Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for November 13, 2010

Will somebody drop a house on her already?

Panel #2 shows Locher at his creative best: it is a mirror image of a panel from 18 August. As for the numbers in that panel, that isn’t the date, it’s the year this arc started. AD or BC, I couldn’t say.

Why does Thick want D’ipstick to attach the fake tattoo from the body to the confession? Aside from having a high “ick” factor, does this mean that Thick expects a handcuffed man to dig up a grave and excise some rotting flesh from a corpse?

And never mind that Penny already confessed to the scam with the stiff. Has there ever been any proof or testimony that D’oggydoo has a tattoo? Would it matter?

I’ll repeat a comment I made in yesterday’s forum: what if Cranky Jesus is supposed to be Warren Beatty? What if this whole arc is Locher’s feeble effort to lampoon Beatty over the lawsuit for the rights to Dick Tracy?

The laughable thing about Tribune’s charges is that they say the rights reverted to them because Beatty has made “no creative use” of Dick Tracy. Have they looked at this strip in the past decade?

They can get the funeral director for abetting,,,

And now for all you people who have been keeping up with it, the official count is NINE. That’s right. Mrs. 3-D is now on her 9th set of earrings in the 10 minutes of actual time for this scene to take place. For all those who can’t afford all those earrings you’ll be glad to know that for the very first time, she has recycled a pair.

I’d like a full confession from Locher about why he is trying to kill Dick Tracy.

Locher longs for the good old days when cops weren’t required to advise suspects of their Miranda rights.

“Great Caesar ‘s ghost!”, as Perry White, editor-in-chief of the Daily Planet used to say on the old Superman tv show in the 1950’s

I suppose we will spend the next week watching the capture of the Funeral Director.

Penny didn’t say “Oh Dear” today.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, this story has been going on since july 22. At this rate, my son will done university before it is over.

They should putting Locher in the morgue.

She’s eager to confess to a relatively minor felony, isn’t she? Gee, Thick, think she might be lying again? Has anyone had the sense to handcuff her, too?

There are about seven weeks left til the end of the year and, please, Locher’s retirement. So far he’s averaged one plot twist per week. Waste one week at the end of the year for the obligatory bad jokes and stupid banter, and that leaves six lame surprises in the future. Yeesh.

Right Wing, I have a suspicion that Locher got his tray support notion from his kitchen cabinets. Drawers are supported on slides, and I fancy that Locher has the same idea about morgue tables. That at least makes some sense in a story which has precious little of that commodity.

I did an image search for mortuary freezers. Within the limits of Locher’s crude drawing skills, the slide-out trays look like what he has there. See, for (non-gross) example:

http://www.opacity.us/image924morguefreezer.htm

http://plymouth.gumtree.com/plymouth/68/65887368.html

Hey, Bill, thanks for the mortuary freezer link! I appreciate that the racks on that model are removable for cleaning purposes, but it’s the evapoway pan for condensate removal that really sold me. I could definitely use one of those babies in my kitchen.

Panel one: Well, it finally happened. Everyone has disappeared from the scene.

OK; I see Locher’s logic. In 7 weeks he retires, so he will drip out answers to the obvious holes in his story. The tattoo - that’s one. I can’t wait ‘till he gets to the contradictory ones. C’mon seven weeks! If 3D is so smart, why doesn’t he tell Penny to shut up? He obviously can afford a lawyer. Even Algonquin C. Calhoun could get him off the rap.

The only interesting thing about this strip is what will happen at the end of December.

I guess the reason Mrs. D keeps ducking in and out of the sewer is so she can change earrings. But why do all the others keep ducking in and out of the sewer?

-Cougar :{)

Is Locher retiring? If so, does anyone have an idea who will take over?

… and Locher will tie the stiff with the tattoo to the dead body on the stage at the Science Museum …

The only “action” in this strip lately was when Tracy tackled 3D and then it was forgotten about the next day.

Rightwingmoron, Locher is just lazy. He could give a few details that at least hint at the slide mechanism for the freezer, but it’s quicker for him to draw a sheet over the cadaver–even though that sheet would get tangled in the mechanisms. He has the same concept of illustration as a kindergartener who puts the “important” elements into a picture. Thick accuses someone of a crime? Show a scowl and a pointing hand! Someone has a pistol? Draw a Walther PPK again. And again, and again. Just draw it bigger when the threat is real big.

So far Locher has brought back two old factors: the wife and Butterfly McCorpse. The butterfly tattoo obviously means a lot to him. Maybe he took its “inspiration” from “Papillon.” It might have been the start of Thick’s “logic” in going undercover:

In Locher’s world, do billionaires have tattoos? No. Ergo the corpse was not D’umbell. It was a criminal. So the alleged victim had to be alive. He was known to be tough and a fighter, so he killed his attacker. His wife was an accomplice because she lied about a tattoo he couldn’t have (remember that when Thick assaulted D’ippy, he demanded to see his shoulder.)

We’ll get a week’s worth of talk about the body and why a billionaire would find safety on the streets. The explanation for the money giveaway will be equally tedious. The ex-partners and Sue Doko are two other pieces of the jigsaw puzzle that Locher will jam into place.

I can’t believe that this idiotic non-story has been running since late July! Locher’s retirement can’t come soon enough, and he’s set the bar so low that just about any replacement will be seen as an improvement.

I’d love to see Tribune hire someone who can actually draw and write a decent comic strip and who respects the strip and its history, but I suspect there’s another Locheresque hack waiting in the wings…after all, why start paying for competence now?

What the H… is a “fake” tattoo? A temporary one? Or is the word duplicate too long to fit in the balloon?

Aack…she’s back! Where has the missus been hiding on an open city sidewalk for 5 days? Plus she already confessed her part with the funeral director on Oct 29. Sigh.

Will TMS continue this strip after Locher goes? TMS is part of the Tribune bankruptcy mess, which started several years ago and is still dragging out. They’ve got money even though they’re in chapter 11. But if you think they’re any good at running a business, check out this:

http://www.allaccess.com/net-news/archive/story/83578/court-approves-tribune-bonus-plan

The only positive thing in there is that they exclude the head of TMS from the bonuses. At least they recognize that the man who continues to give us Dick Locher hasn’t earned a bonus.

That first panel is a repeat, too, except for those wavy lines on the one eggcrate. Those lines … could they be–NEON NOODLE! He’s up to his old tricks again!