are you going with that elephant?

JIMMY DURANTE—-“What elephant?”

ALLAKHAZAM!

Guess who besides the elephant vanished? Fata Morgana! Tracy, you’ve been snookered!