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

Spooky…

GOOD EVENING!Hmm… no zoom today.

No Zoom and Black & White.

What The “Devil is going on????”

That last panel is a lot like the scene from “House of Dracula,” right before John Carradine gets his wake-up call.

This Kadaver guy is getting creepy…really creepy!

Please go back to colorization!

So Kadaver has a lot at stake with his props.

How does someone end up owning the body of another human being? Creepy!

black and white is wonderful. thank you.

I do prefer the B&W but I wish I had the Zoom feature.

One must admit that Mr. Kadaver is as ugly a man that is. On purpose? What’s up with that? How could your sweetheart say good-morning with a kiss? Just maybe that’s his problem thing that sweetie pie broke his heart, and he doesn’t want any kisses. No matter who you are if you are (were) used to kisses, you will want kisses again ! Kisses and hugs are good for what ails you.

I like the black and white, but the color is was okay too. Right now this is kinda like finishing hardwood, it is almost Impossible to mess it up.

Really miss the zoom.

The zoom option is broken… does anyone know who to complain to about that? Thanks!

I guess he has MORE….

Can you imagine a woman waking up in the morning and seeing Abner on the next pillow?

Not that Go Comics spends any great effort actually listening to us – they seem to just ignore our comments regarding color, format, etc. – but if BW is what most people like, I’d sure appreciate the zoom feature, because it makes it easier to discern the details.

Just a note from me. Special surprise guest star on Thursday. And this weekend I will be at Oafcon in OK City. I’ll have free Blackthorne DICK TRACY comics to sign and give away.http://oafcon2011.blogspot.com/2011/03/oafcon-2011-comic-book-comic-creator.html

I also pfefer black and white.

Regarding yesterday’s discussion about early newspaper comics and why they were BW:

The technology for process color (that is: CMYK) did exist, and was used on Sunday comic sheets, but most newspapers did not have presses set up to do process color well, if at all. Most newspapers were strictly BW, or they ran an occasional ad in “spot color” Many actually contracted with a specialty color shop to print the Sunday comics, with their name plate imprinted at the top of the sheet. It was not until USA Today came out with daily “editorial color” – actual news photos in color – that the industry started thinking in terms of daily color on the front page. When that happened, press manufacturers started building newspaper presses where color and registration (the proper placements of each color, so the image is sharp, not blurry) could be controlled. The color we take for granted today was a major headache for press operators back then, especially with daily deadline pressure. And the comics were on an inside page, which usually would be BW anyway, until press color capacity was increased. (This stuff interests me, because I am a printer, although I worked in job shops, not newspapers.)

I second that.

After a brief hiatus, I’m back, and playing catch up. Lovin’ the reference to Dr. Mean Green ( Gangrene ) and Nashville.

I too, met Sir Cecil Creape at a mall appearance in 1972. I was about 7 years old and I loved him from t.v. But when I got up close, he scared the bejeesus out of me !

For those who miss color, here’s what I think yesterday’s strip would have looked like ;).http://i44.tinypic.com/119uyqf.gif.On a sad note, I probably spent way more time on this than the guy who gets paid to.

Good morning all…

I prefer the Black and White version. The colorist often smothers Joe’s details with a single background color.Look at those bubbling brains in panel 3 – we know the colorist would have simply washed them in the same tone as the backgroundAnd after last week’s Dr. Mean Green mix-up (making him GREEN), maybe – just maybe – GoComics might give us the B&W version on a regular basis.BUT FIX THE ZOOM, ALREADY!

My problem is not with color or not color. It is the fact that someone not associated with the creative team is adding to and manipulating the images created by the team. Consequently, when we see dailies in color, we are seeing an image manipulated and changed by someone who had no connection with the actual creative process. In short, we are not seeing the artwork in the manner in which it was meant to be seen.

Still, print newspapers and the web are two different media with different methods of presentation and different expectations from the reader. Successful stage plays are often made into movies however, the script is usually rewritten or revised to accommodate the difference in media between live action and film utilizing zooms, close-ups, etc. that are not available in live performances.

I will grant that color works much better on computer websites where catching your eye is a necessity. However, the strips were originally drawn for the print media and the publishing of the comics online is only a sideline to the original purpose of the drawings. Unfortunately, I believe that as long as these strips are going to be published online as well as in print, we will be looking at online being in color.

The present method of each website hiring it’s own colorist (none of whom is the official colorist) seems inefficient to me, though. It seems that TMS could allow Shane to color the dailies and license the strips already colored. They could probably charge a bit more for the colored strips and the websites could probably save money by paying a small fee increase and not having to hire a colorist. Then the color versions would at least be created by the actual creative team (whose work would then not be manipulated by outside sources).

Color printing in newspapers is more costly. Color online costs nothing (save the cost of the colorist). As print newspapers continue to fail and news reading goes more and more online, color in the comic strips is inevitable (just as black and white movies (with the exception of an “artistic” concept here or there) eventually became extinct when color movies came in).

So, consequently, color strips will be and are the online norm. I just hate the lack of respect to the integrity of the creative artists by presenting their efforts in a way they were not meant to be seen.

Depending on when Mr. Kadaver got his inventory he may well be correct. And yes – it’s legal to own human bones (with certain exceptions). Trade restrictions have limited the availability of the real thing since 1985 and the market got even tighter in 2008.

These days a full human skeleton may range from $4000-$5000. Premium skeleton models (reproductions) are about $1000.

Keep B&W for the dailies! That’s the way they’re meant to be seen and they are drawn with that in mind.

Tracy he’s lying, do some detective work on this! Or Google it like I did.REALVS.FAKE

Kadaver reminds me of the Boris Karloff character in the 1945 movie The Body Snatcher. sidenote: Bela Lugosi had a bit part in it.

As I’ve stated before, I prefer the black and white dailies. But if they have to be colored, as Ray Toler expressed so beautifully, do it with respect to the Sunday colorist. If we must have color, we must have consistence to go with it.

I don’t know when they fixed it but zoom works and it changes to color! I prefer the B&W.

Just refreshed, and now the strip is in color and has the zoom. Yesterday as well. (sigh)

I got my e-mail strip in glorious B&W about 1 pm CST, and when I clicked on the link, my GoComics version was in color and zoomable. I prefer the dailies in B&W. In the best possible DT world, GoComics would offer us a choice of B&W or color, with the colorization handled by Shane and Shelley!

Maybe the colorist was on vacation? I’d prefer black and white with the zoom feature but, what can you do. As @JohnRussco points out, the strip is great any way I can get it.

Oh, NOOO! GoComics has it in another botched color mix!

A bit off the subject but kind or related to Big Frost who made a very breif appearence recently.

There is a case pending in the Supreme Court about weather the police can plant a GPS locator on a suspects car without a search warrent. You can go to npr.org for the story on morning reoprt. It reminded me of the Time Tracy planned a miniature camera on Big Frost’s car to track him.

Any comments??

I get my comics in color and like that way. it’s easier to differentiate some of the details.

@scorpy007:I remember that. He did something similiar a few years later while trying to find the killer of a woman who was tangled up in the slot machine business. Her daughter was always slurping on a lollipop. Commenting on your question of the legality of those type of actions: If we’re honest with ourselves, Tracy sometimes did some things that would not be considered proper police work today, like sneaking into a suspect’s basement without a warrent (twice that I remember) But he changed with the times.

@ElGuapo:

Thank you for that story. That was most interesting to me. Were you a pressman?