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

So heroic!

“I was thinking Bob Smith’s garage.”

and so it begins with the Grays depositing Annie in the orphanage, never to see her again…

Good morning™, everyone!

When you can’t find a babysitter on short notice, just drop your baby off at the asylum. It seems a bit drastic, but who knows how long it will take them to defeat Boris Sirob.

“Tracy has taken Warbucks out” could mean several things, but I suppose that Warbucks is safer if moved to somewhere he can’t be easily found.

Good morning™, Rushed Abandoners !

And so starts the adventures of LOA. Chuck is every bit the great graphics designer, in his way, as Shelley was in hers. Sharp and Great contrast here.

It’s pretty sad that Annie is so disposable. I understand your commitment to the job but jeez, at the expense of your first child?

They don’t love her.

Only one way this is going to go: Deaths of the parents Grey.

It’s the only way we don’t get to write them off as bad parents.

To whom it may concern: I’m really not liking this Annie story – among other things, I just can’t identify with any of these characters.

The un-retconned Warbucks himself proved to be a C- parent from the get-go. And historically, his enterprises were questionable.

Now, Annie’ newly invented parents appear to be rather flaky, too. Yes, it’s good that they care about Warbucks, their employer. But at the expense of their own child?

At best, this story makes no sense.

At worst, well, I guess, just stick around, it will get there.

“Gee, Harold, who knew we would have this problem when we agreed to undertake this dangerous undercover assignment even though we knew I was in a late-term pregnancy?”

“It never occurred to me, Winifred. If it had we might have made arrangements to have relatives take care of Annie after you left the hospital & before this assignment was completed.’

“You forget, Harold, we are both orphans ourselves with absolutely no relatives or anyone else to turn to.”

“Boy, it sure stinks being plot devices in a contrived retconned origin story.”

“It stinks more for Annie.”

I thought the honorific Ms was a recent ‘woman’s lib’ era title but prior to commenting, i checked the history. Yeah, it goes way back, at least further than I thought.

Hall of Famer

I was a little confused by the “Connecticut, New York (NY)” thing. So, he works for the White Plains, NY, fire department near the CT state line, but he lives in Brookfield, CT, about 45 miles northeast of work. He was driving home from work when he saw the burning car in Brookfield.

Anyway, it’s a pretty incredible story. He broke the passenger’s side window to get into the car (since the driver’s side was on fire) and after he crawled in, his jacket caught on fire. He had some difficulty freeing the driver, but he persisted. I guess when you’re a firefighter, you’re never really off duty.

Rather than try to link it, search Google for this to find a good story about this incident:

nicholas perri jr news12

Too bad these two only the only agents in organisation now. No other agents they coulda calls for help but mother with newborn baby has to dumps her hapless infant and goes to works. Look like everyone else in the organisation was either fired or left on their own for lousy work conditions. No maternity leave also. And they also enforce inhuman regulations of only bottle-feeding and no breastfeeding the newborn baby. Who’da wants to working in such terrible organisation anyways eh. Every time me theenks me has seen the most nonsensical in fiction, me has to theenks again.

I like the play on words . Ms. Asthma / miasma . Miasma being a vaporous cloud of gas and thus being a homage to our own Firestrike .

“But what do we do with Annie?”

Look, I get that you’re government employees and child care is expensive, but dumping her at an orphanage still seems extreme.

This story has really taken a turn into the absurd. It is also so offensive in every way. FBI agents so stupid they would drop their baby off at an orphanage? Break down and hire a writer for God’s sake.

…………An orphan ASYLUM…..and so it goes!

I don’t understand why one of the Grays couldn’t go while the other stayed with baby Annie. Or why they couldn’t alert the FBI some other way. And apparently the Grays were from out-of-town, since there was no one to leave her with. Apparently Mr. Smith lives in another town – did Harold send it to him (after the March 17 strip) or was it left for him, and delivered in some other way? And why was it not considered important to Smith at the time?

If it’s early twentieth Century the Cell phone Is a bit anachronistic.

WHAT? NO back-up plan for emergency baby-sitting pre-planned? Close-in relatives, friendly, trustworthy neighbors, the paper boy, even? The idea! the VERY idea!!

From today’s Comics Curmudgeon:

OK, look, syndicated newspaper comic strip Dick Tracy: I know doing overly reverent takes on classic adventure comic strips is, like, your whole thing, but you’re going to have to decide whether the action you depict takes place during an era where undercover FBI agents would have no choice but to leave their newborn daughter at a local orphanage as they begin their most dangerous mission yet, or whether it takes place during an era when cordless phones exist. You can’t have it both ways!

1-HAROLD: DO YOU WANT PEPPERONI ON YOUR PIZZA OR NOT??? THE MAN’S WAITING FOR MY ORDER!

2-WINNE: Well, if I was breast feeding, I probably would NOT because the baby might turn Italian and nobody wants to take that risk BUT…

3-HAROLD: GEEZ-US!!! One large cheese pizza. Deliver it to the FBI Agents’ house…Yeah, that’s the one.

4-WINNIE: I’d like to eat in peace without the bother of tending to this kid. Any ideas how I might make that happen…

5-…Just drop it and run – our pizza’s probably ready!

Curious that for a comic character just over a century old, the soon-to-be-disposable parents are using cordless phones…

“She’ll go undercover. fro…maybe seventy years or so…”

This mish mush of a story only reinforces something I’ve said here before… some questions are best left unanswered

Can this couple be charged with child abandonment?

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Somebody has mistaken Miss ASTHMA’S PLACE FOR A reputable ORPHANGE…..