Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for January 05, 2024

Good morning™, all!

So, the hit is essentially done? I suppose she keeps the murder weapon in that little case that the Patterson Playhouse guy almost picked up.

wow, Rikki is in this illusion show, I was thinking this was a flashback of sorts in Screweye’s past… I thought she was relating her thing to Rikki…

Greetings, Mystery Victims!

So who was the target of this hit? Was it the man we saw sawed? I saw a saw but not a hit, unless it was all an illusion. Hmmm….

Good morning™, cryptic talkers !

It sounds like Morgana is talking like it hadn’t actually happened yet but has only been set in motion. 2nd P. “Exit” and arrow add authenticity to the shot. They must be in an underground or higher parking structure, where you would see a sign like that.

Maybe that guy is still in that box?

The lady is one of those “independent contractors”. The question is the actual target…who could it be?

Is Rikki going back to the Dark Side ?

What? Assassin’s assistants don"t get paid maternity leave? They should unionize.

Mystery abounds here! To me anyway!

Two things…1) this “hit” is delayed action. 2) Does Vitamin know what’s going on in his Playhouse?

Ah, yes! The old ‘poisoned rubber blade on the Barbie’s first Chainsaw’ ploy! Obscure these days, but always effective!

Fata Morgana is a devious one .

by the this tiring my guess is rikki is still pregnant but it’s been more than 9 months since she got the good news.

MOVIE QUOTE—-

“Oh,good, my dog found the chain saw!!”

LILO AND STITCH—2002

Fata’s gonna get Rikki back in top form…..sitting in a jail cell took her off her calisthenics routine and she’s suffered a bit for it……

I want to go off course——looking through my back collection,the 1939 Edward Nuremoh story,which has gotten some renewed attention lately.

The story,far from being a giant, only lasted one short month. And like the Model Jones story,I don’t think Chester Gould knew what a great,unusual story he was writing. This was DALLAS/DYNASTY 40 years before they happened.

But I think he just enjoyed running Tess Trueheart through the clothes wringer.

Back then,even t he star baseball players were lucky t o make $10,000.00 a year—-and the average ballplayer had to work a regular job during the offseason. If he had a chance to make today’s salaries, Eddie could have told his controlling family to jump into one of the five Great Lakes.But he didn’t. Or is that couldn’t or wouldn’t?

He was a man who had been cheated out of his life’s dream.When he showed off his skills to Junior at the start of the s tory,he actually looked happy.

He had the “jolly playboy” mask down pat. But something was burning inside. The mystery isn’t that he exploded but that it took him so bloody LONG to explode. And when he did,it wasn’t pretty.

And that hideous crone mother of his is the onewho raised him to worship the almighty dollarbeyond all logic.She probably sold poisoned apples in her spare time.

And dear Cousin Karl, who didn’t care about money and was probably the wisest one of them all.

Sweet Cousin Karl,survivor of a House of Fiends

He inherited all

And spent it all on jellybeans

Love Panel 3—-Rikki definitely looks like a fugitive hiding out—and it takes nerve to risk exposure at all.

I still lean towards our “Mad Magicianess” looking to play Rikki for a sucker. Meanwhile,Charlie Chan has reached Treasure Island.

1-STAGE HAND: What’s PM stand for? Night time? FATS: PENUS MACHINE YOU DOLT. NOW LEAVE IT ALONE!

2-RIKKI TIKKI TAVI: Most people just call those vibrators. FATS: I know but that box is actually stenciled with my initials – not “PM”! What an imbecile!!!

3-RIKKI: But do you happen to have a “PM” at home? It’s been a while. FATS: Of course. I’ll just pull into this drugstore for some fresh batteries.

RIKKI: Better get the multi-pack. It’s been a… FATS: I KNOW, I KNOW!

I don’t know, but I suspect Rikki is still pregnant and not showing yet, and Fata doesn’t know it. This would be why Rikki is feeling a little tired. I know this happened a while ago in real time, but Tracy time is typically drawn out quite a bit. We could only be talking a couple of months since Abner’s death, due process being all but nonexistent in Tracyworld. But it’s going to be an interesting dynamic between our villains here if Rikki can’t keep up because she’s on the nest.

“You can never forgive me.But you CAN forget me!”

Forget,like a poisonous dream, the cruel wretch that tortured you!"

“Forget this mad,crawling thing that only looks like a man!”

Chester Gould wrote THAT!?!?!?!?

to DMITRIO

Please drop WONDERCAR block—-done for no reason and I mean you no harm

I think she murdered the story

I’m surprised Rikki isn’t using her Awesome Disguise Skilz:

https://www.gocomics.Com/dicktracy/2021/05/21

The FM toolbox that the Patterson stagehand almost touched probably contains Fata Morgana’s murder tools. In this case, only Rikki is allowed access. She’s exhausted by it all, however, and gets to sit it out for a while. It seems that Fata has made the hit already….