Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for March 19, 2012

Good morning all…

Good morning, VB, et al!

Flattop made better money with less risk being a hired killer. Until he went up against Dick Tracy!

Re: yesterday’s comments —Mike, thanks for answering my question about your use of music. Maybe you can give us a playlist sometime. I don’t listen to much popular music, and you’ve gotten me curious.Jim, I really enjoyed the discussion about the history of the Texas Rangers, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and the MA State Police.You guys have even made the comments worth reading!

Stagger Lee,.I posted this response yesterday, but late enough in the day that you might have missed it, so I’m reproducing it here:.Stag,.Re your question below:.“Jim, did you know that in 1904, Edgar Rice Burroughs was a Railroad Policeman in Salt Lake City, Utah?”.Yes, I did. In fact, in his novel, THE PEARL HARBOR MURDERS, Max Allan Collins feature Burroughs as the detective who solves a murder during the 1941 attack..Burroughs makes reference to his law enforcement background in the novel, and says it was the most interesting of all the many jobs he ever had before his writing became successful.

Blastman4,.I posted this response yesterday, but late enough in the day that you might have missed it. What I said was essentially redundant, anyway, since others pretty much covered what I said. Nonetheless, I’m reproducing it here:.Blast,.Re your comment below:.“The Texas Rangers organization was founded in 1835, 30 years before the Massachusetts state police were founded. They were the state-wide police force when Texas became a state in 1845.”.In fact, the Rangers go all the way back to 1823, when they were employed by Stephen Austin as a private force for the protection of American settlers..In 1835, they were officially recognized by the Provisional Government of the Texas Republic as a part-time citizens’ militia for frontier defense..However, they were not a professional, full-time organization. Moreover, their function was military, not law enforcement..It was not until 1874 (they had been disbanded after the Civil War, partly due to the fact that some ranger units had been called into active service in the Confederate Army), that they were officially reorganized, this time as a full-time professional force, dedicated specifically to statewide police work..This was nearly 10 years after the Governor of Massachusetts appointed a state constable and authorized him to hire 20 deputies for Suffolk County, and at least one deputy for every other county in Massachusetts. This small force, the State Constabulary, eventually evolved into today’s Mass. State Police..In the CRIMESTOPPER TEXTBOOK for 29 Apr, I cover the Rangers and explain their evolution from a private force, to a citizens’ militia, to a full-time law enforcement body.

Pretty good page 1 photo of Blackjack there in The Daily. Security camera footage or file picture?And what’s bugging Chief Patton? Could it be a meet-and-greet for Agent Dietrick?

I think the only bank robbing we’ve seen Flattop doing was in the retelling of the first Tracy story last September.

I see LEE!!!!!! :) counting the days til Johnny Adonis comes back! :)

by the way is it just ME or does blackjack look like the joker in panel 1 to anyone else too?

I so enjoy reading Dick Tracy every day again. Everyone has done such a great job on this. And the comments are great. Thanks all.

LIKE the design of new villain, bank robber Blackjack !

Not everyone will agree but the three favorites among the Team’s new creations are :

Doubleup - Easily the best.BlackjackHot Rize

The designs seem to fall more easily into the artistic culture of Chester Gould’s Dick Tracy.

It’s good to see that NEW individuals are “motivated” enough to come in and post.

And what a difference in appreciation this past year, from daily criticism to HIGH praise !

Oh boy – maybe Lt. Teevo will be there!

@ Mike Curtis

Are there any plans of DT merchandise with Joe’s art?

And the beat goes on !!!

tsull, I mentioned that yesterday with the Jack Nicholson reference.

Hey! You guys have the history of The Texas Rangers all messed up! They first appeared with Chuck Norris in 1993 on CBS. You can see all the reruns on TV every afternoon.

I wonder why my head juts way too far forward today..THE DAILY BLANK.FLAVOR FLAV Looking for GIRLFRIENDS.MY GIANT HANDS help me light this lighter INDOORS!!!.Sammy, I wish you’d stop passing gas all day as an excuse for lighting up..WHOEVER IS SMOKING AGAIN IS OUT!

Go get ’em, MCS! Yeah, the Chief has a bit more than a pizza in his office for the crew today…

And, if you’re going to talk about fictionalized depictions of the Rangers, let’s not forget TALES OF THE TEXAS RANGERS, an OTR drama starring Joel McCrea as Ranger Jace Pearson. This was a sort of “DRAGNET in the Southwest,” with modern-day Ranger Pearson (a character modeled on real-life Ranger Manuel T. “Lone Wolf” Gonzaullas, who served as the show’s technical advisor) solving crimes based on actual cases from Ranger files (many of them cases Gonzaulles was involved in)..Later, when the show moved to TV in 1955, Willard Parker took over the Pearson role. Now, in an effort to show the broader history of the organization, Pearson would “leap” through time. In one episode he’d be tracking down Depression-era gangsters in the ’30’s, in another fighting hostile Indians in the 1840’s, in still another cooperating with the FBI to identify Nazi saboteurs during WW2, and in yet another hunting outlaws like Sam Bass or John Wesley Hardin in the 1870’s and 1880’s. Captain Gonzaulles was still involved as a technical advisor.

On a related note, shame that there’s not many episodes of the Dick Tracy radio show online, the Black Pearl of Osiris being the only (mostly) complete one. Interestingly, that one was reworked into a Superman story (or maybe the Superman one was first, I never compared the dates). I think Tracy/Superman also shared an episode where Junior/Jimmy was freezing to death in the snow (the Pitchbend story, I think?) but didn’t check that one either (it might’ve just been a Superman episode that got mixed in somewhere where it didn’t belong).

With all the Jack Nicholson/Joker references for Blackjack, I now “hear” Jack’s voice when I read Blackjack’s dialog. And if everyone gets that effect, that was not my intent; I apologize.

@Marrow & HannoXYou both are mistaken, The 1st Texas Rangers appearance had to be The Lone Ranger..1933 Radio Show1949 TV Series’SPOILER ALERT.Only one of them made it! ;-)

I guess you OTR fans know www.otr.net? Also here: www.radiolovers.com, and a bit here: www.radiohof.org.

What state are they in that doesn’t have an indoor clean air act? Shame on you Sam!