Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for February 22, 2013

I see a train crash in the making . . .

Good morning everyone…

Looks as though Sweatbox is going to catch a train!

Mangled Sweat Baux, dead ahead.

this won’t end in a clean catch for tracy…

Then again, he might beat the train and get away while Tracy waits for it to pass

Interesting train… looks like a cross between a modern diesel-electric and an old steamer

Another short chase coming up folks!

When there’s a tie at the crossing, Sweatbox losses!

Sweatbox is gonna get smacked by a Milwaukee Road HIAWATHA Hudson?http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milwaukee_Road_class_F7

I’m looking forward to some beautiful artwork to come. Imagine the expressions. This is going to be good.

A.) Sweaty beats the train, Tracy has to wait, and Sweaty escapes for the moment. B.) The train beats Sweaty, a nasty mess is made, and case questions go unanswered.. C.) Neither Sweaty nor Tracy beat the train, Tracy and Lee capture Sweaty, and Sweaty gives up the answers under heavy interrogation.

Being hit by a HI would be more merciful than being run over by a 400, the HIs were faster.

Won’t ANYONE think of the poor Mercedes? (snif) D:

Sweat Baux leaves the Marshes @ 8:45 going 47 MPH and a train leaves the station @ 7:25 going 63 MPH. At what point does Sweaty stop being a criminal?

i dont see sweaty coming out of this alive.. or at least severely mangled but lasting long enough to cough out a deathbed confession before flatlining

Just for curiosity’s sake…Sweatbox picked up Toad in the city (near the graveyard or her “home”) Now he’s “heading for the Interstate” and all of a sudden we’re in open country? Where did the city go? And how many On Ramps run over a rail road track? OK I’m nit picking, but I’d like to know…

lol Vista Bill

I can’t look!

It appears that Joe and Mike have taken a lot of artistic license regarding the train.

A train crew member cannot arbitrarily decide to increase the speed of a train. EVERY track has set speed limits for freight and passenger service. If they are caught exceeding the speed limit. They face harsh disciplinary action. Also, that locomotive looks like someone kit-bashed a steam and diesel locomotive together! LOL

Also, the locomotive does not have the FRA mandated ditch lights!

TRAIN!

I love the portrait of the train. It reminds me of when I collected model trains with my dad back when I was a kid.

Looks like a Lionel, maybe HO ga.

Great ‘mutant’ train!Who’ll get to the crossing first?

Many questions need to be answered and I wouldn’t wish this end on anybody, but I gather that gruesome deaths are common in Tracyland and many fans enjoy them.

I have an old friend Brad G. that is a member of UMWA and his job is locomotive driver. I don’t know what his official title is. He had been in the union for more than 20 years before getting that position. He works almost every Saturday, Sunday, most holidays and long hours everyday. Sometimes he has to drive hours just to catch the train up around Brownsville PA. and other places. He has been doing that for more than 5 years now and said that he absolutely loves that job. They haul coal to power plants along the Cheat River and Monongalia River. I asked what the chances of getting a train ride with him sometime would be and he said that is not likely to happen. But man, I would just love to do that!

I just love the dichotomy. Here we have a modern day strip (computers, wrist communicators, etc.) and then it goes back to its roots with a streamlined steam locomotive out of the 1930’s.

I think Joe has been remarkably consistent in the style he has created.

Early in their run, Mike explained that the team had decided to mix the gritty early Chester Gould feel of the strip with modern elements. This is why the police cars look like they came from the 1960s-70s although the desks in the office have flat screen computers. This is why the MCS uses “wrist Geenies” instead of cell phones. Tracy’s world is not exactly the same as the real world.

Tracy’s world is somewhat like Batman’s. There is no city that is as Gothic as Gotham. Gotham has been stylized to fit the tone of the strip. Tracy’s city is the same—stylized to fit the tone of the strip.

Joe, like most artists, utilizes reference photos. We have seen this in earlier stripswith his rendition of the interior of Chicago’s Union Station being nearly exact. He could have drawn any train engine he wanted. But instead, I believe he intentionally mixed time periods in his rendition of the train to keep within the style he has been creating for the strip.

Rather than regarding this as something unusual, I applaud Joe for both his artistry and his consistency.

As soon as I saw that locomotive this morning, I started to compose a comment in my mind, but many of you beat me to it. There are obviously a lot of rail fans who are also avid readers of Dick Tracy. I guess I will add my two cents worth, realizing that others have noticed many of the same things:

It does look like that locomotive is some sort of steam-diesel hybrid. It may be patterned after the streamlined steamers of the 40s, but there are really no driving rods visible.And, inside the cab, it looks like they have a computer monitor hanging down from the ceiling on the right.

True enough, the days of individual crews deciding to “make up time” are long gone. And, I can’t remember the last time I ever saw a crew member dressed in old style railroad garb, except on tourist lines.

This version of Dick Tracy has always had a “retro” feel to it, but I would have loved to see what Joe could have done with a modern GM SD70, or one of the GE Evolution Series. Those engines look so cool anyway, it would be great to see one portrayed by a skilled comic strip artist.

Notice that Joe showed us the track running through the marsh in the first panel, as a set-up for what was coming in panels 2 and 3. We have a small marshy area near my home, and, sure enough, there are TWO railroad lines with tracks running through there. Of course, the right-of-way is built up above the actual floor of the marsh. And, book # 6 of the Ken Holt series, “Secret of Hangman’s Inn”, features a railroad running through a marsh just outside of town.

Even without the “making up time” plot devise, trains run at least 65-70 MPH, so Sweatbox will be taking a horrible chance if he tries to outrun this train!

Trains and villains: Chester Gould was fond od the pairing.

The Blank hid one of his victims in a train-wrecked car

Jo-Jo Nidle was a train robber and had Junior nearly drowned in molasses

Tiger Lilly came to the attention of Dick Tracy wrecking a train to record the sound

88 Keyes killed one of his victims crashing her car with a train, then climbed on that train…and was executed by Dick Tracy near the railroad

Measles tried to subhorn Vitamin and Snowflake on a train

Wormy Marrons faked suicide letting a train wreck his car

Spinner ReCord managed to mail himself and his victim in a box in a train postal wagon

Joe Period killed the old tramp-doctor who saved his life by finging him from a train wagon

Rhodent died on a train/car crash

So did the Brain in ’74, I think

Guess who will happen to Sweatbox? I bet he won’t make it.

If that is really a steam locomotive (and it’s hard to tell, but looks like it might be) then you wonder if there were steamers and interstate highways in existence at the same time.

I remember a lot of the older (1960’s – 1970’s) Dick Tracy strips ending with the villain being killed indirectly (not by the police). Kind of a tradition, you might say.

Oh, come now. Yes, I do know that this is a comic, but, please! Railroads operate at prescribed speeds for specific areas of track—engineers don’t pick up speed on a whim because there’s a straight track ahead! The comments in the cab are ridiculous. That locomotive reminds me of a imaginary futuristic space-age train that Lionel marketed not too many years ago, sort of a weird mutation of a Diesel mated with a steam locomotive. The crew in the comic is depicted in steam-era garb but they speak of a horn rather than a whistle. Since we’re creating some impossible motive power here, how about putting the crew in top hats aboard Thomas the Tank Engine? The blue color would look cool in the drawing and would be as believable as the current depiction! :-)

Realistically, Tracy would be over 100 years old. I think this solution by Mike was brilliant—mix the old and the new and set everything in a nebulous time period. That way Tracy seems ageless and the time period always seems like now.

I have no connection with any of the creators. I’m just a fan like you.

Ouch ! I just felt the Zing from Ohio!

I’m OK with that as long as the points are valid

If we assume Tracy’s city is based upon Chicago, I can say that in Cook County where Chicago is, there are many unincorporated areas and forest preserves (some of which contain marshes).

As you see often on this board, fans are fond of quoting dates when this or that event happened in Dick Tracy and claiming lack of realism if “canon” seems violated to them or something doesn’t seem realistic.

Realistically, although the events in this particular sequence has taken several days to present, they have taken place in a matter of minutes. Comic Strip time is not real time. So maybe an event in Tracy’s past may have taken place in 1970s or earlier, in Comic Strip time they may have taken place only a few years ago.

Same thing happens in the movies. James Bond (in the Ian Fleming books) was a naval officer in WWII. Yet in the movies, he is a young man firmly rooted in the present day. No mention is made of the consistency or inconsistency to the mythology.

I just try to read the strip and accept it as it is presented and I don’t worry too much about being a purist. As long as the strip keeps me intrigued and interested on a daily basis, I am perfectly happy.

I don’t particularly care that the train depicted is a certain model or is steam or diesel. I look at it and I see a train rushing for the crossing. I don’t feel the need to know anything beyond this. We all know what’s happening here.

The police car in panel one is poorly drawn!________________________Why don’t you draw a better one and post it?

Another upcoming comeuppance.

I hear the train a comin,’ rollin’ ’round the bend….

I was just trying to assist you. I know how fond you are of posting drawings…

Are you a presenter Sunday night? Will you be sitting in the audience?______________________I rarely even watch the Oscars because they are basically a marketing tool for producers. They rarely benefit actors even the winners. The actress who won best supporting actor for “The Help” last year said in an interview that after winning she expected her phone to ring off the hook. She hasn’t been offered a role since winning. I am a voter for the Screen Actors Guild awards and receive copies of all of the movies before they are released on DVD and sometimes when they are still in the theatres.

Is “Marty & Spud” up for some kind of award? If so, then expect SDM to take over the front row!

Anyone owning stock in Blue ink is making a killing!!!_________________________That is if real ink were used instead of electronic coloring. But I agree with your point. The coloring on this entire sequence has been horrendous. Comics Kingdom’s coloring is not much better by simply using a gradient over the entire panel. The subtleties of Joe’s art today are better seen in B&W as originally drawn. Check it out here:

Comic Strip Nation

I also believe that what appear to be puddles because of today’s coloring are actually patches of ice. The purple grill on Tracy’s car should be white or yellow to indicate the glare of his headlights. The curved lines around Tracy’s car seem to indicate the flashing of the red lights on top of his car. Not bad art by Joe—bad coloring by GoComics.

We all know where this is heading!

I think I see where you are coming from ! ;-)

Guess you are still ’ feeling ’ the ’ BLUES ’

I will wait until Sunday to see the real coloring of this sequence.

@tsull2121: Look at the strip in B&W. It is much more dynamic without color.

The storyline of this one seems to be a vast improvement. The plot development is intriguing and in time, will capture a more mature audience. As the French say, “au bearare!”

I hate to say it but comic strip (and book) artists never get locomotives right.

The 1990s Felix ’toons were great too._________________

“Rightey-O”