Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for August 11, 2009

I thought it was a telephone call. Aug. 8th, “The voice on the phone said I would be killed if I did”. That was only 3 days ago.

The note says nothing about threatening Ringo….

This plot has more holes than a sieve…

Another clue is Ringo’s fake mustache which he removed while Bracey wasn’t looking. It was really a secret antenna transmitting evil messages.

Which newspapers have black pages with white lettering?

Well gosh dagnabbit it but I think it might have HAPPENED.

A note…great. Now I can rub the matrix pack on the note to reveal the killer.

What happened to the threatening phone call AND Ringo’s mustache?

Consistency…

Earlier strips: The ringmaster asks “Fee-fi” if everything is ready. Yep. Mister Pops tells Ringo to quit worrying. So Louise was apparently killed by her own people. But since the evil note of doom went from phone call to anonymous pasted letter in a few days those events have already been forgotten and will likely never be addressed again. Tomorrow, Tracy examines the note, now a fax, that someone sent Ringo. Good grief. Locher can not even remember what he wrote from one DAY to another. How can he possibly be expected to plot months of strip?

Have faith that your duly appointed government official will come to the bottom of this crime

To flightsuit: thanks :)

“Somebody will die” Gee, no kidding? People die every day. That doesn’t sound threatening to me. Anyway, I thought Ringo got a phone call. Typical Locher continuity.

Carlo Contanelli THANKS !

It was good to read your blog and get your considered views on a few American comic strips. Your phrasing suggests you deeply “love” this entertaiment medium, and practice it in your country - Italy

Many here like myself, although I’m from another country (in the Caribbean - ie Trinidad) have been exposed to earlier work on the strip (including the creator) and resent the poor manner it’s produced in today,

I see your views and comments coming from Europe as likely to be less tainted/influenced by the strips earlier Writers and Artists, judged by it’s “stand alone” merit, and really distanced from any suggestion of local bias

There is another board in the USA the “Yahoo Dick Tracy” board. Most there are another set of fans, and I plan to to share your blog site with them

I’d mention, there’s an Italian on that board too Angelo Ventura. I don’t think he’s an Artist but can’t be sure !

Okay, really. Seriously. It’s time to bring out the Space Coupe and go back to the moon. That would simultaneously freshen the strip and give it an excuse for making so little sense.

I’m beginning to wonder if Tracy is brain-damaged after all. Have you ever seen the movie Gaslight? Look at the black areas in today’s strip – especially in Panel 2. Surely we all know shadows are caused by light coming from a light source and being blocked by opaque objects in its path, don’t we? THOSE ARE NOT SHADOWS! Someone is running around with black paint PAINTING ARTIFICIAL SHADOWS in random places – why??? TO MAKE TRACY THINK HE’S HALLUCINATING! Then he’ll go home and lie down, or go check himself into a mental hospital, AND HE’LL NEVER FIND THE MURDERER!

Furthermore, Ringo must be in on the plot – because surely he couldn’t help but notice someone painting half his face black where no shadow could possibly be. He has said nothing about it, so he must be in on the plot.

By the way, painting shadows in random places is a much more sophisticated plot than merely turning down the gaslights – so Locher & Brosman should get credit for originality.

jumbobrain, Locher has already opened a door to that possibility - The Matrix Pack ! - thermal power, right in Dick Tracy’s “thumb” !

Since magnetism no longer powers the Space Coupe. Let’s by virtue of Tracy’s Thermal Thumb, “change” the Circus Ring into a “Cardmobile” and fly to the Moon. And have all the suspects up there for questioning !

That way we may have a change of scenery, a wecome break, out and beyond the dull, stifling atmosphere of a Circus tent ;-p

This is really getting exciting!

The note says “no cops” meaning “no cops will die” so Tracy is safe!

It happened again! These shadows are not random. The ringmaster cheek shadow in panel 2 resembles a man. Yesterday the cheek shadow in panel 1 resembled a man face.

May be we have seen some sort of Venom incarnation! He is still in liquid-like form, but that may change soon, when he take possession of the ringmaster!

Hmm … now that you point it out, 86krucar, I can see it. Is there a man standing around in the light casting his shadow on the ringmaster, whom we haven’t seen yet?

DUM Dum dummmmmm

So Ringo was carrying the note in his pocket?

Sydney,

Excellent notion on thermal thumb space travel. That eliminates the 18 weeks required to introduce any new concept into this strip. Plus they could bring Tray-zee or Traz-r or whoever that giant robot was.

Whoah! A phone call a couple of days ago and now an old fashioned cut and paste note! This wouldn’t get past Briscoe and Logan! Today in panel two, Brick Macy’s face looks very much like Weatherbird of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (stltoday.com), the longest running cartoon character in the U. S. And did Ringo pull off his Snidely?

First a phone call, now a note? Somebody’s story doesn’t check out! Unfortunately, it’s Locher’s.

Cougar’s right. The angle to create the shadows in panel 1 doesn’t actually exist.

You people who complain about Dick Tracy remind me of an old Warner Bros. cartoon in which Daffy Duck and an old woman are setting in a theater watching a show. Daffy keeps yakking about what’s wrong with the show but the old woman says nothing, she just keeps looking for something. Finally Daffy finds an umbrella and asks her if that’s what she’s looking for. She says yes, thanks him, then hits him over the head with it! Then she saids, “now keep that big beak of yours closed so I can enjoy the show!” That’s how I feel about you Dick Tracy whiners! If you don’t like the strip, don’t read it! You just want to feed your own egos by pointing out errors and making it look like you know something! Don’t waste your time responding to this message in order to “tell me off”. Once I read a certain comic on its latest date, I never go back to it.

Today, will mark Tracy’s 12th day in the Circus Ring and COUNTING - - -

We also see our first panel with that Death Threat note.

Brace yourself, there are FIVE more FULL view panel shots of said NOTE, coming between now and August 29 (unnecessarily impeeding story progress), not to mention Sunday strips or other less direct views and envelopes containig same.

And throughout all this our Detectine remains seeminly stuck as if by Crazy Glue in the center of the ring, right up to Sept.5 (looking ahead), asking questions and postulating theories on what happened.

There was a poster on the Yahoo board that always ended his comments with the word - FLUSH -

It’s far easier now, to “understand” exactly why !

Carlo, I read your blog, and it sounds like you’re in agreement with most of us. We treat the strip with dark humor in order to forget the sadness that we feel as we read this parody of a once great strip.

Sigh … Dberrymanal1, if you don’t like the comments, don’t read them.

Or are you too busy “setting” (sic) in a theater?

Hey Sydney, where do you see the upcoming strips? Thanks.