I don’t get the significance of dog’s head cane guy?-———————————I think he’s just another tourist who’s thinking just what we did on Sunday – yep, into the river, dead meat.-I wonder if we’re trying too hard to connect everybody with a cameo (I know, I used to do it).
I think we’ve resumed our Grand Tour of classic fictional detectives — except now the sleuths have come to Tracy instead of vice-versa. The tourists all speak English — and I suspect both men are Brits. The robed-and-tonsured gent in the first panel looks to me like a man of the cloth, and G.K. Chesterton’s Father Brown seems a likely candidate. That in turn suggests at least the possibility that the mustachioed gent is Gideon Fell, an amateur sleuth who specializes in “locked room” mysteries, whom creator John Dickson Carr patterned on the real-life Chesterton.
There’s nothing familiar to me about Louise, but something about her “Yeah” makes me think she’s a yank. Googling a bit turned up no likely fictional characters, but I did come across a description of Louise Rensil, a real-life former film-studio executive who claims she’s discovered the inspiration for two of fiction’s greatest gumshoes, Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe, in the person of one Sam Marlowe, an African-American detective who worked in Hollywood in the 30s and 40s. That Louise was described, in the 2014 L.A. Times feature story “Finding Marlowe,” as “a wisp of a redhead with high cheekbones and appraising eyes.”
Geez, Louise, pleaseTake a picture of the river.To fall so far and land in thatIt makes a body shiver.The dogged headUpon the caneIts eyes so fiercely lockedUpon the churning watersIts owner far from shocked.His calm demeanorSays so muchYet the man remains so silent.The men he sawPlunge to the mawDid battle oh so violent.
i find it amazing how seemingly nobody just “reads the strip” anymore and wants to “decipher the clues” or “try to outwit the writer by guessing the road the story will take” before it’s unveiled.
whatever happened to just ENJOYING a comic strip?!?
Dr. Watson makes several references to a similar cane, Holmes’ “alpine stock”, in The Adventure of the Final Problem. In the accompanying original illustrations it is depicted as having a curved dog’s-head handle.
Though other, more erudite, speculation in earlier comments here may better describe the first panel, I cannot help but hear a (sly?) reference to Ethel, here Louise, in Ray Stevens’ The Streak (how low-brow of me!).As for the gentleman in panels 2 and 3, who seems to know the Holmes & Moriarty story well, he looks to me like A.I.C. Doyle himself, who at times used a cane (though with limited, online research, I cannot find reference to one with a dog’s or wolf’s head). See the Doyle statue (from Wikipedia)….Did Tracy and Kadaver really plunge into the river?
Being greedy, can we have both Vincent Price (radio) and Roger Moore (TV) play Simon Templar? I loved both their portrayals. (No, I’m nowhere near old enough but thanks to retro-TV channels and Satellite radio I got to enjoy both) And I agree that that has to be either Watson or Doyle in the last frame. Only makes sense due to Holmes not actually dying there in the books.
.Lawrence Talbot used a silver wolf’s head cane to kill the gypsy lady’s husband, a werewolf, that attacked him. Alas, Larry was bitten in the fight..Enter: “The Wolfman”!.
AnyFace about 8 years ago
Is that Sean Connery …?
Rod Gonzalez about 8 years ago
It’s supposed to be Dr. Watson.
AnyFace about 8 years ago
Witness …
… or accomplice?
Can't Sleep about 8 years ago
I don’t get the significance of dog’s head cane guy?-———————————I think he’s just another tourist who’s thinking just what we did on Sunday – yep, into the river, dead meat.-I wonder if we’re trying too hard to connect everybody with a cameo (I know, I used to do it).
AnyFace about 8 years ago
Nigel Bruce …?
AnyFace about 8 years ago
If it is a descendant of Watson, does he know something we don’t?
stsparky about 8 years ago
I suspect it’s either a Watson & Holmes partner, or even a descendent of James-Moriarty who knows how to survive the falls is to be in the river.
stsparky about 8 years ago
https://goo.gl/images/6Cjw5P gives us a single stick with a Wolf’s head — Auguste Lupa AKA Nero Wolfe is supposedly the great Detective’s son
Steven Wright about 8 years ago
A new man entersSeems to know more than othersWill he help or hurtKnowledge yes but which to helpSeeing strangers what to do
AnyFace about 8 years ago
Dark Shadows’ Barnabas Collins is known to carry a wolf’s head cane …
Neil Wick about 8 years ago
By the way, here’s a similar trekking pole on amazon.ca: Store Indya Wooden Walking Stick Cane Hand Crafted with Dog Face Shape Handle
poore.ronnie about 8 years ago
perhaps the walking stick from Hound of the Baskervilles: http://www.basilrathbone.net/films/shhound/hb004.jpg
coratelli about 8 years ago
It’s Tracy dead?
jimakin about 8 years ago
I think we’ve resumed our Grand Tour of classic fictional detectives — except now the sleuths have come to Tracy instead of vice-versa. The tourists all speak English — and I suspect both men are Brits. The robed-and-tonsured gent in the first panel looks to me like a man of the cloth, and G.K. Chesterton’s Father Brown seems a likely candidate. That in turn suggests at least the possibility that the mustachioed gent is Gideon Fell, an amateur sleuth who specializes in “locked room” mysteries, whom creator John Dickson Carr patterned on the real-life Chesterton.
There’s nothing familiar to me about Louise, but something about her “Yeah” makes me think she’s a yank. Googling a bit turned up no likely fictional characters, but I did come across a description of Louise Rensil, a real-life former film-studio executive who claims she’s discovered the inspiration for two of fiction’s greatest gumshoes, Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe, in the person of one Sam Marlowe, an African-American detective who worked in Hollywood in the 30s and 40s. That Louise was described, in the 2014 L.A. Times feature story “Finding Marlowe,” as “a wisp of a redhead with high cheekbones and appraising eyes.”
Pequod about 8 years ago
Geez, Louise, pleaseTake a picture of the river.To fall so far and land in thatIt makes a body shiver.The dogged headUpon the caneIts eyes so fiercely lockedUpon the churning watersIts owner far from shocked.His calm demeanorSays so muchYet the man remains so silent.The men he sawPlunge to the mawDid battle oh so violent.
flowerpainter about 8 years ago
I am loving this story! :D
mikeg52 about 8 years ago
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/3f/bb/6a/3fbb6a16a80c717b52dc25d2b7d81929.jpg
carlzr about 8 years ago
The way this strip is going, Simon Templar will be making an appearance.
tsull2121 about 8 years ago
i find it amazing how seemingly nobody just “reads the strip” anymore and wants to “decipher the clues” or “try to outwit the writer by guessing the road the story will take” before it’s unveiled.
whatever happened to just ENJOYING a comic strip?!?
Kip W about 8 years ago
First thought was that the stick’s a clue or a totem. Then I thought he was just giving it a good look.
Vista Bill Raley and Comet™ about 8 years ago
.Good morning guys!.Have no fear, Vista Bill is here!
Night-Gaunt49[Bozo is Boffo] about 8 years ago
Maybe a Baskerville? Not Barnabas Collins…?
Morrow Cummings about 8 years ago
Z-z-z-z-z. I’d have been more impressed if his cane had a goat’s head on it. Maybe, “honored” is a better word.
Ignatz Premium Member about 8 years ago
I don’t recall Watson having such a cane.
He looks a bit like William J. Burns “America’s Sherlock Holmes,” too.
Larry L Stout about 8 years ago
Is he quoting lines from the Sherlock Holmes story?
abdullahbaba999 about 8 years ago
We Are All Dick….TBC…
artsyguy65 about 8 years ago
Dr. Watson makes several references to a similar cane, Holmes’ “alpine stock”, in The Adventure of the Final Problem. In the accompanying original illustrations it is depicted as having a curved dog’s-head handle.
Sisyphos about 8 years ago
Though other, more erudite, speculation in earlier comments here may better describe the first panel, I cannot help but hear a (sly?) reference to Ethel, here Louise, in Ray Stevens’ The Streak (how low-brow of me!).As for the gentleman in panels 2 and 3, who seems to know the Holmes & Moriarty story well, he looks to me like A.I.C. Doyle himself, who at times used a cane (though with limited, online research, I cannot find reference to one with a dog’s or wolf’s head). See the Doyle statue (from Wikipedia)….Did Tracy and Kadaver really plunge into the river?
timbob2313 Premium Member about 8 years ago
looks like dog head cane guy is a brand new character. A brand new super villain no doubt.
smartman about 8 years ago
Being greedy, can we have both Vincent Price (radio) and Roger Moore (TV) play Simon Templar? I loved both their portrayals. (No, I’m nowhere near old enough but thanks to retro-TV channels and Satellite radio I got to enjoy both) And I agree that that has to be either Watson or Doyle in the last frame. Only makes sense due to Holmes not actually dying there in the books.
glynis37 about 8 years ago
Looks a lot like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to me.
Neil Wick about 8 years ago
I don’t get the significance of dog’s head cane guy ?
I believe that it’s meant to be an intriguing puzzle. You are not supposed to get the significance.Vista Bill Raley and Comet™ about 8 years ago
.Lawrence Talbot used a silver wolf’s head cane to kill the gypsy lady’s husband, a werewolf, that attacked him. Alas, Larry was bitten in the fight..Enter: “The Wolfman”!.
abdullahbaba999 about 8 years ago
Into the Mighty River…TBC
Gweedo -it's legal here- Murray about 8 years ago
Go with the humour !!!