So, Tracy and the MCS and their CSI’s recovered the aqualung, and Tracy riffs a plausible retcon of how B-B Eyes survived back then…. But did they recover the gun he tossed before surrendering? Is there a little more to this story of a villain seemingly just giving up?
I hate the Moon Era stuff, and I don’t see as a particularly good reason to throw out continuity. I understand why it would have an effect on your logic meter, and that’s one of the many reasons I think it was a huge mistake, but nothing will alter the fact that it is a part of Tracy continuity and history, so what can I do. I certainly hope that the current team doesn’t use it as an excuse to do other totally illogical things, and I think that Mr. Curtis and Mr. Staton are smart enough not to go down that road, so I take some comfort there. I also certainly don’t think that any team on any property has the right to just alter that property’s history as they see fit. You can bring in new readers and entertain current ones without alienating older fans or trashing the spirit and rich history of a comic book property. I’m a younger reader of the strip, didn’t even get interested in Tracy at all until 1990, when I was 13. Readers in the 50s somehow got along without Itchy being in the strip. Readers in the 60s somehow remain interested without the Brow. Readers in the 70s did just fine without Shaky. Readers in the 80s managed to be fans without Krome. In fact, readers have managed just fine on a diet of mostly new rogues and creations for 80 years. Plus there are plenty of older rogues that can come back because they are still alive. No credibility to be stretched. No history altered. No mythos violated. The Blank, Littleface, Mumbles, Blowtop, Measles, The Mole (reformed, but old habits do die hard), Influence (also reformed, but hey, doesn’t have to stay that way)…no need to stretch with any of those characters. Sure, younger readers might not to see the Brow, unless they go to Spec productions, or IDW, or ebay and find one of like a thousand books in which the story has been reprinted.
B-B Eyes wouldn’t have surrendered that easily unless he had something else planned (after all, he had an escape planned with the aqualung, didn’t he?).
Regarding yesterday’s discussion about bringing Shaky (who’s irreversibly dead) back to life:
There’s one big reason why it’s a hugely bad idea. Aaron alluded to it when he mentioned the “Crime Does Not Pay” ethos of the strip. But it goes deeper than that.
It’s that death, as the clergyman in POLLYANNA put it, death comes unexpectedly. And it comes to the good and the bad alike.
Emil Trueheart got greased by a scumbag home invader. Junior first love, Model Jones, got shot to death by her own brother. A nameless, but thoroughly innocent, cab driver caught a stray bullet during Tracy’s first gun battle. Chicak Smithley’s sister got herself killed just for being a good Samaritan, and trying to help out what she thought was a stranded motorist.
We see it over and over again in the strip. Sometimes the cavalry doesn’t arrive in time. Sometimes there’s no last second save. Sometimes the cliffhanger ends with the good guy getting killed.
And if that’s true for the good, it should be just as true for the bad. If Emil Trueheart can’t be brought back to life, neither should Shaky, or Flattop, or the Brow, or the Big Boy.
In Tracy’s world, as in ours, dead is dead. And that’s how it should be.
Wow! Just started catching up on the strip again! So glad Curtis and Staton took the strip over. Just read the past month and a half, and they seem to have rescued the strip from what I personally felt was a major downward trend in the past few years (no offense to Mr. Locher, who has been an amazing artist for the strip). The storyline makes sense, there is no stalling, and I’m loving the obvious reverence for (and references to) the strips golden age.
But I agree, B.B. gave up too easy, or else he’s got something up his sleeve. Love the fact that they finally worked Cueball into the strip!
margueritem over 13 years ago
I thought that there would be more…is this the last of the short ones?
Wiseking over 13 years ago
Good morning everyone! I thought for sure that Dick would get ambushed by one of BB eyes co-horts there.
thejensens over 13 years ago
Good Morning everyone.
Maybe BB Eyes has a confederate in the jail and there will be a jail break.
I am hoping it is not over yet.
Sisyphos over 13 years ago
So, Tracy and the MCS and their CSI’s recovered the aqualung, and Tracy riffs a plausible retcon of how B-B Eyes survived back then…. But did they recover the gun he tossed before surrendering? Is there a little more to this story of a villain seemingly just giving up?
Det.DanDone over 13 years ago
Huh? Well at least BB survived. But, I’m hoping it’s not over.
Aaron Mimura over 13 years ago
@Ray Toler
I hate the Moon Era stuff, and I don’t see as a particularly good reason to throw out continuity. I understand why it would have an effect on your logic meter, and that’s one of the many reasons I think it was a huge mistake, but nothing will alter the fact that it is a part of Tracy continuity and history, so what can I do. I certainly hope that the current team doesn’t use it as an excuse to do other totally illogical things, and I think that Mr. Curtis and Mr. Staton are smart enough not to go down that road, so I take some comfort there. I also certainly don’t think that any team on any property has the right to just alter that property’s history as they see fit. You can bring in new readers and entertain current ones without alienating older fans or trashing the spirit and rich history of a comic book property. I’m a younger reader of the strip, didn’t even get interested in Tracy at all until 1990, when I was 13. Readers in the 50s somehow got along without Itchy being in the strip. Readers in the 60s somehow remain interested without the Brow. Readers in the 70s did just fine without Shaky. Readers in the 80s managed to be fans without Krome. In fact, readers have managed just fine on a diet of mostly new rogues and creations for 80 years. Plus there are plenty of older rogues that can come back because they are still alive. No credibility to be stretched. No history altered. No mythos violated. The Blank, Littleface, Mumbles, Blowtop, Measles, The Mole (reformed, but old habits do die hard), Influence (also reformed, but hey, doesn’t have to stay that way)…no need to stretch with any of those characters. Sure, younger readers might not to see the Brow, unless they go to Spec productions, or IDW, or ebay and find one of like a thousand books in which the story has been reprinted.
Aaron
APersonOfInterest over 13 years ago
Mike and Joe will come through just as they have in the past … wait for it.
Can't Sleep over 13 years ago
B-B Eyes wouldn’t have surrendered that easily unless he had something else planned (after all, he had an escape planned with the aqualung, didn’t he?).
Malcolm Hall over 13 years ago
Look, even Dick is surprised by how easily BB Eyes rolled over. There’s got to be another shoe speeding toward the floor.
Vista Bill Raley and Comet™ over 13 years ago
Good morning everyone…
TheAlmightyOne over 13 years ago
He decided it would be better to be captured so he can escape later and be part of another story.
wndrwrthg over 13 years ago
The roof is raised, garments rent, teeth, they do gnash
All because the villians goose, Tracy did not hash
A story to fast and a nary a gun did they fire
Just the thing that inflames some of the readers ire
Though it went quick and out more it could have been fleshed
Still it was a treat, the stale air of the past has been refreshed
So bite the bullet, worse, things could certainly be
I’m sure many exciting things are in our future to see
Just remember where we were at the turn of the year
And give Joe and Mike a great big treble cheer.
Weegel over 13 years ago
Regarding yesterday’s discussion about bringing Shaky (who’s irreversibly dead) back to life:
There’s one big reason why it’s a hugely bad idea. Aaron alluded to it when he mentioned the “Crime Does Not Pay” ethos of the strip. But it goes deeper than that.
It’s that death, as the clergyman in POLLYANNA put it, death comes unexpectedly. And it comes to the good and the bad alike.
Emil Trueheart got greased by a scumbag home invader. Junior first love, Model Jones, got shot to death by her own brother. A nameless, but thoroughly innocent, cab driver caught a stray bullet during Tracy’s first gun battle. Chicak Smithley’s sister got herself killed just for being a good Samaritan, and trying to help out what she thought was a stranded motorist.
We see it over and over again in the strip. Sometimes the cavalry doesn’t arrive in time. Sometimes there’s no last second save. Sometimes the cliffhanger ends with the good guy getting killed.
And if that’s true for the good, it should be just as true for the bad. If Emil Trueheart can’t be brought back to life, neither should Shaky, or Flattop, or the Brow, or the Big Boy.
In Tracy’s world, as in ours, dead is dead. And that’s how it should be.
ItchyOliver over 13 years ago
Wow! Just started catching up on the strip again! So glad Curtis and Staton took the strip over. Just read the past month and a half, and they seem to have rescued the strip from what I personally felt was a major downward trend in the past few years (no offense to Mr. Locher, who has been an amazing artist for the strip). The storyline makes sense, there is no stalling, and I’m loving the obvious reverence for (and references to) the strips golden age.
But I agree, B.B. gave up too easy, or else he’s got something up his sleeve. Love the fact that they finally worked Cueball into the strip!
akado2000 over 13 years ago
How come Chief Pat looks so decrepit and Tracy still gotall his black hair? Does he use hair dye or Grecian Formula?