Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for November 08, 2012

Good morning all…

Do you really want to do that, Measles?

That’s it, swallow a big handful…

Yup, like people have been saying, OD dead ahead.

Oh my! I just read up on Pain patches. Really interesting reading.The active ingredient is the narcotic Fentanyl. The info I found said when used “recreationally”, which includes cutting it up and swallowing it, “fentanyl may be hundreds of times more potent than street heroin, and tends to produce significantly worse respiratory depression, making it somewhat more dangerous than heroin to users.” Over doses are very hard to counter.

Bye Bye Measles.

I see an overdose coming up. Boy Suzzane Sommersstill looks pretty good at 65 in the ad here.

Mornin’, VistaBill, margueritem, and all!Wow.There is stupid, there is STOO-PID, and then there is Measles.

This is why on Sunday we saw the Skeleton of Death, with it’s bony hand draped over Measles’ shoulder.

How can he read that fine print on that box. Does he have a bonfire blazing away? I have a problem sometimes reading that stuff using a desk lamp!

It looks pretty much inevitable now that when the cops approach The Burning Coat Tree of refuge, they will find Measles dead of an overdose of orally ingested pain patches, abetted by the wounds he has suffered in his foolish attack on Sunny Dell Acres.

At least he will have died doing what he enjoyed (sarcasm)

Probably a normal person would OD if they ate several of those patches, especially if they are narcotic.

Looks like Measles is a Darwin Award just waiting to happen

What if Measles is found alive? And an ambulance arrives to take him to the, wait, that’s not a hospital! And who’s that woman in the front seat? She looks a little like Flattop…

Measles sits under the dum-dum tree. We’ve known this was coming and that Measles was going. This murderer will be captured…er, recovered, without anymore bloodshed.

i believe that my favorite tracy villain of all time is not much longer for the tracy-verse. it was nice getting to know you measles. adieu mon frere! :)

Not a good strategy, my friend!

Suicide with a capital S!

Hey Measles! If one is good, try a half dozen! And to get it in your system really fast when you don’t have an IV set up, try “butt swigging” it!

(Saw it on Yahoo news last week. New college fad.)

After rotator cuffsurgery on my shoulder, I was prescribed Oxycodin, in a time release pill. It worked fine for pain, but didn’t cause any changes in my brain other than making me sleepy. I asked the surgeon about the high street value of these pills on a follow up visit, and he said that they have to be ground up to get past the time release, and I would get all the drug at once. He then asked me not to do that, as he put a lot of hard work into fixing my shoulder and didn’t want me to die right away.

Good Morning Detectives!Measles has already bitten off more than he can chew; looks like he’s going for more!

Mach’s gut, Herr Measles!

I think the bonfire may be the remains of his jacket. I’ don’t think he could live through all he’ been through, but chewing the pain patches should speed up the end.

In the second frame Measles is also no longer holding packs of patches so I’d assume that other movement has occured between panels.

His brain has got to be on overload between the situation, the drugs and the injuries. It’s clear his focus sure isn’t on the police presence but on seeking relief.

Well, say good night, Gracy

Whatta talkin’ about, Mr. Tracy?

My SIL’s dad had those patches in his final days. Kathy and her mom had to use gloves when they changed the patches so they wouldn’t inadvertently touch the “active” side. It was that dangerous. Bye bye Measles.

“if I chew them up, it’ll release the painkiller faster!” A junkie’s logic. Bye, bye, Measles!

Or as a certain former governor might say:Hasta la vista, BABY!!

If measles takes the drugs, all he will need is a injection of Narcan to bring him around. Narcan is the brand name for naloxone, a safe, effective medication that paramedics use when someone overdoses on opiates (Opiates include: heroin, morphine, methadone, OxyContin, Vicodan, Percoset, codeine, Fentanyl). Narcan can start them breathing again, if they get it soon enough. With all the police cars around there should be an ambulance among them. Tracy would have reported that Measles was injured when he called for backup.

Yeah, Measles, go ahead and eat up all that Fentanyl when you’re already in shock from your burns and YOUR AXE WOUND LOCATED IN AN AREA RICH WITH BLOOD VESSELS.

In frames 1 & 3 I can see one of the surrounding cop cars. It is his coat burning as the fire. Going back to yesterdays strip, he (the burning coat) is completely surround by Tracy and his guys and all he can think about is pain patches. This is going to get interesting real fast.

Looks like we don’t need to worry about measels coming back to mess with Gerie later on.

That ugly, evil look on Measles’ face is so appropriate. Great work by Joe Staton.

OH – I don’t know about that. He only seems to have one single thought right now and it has nothing to do with the police presence. Holding a gun would hinder opening those packets.

But let’s just agree to disagree shall we?

“Then he will be feeling no pain.”Or anything else! Buh-bye, Measles, you creep.

Maybe the blue grass is just a pigment of everyone’s imagination…..

The end is near for Mr. Enog.

On top of everything else, it looks as if Measles’ coat may start a grass fire there at Sunny Dell Acres.

I’m a bit surprised that Measles can pull it together enough to open packets and place the pain patches on himself. Having your shoulder broken by an axe and hot coals dumped on you would make the average person crazy with pain and barely functional. Of course, he was already self-medicated before showing up at Sunny Dell Acres.

Measles is an interesting character, and I kinda hate to see him go. Which he’s surely going to do, whether it’s the drugs, fire, or bullets that get him.

Posted yesterday by Day-Day2001: “Dick Tracy is not only the most improved strip on gocomics — it is the best. No doubt the most compelling and visually interesting daily around. DT has come back from the dead and is in many respects better today than it was when Gould was in his prime.”Hear hear. I’ve been reading this strip for fifty years, and I’ve never enjoyed it as much as I do now. The art and stories are well done and very entertaining. Since the new team took over, Dick Tracy has moved from my “rarely read” list to “can’t wait to read.”

Shallow end of the gene pool for sure.

How could it be ’ LONG, LONG relationship ’ – - if you only started posting here recently ?

It’ll release you from your pain toute de suite, all right.

Looks like the hot ash didn’t do much damage.

Still hoping You Know Who shows up at this party.

I wouldn’t say it’s better than in Gould’s day, but, it’s getting better everyday (I retro read DT here from the day after Locher was done), in the beginning, the art and storytelling had a “Comic book” feel (rushed, heavy lines, crosshatching); however, all of that has improved by leaps and bounds; the stories are more complex and the tribute to Gould’s style has been fulfilled now that the crosshatches have been replaced by the dark shadows that made DT art so distinctive since the early 30s

I so enjoy this strip! I call (again) that Davy Mylar’s date Rize (Hot or Blaze, I’m never sure) and Junior Tracy are Measles’ kids by different mothers.