Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for May 25, 2012

Don’t tempt him, Sam.

Good morning!Calling Mumbles an ex “star” it’s an exaggeration…

Most of the time DT can keep his cool with that creep Wendy. Now he’ll know there’s a leak in his crew.

Thanks for the heads up Joe Friday!

What a great strip – nods to 60-70’s Gould (tv monitors) and 80’s Fletcher/Collins (“Deadly Protector”) with the HQ banter I’ve much missed. Multifaceted story (but fully understandable) even within three frames rather than four.

Is Panda really Mr Crime, going through a Fight Club delusion? This is my favorite story since Big Boy’s Contract.

Thanks for the information, Joe Friday.

Good morning everyone…

Hey, DT fans! If you don’t want to wait, and feel like watching all 15 serials back to back you can view them, or download them for free, here:http://archive.org/details/PhotosbyHaroldDickTracyAll15ChaptersCombined.Enjoy your 4 and a half hours of Dick Tracy goodness!

You can also find more Tracy goodness here:http://archive.org/search.php?query=Dick%20TracyEnjoy!

Wendy knows about Abner Kadaver’s fingerprints on the detonator before Tracy does?!So Panda’s spy (or bug) was able to listen in on Lee’s conversation with the forensics guy – and shared it with Wendy?This plot has all the twists of a corkscrew!

@Tarry & Joe FridayThanks for the heads up on the Tracy serials!

Arrgh! Wendy Wichel obstructing justice again! Couldn’t she get sent by SBN to cover some drug caper in southern Afghanistan? Although, once Tracy calms down, he should come to realize there’s been a leak. That would be helpful, so maybe I don’t wish for an IED in WW’s future….

Completely exonerates Mumbles? He still could have hired Abner. Wendy will no doubt protect her source. Is it Panda’s goal to just really frustrate Tracy or to actually tip him off that they have a mole?

Very well done “Team Tracy” … can’t wait until Sunday and next week … !!!!

Being the lover of procedurals and mysteries in general, I am loving this. But a mystery reader has the advantage of continuing on. These five second increments are HARD on me. I wanna know!!!

first single panel strip that I recall

ok i dont get it. mike said that this days strip will be important.. but i dont see it? yeh it reveals to tracy that someone has been leaking information, but thats about all. maybe wendy is the mole? she WAS at police HQ wasnt she during the thunderchild story? or maybe she put a bug on tracy when they met during that story. i dunno.. this one has thrown me for a loop.

oh and in my “dialy nod” to casey kasem, i have dropped from #6 to #7 to #10 and now all the way down to #21, lol

That is one frustrated Tracy! It’s nice to see him lose his cool like an ordinary person.

Could Wendy be Mr. Crime?Old habits die hard, and maybe she aired the story too soon just out of reflex.Just have to wait and see. (Sigh.)

Re TCM’s broadcast of the first DT serial:.For those of you not familiar with them, the Republic serials, in contrast to the later RKO features, are not particularly faithful to the strip..They are excellent, particularly the middle two, but they don’t follow the format of the strip with any fidelity..Dick’s an FBI agent on the West Coast, rather than a municipal detective in a large Midwestern city. And, except for Junior (whose backstory is completely different), none of the supporting character from the strip are present..A blundering agent named “Mike McGurk” provides the same kind of comic relief as Pat Patton. FBI Director Clive Anderson is the same sort of avuncular superior as Cief Brandon. And Tracy’s pretty secretary, Gwen Andrews, a dark-haired counterpart to Tess (in the third serial, DICK TRACY’S G-MEN,she’s palyed by Jennifer Jones, her last film appearance prior to her Oscar-winning title role in THE SONG OF BERNADETTE). But the main point is they’re all REPLACEMENTS for the original characters..After ths success of these serials (no other character, not even Superman or Flash Gordon, was featured in four serials) Ralph Byrd was sort of locked into playing TRACY for the rest of his life. He returned to the role in two of the RKO features. A few years later, he’d play Tracy one final time in the TV series that began on ABC, then went on to first-run syndication. He died at a young age while the TV series was in production.

How does Davey Mylar fit into all of this?

Thanks for the heads up!

Well said! I gave up on TV a lonnng time ago, and now get my news from the paper, and of course the internet.

Thanks again, Joe!.Outta curiosity, I like to start a little poll.Whose your favorite Big Screen DT..Personally, I like Morgan Conway.Just curious.

So the plant maybe behind the crest of Pat’s hat.

What was the name of Ted Tellum’s boss? I think today’s strip is the biggest clue that the SBN head honcho is Mr. Crime (which would liken to George Alpha, the original Mr. Crime…also a seeming pillar of the community).

Did catch some of the DT serials this past weekend. Boy Oh Boy…The Lame One? (there’s a set-up to a punchline right there). But definitely impressive stuntwork for a late 30’s serial. Although Tracy walking away from the plane crash cliffhanger at the end of The Bridge of Terror was ridiculous. It would have made Misery’s Annie Wilkes very angry.