Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for November 30, 2009

We’re really moving along now. I can see that this latest tale won’t be like the last one. Fast paced, action packed, and filled with suspense!

VistaBill, I can’t handle any more suspence and fast paced action….

Margueritem said, “VistaBill, I can’t handle any more suspence and fast paced action….”

I know what you mean, Margueritem. I’m tired and tense already!

Tracy could fall asleep.

Llewellenbruce, we all could fall asleep…

Would somebody, anybody, please find this story???

ridenslide65 said, “Would somebody, anybody, please find this story???”

Patience, ridenslide65! All in good time.

And here we go again - is the next catch phrase going to be ’ ‘JUST FIND HIM’

‘JUST FIND HIM’ ‘JUST FIND HIM’ ‘JUST FIND HIM’ ‘JUST FIND HIM’ ‘JUST FIND HIM’

“Legend of Bill” moves faster than this, and it’s only updated once a week. No pig on wheels to save us this time.

I think Great Expectations moves at light speed compared to this.

By the time we tidy up the christmas decorations and fully recover from New Years, Dick Tracy and Tess might actually arrive to see the symphony… I stress ‘might’ there.

Beethoven or whoever he is had white eyebrows matching his hair yesterday. Today they’re black.

Somehow, telling a police officer, “I don’t want excuses, JUST FIND HIM!” seems counterproductive.

easy on the close-ups, Brorman

This is just so much drek! To believe that quote, “The first procedural detective” should be brought down to this level of mediocrity is beyond comprehension.

You could just skip to the next storyline, and chances are, it’s going to start in the same exact manner!

I just hope that, unless TMS finds somebody competent to do this strip after DL retires, they retire it also…or go into Gould reruns.

It appears that our pitiful cartoonist has finally realized that he can’t draw full figures and has given up trying. With any luck he’ll realize the same thing about his faces.

”Why do you feel so threatened by my presence here? I promised to leave when it seemed certain the strip was headed for the grave”

Now woe be me to take a statement as definite as that out of context. I don’t think I have !

That was Jeff Kersten posting on Dec.21, 2008. And if there’s one thing I believe I can count on, is to take him at his word. His last two post (that I could locate) were on 6-24-09 (less than 2 weeks away from the Circus tale). In the first he asked “…Riddle me this, how can one criticize if one doesn’t have all the facts?”

The final post was just a mocking? (knowing smile?) … *;)*

Can I assume that he already had “all the facts” and “cognizant” of what was just up ahead, poised to “pop out” in theDick Tracy (Circus) world?

Would it be too big a leap (or be unfair?) to connect his earlier statment to the FACT that he no longer posts on this board?

Can we dare to think the worst ?

Sometimes words come back to bite us !

Many folks, heck, myself included, would rather see classic Tracy/Gould reprints than this mess. But that may not be possible for 2 reasons.

The strip size. Mr. Gould had a lot more room at his disposal than today’s artists. It might not be feasible to reprint his panels in today’s micro mini comics pages. Especially his gorgeous Sunday strips. Which were shrunk from 16 to 12 panels while he was still doing the strip. What newspaper would be willing to give Tracy that much room?

If Matthew is to be believed, the constraints placed on the writers would make reprinting his work impossible. No way could death traps, shoot outs, torture, and the grisly end of the villains be depicted under TMS standards.

I am afraid we are stuck with what we got.

This time around, Tracy won’t be able to pull “the popcorn trick!”

What could possibly go wrong at a symphony concert? The same thing that could possibly go wrong at the circus: a poorly written story.

fishbulb, No we could demand a new artist & writer. Who says they wouldn’t reprint the originals? After all they are doing it with “Bloom County” & a few other strips.

@fishbulb: I think reprinting Gould strips in newspapers would be impractical for the reasons you cite: they ran MUCH bigger (the Sunday strip used to be a full page) and the violence often caused papers to complain even back then. Also, Gould’s politics would not fly today (one early story had Tracy go back to beat up the villain in his cell AFTER he’d been arrested, just to make sure he got the point). However, reprinting them online would be a whole different matter, and I would like to see it.

I have heard the rumors about how Locher is being straitjacketed by editorial dictates. There may be truth to that, but TMS runs numerous other features, like Gasoline Alley, that do not suffer from the basic problems of slipshod writing and art that plague this strip. Even if there are constraints, it’s no excuse for a four-month story that has everyone standing around talking in the same spot the entire time, or any of the many, many logic and continuity errors here.

I hope Longhair has a good phone plan, this P/C has now lasted a week. Ka-Ching, Ka-Ching

Well, at least there’s no clowns in this one (so far).

OK VistaBill, I’ll have some patience. But I think it will be a lot more than “in good time”. The way Locher writes, we won’t know what the heck is going on untl Valentine’s day.

Rich

ridenslide65 said, “OK VistaBill, I’ll have some patience. But I think it will be a lot more than “in good time”. The way Locher writes, we won’t know what the heck is going on untl Valentine’s day.”

That soon?

What could go wrong? Tess…you have to ask??!

Does it count as an adventure if all you do is stand around for hours, Dick?

I’m afraid we’ve probably seen the last of the Pig On Wheels, but perhaps a new protagonist will appear.

-Cougar :{)

Dick relax get real the two words don’t mix.

Tess is full of botox in the 2nd panel.

@Joe- in and of itself the phone conversation is not a bad device to start a story…but in this strip, it’s the ONLY device. Every adventure for at least the past year has started this way. Which is why everyone is complaining about it.

@MPH- I’m surprised to hear of the rider in Collins’ contract that gave him ownership of any characters he created…he was not a very big name when he first took over the strip, so how could he get that much clout? But even if so, that really only covers villains he created, and Dick’s son Joe. There are more than enough Gould characters to fill the strip, so it doesn’t explain why he’d introduce a new character mid-story (and then not have her do anything). No, I still believe the problem with this strip is just plain slipshod writing and art.

Let me guess… the symphony conductor is actually in the witness protection program and there’s a demented woodwind player named Oh Bo who’s plotting against him…

Matt, Thanks for mentioning the Collins ownership of characters he created. Although my understanding is that they are “available” for use at a reasonable “fee”.

But in any event only three of the nine names fall into that category, Dick’s son Joe Tracy but who has been effectively “trumped” by use of a “look-alike” called “Cool Dude”.

And had they been “needed” I imagine the same simple technique using different names could have been utilized for Adonis and Lee Ebony. And I’m sure Dicky will confirm that he decided (as I’m sure he has already mentioned) that he’s keen to break up the concept of the “Major Crime Squad” (foolisly, may I opine) and developing Tracy as a sort of “lone wolf” detective, with SWAT teams following every time as I’ve observed elsewhere.

Remember Norman March and Dan Dunn? He was never sued for drawing a near exact replica of Dick Tracy, Take a look at the 2 presentations on Wikipedia

The point I’m making is that these are already “developed” characters with known and “well liked” personalities and available No need to mold new ones, and look at the poor job he’s done with Teevo, after two years the poor man doesn’t even have a “first” name yet! What could it be, “Fido” like in Maggie and Jiggs (?)

It would be unproductive to saddle the strip with another inept variant of Teevo.

But thanks for mentioning the situation.

Well I’m still confused as to why TMS would let Collins retain ownership of a character integral to the strip (Tracy’s son Joe), but anything’s possible. If that is the case, I think again that what is really needed here is a reboot of the whole strip. Have Tracy starting out again, pursuing Tess, joining the force, adopting Junior, and remeeting all the famous long-gone faces from his Rogue’s Gallery, under the hand of some new and TALENTED creators. I mean, why not? What is there to lose? This strip is coasting along on its legend, and slowly dying as a result.

“Poor at writing at TMS” ?

Hmm! If it wasn’t for Jay Maeder I’d suspect it was “contagious” !

Tracy wear a regular tie to the concert? I’m sure that’s how they’ll let him go.

My understanding is that Rick Fletcher was very conscious of those things, and in particular fashionable female attire. He subscribed to special publications for this purpose !

Glad we have Mattie on board as our resident expert on Dick Tracy Laws and copyrights.

Yawn…………..

So they play so fast and loose with contracts that they inadvertently give away rights to characters, or even to the entire franchise, yet they simultaneously tie Locher’s hands with regards to violence and other “standards and practices” type things. Great.

R_Noonan63: Concerts such as this haven’t been black-tie for many years. Are you kidding? If theaters today demanded black-tie attire, they would be sued for discrimination. Our PC, casual society wouldn’t stand for it. That being said, I still try to dress up for an occasion such as a concert because it makes ME feel better about it.