Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for January 24, 2024

am I to take it that somehow Fata is about to impersonate Baxter or am I overthinking things?…

This makes no sense. Tracy and the police are looking for her! No way she’s gonna be able to do another show.

Shark jumping alert!!!

Good morning™, everybody!

Disguised as Bob Baxter, mild-mannered magician of the stage, Fata fights a never-ending battle … for something.

Why am I starting to get the feeling that Fata is lying out of her Rs about knowing Abner let alone being his former protege?

Things are a little cheeky in panel 3 today.

Good morning™, Magical Sleights of Hand !

Speculation is starting to get rampant on Morganite impersonating a fellow ‘magic’ person. My jury is out on that, but I sense bad for the Baxter man.

Love the coloring.

Is Rikki wearing Fata’s shirt?

Wait, the iconic 4th Doctor was Tom Baker, not Bob so they’ve dropped the Classic Doctor names. Booooooo!

Also, I don’t comment on here much, but I’ve spent the afternoon and night in the hospital with my 72-year-old father. He collapsed out of the blue (has a watchman device since he’s on dialysis so it shouldn’t be a stroke). So if you’re religious we’ll take any and all prayers. His heart is beating on its own, and he’s tried to breathe on his own several times though he’s still on oxygen. Plus, his eyes have shot open numerous times. I’m just hoping he’s still the same person he was this afternoon. 20 minutes of CPR worries me greatly.

So, Bob Baxter is going to be part of plan B? I wish I had hired some flies on the wall as to what it is.

Vitamin must have a soft spot in his heart for magic acts. Why would he book another one so soon after Fata’s?

Say, is this Bob Baxter related to Biff Baxter III, who was kidnapped by that guy who targeted rude people back in 1993?

The Dick Tracy comic strip already jumped the shark three or four years ago.

“Presto Change-o Alikazam”!

I had assumed that Fata’s show where she used the elephant trick to cover her getaway was at the Patterson. Vitamin Flintheart was there anyway.

Is she going to leave her elephant stuck in jail?

Her next trip is make Dick Tracy disappear !

The dialog is broken. Who is speaking in panel 2? Can’t be Fata, because she wouldn’t say her own name in the third person like that. Can’t be Rikki, because she’s speaking to Fata. Conclusion: for one panel and for no reason, it’s suddenly an omniscient narrator … quoting itself? What?

Apparently there’s only one venue in Tracy Towne. Fata killed Throughton in Patterson, disappeared with her elephant there, and now wants to go back? And who books magicians back to back to back?

A former US Air Force soldier, ex-husband to Patsy Walker*, Robert Baxter is now the costumed criminal known as Mad-Dog. They first appeared in “Patsy Walker” romance comics from 1945, so not as old as Superman’s creators.

PW is now revived as the Marvel superhero “Hellcat”

And just when you is thinks it no get any more preposteridiculudicrous…

Look like the old wear a wig and goes in disguise trick. And why she going there anyway. It be too convenient if intended victims is always show up in magic show.

…..it’s starting to remind me of some short story I read when I was this creepy ’lil kid…….“Miss Hinch”…..a master of facial disguise……..

Is this a tribute to the late, great Professor Bobby Baxter? He was a semi-legendary New York magician and all-around cool dude.

MOVIE QUOTE—-

“I got the motive which is murder and the body which is dead!”

Rod Steiger—-IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT—1967

Filler day .

Let’s hope it’s at least a convincing impersonation. We haven’t seen a woman convincingly impersonate a man since Zora Arson way back in 1935,

And Chester Gould,in the early days, seemed obsessed with crooks dressing up as women to fool the police.

Including Steve The Tramp,for cry-yi—whose 3-day growth ofbeard showed easily through a veil.

She’s got a nice little rack

GP! She’s regenerating. A closet Time Lord appears!

As…(oh dear) Don Rickles, possessor of a lethal wit. Death by zinger!

This woman doesn’t know when to quit.

It is all so confusing……….

1-RIKKI: Every guy who sees me in this shirt thinks “FM” stands for FEEL ME! I don’t mind that so much but the ones who believe it stands for “FU…”

2-AND NOW FOR A BRIEF COMMERCIAL INTERRUPTION: COMING SOON TO THE PATTERSON, NJ PLAYHOUSE – BOB BAXXXXTERRRRRR!

3-FATS: INSPIRATION! To make some badly needed dough, I’m going to kill Bob Baxter, take his gig and get his paycheck. Then I’ll make him sign it over to me so I can…wait.

…I think there’s a flaw in this Plan B somewhere…

Someone else commented on this and I concur. I cannot figure out who is speaking in panel 2. Who is the unnamed narrarator making the introduction to the readers? I thought at first it was Fata but whe wouldn’t talk about herself in the third person.

Okay—a new question. While Fata is doing her impersonation,where will the REAL Bob Baxter be?

As in “Above ground” or “below ground”.

Ah,well,Barry Moore needs somebody to play cards with

Rikki! I love ya baby!! Don’t listen to anyone else honey!! I’m the only one for you my precious! The most beautiful woman known to Mankind, hands down.

BTW, I forgot what FM means, but I’d sure love to have Rikki show me what it means.