Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for November 05, 2009

It happened!

…again.

I won’t even ask why the word balloon in Panel Two doesn’t appear to be coming from Mr. Pops. Unless…

Is that cross-hatched pattern in the background supposed to be his torso?

But never-mind. I’m too busy wondering who that is in Panel Three.

Maybe he finally hit the funny dead duck.

Fee Fi just got neutered>

Yes, who is that strange looking man in panel #3?

Ladies and Gentlemen: Regrettably, Dick Tracy has been afflicted with wheel swine flu. We present his understudy, Guile from the “Street Fighter” series.

Also, why is that tiger cage so high? “Dramatic effect” doesn’t count. I’m sure the tiger wouldn’t mind a lower ceiling if he had more room he could actually use.

Well on the up side, we’ve been getting three fresh panels of art a day for a little while now. On the down side, well, look at the art. The cage has grown, Fee Fi has shrunk, the clown has lost a LOT of weight and Dick himself…hmmmmm. But at least the poor art is distracting attention from the abysmal writing. In 76 years has there ever been a Dick Tracy story where he was so completely inessential to the story?

Lookout Dick the cage is empty !

Your Tiger bailed , Mister POLICE FORCE man .

Probably got tired waiting for lunch to drop in .

Crime stopper tip for now… RUN , RUN Forrest run .

The artwork today it’s a catastrophe. What happen???

Ricky Nelson is in panel 3????

And Mr Pops quickly turns into a stick man so that the tiger will not want to eat him - panel 1

Carlo Coratelli said,

The artwork today it’s a catastrophe. What happen???

———————————————————-

I already told you…

IT happened!

What has become of the once famous dick Who, up his sleeve always had a trick He has fallen on hard times The subject now of bad rhymes Once again we are treated No, I meant we are cheated It’s just more of the same And it’s really a shame That gone are the days When Tracy received praise

The artwork continues to be poor. Tracy doesn’t even look like himself in the third panel.

Maybe they added Mattie (BNM) to their inept staff. If so, look out for the pig on wheels to show up with a Batman-like hood and mask,

It seems that Fee Fi has got a tiger by the tail here. Once again, all Tracy can do is yell helplessly. I’ve been wondering what the purpose of Agent Ennen was to the story. She seems to have contributed nothing to the plot. Maybe she’s the designated victim? Someone else mentioned that Fee Fi is shrinking. He actually appears to be smaller than Mr. Pops in the first panel. Sigh…

I continue to be astounded by the ineptness of this strip nowadays. Look at Annie, Brenda Starr, The Phantom…proving that adventure strips can still have superb artwork and story-telling in today’s world of the “quicky-read”! Dick Tracy was at the height of his game before…now it has sunk so low into the valley of despair, I don’t think it could ever claw it’s way back!!!

The poor tiger is starving in anticipation.

The only surprises in this once great strip are the new lows that the artwork can sink to. It almost makes you overlook the poor writing and boring story lines…. almost.

Dick Tracy, the Head Who Reacts to Things Happening Off-Panel!

Go back through recent strips. Tracy appears in seven panels between today and Sunday, and in each one he’s just a head looking to the side and shouting something.

Even when the artist draws someone in something other than a standard pose, like the clown-giant grapple, it’s badly done and gets repeated over and over. It’s like reading a Rob Liefeld comic written by someone with a stammer.

still waiting for notnormanchubsyubsy to launch another attack on Joeallen….. still waiting for busybusy Matthew to respond to the shot fired by morrow……

comments are much better than the thing at the top

DT is amazed and shock that Mr. Pops would shot Fee Fi, but what was Fee Fi gona do throw Mr. Pops to the tiger or to the cops. Mr. Pops couldn’t take chances so shoots Fee Fi so Fee Fi will go to the tiger, fall flat on cage, or free fall to cops look at below. Just stir up Mr. tiger, which is ready for a missed meal.

Somebody finally remembered almost everybody involved has a gun … unfortunately it was Mr. Pops’ gun she remembered first and she spoke aloud and that reminded him too. If she had remembered that she has a gun … or that Tracy has a gun … or that the real cop has a gun … or that the murderer is still running around loose with her gun …

I wouldn’t pay much attention to anything Mr. Pops says, though. He’s talking out of his azz.

Don’t you guys recognize Tracy after he’s been electrocuted? Evidently a stray bullet has caused a live electric light fixture to fall on him. Perhaps he’ll die. If he does how will anyone know?

-Cougar :{)

i bet pops and fee fi both fall into the pit to their deaths:P

Hands again…hands in a CLOSE-UP, even…never our artist’s strong point, as we’ve discussed so many times before…ad nauseum…

Well, with any luck at all, we should be nearing the logical end of this storyline…new storyline by next week?????

Will Mr. Pops AND Fee Fi BOTH get eaten by the tiger? Pretty grisly end to the story, eh?

RayC said : “….I’ve been wondering what the purpose of Agent Ennen was to the strip. She seems to have contributed nothing to the plot”

I think her contribution is a “visual” one only. In comic strip circles they call the presence “female relief”. Locher, inadvertently painted himself into a corner by promoting Liz(z) to Chief removing her from daily operations. He replaced her with that “mistake” called Teevo. That’s why we see Tess in so many story lines. Effectively, filling the female gap.

What is amazing ahead is the wrap up by Tracy “free wheeling” style in assigning blame without “hard” evidence

Really, Mister Pops. It’s polite to actually finish your threat and give the guy a chance to comply before carrying it out.

“Put me down or (POW!)” is not cricket, old boy.

Looks like Brozman is on vacation and Locher has taken over the art work for a while. You can sure tell the difference, can’t you.

Is it just me or does Agent Ennen have a moustache?

ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzz……………

That “POW!” doesn’t look like it’s Mr. Pops’ pistol. It looks like the “POW!” from the rifle that shot Louise Trapeze. Who was it that killed Louise, Barb Els? It’s been so long ago that I forgot. I believe that it is definitely a rifle “POW!”.

This whole week has been disconnected, both artistically and dialogue-wise.

What’s Spacy yelling NO! about?

Sydney, I appreciate the insight. As eye candy goes, Ennen isn’t the greatest. But when the alternatives are Barb Ells and Cathy Teria (or whatever her name is) I guess we’ll settle for Ennen. Is it Pisa Ria? No. Wendy? No. Della Katessen or some such I think.

Memory fails me, but I don’t think the clown’s gun had a hammer originally. Could be wrong.

Ray C. said, “Memory fails me, but I don’t think the clown’s gun had a hammer originally. Could be wrong.”

I don’t recall a hammer, either. Perhaps Mr. Pops was packing two pistols. It appears that everyone has a firearm except Tracy and Ennis.

Seems the agony of this tedious story continues through to near month end, so “jtpozenel” can continue to enjoy the “relief” of his Siesta.

On Nov. 24 Tracy does a quick “one panel” stop-off at HQ before returning to what has now become his “base” at HOME, where Tess will effectively direct him to the NEXT case. Something she’s done in ALL of 2009

The new Villain appears (properly) on the 27th. No names or description ! But one “clue” - the Rogue bears a close resemblance to a 1938 Gould character. If you have the pictures look them up. You’ll have FIVE to ponder on !

I don’t see the tiger in the cage! Maybe he escaped since it appears that the cage has no back.

Where are the police again, why didn’t Tracy grab a gun and shoot this clown off the cage? I have no fear of the once mighty Dick Tracy anymore. They should change his name to Richard Tracy. I would think with all this stress, maybe that is why Ennen grew a stache.

Agent Ennens has merely disguised herself with a false moustache because she doesn’t want anyone to know she is involved in this travesty. Wouldn’t you?

-Cougar :{)

The agent Ennen is a useless character. Like Teevo.

That last panel makes Tracy look like he did after Itchy tried to starve him to death about 60 yrs ago. Right Syd??

Although Fee Fi had Mr. Pops held over his head Locher couldn’t have him just drop Pops into the Tiger cage (not family-friendly). Thus Fee Fi gets winged, drops Pops through no fault of his own, Pops becomes Kitty Chow (probly after a click click moment on his gun, followed by throwing it at monsieur poosy-cat) and all is forgiven or forgotten (Barb Els? The other conspirators), all in only three short weeks. We’ll all have so much to be thankful for come Nov. 26.

How is it that this strip can generate more feedback than any other strip on gocomics, virtually all of that feedback is negative, and yet Locher still has a job? That’s a mystery worthy of Dick Tracy (I mean the old solve-the-crime Dick Tracy, not the current stand-around-and-be-stupid Dick Tracy).

Bracy looks stangely like Gould era Junior! Mr. Pops isn’t too bright. He shoots FeFi and will by Monday, be dropped into the tiger cage.

Maybe the kitty will be full by the time Bozo (not the one who claims to be a detective) falls into the cage.

Mattie, my friend, Tracy just might be salvaged if you could wangle your way onto the staff. THEN, and only then, I’d consider giving you a public apology for the disrespect and downright dirty way I’ve treated you. NotNorman might even say something nice to Doty when he sees me give you a big hug in my red sweater and hair shirt.

Glad to see Sydney back, I was away when he went off with Matt?? I didn’t know about that and nobody answered my query about it. Hopefully, things will improve with the next story line. Flight Suit was looking for archive Gould Strips perhaps now he can get help with that other than the expensive books from Amazon.

jjff said : “I have no fear of the once mighty Dick Tracy anymore. They should change his name to Richard Tracy”

No “jjff”, they should change it to “DICK LOCHER”. The Author’s endevour to get RID of ALL of Gould’s characters would then be “complete”. With “mission acomplished” he could retire satisfied, and Brozman could move on with a completely NEW HERO backed up by Lt. Teevo !

Circulation would jump - - even further DOWN !

Hello bassmanbob

Didn’t know Mattie was visiting relatives in Canada too. Just missed him !

I see where he states that he wasn’t “INVITED” to join the Dick Tracy team. I thought he was “pro-active” enough to “DEMAND” the position. He let us down !

He needs to be careful though. He wouldn’t want to lose “visiting” rights in Naperville ! Dicky is not a nice man to mess with. Look what happened to Max Collins just when he needed a verbal “assist” from his partner !

Locher just put up a “farewell” note in the strip - - “Best of luck Alan”!

MPH, I think you could maybe salvage this shipwreck, You’ve got the energy and talent. Seriously. Anyone who can put up 40 posts in a day had gotta be running on Eveready batteries! Macy deserves a lot better’n than Locher and Co. has given him.

You know the 1960s animated DT series is looking better and better to me.