Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for June 02, 2017

Yay~!! Joe’s back~!!

… and I think he might be doing the inking as well.

Good morning guys!

Going back to yesterday’s 2nd panel, I like how Shelley captured the earnestness in Mid Marge’s eyes as she pleads with Tracy to go easy on Little Margie.

Ok, why does Tracy and the others look funny today? And was this Three Margies storyline kinda weak?

So, the convention robbery is solved and Fritz Ann will take care of the hate crime. I guess that about wraps it up. I hope to have a story map ready for the debut of Saturday’s strip but it depends how my day goes today.

I share Av09 and others’ disappointment in the ending of this story. Shout out to whomever it was yesterday who called out the Fritz Ann angle. Last and certainly least, looks like I called it a week or so ago when I said it was all over except for the chase – and it wasn’t much of a chase at that!

All that remains is the dire need for rubber chickens – the way Svengoolie ends his movie presentations!

Comments above suggest we got used to Shelley’s art – I think you’re right on! The sudden reappearance of Joe’s art is a bit jarring.

A note of sadness: Looks like we won’t get to see the outcome for Little Margie, the one really likable character from this arc.

If Joe is the guy who does the Sundays, he’s the lesser of the two. But then, tastes differ.

Sam makes it sound as if there is nothing that the local police can do about the cemetery vandalism. Sure, the Feds would charge the Margies with hate crime, but vandalism is vandalism! The city doesn’t have any laws against willful property damage?

Hate crimes don’t “belong” to the feds; most states have hate crimes laws, and can prosecute the underying crimes, like vandalism, regardless.

A smart move, Sam.

Tracy’s comment that the satchel is “proof” of the Margies committing the robbery helps summarize the case, but it is not 100% accurate. It is evidence, but in real life, their lawyer could claim that they just found the satchel. It was empty. It is one piece of a chain of evidence, and the jury would have to decide how much weight to give it. However, Middle Margie’s remarks to Tracy yesterday sounded like the beginning of a confession. If she gives a full statement voluntarily, that would be proof, I think.

I have preferred Shelley’s inking style over Joe’s from almost the beginning. Joe’s tend to be angular and choppy, whereas Shelley’s lines flow. It is very interesting that NEIL says Joe does brushes by hand, and Shelley uses computers. In my ignorance of such matters, I would have thought that hand inking would be the smoother of the two choices. Anyway, I really enjoyed Shelley’s art on this story – she gave Tracy and Sam more of their classic look.

I also think Joe is inking his own pencils today. ……… On another note… am I the only one who remembers the old radio show “My Little Margie” ????

Dick’s got some really long eyelashes!! LOL!!!

This line isn’t over. There is no point to the cemetery vandalism unless it has real bearing on the crimes of the Margies. And I really feel for little Margie.

This may or may not be the end of the story (it’s definitely near the end at the very least) but it is clearly the end of Shelley’s time as main artist, so I just want to say, thank you, Shelley. You did an outstanding job as artist. Maybe you need to take a break after being the sole artist for the strip, but I hope you resume inking Staton’s fine pencil work ASAP. His work is so much better with your inking than without it.

Is this the end of this good story?

I suspect it will take more than Saturday’s three (or four) panels to wrap up this caper completely. So. I expect Sunday to cover some of the unresolved questions and maybe to bring Fritz Ann onto the stage. If that, or something like it, does take place, then I would find it likely that all of the coming week will be wrap-up and/or filler rather than starting a new arc on a weekday….

Also, add my thanks to Shelley for great work and my welcome back to Joe….

As others have pointed out, hate crimes are not federal crimes, perhaps the one exception that comes closest, historically, was an anti-lynching law passed during the Truman Administration, I think, to protect African Americans because local authorities would not. Not surprising this bummer of a story would end on an easily researchable factual botch-up. At least it’s finally over.

So we’re over 100 comments, and it’s only 8:30 pm Central! This may end up as the highest day since May 21 (137 comments).

I’m very disappointed. I wanted to learn why they were vandalizing the cemeteries. What was their motivation? I also wanted to learn more about what drove them to this, and Little Margie.

I’m quite disappointed with the quick wrap up.

I thought the fill in artist did a great job though. I hope we see her again in the future.