Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for July 09, 2014

Lots & lots of clues, plus the “Annie” artwork is back!

Loving this!

G’morning fellow DT and Annie fans!

Tracy is looking well!

Dick Tracy is Who?

“Now that I’ve listened to ‘Belinda’, I realize that I am in fact a small town cop in 1944, and Axel should be world dictator.”

Lost again.

The question is, did Tracy listen to “Belinda”? Annie assumed yesterday that he was not listening, but maybe he was, and if so, I wonder if that program has an effect on him.

It seems that Annie really is staying with the Silos, but I suppose that things are not always what they seem, so it could be false I guess. Nothing looks amiss in the hospital lobby. The person behind the desk looks like she belongs in 1944. I guess maybe Annie brought cupcakes for Dick Tracy. She didn’t expect him to be up and around so soon. I must admit that recovering from a war injury in one day is pretty impressive.

Hmmm cupcakes……didn’t they have sugar rationing back in ’44?

I still think that this is an elaborate Potemkin Village (called Simmons Corners). Belinda is a device for mind control (which has taken hold on the spiffy-dressing “1944” Tracy). Maybe Annie’s (and Mrs. Silo’s) cupcakes contain an antidote…. The wartime patriotic poster (“Keep ’em Flying”) is a nice touch, lending an aura of authenticity to the time hoax.

Whenever they are, it’s just not the same seeing that yellow fedora without the matching overcoat. And now that he’s discharged, where might he be going?

Tracy did not say that he had listened to Belinda. He only asked Annie if she had. This indicates to me that Tracy recognizes some significance to the program. Perhaps he is trying to see if he and Annie are the only ones who didn’t listen.

And where did he get that fancy 40ish style double breasted suit while he was in the hospital?

Good morning Dick Tracy and Annie fans. The cupcake bag in panels 1 and 2 is not in panel 3. Is it a clue?

How did Tracy get in this situation? First we see him in a boat, next, he’s in a hospital during WW II. Now he thinks he’s living in the 1940’s again along with Annie. Maybe my favorite Tracy Character, Flattop will make an appearance as his classic storyline happened at this time!

Did they have those round top trash cans in those days?

“Keep on playing those mind games”. Zzzzzzzzz,,,, (I really am sleepy now, had an unexpected visitor at 3am. Not Gweedo, I would have kept the door closed! LOL!

I’m not sure what is going on yet but it sure is fun just looking at the wonderful artwork.

Round top garbage cans:.A problem with time traveling television shows is that while they can find period homes, and car collectors will provide period wheels, often there are other details that are flat out forgotten. Such as seeing a cobra-head style mercury or sodium streetlight in the background..More than once, the bogus 1944 calendar has been brought up here..Or the famous scene in Ben Hur (I think it was) when one of the actors had forgotten to take off his wristwatch! Of course, someone wearing such a device today might be just as out of touch! (Most folks I know now use their cell phones as a watch).Fried Green Tomatoes was perhaps the most meticulous I have seen in representing time. In particular, the streetlights outside the restaurant were always period accurate – regardless of what time they were trying to represent during the film. Rarely have I seen that much attention to detail..Moving on..With a tip of the hat to StillDaAvenger, assuming this is a time hoax, what do we have?.Tracy has already found Annie.Both are somewhere just outside of Chicago, out on Lake Michigan.Axel, the likely villain, is out there with them..Only Tracy’s having kept his rendezvous a secret keeps all of the pieces of the puzzle from falling together right now!.So, what do Mike and Joe have planned for us for the next five months?

Sometimes her dress had buttons down the front and sometimes it didn’t. During the winter, she wore a red coat with large pom-pom buttons.

I see it! The captain’s wearing the wrong shirt!

Tracy left for the island in casual clothing and NO hat. Now he leaves the hospital in a suit and his famous yellow hat. ??

When Tracy left the pier in the middle of the night, he was wearing casual clothes. How’d his suit get there? I’m not being critical, but my brain is conditioned to logic, and doesn’t like to operate in the Netherworld.

LOVE the artwork! :)

I don’t remember the 40s, but by the 50s they definitely had trashcans just like that except that the tops were prism-shaped. They might have had the round type, too—from an engineering viewpoint they’re just the same.

Good to see the fruits of artistic freedom unfettered by narrow-mindedness or rigid adherence to each and every particular of a story from another strip that ended four years ago. This is the second time Annie confirms that she does not listen to “Belinda.” I assume that Tracy did listen to the show. His question is logical if he has listened to the show and wishes to discuss it. There was likely water-cooler chat about popular programs, even back in “1944.” That Tracy is referred to as “Officer” by the nurse suggests that he is thought to be known by the locals. This would likely result in his ability to purchase clothing (nice lapels), sign for his hospital bill, etc. I like the artwork and the attention to detail. This crossover is developing in fine fashion.

Yes the boat’s captain is an African-American here. Over at Comics Kingdom, he’s white.

“Belinda” is probably a regular radio show which is being used to conceal a subliminal message.I think they are in 1944. Professor Kenyon may have invented a time machine. Axel is using it to make Simmons Corners a sanctuary for characters like “the Butcher.”

For some reason, the way Dick is drawn today puts me in mind of Fearless Fosdick.

Wow, you’re RIGHT! He lost his Hispanic accent!

Omigosh! After all the insults have been traded, it appears our collective memories have faded!.Check Sunday’s panels, where the Cap’n first appeared. He’s white..The cap’n’s black only in the daily panels..The GoComics mystery colorist has struck again!

Verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry interesting….

It’s been done before… Remember when Catwoman changed from Julie Newmar to Eartha Kitt? ;)

JpuzzleWhiz & Jmodene,While you are correct you’re talking about a totally different medium. TV/Movies are different from comics. Apples and oranges. I personally think it’s highly unlikely Mike & Joe purposely changed the captain from a white person to a black person on purpose. The most logical scenario is that it’s a coloring error or perhaps they didn’t do their due diligence. If he was changed on purpose then I’d really like to know their reasoning.

I’ve examined all the evidence and I can’t say there was a blooper by Team Tracy. The colouring of the dailies, as you well know, is not done by Team Tracy, but by someone at GoComics. On Sunday’s strip (which is coloured by Team Tracy), the captain’s skin colour is similar to that of Daddy Warbucks, but in this strip it is different. The amount of detail in the facial features is due to the drawing style of Dick Tracy which is much more detailed and realistic that the Annie style.

The captain seems to be wearing the same hat he had on the boat off the coast of Guatemala, but if you you at the Annie Sunday strip just before that, his hat was blue before he got on the boat. The colourist at GoComics is far from perfect.

As for the captain’s racial identity, I would expect Mexican.

It really is too much to call someone “race obsessed” just because they notice a character has changed races in a story. Detail obsessed, maybe, but I never did like the idea of an established character being portrayed differently than the original. I really try to love all people equally, but I wouldn’t want the Lone Ranger to suddenly become a woman, or Tonto to become a black man, or a white man to portray Ray Charles or Jimi Hendrix.In fact, part of this story has been comparing details in an attempt to figure out what’s real and what’s fake, so there is merit in noticing any seeming inconsistency. If it turns out to be a colorist error, as some have suggested, then it is a moot point as far as this strip is concerned.

Sometimes I wonder why I read the comments…sometimes they’re insightful, sometimes not. Today, not so much, just saying

looking dapper DT