Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for September 23, 2014

This is coming along nicely!

Anyone who has been asking about JPuzzleWhiz, here is a quote: “To anyone who may have been wondering what in the blazes happened to me…No, I wasn’t “banished” from GoComics, it’s just that I currently don’t have an internet connection at home. I hope to have that rectified soon.”We hope so too, JPuzz!

Hmmmm, it would be quite a dramatic climax to the story if at the end Annie buys the farm somehow. It would really be a definitive ending on a long running strip that went belly up a few years ago.RIP LOA

Good morning DT and Annie fans. Could something happen to Annie while she gathers eggs?

So, apparently, Annie didn’t figure out the Belinda thing until after Tracy got there. It seemed that she was already avoiding Belinda after taking those sweets to Tracy the first time we saw him in the hospital, so she must have almost figured it out.

I expect that she might find out something new about Professor Kenyon when she goes to gather the eggs, but she’d better be careful. Axel already sent people to check on Kenyon, so Annie had better not be doing anything suspicious.

Good morning Gweedo and all the other DT and Annie fans!

I sure hope Annie doesn’t go snooping around! That’s how she was kidnapped by the “Butcher”!

I’m guessing that Annie only arrived some time after the others, so she didn’t get the full conditioning treatment that the townsfolk got. Heck, if Alex thought she believed the story, there would be no need. So it all makes sense.

Good morning my fellow Tracyites! Tis a lovely day in the land of Axelville. Surely the wee little lassy will encounter the Easter Bunny and his family of little chicks and she’ll be able to fire a warning flare to those protecting the pot of sugar crisps!

It’s coming together. We still have some unanswered questions, but I believe we’ll get our answers before the story ends.

If she almost believed she was in 1944, why did Annie write the coded message to Sparkle?

COMMUNICATIONS ?

Well I guess, one can write off - the likely-hood of any melodramatic ‘mind sets’ in Mike’s Simmon’s Corners ! The ‘Belinda’ style - ‘mass’ hypnosis, takes care of that. Perfectly reasonable – assumption ! The residents so controlled, ploddingly believe, “every thing” that Axel tells them, coming (no matter how outrageously) through the radio voice of Belinda !

We can’t be sure, but the Village (seemingly?), gets it news from only a Weekly published Newspaper, and one local radio station ? The content in both, carefully Axel controlledBut there should be OTHER media around, and likely available ? Sources for ‘information transfer’ - to consider and evaluate ?

Alexander Graham Bell might have been disappointed, no one’s seen there to have a telephone (?) And back in 1944 there were TV sets in many a home, yet none have ‘popped up’ in a neighbors home in the Corners – to see and hear the voice of an Edward R. Armour or a then ‘wet’ behind the ‘ears’ - Dan Rather, Interesting sources for War time news up-dates, against the Nazis would likely be a MUST. And you pause, as you wonder how Tracy’s Nurse appeared so ‘well informed’ on his overseas war activity detail and his injuries ?

Not to stretch a point, but recent ‘big news’ then, was Spy Pruneface’s (1941) death – it’s cause) or the then – ‘current’ (June ‘44), “gored-on-the-flagpole” death of the Brow.As a n aside, you might suspect writer Max C as a boy lived there, got his ’news’ on Pruneface had a ‘frozen’ death – incorrectly ! Via Belinda ? So useless, for Cryonics machine use.

Axel’s seen (9-7-14) – using a Laptop (they didn’t exist in 1944?). No problem, could be ‘fudged off’ as part of printing equipment ? But with the importance of daily ‘Belinda’ broadcast’s, Having a Radio seemed “mandatory” for each location ?Short wave, was much in use back then, BBC War news, heard around the world ? Nearby, US Mainland – ‘alternative’ – TV/radio stations ? Would anyone have ‘tuned in’ to ABC, CBS or NBC news broadcast and hear the USA dropping Kenyon’s ‘EGGS’ on Syria ?

Then as noted yesterday, no one seems to have communicated the ‘odd job’ Axel LEASING of Thunder Island while Law Enforcement (i.e. FBI) some 2 years later, still had it listed as a - No Access, “Strictly Controlled” area ?

Annie’s explanation doesn’t completely account for all the observed phenomena, but I guess it will suffice. Some things are best left unexplained. Is there intentional irony in Annie’s observation that when Belinda-time came, the people responded as Axel wanted, juxtaposed with her abrupt announcement that “it’s almost time to gather the eggs”? Could Axel have tailored a special egg-gathering hypnosis for her?Just be careful, Annie.

Annie may spot the Axel’s goon squad when they check up on Kenyon. And if she makes the mistake of bringing Sandy along, (as she will) they’ll know she’s involved, and —

Kinda hoped he didn’t say “be careful”, if you know what I’m sayen

I wonder what Punjab and The Asp are up to? Warbucks would be smart not letting her out of his sight (or P&A’s, for that matter) after all this. He’s risking letting Axel’s goons get her and then he’s back to where he was a year ago! He needs to let the MCU “do their thing” and he does his. Not smart, Warbucks!

Are we ever going to find out what the connection is between Kenyon and eggs?

It is sad that Dick Tracy has changed so much with the new artists. It is pandering to a group that we used to ignore. Bringing Orphan Annie into the strip is just plain DUMB!

Reading all these “explanations” about what has transpired the last 4, 5 or is it 6 months, is as entertaining as this Neverending Story. Dan Rather started young, age 13?

Is it really 2014? Where did the time go?

Gweedo, by now you know he is never farther than the depth of the keyboard away! The City has him picking up around his private bridge span this morning. He’ll be back once he passes inspection.

“Thanks for all those reminders !!!”-Glad to be of service.I remember those reporters covering the London Blitz on the radio, before the US entered the war, and knew work on TV was suspended until after the war, but Syd still almost had me convinced. (I hope he never tries to sell me a used car! I’ll be toast!)

So when Annie woke up and saw Axel, she knew something was up. Okay, got it.She must have figured out where she was to send the longitude and latitude in the letter to Sparkle. That’d take some pretty sharp navigating skills (or a map in Axel’s office).The letter was sent to Sparkle – but if she was singing in ‘44, then Tracy was an adult (younger than B.O. and Gertie, but still an adult), so in the real world in which Annie disappeared 70 years later, Tracy would be… Oh, my.All this timey-wimey stuff is giving me a headache. Where’s that time-delayed medicine…

So few comments the past couple of days. Here’s what I think;1.There’s a lot of computer problems going around2.There’s a lot of vacation going around3.There’s a lot of boredom going aroundWhat do you think???????

Perhaps Axel is telling the truth about the time bubble and the failed time experiment. Perhaps the rescue squad has passed through the barrier without knowing it. Perhaps Daddy, Asp, Punjab and Annie will opt to stay in 1944 and that will be the basis for a reboot of the Annie strip. I have always thought that this story looks like an audition for a revival of Little Orphan Annie and have said so before.

I really wish Annie had mentioned the calendar being wrong as another clue.