Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for September 27, 2009

Lame

I keep my gun in my waistband. You never know when you are going to need to use it.

Nice drawing today. Almost psychedelic. Really evil clown. I keep my gun in the baby’s playpen, where no one would think to look for it.

Aha!, an accomplice….. Tiger looks like Rudolph with his red nose.

Aha, Pops has an an accomplice… looks like it was the tiger who shot “Lousie Trapeze” after all!

BTW I don’t have a gun, I’m just pleased to see you.

That tiger is a bi-ped. Look at the position of the head to the shoulders. It appears as a human head would on a body.

ridenslide65 said, I keep my gun in my waistband. You never know when you are going to need to use it.

Yeah, like shooting bad comics.

Wonder Warthog, you’re right! Perhaps this tiger is an Egyptian God?

Also, in Panel One, what is the meaning of “Laugh, clown, laugh?”

It doesn’t seem to be the narrator’s voice, and it’s not exactly dialogue…

I can see how “laugh” might be interpreted as a sound effect, kind of like “boom” or “pow,” but what about “clown?”

Is that supposed to represent the sound of clowning taking place?

Is it just me or does Ringo have a mullet in panel 3? It then proptly dissapears in panel 6

Wait…”deserted circus grounds”???

What happened to the backup? What happened to the SWAT team?

Donut break?

Take a look at panel 1 of 08/27/09…yeah, yeah, I know…and entire friggin’ MONTH ago…but Tracy says, while we’re given a picture of an armored guy with an M-16, “I’ve called for police security – you’re all safe for the time being.”

So what happened? Police security figured that with nothing happening for a MONTH, it was okay to withdraw to the local donut place???

I’ve been thinking about this. DL could use some time with some real police detectives, learning what they do and how they do it. At least, watch a few episodes of “Cops” on TV.

Alert: Off-topic rant.

Has anybody else been getting as tired of some of the ads here as I have? Particularly the “Newspaper article” ads that open a new window while you’re trying to read these comics? I have gotten massively tired of “Britney Does A Troop Train!” or whatever that thing is, and for the sake of GoComics it would be a help if they’d stop it. I didn’t come here to read an article about Britney doing a troop train and how I can, too, and I’m reasonably sure nobody else comes here for that reason. I’m placing this here in the hope that the powers that be actually read this before banishing me forever to outer space.

End off-topic rant.

From my european point of view, I think today we have the better crimestoppers of the last months. In Usa there’s a great problem: weapons, many weapons, guns and many violence. Good work, Locher.

What you don’t understand, Carlo, is that it’s the guns that keep us free. If you had guns in Italy, you’d be able to vote and you’d have freedom of religion and the right to peaceably assemble, just like we do!

Michael McMillan, would you believe I’ve never seen the ads you’re describing? Just do what I do: Use a FireFox add-on that blocks ads.

KNOWING where the GUNS ARE ! ??

WOW ! What a timely reminder in today’s Crimestipper’s Textbook !

Now Tracy WILL “remember”, he has a powerful TASER GUN right there on his Wrist Geene. Ready to fire !

He could take out Mr.Pops in an instant - and Kitty the Tiger - no problem, only PETA !

Reference: (7-13-2005) Shamman Indian story - - “These Wrist Geenees of ours come armed with TASER Guns ” (-Tracy)

I would never get a licence to have a gun in the States. I’m not crazy enough!

The accomplice is the midget in the tiger skin

I’m waiting for Oct 4 . The strip will be Dick in a rocking chair on the porch of Retired Comic Characters Home with Little Abner, Krazy Kat among others.

Who shot Louise Trapeze ?

PROBLEM IS, you’ll have to WAIT until next Friday to find out who shot Louise - - AND - why.

WHY ? Because (Apologies to Rodgers and Hammerstein) –

HAPPY – TALKY, TALKING – TALK

“Happy ….talky … talking …talk’ Talk about, what Locher’d have you do. He’d rather have you wait, Friday is his date He’s had Dick Tracy waiting too”

Talky … talking, talk attack Dipping forward … falling back Snoozing dreams of “Reubens”, Locher’s had a few You’re only writing “do-do” Dicky, you haven’t got a clue

Slowly nudging, grudging that’s his Sin Lingering, lengthy, an incremental King, Two months late, you know your fate … your waiting just begin, Day for seething, night for peeing … in the Circus Ring

Happy … talky … talking … talk. You can’t even budge his cart, A pace to make some f art So, take a running start And end December, just remember, your creepy “leaky” lark !

I thought Ringo had a pony tail or a mullet hairstyle or something, but the ‘tail’ seems to come and go, much like a lot of other inconsistencies in this strip

This is about the first Sunday that I can remember where the story actually advanced. As far as the Snotsmaker’s Notebook goes, if you know how many guns you have, you don’t have enough!

For Flightsuit: In Italy we don’t have tragic events like Columbine and the University of Delaware and many others, with children kill other children.

guns=democracy? Sorry but it’s a stupid concept. In Italy we have democracy without guns.

Yes, I know where my guns are, and I know how to draw a revolver with the cylinder inside the frame, too.

-Cougar :{)

I made a slight change in Opera, blocking all pop-ups, we’ll see how that works.

Crimestoppers: Children and guns = bad juju. We have gunsafes for a reason, use them. At least use a trigger lock, many police departments around here will give you a trigger lock just for asking.

Gun bans: Chicago has a nearly total gun ban. Read the news and see how well it works.

edit: Guns and clowns look like bad juju too. Keep your guns locked away from your clowns.

Ringo’s stopped sweating bbs and appears to have lost weight. An accomplice? Let’s see… pig on wheels, elephant, tiger? Who made the “ransom notes”? This is all too much for my tired old brain to keep up with.

Reading the DT comic over the past month or so, I have to say Inspector Lestrade would be embarrassed to call Dick Tracy a fellow detective. DT used to be pretty good, but right now he couldn’t detect the presense of a ham sandwich on his kitchen table. This time, the crime happened right in front of him and I dare say DT knows less about it than we do. For shame, DL. Spend some time with a real detective and learn something about the job.

Good thing this kid knew where the gun was:

http://www.youtube.com/v/EDWo6m5hbG4

:^ D

DL may be more literate than you suspected. The phrase “laugh, clown” is very commonly associated with “Vesti la giubba” in the opera “Pagliacci.” The clown sings “ridi, pagliacco” (laugh, clown) as part of the aria.

Or, DL could be referring to a 1928 silent film, “Laugh, Clown, Laugh.”

Or it could be a totally accidental reference. Having been a lurker for some time here, I’m fairly certain how you all will vote. :-)

Hey M McMillan if you use Firefox you wont get those Ads that you were talking about..

Also you want to add Ad Blocker (thanks to docT for that added advice), that combined with Firefox, makes me not hate this site as much. I still won’t recommend it to my friends.

http://adblockplus.org/en/installation

How does Tracy go from “Did you murder her?” to “You had to have an accomplice!” Another silly hunch or just plain lazy writing? I’ll go with the latter…

Just a reminder, Plaxico Burress kept his gun in his waistband. Forward his correspence for the next 2 years to Riker’s Island, where he’ll probably still be ready this story arc.

“Johnny! Go bring daddy his gun. It’s on the kitchen table.”

“Laugh Clown, Laugh,” – The panel kind of stops in mid-laugh there.

I keep my gun tucked in the babies diaper, that way if it goes off I don’t get hurt.

I just wish the whole story made sense. Even though the art is clunky sometimes, and the writing is odd I don’t care. That’s what makes it fun. But please, I’d really like it to make sense. Have some kind of purpose to its narrative oddness.

I’m having reasonable success keeping ads out of the way using IE8 and clicking on the little lock on the bottom task bar (for me it is next to the 100%/zoom icon).

Flight Suit - re the tiger - must be a Kzin.

How terrifying is the “laugh, clown, laugh” panel? I thought somebody had slipped me something for a moment there.

I don’t subscribe to gun ownership - but I’m planning on buying a sword for home defense. I’ll keep that by my bed, where it belongs.

Akenta said, about 5 hours ago

Also you want to add Ad Blocker (thanks to docT for that added advice),

Thanks , both of you . I’ll throw away the rusty razor blade .

Hey mumbles, that was a joke. Like this strip.

Barney Fife, Sledge Hammer, even Chief Wiggum wouldn’t believe the scenario the clown is trying to set up. Let’s see, the tiger opened the cage door and……

sigh Panel 6: “Did you murder her?” Panel 7: “You had to have an accomplice!” So Tracy basically answers his own question without waiting for a reply.

The clown is on drugs.

The backup must have travelled to Canada to get Tim Horton’s donuts that is why they have been gone so long. I wonder if Tigers get sick from bad odors. I guess we might just find out.

Carlo, I was joking!

Michael McMillan, it’s certainly good to disable pop-ups, but that only gets rid of pop-up ads.

Let me tell you, Firefox + the right ad-blocker = a whole new Internet. Suddenly ALL the ads are gone, not just the pop-ups. Try it; you’ll be amazed at how much faster many pages load when your computer’s not having to use up valuable bandwidth, RAM, and processor cycles to display a bunch of graphically intensive advertisements.

whardin1960, maybe he’s one of the Thundercats?