Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for January 08, 2009

Tess no longer looks like Tess. Is she becoming a semi Stepford Wife?

Not to worry, Noll just mixed himself one heck of a cocktail.

…Grok sez: Say, Li’l Jeffy’s been awfully quiet lately, while regulars have been fleeing in droves. Li’l Jeffy should be here, insisting that this is all awarding-worthy plotting and art at its finest.

He made a snotty comment yesterday.

Grok, why should he put in effort? You just gave him 3 weeks of crimestopper tips and a way to advance this storyline.

To restate from yesterday: I would prefer if Dorothy and Toto stay away. They are both obnoxious lackeys of the senile Mr. Locher.

Soon everyone in the strip will realize that Dr Noll has been dead for days, and that image we keep seeing is just a cardbaord cutout I mean, how else could he look so similar every time we see him…?

Better Living Through Chemistry?

Dick Tracy fan since the early 50s since my dad read it to me in my high chair. My first published letter to the editor of our paper was to protest dropping of DT back in the late 1970s. Enjoy the postings here.

Is it just me, or does the house in the last panel look like DT’s profile?

/s/ Marty

Just for the record, everyone is allowed to express thier views, even Jeff. The issue in the past has been the lack of respect certain individuals have for these opinions. I have gone on record stating that I felt Jeff was one of those persons. I have not sensed the anger or bitterness of the past appearing here. I.M.O. some of us have come closer to “crossing the line” then Jeff has.

I welcome Jeff’s comments.

Peace.

BB

bassmanbob says:

Just for the record, everyone is allowed to express thier views, even Jeff.

BB, you are the voice of reason here.

Tess moved away from Dick and prepared to go for the kill. “Dick’s a sucker for my ‘Come hither’ look.” she chuckled as she soften her eyes into the killer look she prefected many years ago. Opening her mouth into a little pout she finished her defense of the business sweet Angelorious was proposing. “Even kindly old professor Noll will be in on this.” Tess couldn’t get the picture of his fantastic feet-like hands and the wonders they accomplished out of her mind. “He deserves to be part of our success”. She finally added in a sly voice; “After all, who knows more about mixing secret ingredients”? Dick just stood there silently wondering what happened to his nose. Meanwhile back at professor Noll’s lab the burrito’s and re-fried beans he had for dinner suddenly kicked in.

TBC

Seeing as though my opinion is in question here, I’ll be brief.

I’m in wait-n-see mode right now. Some other developments going on behind-the-scenes have kept me from sharing lately. The plot is actually advancing in what could only be described in relative terms as “breakneck speed.” Perhaps the comments here DO find their way to our humble author or someone’s desk at TMS.

Thanks, BB – you’re a gentleman. I see that independent FREE SPEECH & THOUGHT is DOA, here.

Man, somebody has an attitude issue and it’s NOT me. Let me just clear up a couple of things for the record here, Grok…I never said anything like “All DT ‘haters’ should be banned” and my POINT in mentioning the PRO designation is that these folks ACTUALLY PAY for the content which they are criticizing. As a strictly business matter, why would TMS care about the opinions of those who they gain NOTHING from financially? That is all I meant by my comments on the PRO designation.

Again, I appear to have the MINORITY opinion on everything I post here, so I don’t understand why all the hostility is laid at me and my opinions. And, by the way, Grok, I wasn’t targeting YOU in my FREE SPEECH comment – it was LudwigVonDrake who apparently wishes I never chose to share my opinions.

Your continued ranting, Grok, speaks volumes about how you feel about others expressing their opinions here and you seem to be a VERY angry individual by nature, as well.

Grok, great post on the delusional breakneck speed of the current story. It’s moving slower thnan a lame turtle. The point of character “development” on Noll is right on (except for his left foot someone spotted today!)I’ll have apost on this pacing later. As you note everything is relative. It’s like the observation that Gould’s ‘hands’ were too big. Why? Because some one grew up seeing Locher ‘sized’ hands and those are accepted as being perfectly ‘normal’ !

And, Locher, as artist, has the latitude to make such changes, much like Rick Fletcher had before him. Yes, Sydney, it IS all relative.

Your biggest hangup is that you are unwilling to accept characters or stories that do not fit into the perfect little box of Chester Gould’s work that you appreciate so much. Well, you can’t view it only through this lens, because you’ll NEVER be pleased. And you rarely, if ever, are. The current offering isn’t, nor will it ever be, equal to your basis of comparison for an endless variety of reasons which we’ve covered exhaustively in the past. Case closed.

While the real CIA kills 2 top Al Quada Agents in Pakistan with a real ‘explosion’, Groovy Grove’s CIA brother Cos Grove plays “footsie” with simpleton Noll’s bum-bum “Whoom” perfume on the FBI’s playing field.

Case CLOSED? Perhaps in Naperville it is, but to people who have tasted really good wine this smells like something brewed in the foothills near Lil Abner, and I wouldn’t call it Kick-a-poo Joy Juice. Readers don’t get any “Kick” (or Joy) here, only what’s left back! In a way I’m glad it’s long distance, that perfume ‘Whoom’ might get me. On a more serious note I support your right to come here and bat (I have to say “blindly”) for what you have indirectly admitted is a quality ‘inferior’ to what’s in the Gould ‘box’. Everyone has a right to be wrong.

I learned how to read by my folks reading the comics to me. My first memory of DT was the guy named Flattop Jr. and the girlfriend he killed had her ghost haunting him with her ghostly arms continously wrapped around his neck.

Remember, my affiliation is with the CHESTER GOULD (my emphasis) Dick Tracy Museum, not the DICK LOCHER (my emphasis) Dick Tracy Museum, which does not exist. My work is all related to Chet, not Rick or Dick.

Other than the 75th Anniversary Exhibition, we at the Museum have never highlighted the work of any other DT artist/creator, etc. other than Chet.

Sydney sez: “On a more serious note I support your right to come here and bat (I have to say “blindly”) for what you have indirectly admitted is a quality ‘inferior’ to what’s in the Gould ‘box’.”

For the record, Sydney, I have not suggested or claimed otherwise. I learned how to draw reading and copying Chester Gould’s DICK TRACY. It is my favorite and always will be. Additionally, I know for sure that DL himself knows he is no Gould and doesn’t try to be. You just happen to not like that about him or his work. Your plea’s for Perfume Plenty, The Pouch and other Gould character’s just shows how much you are living in the past. Past is prologue, my friend.

I didn’t mean to be “indirect” about my feelings at all. Chester Gould is my favorite, followed by Fletcher AND THEN Dick Locher.

Well put, Jeff. On another subject, Bravo! to BB. I had burritos and refried frijoles for lunch and I can identify with your assessment. Completely.

Jeff, you said you were leaving. You didn’t like what a lot of us write on this “message board”. Without this “message board” I couldn’t follow the repetitiveness, the poor writing and sloppy artwork of this strip.

You wanna stay and share your opinions? Knock yourself out. But I (and many is us) will continue to point out the MAJOR flaws of Mr. Locher’s work and BOY IS IT FLAWED!!

Oh Jeff! I’m not living in the past, just trying to leave some good ideas that Dick Locher can pick up next time round. Some concerning the Pouch and Fly Face were related to the 75th Anniversary story which most will concede was not something many want to remember. In a way I’m sorry you raised the point of “living in the past”. Wasn’t it Joe Biden that some years ago reminded us of that thing? What do the call it in polite circles? Plagiarism ? As I recall Dick Locher didn’t have any compunction in going in the same ‘past’ to pull two of Chet’s best ‘endings’ back and presenting them in recycled form as “new material”. One was the Al Kinda fall from a building and hitting a US flag wnen he fell to his death! The other was the Queen of Diamonds falling into a Smoke Stack. For quite a few minutes back then I thought I was reading the demise of the Brow and ‘Queenie’ reminded me of Bribery’s sister Ugly Christine who ‘copy-righted’ that death scene. Locher should visit Gould’s work more often, not to ‘pinch’ story ending ideas but to learn better WRITING “techniques”. Bluntly, right now, his fare in writing is hardly better than today’s “perfume”, if you ‘catch’ the drift!

Likewise, in the writing chores my favorite is Chet, followed by Max Collins, Mike Kilian and THEN Dick Locher.

Just because DL appears at the bottom of my list related to Dick Tracy as artist, he is by far the most experienced fine artist (outside of the comic strip medium) of the group and I really admire the work he’s produced throughout his career.

Jeff is so annoying….

The house is passing gas!