Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for October 08, 2011

Ah, the first meeting.

Love the flashback and how Tracy began in the plainsclothes squad. Is this the first time we see the yellow fedora????

Oh, wow… if I geek out any harder, it’ll take forever to wipe the smile off my face. But I don’t care; I love it!

The handshake that seals a lifelong partnership and friendship! Just keeps on getting better.

A few years ago, a friend of mine had fallen into a bad place (hooked on drugs, etc.) and she literally lived next door to a chop shop. She was friendly with the folks who ran the chop shop and even wound up dating their most prolific car thief. He died in a police chase.

Finest young detective? Now that’s some revisionist history! Haha In the early days, Pat was very brave and devoted partner but he was more comic relief than a great sleuth. Still, this story is how Tracy related it to Sam so he may have left out Pat’s early comic exploits. What a guy!

This just gets better and better! I hope the younger readers are reading this.

cool!

Finest?? In the strip’s very early years, Pat was a incompetent bumbler, such as planning to shoot blind into a room in police headquarters on the mere suspicion of a an intruder, who was always moaning how he had no business being a cop and should have stayed a steel worker. Yes, he improved dramatically in subsequent years, but this strip outright ignores that history.

Sounds like Tracy, saved Pat’s dignity when he told Sam the tale.

@safeway674:

No, we see Tracy tipping his hat to the lady in uniform at the typewriter as he leaves HQ, and also arriving at the deli and saying hello to Emil Trueheart. I think the original idea was that the hat was in the style of the day for a young man. Chester Gould said in various interviews that he was trying to make a modern Sherlock Holmes. If you look at Sherlock Holmes, his iconic dress of that particular hat and cloak was actually what a stylish young man of the day wore to keep the cinders off his neck while riding the trains (according to a PBS program I once saw) Then these items became so associated with Holmes in the public mind, that he just wouldn’t look right without them. Same thing with Dick Tracy. Styles have changed over the years, but Dick Tracy needs his fedora and trenchcoat!!!

All of the details in that squad room are very well done. Is that a teletype machine the one officer is using in the back ground? And we have one fellow on the radio, another looking over the bulletin board, etc.Very cool indeed!

This whole arc is a great way to both recast the story of Dick’s early career and to reintroduce the characters. I hope the regular newspapers are picking up the strip for their comic pages.

Interesting that they would pair two relatively inexperienced, if effective, cops. In the movies and TV, it’s usually the grizzled veteran with the irreverent young whippersnapper.

I have a question for Shelley … what is the name of the font you’re using? Did you create it?

The quality of the strip is insanely awesome. What a huge improvement. Chester would be so very proud…

I had tried to get into Dick Tracy about 2 years ago….and it was the most boring comic out there. Yeecch. I have thoroughly enjoyed the arcs of the new team, and the telling (or retelling) of the history is very helpful to this newbee. Keep on going guys! This is comic strip story telling at its best! With a few tweeks to maintain a page to page smoothness it would make a great graphic novel!

Mike and Joe have unwittingly disbanded the Magpies Cheering Squad. (sigh). On another note, I wonder when Tracy is going to tell young Pat there’s good news and bad news in his tea leaves. The good news is he will some day make Chief. The bad news is upon his retirement, he won’t be given so much as a retirement party or a Timex watch. But he’ll be brought back by a fine team of writers and given his choice of Rolexes from the Property Room!

OK, so I’m confused and maybe trying to analyze things too much:1) Uniformed patrolman Tracy does a good job shooting some suspects at a bank job and somehow that makes him a good candidate for the Plainclothes Squad.2) The Chief shows up at a routine home invasion/shooting, finds Tracy in plain clothes and decides he would be an asset to the Plainclothes Squad.

And yes, I recall the Chief has seen him in plain clothes before at dinner.

Am I looking for a little too much logic in WHY Tracy deserves such a promotion?

And yes, I know it’s a comic.

Pat looks a lot more like Chief Patton here and a lot less like Tintin.

@talddrenThe chief said he’d had his eyes on Tracy for some time now. So stopping the bank robbers was only the icing on the cake.

great stuff — the. best. action-adventure. strip.

I agree with Quaby -This story would make a great graphic novel!

In that third panel, Tracy looks more like Clark Kent. Was Dick Tracy, Superman’s other secret identity?

This does open the door, for more Tracy in uniform stories.Kinda like Die Hard year one .

☆☆☆☆☆

Good afternoon all…

In case anyone missed this the other day, I want to remind those of you who live in Chicagoland, there’s a big party to celebrate Tracy’s 80th anniversary being tomorrow, Sunday, 9 Oct..It’ll start at 12:30p at the large-than life statue of Tracy in Naperville, IL..The main guest of honor will be Naperville native son and long-time TRACY artist Dick Locher. Jean Gould O’Connell will also be on hand..Further details here:.http://www.napersettlement.org/Calendar.aspx?EID=226&month=&year=&day=&calType=.Hope to see a few of you there.

I am enjoying the older strip hope they keep it up. Would enjoy re reading the whole moon story.