Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for August 12, 2024

“Our surgeon, Herr Schmidt.”

Artwork falling apart, panel 3.

“I will translate for you from German to English as necessary.”

Good morning™, guys!

At least we don’t have to read English equivalents of Spanish enclosed in angle brackets. :-| The inspector looks kind of jittery with those lines of motion. This is a very different style than the art we are used to, but maybe it’s more of an Argentinian style, seeing as how it’s Leo Batic.

Did Detective Tracy always wear a bright yellow raincoat?

So when does a trench coat become a suit jacket?

This art leaves something to be desired…

Good morning™, Ghosts Outside The Shell !

P.3. Tracy looks like some casual slob on his way to the pool hall on the corner. The inspector appears to be shifting between dimensions. What business is he on in the other one ?

Art is what the Artist “says it is”. Many interpretations of what “art” is. It would be hard to find two (2) person who agree on one piece of any artwork. Pablo Picasso did the world a favour, in my view, by going outside established art guidelines with “Cubism”.

Talent has many forms, some different but talent just the same!

The police surgeon is peeking under the sheet over the corpse to do his evaluation? I think he could do the job a lot faster / better if he took it off so he could see the whole body at once.

And, should the syndicate forbid the viewing of bodies, he could do it off panel. But, if corpses are verboten – why do we see the head?

Here he is, in Argentina, and he STILL can’t ditch the trench coat. If one of the suspects is Peron, My money is on them…

What if Dick Tracy was a midget?

The double lines on the inspector in panel 3 show that he is a step behind, and trying to catch up with Tracy; who is already ahead of him in more ways then one.

I would have of thought Dick would know Spanish. Of course, there may be some variations in the Argentine version.

When this minute mystery is over, I hope the main story picks up where it left off. I’m worried about poor old Silver.

MOVIE QUOTE

“You’re not afraid of riding with me, are you Karen?”

Vincent Price to Mary Murphy—THE MAD MAGICIAN—1954

Once the best “serious” strip of all time, 21st century Dick Tracy stewards rely on inexplicable resurrected rogues, fanciful diversionary tales during snory storyline construction, and some obvious DEI characters to keep the strip afloat. Ongoing daily comments sadly confirm that modern Tracy just doesn’t float many boats nowadays, mine included. Chester Gould deserves to RIP, not spin lathe~like in his tomb for eternity! He would surely put his suffering brainchild out of its’ misery if he could.

Did the Inspector officially deputize Tracy? Is he getting paid? Why would he feel compelled to get involved? There are plenty of other detectives at this DetectiveCon who could probably help. The need to utilize outside help doesn’t say much for the Argentinian police.

The dead man wasn’t “Milonga” for this world.

Tracy looks too much like a slob in Panel 3

1- INSPECTOR CHIN CHILLER: My men are wondering about your “loco” fashion sense, Senor Tracy. DT: It’s like Johnny Cash and black it represents the innocence of youth that was lost when I stopped wearing yellow raincoats and galoshes to school in my senior year of High School.

2- CHIN CHILLER: Weird. Anyway – our ME has confirmed that Milonga is NO LONGA alive! HAR HAR!

3- CHIN CHILLER: WHAT? NOTHING? HAVE YOU NO SENSE OF HUMOR, SENOR?!?! DT: I do. I think Dane Cook and Andy Kaufman are funny. CHIN CHILLER: So no…

Wouldn’t a native Argentinian detective, familiar with the language and culture, be better suited to investigate this case, rather than Mighty Whitey?

About Leonardo Baltic: Is he the same artist who did for DC Comics the Looney Tunes comic book stories?

The art doesn’t look as bad as the Minit Mystery of Feb, 2023, where everyone looked like Spike Jones. That said, while DT has trended towards realism, Gould created the strip with a recognizeable style that can’t be ignored. It would be like drawing Charlie brown without a round head or drawing a skinny Garfield with small eyes. The style sells the strip. Here, we get an attempt at the classic DT jawline, boxer nose, and squinty eyes. But it kind of leaves off after that.

The odd squiggly lines are confusing. Are they motion lines? Are they reflections? Are they sketch lines that didn’t get erased? Are they supposed to be a shadow? Why doesn’t Tracy have them also? Why do they have internal lines that duplicate what we see from the front? Who knows? They look like the reflection lines in the shiny floor from P1, but they are in a… reflective wall? And this has problems if it’s supposed to be the same kind of thing. So it’s a very odd element.

Hands in the pants pockets hiking up the trench coat is a strange choice. Tracy should have his hands in the trench coat pockets if he has them in any pockets.

The story? Probably another mind-numbing procedural thing, but we’ll see.

The artwork in the first two panels are okay, but there is no excuse for the atrocious effort in Panel 3.

This is getting boring.

I fear we’re missing the opportunity for a big crossover between Dick Tracy, Evaristo, Irish Coffee and other great detectives of Argentine comics.

If he can go to Cuba and Hawaii back to back in “real life”,why not Argentina?

the guest ’artist’s’ scribblings looks like a bad take on Fearless Fosdick…

The medical examiner in panel 2 looks vaguely familiar.

Tracy forgot his belt and is hiking up his britches….it also looks like he forgot the lifts in his shoes too, considerably shorter looking

A new day. A new case.