Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for December 04, 2012

Good morning all…

Good morning, VB. Love Tracy’s sarcasm as he politely tips his hat.

Some people don’t understand that their attempts at humor are as funny as a cry for help!

Today’s strip is a filler, i.e., the story didn’t. move. an. inch. DT fans, bear with that fact.

Already a lot of build-up. I wouldn’t want to see this arc ending abruptly in three daily rushed installments. Like Mrs Flattop’s, Phishphace’s, Measles’ and Mr. Crime’s did.

Goodmorning VB! The stage is set for the next act…

DT is cool, we all know it, I think he does too.

Surprised, anyone?

…..know what might be surprising?This might come down to a good guy (Tracy) being helped by a bad guy (Broadway) in apprehending a good guy (Cinnamon) Anyways, isn’t Belle the hottest “100 year old” chick you’ve ever seen, ha ha?

I certainly would not want it to replace Mike and Joes strip, but seeing all these cool characters from the past sort of makes me wish there was a “Classic Dick Tracy” series running concurrently as well. I mean,for instance, with Broadways original episodes having run over 80 years ago, it’s not like a whole lot of us would have read them before, right?

So, Broadway pines for the “good” old days, with no costumed vigilantes around? That may be the only thing on which he and Tracy agree….

Had trouble sleeping and decided to log on. Glad I did.“I can always make time for YOU, Broadway.”

Hope this new storyline doesn’t end too briefly. As much as I love messrs. Staton & Curtis’s take on Tracy, some of their stories resemble the ones of Chet Gould’s latter days: a great build-up followed by a rushed (and anti-climatic) ending.

Everybody sing along! “They say that Tracy’s light shines bright, On Broadwayyyyyy…”

ok, nothing wrong with the cop who arrested you checking up on your status via parole officer. nice piece of storytelling there… but the way mike wrapped it up at the end into the whole playing-at-being-heroes thing is masterful. very nicely done. tracy is now VERY aware that theres TWO things to hold his attention… broadway and whatever he may be scheming, and the whole wanna-be heroes thing. maybe The Dick Tracy Private Investigations Firm will make another appearance. All this and we also know that moon maid is lurking, and that doubleup AND abner kadaver will be making returns within the upcoming months… and lets not forget mike;s promise of an “explosive” christmas-time sunday (?)

More satisfying simmering, with especially fine work in panel 3: Tracy departs with a touch of the brim as Broadway smolders.

Both drawings of Tracy are instant classics, and I love the “got my eye on you” line at the end.

Isn’t this harassment? Cops can’t just show up at your house for no reason. Maybe I’m reading too much into it. It’s interesting, nonetheless.

I have never commented on this before, but finally “Still Da Man” has become just a bit too much. Why does he try to sound so superior to everone else? Even his avatar name suggests his wish to be better than amnyone else. And why does he always just bitch about the story line or the drawing ability or the coloring of DT?It must hurt a lot to be so negative all the time.

1) Build-up is good, (Gould was a/the master of it), but…

2) build-up with rushed nonsensical ending (alla Phishphace/Measles) is not good.

Unless you’re a hardcore Mike and Joe fan. Then (2) it’s excellent.

I really think you just made my point. Thank you.

Da Hunt (and anyone else that might be interested or bored), you need to know the background. I’m sure it goes back farther than my experience with the strip and the commentary, but the referenced poster’s alter-ego (everyone sees right through it by now) is a cartoonist of sorts and claimed to have “connections that count” when Locher was doing the strip and announced his retirement. The “alter-ego” did a few DT scenes on his own and posted them on the blog site. It was pretty obvious that he wanted to be in the hunt for the new DT Team. Thinking Locher was in charge, he praised DL at every opportunity, and even called him a genius. Meanwhile back at the ranch, the bloggers (that’s us) became increasingly critical of the strip and what Tracy had become – a panty-waiste coward. And, a stupid one at that! The verbage online became a carbon copy of what you read now. The narcisism, the insults, and general demeanor went to the sublime. That is what caught my attention from the very start. You could light his fuse by saying “Good Morning.” He called the other posters “Magpies”, and that is the source of when you see that word on the site. The guy never changes, and he hasn’t now. As it turned out, Mike and Joe took the baton when passed and old Sour Grapes hasn’t let up off them yet. Hence the criticism. There are a lot of people who claimed that the verbal exchanges that went on endlessly actually provided more entertainment than the lame story.

That, boys and girls, is my take on it. Sydney can pretty well vouch for his take. I remember reading the Yahoo DT board and the guy was ranting like a Banshee there, as well.

I’ve a feeling that Belle’s costume is going to look a lot like Moon Maid. (Maybe even have tasers in the gloves.)And this poser working with the real (so to speak) costumes could be leading up to Moon Maid’s return! Woo Hoo!

Gee, SDM — you’re just repeating an old complaint.I’d never figured you for a fan of (ahem) vintage whines.

I love the NOIR feel of panel 3.Great work Joe an Shelley!

mike posted this on the yahoo group a little while ago, thought you all mite find it interesting

…that they hoped this story would not come to a crashing halt in six weeks.

Well, guess what.

I seem to recall tha the LIGHTS OF BROADWAY story is around 8 weeks.

ONLY TIME WILL TELL, the next story is a bit longer.

Then there’s a shorter one.

And it looks like MM’s wrapup will be around 12-16 weeks.

Mike

Then I suggest you call out SDM for impersonation. At one point he claimed his initials were MPH.

As for today’s strip, I love it!

Great art on today’s strip, in the first panel, Tracy has finally fully regained his Gouldian profile (Nose and chin pointy instead of a Locherian flat face), now, if they could only bring back Chief Patton’s face with his big dark saucer eyes (A la Wilma Flintstone), I would be completely happy with the art .The third panel is just plain beautiful!

Matthew, WHAT are you talking about? GoComics never found any of the posts to which you refer. Grow up! Do you own the name Matthew? or Hansel? or Gretel? Did you copyright them all? I find my additions to the site tasteful. Go Comics and I have communicated and I’ve done nothing of the sort. It is funny that for someone who does not ever read these posts, when people complain about SDM and his temper, you conveniently show up within minutes! Like many of the posters not only here, but all over the web, I chose to keep my privates private! In other words, there are people who are weird that might just show up on my doorstep. That’s when they look down the barrel of my Lady Kimber. I chose – not you – to keep it that way!

i’d take a million otto baron’s over one SDM anyday

Check his post on Sept. 20th where he states: “As to my true identity, let us just say that the initials MP&H are contained within names I have been called and leave it at that.”

Funny how every time SDM “vows to leave the board forever” its always gotta tie in with someone ELSE taking a powder. Last time it was ME he decided to test, and we all know how THAT turned out. Overwhelmingly he was “voted off the island” with merely ONE supporter to his credit even tho the voter (jim doherty) didnt use SDM’s “special magical phrase”.. yet the THIRTEEN OTHERS who voiced their opinions agreed for SDM to take a hike but n his warped mind because i “didnt accept his challenge correctly” he believed he “won”. all he won was the knowledge that most everyone on this board has absolutely no use for him, and he STILL insists on stirring the hornets nest every chance he gets. otto, stay for as long as you like… YOUR posts add information and introspect to the conversations.. SDM’s add nothing of value at all. stick to your guns otto, i am fairly certain you also have the support of the rest of the board as well.

To all: a few weeks back, I received an e-mail from the moderator @ GoComice stating that he had a complaint from guess who? The complaint was that I was impersonating one of their “Sherpas” (whatever that is) and the requesting party requested that my posting priveledges be terminated. They were going to look at it to see if there was any basis for the claim. Contrary to Matthew’s ranting, they could not find any clue or semblance to his halucinations. And, they allowed me to keep my posting priveledges. The rules state that no name calling, or any other self-evident infractions of decency or taste occur. Now, I see he is all lit up again! I am sure he is demanding punitive action be brought against Otto, me, tsull, Mikey, and whoever.

Is that the same lawyer you hired to sue the Internet for hosting websites that published your public data? And at the same time you launched a personal website of yourself complete with photos? How’d the lawsuit go? Did you win?

As one who is relatively (?) new here, even after this short time, I have to agree that Otto is not a problem; as for SDM, I don’t like attacking others in forums, let’s just say that he went a little overboard today.

Wow… a lot of “bad blood” going on in here today :s

You seem more angry at Judy Hansel than you are at the guy who impersonated you.

@Mikeyj

Sherpas pay GoComics to publish their strips.^^Oh ok; the info was a little lacking…. pay to post them…. well, not on my pension. :(

Prozac time! Everything will be ok……. things will be settled down and no one will remember a thing.

ps. when I say pension… it’s not for “old age”, I was rear-ended in a car accident, and can’t work

It’s a good way to gain exposure. But, that’s about all it is good for.MPH^^Well, if it wasn’t TOO expensive, but still…..

you better get SDM’s post on a screen capture.

hmmm interesting…. Would a tax break be doable with my being in Canada? (Taking into account that you are probably not a tax lawyer, but, I figure it can’t hurt to ask)

Maybe “Comments” should be changed to “Them’s Fighting Words”. Why do we need to fight a war to enjoy Dick Tracy?

Hey MikeyJ loved your Belle-Tracy pic! (I apologize in advance for posting a non-argumentive, pertaining to the strip comment, lol)

Sydney, since I usually post more than once a day (Oh joy!) unless you copy the post of mine that you’re replying to I have no way of knowing what point you’re trying to make. This renders your attempt at making fun of me a waste of everyone’s time (except for yours & Jurrows!) I know this might be a little too difficult of a concept to comprehend but if you keep rolling it about in your head it just might begin to make sense to you.-——————————————————————————-

Difficult ? - for you or for me ?

You either have a sister or you don’t. That was the simple question ! ?

For me ?Not really ! Rolled the SISTER concept around in my head - as you suggested and by golly . . . it kept on coming up as TWINS !

Good advice, thx :)

Sorry, SDM — When I added my comment, I hadn’t realized it would get lost in your other remarks. I was just making a joke at your first comment, that Tracy was putting you to sleep, hence “repeating an old complaint” — making a “vintage whine.”

SDM, I admit I did call you names once or twice, but I’ve made certain not to continue, as it only causes more anger all around, which leads to things like Otto’s remark about Hitler.And Otto – you really did cross the line with that. I take great pride in the fact that my father, uncle and grandfather (and many other realtions) all fought him.

Just out of curiosity, I understand that GoComics “polices” this website, but would they know if a former poster using 1 name came back under an alias despite saying they would never post again? How does that work?

I thought this was an excellent plot building, 40s building lighting (hallway, tiffany-style lamps) atmospheric strip and still found myself checking the comments to see how the zombie magpies would complain about the slow pace. Bugger off zombies!!! It is sort of a pavlovian trigger now…new team does good, zombie magpies meltdown. I’ve been following the strip in the newspaper or whatever for nearly 40 years and this as fun as it gets…this takes me back to Art Deko, Johny Iceman, first Angeltop, Pucker Puss, The Brain, Ugly Christine…well, Flattop in DC comic….everything is lessened through over-comparison. The timeless style works so well, it seems redundant to compliment how well this is all working and as such I lurk.

I hope that the genre-changing moment of Moon Maid’s death due ultimately to Dick Tracy’s first adversary Big Boy remains as cannon as it can be. That said, I feel the current team has a creative spark that the post-Gould era has not seen and I’m willing to trust to a certain extent. Could I accept MM being alive after what, 34 years after one of the strip’s most definitive moments?

If I have to make that choice, I honestly trust the current team to lead the story in that direction. I eagerly await their work!

..and by zombie magpies I meant a single person – I do NOT want to sound like there is more than one.

I loved your Belle pic too, Mikey ! Almost made me forget about the Moon Maid……….. almost !.Have you inquired of creators.com ? They gestated “Dogs of C-Kennel” that now features at Gocomics.^^thx , and maybe I’ll look into that… suddenly, I’m rekindling my love of drawing, lately :)