Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for February 29, 2024

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR… I just KNEW he couldn’t be too far away…

B/W?!?

Help me, I’ve gone color blind from Firestrike’s farts!!!

Took long enough to get to this revel.

Happy Leap Day™, everyone!

“Bob Smith” is such a generic name. We still have to wait to find out who he really is, or was that revealed months ago and I’ve forgotten?

Happy Leap Day™, Classic Colors !

Why are people so shocked by the lack of colors when the way it appears, until afternoon or so, is what so many have clamored for a return to ?  Annie aint the only thing that’s gone retro.

(MC must have called in sick today.)

I don’t know about anyone else but these frames are beautifully done. :-)

Per the TCA site in glorious colour;

https://tribunecontentagency.Com/article/20240229csdtc-Tif/

So at long last, we find out about Annie’s biological parents. And hey, how come Sandy isn’t there?

“Leaping Lizards” It’s been a while since Annie said that!

Cultured persons spell them as ‘pharts.’

Mr. Ettinger: where is everyone standing, exactly? How did Tracy miss Annie, and then Annie miss Bob? Does Warbucks have the entire hotel suite decorated with stage curtains to pull people out from behind?

Tomorrow: Bob says, “Your parents are right over there in what logically should be plain sight!”

None of this is a personal attack, as I hope you realized, and I’m well aware you aren’t scripting the comic, but repeatedly having people appear in the room like that is odd. Maybe an establishing shot, so we see how everyone is positioned relative to everyone else? Where is Tracy in today’s comic, for example? What is the shape of the room they’re in?

Leapin’ Horny Toads

I have it! Fata made Annie’s parents disappear! Maybe we need to check Vitamin’s office for them

And for this we needed Dick Tracy present?

or this is a scam to get money

If I remember correctly, Bob Smith was cleaning his garage and came upon these pictures, but when was that? Wasn’t it at least two years ago?

Is that “Buffalo” Bob Smith? He’s certainly aged! Clarabelle and Sandy have gone to that great circus in the sky, I fear.

Baaarrrfff . . .

Who were Annie’s parents? That has been one of the driving mysteries of the LOA comic strip and Annie’s unsuccessful search for her parents was a central issue in the play, Annie. Some mysteries should NOT be solved except to destroy the entire Annie premise as well as diminish the plot of the play.

But, in order for Mike to make Annie’s transition from Little Orphan Annie to Big Rich teenybopper Annie complete, every mystery apparently needs to be solved. She’s no longer little (until yesterday’s retcon). She is no longer an orphan (when her parents are found, she’ll no longer even be adopted). Her personality is different and less philosophical than in her legacy strip but who cares? We can always draw a fuzzy-haired, blank-eyed little girl and name her Annie. Nobody today remembers the Harold Gray version anyway so why try to honor it?

The syndicate cancelled the original Annie strip in mid story, so I can see why Mike would want to finish that particular tale. Finding Annie’s parents, however, is taking away a major part of the mystery of what makes Annie Annie. Harold Gray’s motivating factor for Annie’s positive nature was always her steadfast belief that her parents were out there somewhere and some day she’d find them or they would find her and she’d learn that why she was abandoned was all some honest mistake. So, in Mike’s mind, finding them makes Annie’s happy ending complete. Every mystery is solved and Annie can go to journalism school and toenail parties, and the world spins happily ever after. What else is left for Annie when her motivating factor is removed? Woo Gosh, I wonder why Harold Gray didn’t think of that?

Aren’t you glad that Mike is able to FIX Gray’s masterpiece and bring the story full circle? Well, after all, Gray would have found Annie’s parents if he would have thought of it, wouldn’t he?

It is another fanboy attempt at “wouldn’t it be cool if….” (we found Annie’s parents and destroed everything about Annie that made her Annie).

All together now, ’It’s a Black and White World’

Her parents are Pruneface and Mrs Pruneface

1-ORPHIOS ANNIE: What gives? OLIE: I want you to meet your dad…

2-…GARAGE GUY! *GG: Hi Annie. I make a living from garage sales. I’m poor but I also stink.

3-ANNIE: So you brought Tracy here to threaten this bum to never try to contact me again? OLIE: No – to make sure you go with him! I’m sick of you managing to cockblock me every time I got a gold digger on the casting couch! NOW BEAT IT BEFORE I ORDER TRACY TO START SHOOTING!

TRACY FROM HIS POSITION ON THE CASTING COUCH: Say – this is comfy. Where can I get one?

MOVIE QUOTE—-“I never heard of a plane motor backfiring”

Suspicious air traffic controller—-JULIE—1956

Happy birthday, Annie. Yes, I know the strip’s anniversary isn’t until the fall, but her birthday is February 29th. See yesterday’s comments.

Buffalo Bob Smith?Where’s Howdy Doody?

Egad! The colors have been purloined! Someone call a co…er…Tracy to handle this!

SAM? Is this your doing? Put those colors back where you found ’em!

“Lady Gaga is…Mom? -and Emo Phillips is my DAd?!?!?!?!”

So, Daddy W’s money ran out and he can’t afford to pay the colorist?

Garage Guy suspiciously resembling Eli Eon,late inventor.

If the parents had been found ALReAdy there’s be no need for Dick Tracy. And after we know WHO they are,the big question is—-“Are they worthy?”

Hmmmmm. so IS this Dick Tracy today, or is it “Little Orphan Annie”……today?………

Leapin’ lizards…..it is back and white! I am used to technicolor……….holy crap!

Happy Leapin’ Lizard Day!

Cue the ominous music

Yo! What happened to today’s strip? Looks like it got super amounts of bleach.

After all these years, a photo of Annie’s parents shows up courtesy of Mr. Bob Smith…sic ’em Sandy!

My feeble old brain cell (the last remaining one) seems to recall this “photograph of Annie’s parents” once before. Then the arc suddenly jumped to another story and never resumed.

Annie’s birth parents are Rooster and Mrs.Hannigan

Shouldn’t “Yet” be a question in this context?

I just can’t look at them blunk-out eyeballs without thinking of Lulu Arfin’ Nonny in “Pogo”

Finally this story!

Is Mike going to contain elements of the Annie musical in this story arc?

Here’s a product that might be of interest to some of the fine fellows here:

https://pics.walgreens.Com/prodimg/558937/450.Jpg

Little Orphan Annie had a rival. There was a competing comic strip called “Little Annie Roonie” that was a popular imitation, but it didn’t last as long. “Little Orphan Annie” lasted until Harold Gray’s death in 1968.

I hope Annie’s outfits don’t stay stuck in the 40’s. She can’t hang out with Honeymoon at the mall looking like that!