Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for November 12, 2008

Laser Mouth, that’s his new name!

Officer, let me help. You’re supposed to get on your radio and call for snipers, etc., to help fight MegaForce. And your chief needs to contact the governor’s office to get the National Guard out with tanks, grenade launchers, etc., in case MegaForce wins.

You’re the police. You’re not supposed to stand there and watch.

(Till Bassman returns – I just wanted to keep the story running)

The human’s comment had given BF a new lease on life. No self-respecting robot wants to be compared to the heartless tin man of Oz, and Trazer was momentarily caught off guard.

“LTZ C U STOP THZ!” BF said cryptically, and while Trazer went through his text message parser, he failed to notice the little “laser” warning sign that was flashing next to BF’s mouth. Suddenly, a beam leapt from the horrible mouth and directly at Traz-R’s “eyes.”

Sadly, Diet Smith had spent too much on the rubberized titanium face, and there had been no money for a state-of-the-art visual system. He had, instead, installed two unused two-way wrist TV’s, and they were no match for the laser.

Traz-R raised his tiny delicate left hand to his face, but too late. “MY TV IZ OUT! CAN”T GT A VISUAL!” he stuttered. Tracy listened from under the table where he was now hidden and wondered if this could be true – or maybe – just maybe – it was a last-ditch effort to catch the made-in-China robot off guard.

(to be continued)

More like Motor Mouth - or Magnum Farce.

Meanwhile Braces is still standing nearby with Shirl(ey)’s sister not making a getaway.

Dumb, dumb, dumb.

The position he is at in the first panel should cause him to tip over.

I think we see why MF can bend at the waist now. He has a flexible inner core that runs up from the base into his torso (first panel). Just curious…why would a robot put his hand to his eyes when blinded? I think you’re right, Grokenstein. Little Dick will be popping out soon. He’s the gun that was shown in the first act, and it has to be used before the play is over.

TV? What’s going on in there? Is he watching Brady Bunch re-runs when he’s not out fighting lame-A** robots with lasers in their mouth?

Still with the words “Ltz C U….” OMG this is so brutal.

Ray C is right. Why would Trazer cover his eyes? Can he feel pain? He is a robot right?

Groin-bot to the rescue!

ridenslide65 says: ” Why would Trazer cover his eyes? Can he feel pain? He is a robot right?” Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

I like how the robots are fighting Pokémon style – i.e. one attacks while the other just stands like a dummy and takes the attack, then the other attacks while the first one stands like an idiot, etc.

BRUTE FORCE used Lame Insult! But nothing happened!

TRAZE-R used Empty Threat! It doesn’t effect BRUTE FORCE!

BRUTE FORCE used Face Punch! It’s not very effective…

(Repeat of Empty Threat and Lame Insult attacks – same non-results)

TRAZE-R used Gut Punch! It’s super-effective!

(Another repeat of the Insult and Threat attack exchange)

BRUTE FORCE used Laser Breath! Critical hit! TRAZE-R is blinded!

SWAT TEAM is paralyzed and cannot act!

DICK TRACY is confused!

READER falls asleep! zzzzzzz…

His TV is out?? Oh no! That means it’s February 2009 and they’ve switched to digital! This has gone on so long that Traze-R is obsolete!!

Yet? MF is implying that he will go down on Traz-r, its just a matter of time. Not exactly very threatening though.

Uh oh. Traz-R’s TV is out. Now he has nothing to watch, and has to pay attention to this lame storyline.

I’m sooooooo excited……! I see Traz-r has teeth. Actually, we’ve been given a glimpse of them before. Why would Diet Smith do that?

If Trazer and MF/BF/LAME-O can pick up “signals” like EVL FRC, why does he need a TV? You would think Locher could come up with something better than TV.

GROIN-BOT to the RSCU!

Traze-R realizes in third panel:

“Wow, I could’ve had a V-8!”

(engine, that is)

Hey everyone, ‘someone’ just removed what I posted about an hour ago. Guess I’m being censored. Those of you that know me know I never cross “the line”. It must have been the ” tingle down his leg” line which everyone(or almost everyone) knows is a joke about Chris Matthew’s comments Pity ‘someone’ doesn’t have a sense of humor. I suppose I’ll be banned next.

Goodbye, cruel world!!!!

Goodbye to you also Jeff! (Nice job over the weekend, by the way)

“SIGH”

BB

Who needs a visual when he’s been able to “sense” this evil force for the last three weeks? Also, what secret weapon does TracyBot have in his arsenal - perhaps an evil-sensing rocket launcher in that big strapping chest??

Ok - here’s where DL can bring back the element from the early introduction of Traze-r. Blinded perhaps, but Traze-r is programmed to obey only Dick Tracy’s voice commands.

“Left! Right! Jab! Jab! Now give ‘em one to the ‘ol breadbasket!”

Yeah - I know. That would have required DL to plan his work and work his plan.

Trazer has Mickey Mouse gloves?

from RCHarvey.com: IS DICK TRACY FACING HIS FINAL DEATH TRAP? An American Icon’s Fate Being Pondered Could it happen? Could Chester Gould’s cleaver-chinned cop be turned out to pasture? Could the yellow fedora be hung on a hook and Tracy disappear forever from newspaper comics? The shame of it is—it could happen. …

If anyone is willing to subscribe let us know what he wrote.

Glad that was labeled “laser.” Thought maybe MF/BF had a frog tongue.

In the first panel, MF/BF IS over his center of gravity and should be past the point of no return. Falling over is certain, but a last laser shot gets lucky.

Diet Smith should be ashamed of himself. I’ve seen car headlights put security cameras temporarily out of commission, so a direct laser blast into a TV camera can’t do it any good. One would think that in this day of modern tech, Diet could have come up with something better but he didn’t. Hey, at least give Traze-r a decent pair of goggles like BF has to protect the TV camera. I suppose it’s possible Diet never foresaw the possibility of criminal robots, but he might have foreseen that criminals, faced with a giant police robot, would start chewing on ways to defeat the thing.