Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for July 19, 2015

Venus feels insulted, observes her stock has plungedOnce the Queen, she now turns mean: Bigg must be expunged.Méliès monitors the mess, a bug in every roomTo listen-in a grievous sin, yet may avert dark doomFor the three of ye olde crew, supplanted by new facesWho stole the gold in manner bold, leaving no clear traces.Méliès schemes to snatch the prize, add icing to the cakeRender Bigg mere dead fish dead. A corpse of him he’ll make.Méliès never honored with the mark of trusted servantArdent eye would look to pry, takes keen sight most observant.Méliès asks to be indulged. Venus most revealingEven with her branded flesh she’s luscious and appealing.Apollo, too, he bares the scar: the sign of true BlackheartNew gun in hand, he’ll make a stand. Dead Bigg a place to start.Betrayal set in motion. Shall plans come to fruition?Look to see a bloody end would be my intuition.

If, after this, Mr. Bigg isn’t Mr. Bribery, then Mike & Joe have a lottta ‘splainin’ to do! No matter what, I LOVE this story!!! (Still want to know how, and if, Notta & Purdy Fallar fit in to this!) ABSOLUTELY, my favorite story arc so far!!! (Sorry, but I got a deal on exclamation points this month!!!!!)

Good morning guys!-G’morning 22ph and Gweedo.

Thank You, Pequod77! “Look to see a bloody end would be my intuition.” Agreed! (But, whose?)

Can you say hostile takover?

And, as always, thank you, Jim Doherty. Your knowledge of the history of criminal investigation is entertaining every week!

Has anyone seen Dick Tracy? It’s been awhile since we seen him.

Finally, I think we know why Venus said that “Apollo and I are different,” although we’ve suspected it for a little while. So, if that’s a “mark of obedience,” can Méliès really trust them to become disobedient, when push comes to shove?

Also, the word “mutiny” appears in black and white and Méliès talks about his “ascension”! He wants nothing less than t0 take over the gang. (I love the word “ascension” with its associations with a rising moon.)

So, when do we get the full “Bribery” reveal?

Besides the “ascension” I just noticed that his “envy has long since waned,” another moon reference, as in a “waning moon” (changing from a full moon to a new moon). Great choices of words.

Why do I think of Chuck Connors? —Star of TV’s Branded, that’s why (although that was not a physical branding). Venus and Apollo reveal a much more conspicuous brand than I had expected!If they have been harboring a festering resentment, then their recruitment by Méliès may be much easier than Mr. Bigg would like to think.Things will be getting hot in Ace Tower….

They got B’s, but he wants a A.

Melies may be ascending, but we have the motif of the injured moon again suggesting his mutiny may not go well.

Good morning everyone.-——Excellent poem, Pequod77-—-Neil Wick: Good comment. Melies is going to ascend in Mr Biggs house. Will Venus and Apollo be in conflict? Will they turn on Moon Head at the last minute?-——Be happy and healthy my friends.

Will Venus occult Melies? Are Venus and Apollo just playing along until the trap closes around Moon Head?

The voice I hear in my head of Melies is of Charles Boyer.

And the art takes another notch downwards

Wow, you guys noticed how the writers have Venus the perfect hour glass figure ala Jessica Rabbit?

I read the caption on the third panel in William Dozier’s voice.

Boy, Melies is very ambitious. First he plans on kidnapping Diet and Mysta. Now he plans on killing Mr. Bigg, stealing the gold and becoming head of the Blackhearts! Can he pull it all off? And if he does, will be kick B.B Eyes, Mumbles, Blaze and Double up out

And speaking of Venus, I hope she bails on this plan to whack Mr. Bigg. It’s a desperate strategy and hard to see how it will succeed. Hey, maybe that’s why Melies was passed over when the promotions were handed out, his strategizing and planning aren’t very wise!

Funny how that cig holder gets smaller in the last panel…

I suspected that I knew the identity of Mr. Bigg when I saw the rose in past panel strips but now I am sure of his identity..after seeing the last panel of today’s strip. It is none other than Tracy’s old nemesis…long thought dead…Mr. Bribery!!! He alone branded his associates, and even his own dead sister, Ugly Christine, with a brand in the forehead…that of a B…thus completing his domination and ownership of the branded accomplice!

That ‘throwaway’ panel of the Melies ‘rocket in the eye’ image is quite prophetic.

Are those branded in their foreheads ?or are they implants like the metal studs that Vivian in The Young Ones has?

I haven’t been reading all of the comments for the last week, so someone may have already brought up this idea: it occurs to me that Mr. Bigg didn’t get to be where he is by not paying attention to all possibilities of treachery. I suspect that he may have had his own surveillance system in operation for quite some time, and is well aware of Melies’s activities. Or he may have discovered Melies’s system and is using it himself to observe Melies.

OMG I just thought of something. Is that a big red wig Venus is wearing? Is Apollo wearing a wig as well?

Great Weekend Strip…Great Poem PQ77…This story is getting good!!!

So, Doubleup, Blaze, TBolt and BB-Eyes – none of them are branded on the forehead – yet. What happens when Mr. Bigg/Bribery tells them it is needed?

Only one criminal is known to use the “B” brand. Méliès is right to not be envious, as he has no hair (or wig) with which to hide the mark of trust. The motive for the kidnapping scheme is rather fluid. How quickly it flowed from getting back into Bigg’s good graces to rendering Bigg “dead fish dead.” I suppose a bit of the gold could pay for the skin grafts needed to sponge away the brand. Méliès should be cautious, as the mark of disloyalty is likely to be extremely unpleasant. Aye?

Thanks to cpalmeresq, Willy007, Neil Wick, John Russell (be well soon), Night-Gaunt49, Starman1948, Chris Sherlock, abdullahbaba999 and JPuzzleWhiz for the kind words. Very much appreciated!

Yes! It has to be Bribery!

thanks so much but I really aint back YET so to speak just reading through DT kind of quickly with a cup of java, cause I just got out of bed at 11:30 Didn’t fall to sleep until way after sun up. The Crusade for Jesus Apostolic Church starts at 11:00 and I am still barefoot and in my shorts. Pastor Chuck and his bride and maybe a couple of others will probably be here after while. They know that I’m not up to snuff but they care & love me and many others. Good old Pastor (he’s really only 59 but lots of awesome godly wisdom passion and a Holy Ghost anointing) on Friday night Pastor Chuck preached a house of fire and all that were in the house were praising, shouting, singing, dancing and worshiping !! Even the little ones with their director did 2 songs to/with sign language I sat there in amazement with tears coming down while some were filming it me and others were saying “wow” every once in awhile. there were at least 3 different folks on that baby grand piano, three different male drummers, different pickers but I,m not sure how many. Lot of people sang and played but one of my best buddy’s in the world (he ranks right up there with Green eyes) is an awesome singer, songwriter, guitar picker, drummer, piano player ex-marine who was in Iraq as a soldier. Lee is his name and just out of high school I was with him as he left for the war soon after he came home he went to work for my company. Now he is a dad, an expecting dad h a! duty calls be back to finish lateer

The great mystery to me, even when Gould wrote it, is WHY all these people would SUBMIT to a branding by a puny little nerd like Bribery. What, exactly is so scary about him? Just can’t see Double-up or BB letting themselves be branded, that’s for sure.

You guys think Venus has a perfect figure? It looks as if her waist would snap if she bent over. Her face is gorgeous in that last panel (except for the obvious), otherwise…

Friends, I just have a few minutes and Green-eyes and daddy are headed to Rural King (a farmers most favorite store in the county) They’re okay with dogs in there as long as they’re civil. Everybody likes Monty & Lulu (dad’s Babies) they are right as the top of dogs in our 37 years together and they are very well behaved, listen well, way too cute/ loyal, real darn protective of / for / to anything Mom & dad like. Of all our birds I still do not like Bigduck our superior drake, but mom (green eyes likes him) and that’s good enough for Lulu (the tough girl in my currant avatar) and Monty (mom’s toughguy Great Pyrenees. very very serious watch dogs. In resent days there have been reported sightings in our neighborhood; a mountain lion, bear and coyote. The birds let on like they do not like the dogs but the dogs on Monty’s lead like the birds and anything that mommy likes. Thank God she likes me too. Lulu is small almost 80 lbs. but pound for pound she is a real tough girl Lab …. one time in Morgantown, West Virginia she was the fastest runner in Monongalia county taking 1st place in a major local sanctioned race. Monty’s legs are twice longer than hers and he to competed in that race way back finishing in the middle of this fairly large group. Another race sponsored by a group in Mon county of West Virginia this time in the water. There were several big water dogs there and competed but Lulu (most of the time we call her Dad’s bear dog or just Bear dog My favorite nickname is “baby-doll” or honey (she knows who I’m talking to) Lu came in first place there even at 5 years old. I have always said about her she is the happiest dog that I have ever known. None the less she is willing to fight never shy and always wanting to play but if she get attached (and she has) it doesn’t take long for her to go ballistic. Lulu has few scars (some) but still so pretty, fun, happy and she lets me know that she is dad’s baby and she likes me best. I have never seen her whipped in a fight and I hope that I never see her fight ever again. In reality with the moving predators in our neighborhood and all given circumstances …. and me & mom being people of faith in Christ … and only lost a few to predators over the many years. Poor ole John Wayne a young pit-bull that was in love with us bleed out here right before our eyes.duty call again I want to make a point but for now We A north bound in my F250

Dick Tracy is probably hid out of embarrassment. Really stupid strip these days.

Why on earth would you kidnap people to impress someone you’re planning on killing anyway? And why would you plot to steal the gold when you can just take it after you kill him? Melies is doing a good job showing why he’s NOT the boss. And I still bet he gets his head shrunken in the end… ..I mean, c’mon, THAT head? The story begs for it, ha ha!

Here’s a storyline for of course, we’ll have to have Abner K. hired for the hit on Mr. Big, right? And I’m still thinking we may end up with Bribery’s relative or an admirer or something as Big because Mike’s been spending far too much times feeding us “clues” that are so obvious they may be there to mislead instead, lol

…..will Abner K. get hired for the hit job on Bigg? And I’m actually beginning to wonder if we’re all being set up to believe Bribery is him, but in fact will be a relative or admirer or something, because Mike is going to great lengths to hint it IS Bribery, so now you have to wonder…..why?

Thunderbearr – That image is from an early movie about trip to the moon → A Trip to the Moon (French: Le Voyage dans la Lune)[a] is a 1902 French silent film directed by Georges Méliès. Inspired by a wide variety of sources, including Jules Verne’s novels From the Earth to the Moon and Around the Moon, the film follows a group of astronomers who travel to the Moon in a cannon-propelled capsule, (Wikipedia)

I don’t think Mr. Bribery…ummm Mr. Bigg has anything to worry about with T-Bolt as his bodyguard. She longed her job and she hasn’t kicked any butt since Johnny Adonis!

@Neil Wick: Thanks for your comment. I believe that you are correct. The odds of success are getting smaller the more that Moon Head talks.-———@John Russell: It sounds like you had an awesome Spirit filled service. I’m glad that you have such strong spiritual friends and family. You are a great inspiration to many of us and a good friend. The dogs are definitely a BIG plus in your life, too. They are excellent furry companions. Praying for your healing. God Bless You My Friend.

While Méliés “Taps” the rooms and telephones . . .Apollo shows full face, new low Jaw, like Blowtop Jones And if you think our Venus is a “Tease”, try to give her waist there in 2 a little squeeze . . . Like breeze? - so look again (last Friday) ‘please’ . . . in panel three, not even as wide as Méliés knees !

Even avenger09 might give Rightwing an ease, as eyes wide open, he puts aside - those ‘contemptuous’ Zzzzzzz’s

17th July 2015

I wonder if Mr. Bigg has ever wondered what that 2-knob Philco radio receiver is in Melies’ office? The one that plays the goings-on in the other offices. Methinks Melies is in over his head.

Shades of Mr. Bribery!Such is what he did to his cronies!

Venus feels insulted, observes her stock has plunged

Once the Queen, she now turns mean: Bigg must be expunged.

Méliès monitors the mess, a bug in every room

To listen-in a grievous sin, yet may avert dark doom

For the three of ye olde crew, supplanted by new faces

Who stole the gold in manner bold, leaving no clear traces.

Méliès schemes to snatch the prize, add icing to the cake

Render Bigg mere dead fish dead. A corpse of him he’ll make.

Méliès never honored with the mark of trusted servant

Ardent eye would look to pry, takes keen sight most observant.

Méliès asks to be indulged. Venus most revealing

Even with her branded flesh she’s luscious and appealing.

Apollo, too, he bares the scar: the sign of true Blackheart

New gun in hand, he’ll make a stand. Dead Bigg a place to start.

Betrayal set in motion. Shall plans come to fruition?

Look to see a bloody end would be my intuition.

Todays comic is brought to you by the letter “B”.